Posted on Apr. 8, 2020, 11:45 a.m.Updated on Apr 8, 2020 at 12:25 p.m.
The violence of the economic crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic spares no one in economic circles. Not even the billionaires, who nevertheless keep a generous mattress to weather the storm. The annual ranking of the richest personalities on the planet published Tuesday by “Forbes” thus shows, in this area, already spectacular effects.
On March 18, when it finalized its classification, the American magazine counted 2,095 billionaires in the world, which is 226 less than on March 6. About half (51% exactly) of the billionaires saw their fortune decrease between 2019 and 2020. In cumulative, the fortune of the super rich fell by 700 billion dollars, to reach 8 trillion dollars, according to calculations of “Forbes” .
Jeff Bezos, still the richest in the world
The list of fallen billionaires is expected to grow since, in the meantime, several large countries (notably India and the United Kingdom) have ordered strict containment. As a result, many companies experienced a dramatic brake and the stock markets continued to plummet. Several large groups have also given up paying dividends to their shareholders.
Despite this unprecedented crisis, the ranking has few surprises, however. Jeff Bezos, the boss and founder of Amazon, remains the richest man in the world for the third consecutive year, with 113 billion dollars. After announcing the separation from MacKenzie Bezos, it remained a minority shareholder of the e-commerce giant at 4%. A participation valued at $ 36 billion at the time, which now earned him the 22nd wealthiest person in the world.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is in second place with $ 102 billion. Frenchman Bernard Arnault, boss of the luxury group LVMH (owner of Les Echos Le Parisien Group), completes the podium, with a fortune of 90 billion. Other French in the top thirty: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress of the L’Oréal group, in fourteenth position (with 51.8 billion), and François Pinault (Kering), 26th with 34.1 billion.
A very masculine classification
Among the famous people who left the classification, figure Adam Neumann, whose company, WeWork, exploded in flight last year at the time of its failed IPO. Eric S. Yuan, the boss of Zoom, a videoconferencing start-up whose popularity rating has exploded since the start of the epidemic, however, appears.
In total, according to the classification by country, the United States has the most billionaires (614) in the world, ahead of China (456). In terms of gender distribution, the ranking remains very masculine: women represent just over 10% of the world’s wealthiest.
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