Forbes New Billionaires: A Record of One Every 17 Hours

The World’s economy has received a hard blow from the pandemic but according to Forbes, the market of the super-rich remains unaffected. In April 2021, 493 new billionaires were recorded with 40% making it because of Covid-19 related products. There are now 2,755 people worldwide with a $1billion (Ksh 107.3 billion) net worth.

205 new billionaires came from China, the country with the highest number of new billionaires and the second overall. Five of China’s new billionaires; Chen Shipping, Xiong Shaoming, Wen Xilong, David Jiang and Kate Wang made it through vaping products. These 5 hoped onto the Billionaire’s list over the past 12 months with 37-year-old Wang being one of the youngest self-made billionaire women.

According to Forbes, China’s new billionaires have individually surpassed the net worth of Tim Cook, CEO of Apple who became a billionaire last year with a $1.3 billion(Ksh 139.5 billion) net worth. Even though China has a higher record of new billionaires in 2021 compared to the US, the United States still has the most billionaires overall. Kim Kardashian West is among 96 others named as the new American billionaires.

Germany is among the countries whose new billionaires made it to the the10-digit cut with Covid-19 related products. Ugur Sahib who is now worth $4 billion (Ksh 429.2 billion) is the Co-founder and CEO of BioNTech- the company that developed the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine in the fight against Covid-19. Kevin David Lehman, an 18-year-old who lives in Germany, also the world’s youngest billionaire is now worth $3.3 billion(Ksh 354.9 billion). This is after inheriting a share of his father’s drug company dm-drogerie market, with 50% of the company’s stake transferred to him in 2017.

The Westjohann brothers also made it to the new billionaires’ list from the companies that used to make up the Family Chicken company that split up in the year 1999. Eric Westjohann is the chairman of the EW Group, the largest poultry breeding company in the world. His brother, Paul -Heinz is also the chairman of PHW group, a group that owns Germany’s largest poultry processor.

In Germany, 136 people are worth more than $1 billion with 29 joining the rank in the past year. This makes Germany 4th in the list of “Countries with the highest number of billionaires.”

Also new in the list is Italian’s Sergio Stevanto, the Chairman of emeritus of the Stevanto Group. The Stevanto Group is set to Supply 100 million glass Vials for Covid-19 vaccines. Stephane Bancel is also among the 2021 new billionaires. Bancel is the CEO of Mordena which produced a Covid-19 vaccine.

Forbes says that at least 40 people became billionaires from working with Covid-19 related products. According to Forbes, even though the pandemic led to high unemployment rates all over the world, it also increased the number of billionaires. The Forbes Billionaires!

Meanwhile, Forbes reported that Jeff Bezos is again the richest man on Earth, after a back-and-forth race last year with Elon Musk, who is in second place.

By Lilian Waeni