While some of the world’s richest people lost a sum of $182bn (N35.85tn) over the past week, Nigerian billionaire, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and 10 others made money amid deepening global market rout.
Dangote, who is President of Dangote Group, posted a $79.2m (N15.6bn) gain from Thursday to Friday, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. He was one of six billionaires who saw their fortunes increase in 24 hours to Friday.
The world’s 400 richest people lost $182bn last week from their collective fortunes as weak manufacturing data from China and a rout in commodities sent global markets plunging.
Dangote is Africa’s richest man, with a net worth of $15.4bn, according to the Index.
The other three Africans on the Index are South Africans: Nicky Oppenheimer formerly of the De Beers diamond company (net worth $6.7bn) suffered a $27.9m loss between Thursday and Friday; luxury goods magnate Johann Rupert (net worth $7bn) saw his money shrink by $87m, and retailing baron Christo Wiese (net worth $7bn), lost $220m over the same period.
The weekly drop for the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a group that includes Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, was the biggest since tracking of the expanded list began in September 2014.
The combined net worth of the index members fell by $76bn on Friday alone, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of United States’ stocks ended its worst week since 2011.
“For them, that’s a fractional percentage, even though $182bn is a big number.
“A week like this feels really bad, but when you take a step back, in a big picture view it’s not a disaster by any means,” said John Collins, director of investment advisory at Aspiriant, which oversees more than $8bn for high net-worth clients.
Friday’s losses put the world’s richest 400 into the red for the year to date. They’re now down $74bn in 2015, with a collective net worth of $3.98tn.
The week’s largest setback in dollar terms was experienced by Warren Buffett, who saw his fortune drop by $3.6bn, as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slipped more than five per cent. The investor is the world’s third wealthiest person, with a fortune of $63.4bn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The slump in oil, which had its longest weekly losing streak since 1986, amid signs of an extended supply glut, contributed to $15.2bn in losses for the world’s wealthiest energy billionaires.
Continental Resources Inc. Chairman, Harold Hamm, saw $895m, or nine per cent of his net worth, vanish last week.
The Chief Executive Officer, Glencore Plc, a mining company, Ivan Glasenberg, lost $237m during the week, as commodity prices slid to their lowest levels in 13 years.
Glencore reached a record low in London on Friday, down more than 8 per cent from a week earlier, after the trading house reported its profit sank 56 per cent in the first half of the year. Glasenberg’s fortune has decreased more than 40 per cent in 2015, to $3.1bn.
China’s 26 wealthiest people, pummelled by Hong Kong’s bear market and a weaker yen, lost $18.8bn during the week. Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Company was hit hardest, losing $3.5bn.
Eleven billionaires added to their fortunes, in spite of the market turmoil. The week’s biggest dollar gainer was Sun Pharmaceuticals’ Dilip Shanghvi. The world’s 39th-richest person became $467m wealthier, elevating his net worth to $18.9bn.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net-worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York and listed in US dollars.
