Meet the top five newcomers on this year’s Forbes Billionaire list. This year 198 people made it to this list, and they ranged from 19-year-old Norwegian heiress Alexandra Andresen to 97-year-old hotelier C.F. Chan from Hong Kong. They hailed from Asia, Europe and North America. Many made their fortunes in tech startups or real estate, while others produced everything from drones to umbrellas.
Only 16% of the newcomers got rich on an inheritance alone, while more than 70% of the new 198 made their own fortunes from scratch. The remaining 13% inherited fortunes and have actively continued to expand them.
Among the recent arrivals are the world’s new youngest billionaires: 19-year-old Alexandra Andresen and 20-year-old Katharina Andresen. The Norwegian sisters each own 42% of Ferd, a family conglomerate run by their father, who apparently transferred ownership of the company in part due to Norway’s tax policy. Not far behind was Kirill Shamalov, 33, Russia’s youngest billionaire, who sources say is President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law, although officials refuse to confirm this. The son of Rossiya Bank shareholder Nikolai Shamalov, a longtime friend of Putin, Shamalov is the second-largest shareholder in petrochemical giant Sibur. These three young newcomers contributed to a new record high of 66 billionaires who are under the age of 40.
China minted 70 of the new 10-digit fortunes, worth a combined $107.4 billion. The United States was next, with 33 billionaires worth $65.4 billion, followed by Germany with 28 worth $56.3 billion. None of this year’s newcomers were from Africa or South America.
The average fortune of this year’s newcomers was $1.7 billion, and combined they were worth $344.1 billion. These values represented a snapshot of wealth based on stock prices and exchange rates from February 12.
Here is the list of the top 5
#1. Udo & Harald Tschira – They inherited shares in software giant SAP from their father Klaus Tschira, one of SAP’s five cofounders, who died in March 2015
- Net worth: $9.3 billion
- Citizenship: Germany
- Source of wealth: software
- Billionaires list rank: 116
#2. Katharine Rayner – She is the daughter of Anne Cox Chambers, and the grand daughter of the newspaper publisher James M. Cox. She became rich when Anne Cox Chambers distributed her 49% share in Cox Enterprises equally between her her siblings (Margaretta Taylor, and James Cox Chambers) and her.
- Net worth: $6.4 billion
- Citizenship: United States
- Source of wealth: media
- Billionaires rank: 178
#3. James Chambers – He is the son of Anne Cox Chambers and the brother of Katharine Rayner.
- Net worth: $6.4 billion
- Citizenship: United States
- Source of wealth: media
- Billionaires rank: 178
#4 Margaretta Taylor – She is the daughter of Anne Cox Chambers and the sister of Katharine Rayner.
- Net worth: $6.4 billion
- Citizenship: United States
- Source of wealth: media
- Billionaires rank: 178
#5. Walter Droege – Walter founded Droege International Group AG, which provides restructuring and turnaround advisory services, in 1988 in Düsseldorf, Germany
- Net worth: $6.4 billion
- Citizenship: Germany
- Source of wealth: consulting
- Billionaires rank: 178
For the rest of the billionaires, check out the list
