CFI Top 40 Billionaires in Emerging Markets 2012

The list is dominated by billionaires from the BRIC economies (65% out of the total number of billionaires).

Of these, the Russian (and one Ukrainian) makes up more than half of the billionaires from BRIC economies and 38% of the total. They almost all made their fortunes in steel, mining and oil.

Latin America (represented by Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia) has one in four of the world’s top 40 emerging markets billionaires.

The populous China (including Hong Kong) and India makes up a further 23% of the billionaires.

The Middle East and Africa only represents 10% of the list.

The richest on the list with $74 billion in net worth made his initial fortune primarily in mobile telecom. However, the single Malaysian representative was the only other billionaire to advance through telecom. The majority of the top 40 billionaire’s monies appear to have been made in steel, mining and oil. The boom in the prices and world-wide demand for commodities have translated into extraordinary successes for some and created the majority of the top new billionaires from emerging markets.

Still, many of the billionaires have made their monies from “old fashioned style” finance, including banking, investments, real estate and diversified holdings.

Top 5: C. Helu, L. Mittal, E. Batista, M. Ambani, L. Ka-shing

Table 2: CFI Top 40 Billionaires in Emerging Markets 2012

Source: CFI, Forbes, Other