Hurun Immigrant Billionaires List 2017

300 or 13% of World's Billionaires Are Immigrants

Google Founder Sergey Brin, 43, Richest Immigrant in World with US$36bn, Followed by George Soros

USA Immigration Destination of Choice for 73, Followed by Switzerland and UK, 42 and 39

London 'Immigration Billionaire Capital of World'

Germany and India Countries of Origin for Most Immigrant Billionaires, with 31 and 30, Followed by China with 24

14% Immigrated as Children, 18% as University Students, 41% as Adults

27% Immigrated Having Made Their Fortune. UK & Switzerland Immigrant Billionaire Capitals of World

19 Billionaire Immigrants under Age of 45, Led by John Collison of Ireland, 27.  Others Include Uber Co-founder Garret Camp of Canada, Whatsapp Founder Jan Koum of Ukraine

Netherlands-born Charlene Carvalho of Heineken Wealthiest Immigrant Woman with US$11bn

40% of Hurun Global Rich List Reside in Same Place as Where They Grew up, Led by Bill Gates in Seattle and Warren Buffett in Omaha

Leading Authority on Global Wealthy Releases Hurun Immigrant Billionaires List 2017, Proudly Presented by China-based Immigration Brand Wailian Group

BEIJING, March 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hurun Report and Wailian Group today released the Hurun Immigrant Billionaires List 2017, a ranking of the immigrant billionaires from around the world. The Hurun team of researchers extensively went through the Hurun Global Rich List 2017, pulling out all first generation immigrants, those who reside today in a country different to where they were born and/or brought up. This is the first year of the list and is a sublist of the Hurun Global Rich List 2017 series, released on 7 March. Hoogewerf said, "We believe this to be the first serious attempt to track the immigration status of the world's billionaires."

The Hurun Immigrant Billionaires List 2017 found 300billionaires in 44, who migrated from 67countries.  They had an average wealth of US$3.8bn, 6% higher than the average of the Hurun Global Rich List 2017, and an average age of 65 years, one higher than the global list.  30 of the 300 are women, led by Charlene Carvalho, born in the Netherlands and living in London. The most successful self-made female billionaire is 'Chinese Restaurant Queen' Peggy Cherng, born in Myanmar, now living in California. 130 have listed companies, with the USA the preferred destination for listing.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, "Immigration is polarising nations today, playing a key part in Brexit, Trump's election and the current Dutch, French and German elections. This report is designed to give an insight into how immigrants have contributed to global wealth creation, creating new jobs and tax revenues in the countries they have immigrated to."

Hoogewerf said, "We are delighted to be putting this report out with Wailian Group, a leading a leading investment immigration brand from China, specializing in overseas immigration, investment, and education."

TABLE: Top 10 Immigrant Billionaires - Hurun Global Rich List 2017

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

Sergey Brin, 43, of Google is the richest first generation immigrant billionaire in the world with a net worth of US$36bn. He is president of Google's parent company Alphabet, which today has a market cap of close to US$600bn. Brin was born in Moscow, but immigrated with his family to the USA to escape Jewish persecution in 1979.Brin leads five immigrant billionaire shareholders of Google, including Andy von Bechtolsheim, David Cheriton, Kavitark Ram Shriram and Omid Kordestani. Hoogewerf said, "More than any company on the planet, Google has created the most immigrant billionaires."

George Soros, 86, of Soros Fund Management, migrated from Hungary to USA, via the UK. Soros left Hungary at the age of 17 for London. He later moved to New York, worked on Wall Street and established a hedge fund in the USA. His philanthropic organization, the Open Society Foundations, supports democracy and human rights in more than 100 countries. He has a net worth of US$27bn.

Jorge Paulo Lemann, 77, co-founder of 3G capital, an investment firm. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Lemannstudied at Harvard before migrating to Switzerland. Leman is known to be an accomplished tennis player, having won the Brazilian national championship five times and represented both Brazil and Switzerland in the Davis Cup.

Galen Weston & family, 76, a British-Canadian businessmen and philanthropist is the executive chairman of George Weston Limited and has a fortune of US$19bn. Weston was born in the UK, and went to university in Canada, where he lives today.

Leonard Blavatnik, 59, of Lyondellbasell with a net worth of US$19bn, was raised in Russia and immigrated to the USA with his family in 1978, becoming a citizen in 1984. 

Thomas Peterffy, 72, was born in Hungary, but left his engineering studies and immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1965.

Elon Musk, 45, of Tesla with a net worth of US$14bn, was born and brought up in South Africa, before moving to the US via Canada. At 17 years, Musk moved to Canada to study at Queen's University and avoid mandatory service in the South African military, and three years later moved to the USA where he studied business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

With US$14bn, SP Hinduja today lives in London, but was born in Karachi in British India. Hindujastarted out in his father's textile business in India and made his name after the acquisition of Ashok Leyland and Gulf Oil, and the establishment of banks in Switzerland and India in the 1990s.

Viktor Vekselberg, 59, co-founder of Russia's leading asset manager Renova was born in 1957 to a Ukrainian Jewish father and a Russian mother in Ukraine, and today lives in Moscow. Vekselberg has a net worth of US$14bn and is known to finance the restoration and construction of synagogues in Russia.

Gennady Timchenko, 64, with a net worth of US$13bn is the co-founder of Gunvar Group. Timchenko moved from Russia to Finland in 1991 and today lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

Joseph Safra, 78, with a net worth of US$13bn is the founder of Safra Group. Safrawas born in Syria and bought up in Lebanon, before moving to Brazil in 1955 and starting in financing assets in Sao Paulo.Safra is a renowned philanthropist.

Preferred destinations and Where they come from

USA is the preferred destination for immigrants with 73 billionaires followed by Switzerland (42) and UK (39). Hoogewerf said, "Half the billionaires residing in Switzerland, UK, Singapore, UAE, Israel and Monaco are immigrants."

300 billionaires migrated to 44 countries, including the Channel Islands from 67 countries.

Hoogewerf said, "It is difficult sometimes to pinpoint where billionaires live, since they are often 'global citizens', splitting their time between multiple residences. Tax plays an important part of the country of choice for billionaires, especially those from high tax regimes."

TABLE: By Country - Preferred Residences

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE: By Country - Places of Origin

Germany and India are the countries of origin for most billionaires, followed by China and the UK.Hoogewerf said, "Germany is a surpising Number One source of immigrant billionaires. High local taxes are one of the most important reasons for billionaires to immigrate from Germany, UK, Italy, Sweden and France."

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE: By City - Preferred Destinations

London is the immigrant billionaire capital of the world, followed by Moscow, Geneva and Singapore.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE: When Immigrated?

One third immigrated as minors or for university, with two thirds immigrating as adults. Interestingly, 18% immigrated for university education, and 27% having already made their fortune.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

Irish entrepreneurs John Collison and Patrick Collison studied at MIT and Harvard respectively, then dropped out to found payment tech company Stripes.

Jan Koum (41), the Ukranian co-founder of Whatsapp migrated as a minor with his family to California under a Social Support Program by the US. The 19 member Whatsapp team was sold to Facebook for US$19bn.

Richard Branson(66), who made his fortune in the UK, is based in the BVI, on Necker Island, where he recently hosted Barack Obama.

Pierre Omidyar, 49, founder of eBay, was born in Paris to Iranian immigrant parents, before moving to the USA due to his father's work, where he went to school and university.

Jerry Yang, 48, was born in Taipei, Taiwan, before immigrating to the USA aged 10 with his family.  Yang co-founded Yahoo! at Stanford University, and today runs his own investment business.

With US$2.2bn, Alec Gores, 63, immigrated to the USA from Israel, obtaining a degree in computer science from Western Michigan University. Gores made his fortune through leveraged buyouts of technology firms.

Nicholas Berggruen, 55, was born in Paris to a wealthy art collector and later came to the USA to study at New York University. Berggruen started out in real estate before moving on to investments and hedge funds.

Isaac Larian, 62, hasUS$1.2bn. At the age of 17, Larian arrived in the USA from Iran, later graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles. Larian's fortune comes from toymaker MGA Entertainment, which produces Little Tikes line, Bratz dolls and Lalaloopsy dolls.

TABLE:  Top 10Migrants to the USA

USA is the preferred country to immigrate to for billionaires. 73 billionaires from the Hurun Global Rich List migrated to the USA, led by Sergey Brin.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE:  Top 10 Migrants to Switzerland

Half of Switzerland's billionaires are migrant billionaires.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE:  Top 10 Migrants to UK

UK comes in third for most immigrant billionaires.  Half its billionaires are immigrant billionaires.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE:  Top 10 Migrants from Germany

Switzerland is the residence of choice for billionaires originating from Germany.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE:  Top 10 Migrants from India

30 billionaires on the Hurun Global Rich List came from India and now live in different countries with the UAE and UK the preferred residences. Lakshmi Mittal left India aged 26 to set up a steel plant in Indonesia, before moving to the UK. The Reuben brothers were born in Mumbai, before migrating to Iraq and today live in the UK. MA Yusuff Ali was born in Kerala, India, before moving to Abu Dhabi.  Micky Jagtiani was born in India, immigrated first to London before settling in the UAE.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE:  Top 10Migrants from Greater China

24 immigrant billionaires immigrated from Greater China, of which 3 were from Chinese Taipei. 11 Chinese immigrant billionaires left China prior to the 1949 Revolution, 8 prior to the Open Door Policy of the early eighties, 2 prior to 2000 and only 3 since 2000. The preferred destination was the USA for 9, followed by Singapore and Philippines with 5 each.

Hoogewerf said, "Despite much talk in China about the popularity of immigration amongst the business elite, surprisingly few have immigrated in the past twenty years. In fact, only three Chinese billionaires have taken up residence overseas in the past twenty years."

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE: Youngest Billionaire Immigrants

19immigrant billionaires are under 45 years, of which 80% are self-made. The youngest is 27-year old JohnCollison of Ireland, who moved to the USA to set up Stripes with his brother Patrick.Others include Eduardo Saverin of Facebook, who now lives in Singapore, Uber co-founder Garret Camp from Canada, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum from Ukraine,

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

Table: Billionaires who immigrated after making their fortune

27% of the immigrant billionaires left their countries of origin having made their fortune. Hoogewerf said, "It is often hard to determine the country the billionaires actually live in, because for some the country of residence is for tax convenience and not necessary where the family is based, and for others they split their time between several countries, where they have residences.

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

TABLE: Top 10 Billionaires born and residing in same city

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett lead the path for entrepreneurs who live in the same place they came from.

Hoogewerf says, "We estimate 40% of billionaires live in the same city they come from. Interestingly, 60% of Chinese billionaires live in the city they were born in,led by Jack Ma of Alibaba, who was born and lives in Hangzhou, China."

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2017

About Wailian Group

Wailian Group is a leading investment immigration brand headquartered in Shanghai, China, specializing in overseas immigration, investment, and education. Walian has won numerous awards and accolades, including "most influential immigration brand", "most reliable immigration brand".

WailianGroup has 20 branch offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Harbin, Shenyang, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid.

About Hurun Report Inc.

Nobody Knows China's Rich Better!

Established as a research unit in 1999 by British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Inc. has grown into a leading media and research house based in Shanghai, China, best-known for its rankings of the richest people in China, India and the rest of the world.

Hurun Report Inc. has four divisions: Hurun Report Media, a stable of digital media and four magazines; Hurun Research Institute; Hurun Conferences, an active events division targeting entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals; and Hurun Investments, a US$20m early stage venture capital fund with investments into tech, media, retail and education. 

For further information, see www.hurun.net

SOURCE Wailian Overseas Consulting Group