World Billionaires Lose $70Bn in One Day, Dangote Gains

In what has been linked to the economic crisis in Greece and China, fuelled by leveraged investors exiting the market, 97 per cent of the World’s richest people suffered great losses on Monday, shedding a combined $70 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Tuesday.

Of the world’s 400 richest people, only 12, including Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote recorded improvement in their fortunes.

The loss for the billionaires amounted to an average decline of $175 million, according to the Bloomberg.

Dangote, Africa’s richest person and the world’s 59th richest man, gained $180 million, as his worth increased to $15.3 billion, as his Dangote Cement Plc, which accounts for about a third of the value of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) capitalisation gained 2.35 per cent.

The collective decline for the billionaires amounted to a fall of more than 1.5 per cent. The combined loss is more than the market capitalisation of Ford Motor Co. or Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.

The S&P fell 2.1 percent on the day and the NASDAQ dropped 2.4 percent. In Europe, the Euro Stoxx index lost 4.2 percent. China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite index lost more than 6 percent of its value.

Among the world’s richest people, Spain’s Amancio Ortega sustained the biggest loss of $2.2 billion on the day, a 3.2 per cent decline. Ortega is Europe’s richest person and the world’s second-richest individual with $69.2 billion. U.S. investor, Warren Buffett, the world’s third-richest person who is worth $67.1 billion, lost $1.6 billion; ahead of Bill Gates, the world’s richest, who lost $1.4 billion.

The world’s 400 richest people control a combined $4.2 trillion, almost $400 billion more than the GDP of Germany.

Meanwhile, despite the relatively weak sentiment on the floor The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday, eleventh-hour rally in top stocks like Union Bank of Nigeria, Dangote Cement and the Nigerian Breweries propelled a positive close.