Billionaires arise in lucrative Asian markets

China and India now have the second- and third-largest number of billionaires in the world respectively.

Meanwhile, family offices in Asia have grown tenfold in the past decade.

The 2022 Centi-Millionaire Report released by Henley & Partners shows the US has 9,730 centi-millionaires - making up 38 percent globally. China and India follow with 2,021 and 1,132 centi-millionaires, respectively.

Misha Glenny, financial journalist, author, and contributor to the report, points out: "At around 57 percent, the growth of centi-millionaires in Asia will be twice that of Europe and the US over the next decade. They are primarily concentrated in China and India."

The fastest growing market for billionaires over the next decade is forecast to be Vietnam, with a 95 percent growth rate predicted for this emerging Asian manufacturing hub. Strong growth is expected in the real estate, technology, and financial services sectors.

On the other hand, the number of family offices worldwide has soared from 4,200 in 2012 to 10,000 this year, according to research from the Roger King Center for Asian Family Business and Family Office, located at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

There are now 1,200 family offices in Asia, a tenfold increase from 100 in 2012, with 60 to 70 percent of them based in Hong Kong.

In other news, over US$100 billion (HK$780 billion) from Hong Kong retail investors could be allocated to sustainable investing - investing in progress and companies with potential for growth - by 2030, as Standard Chartered Hong Kong's latest report showed.

Retail investors in Hong Kong have demonstrated a strong interest in sustainable investing in recent years - about 60 percent of investors currently hold sustainable funds in their investment portfolio, the highest among key sustainable investment products. This is expected to increase to 74 percent in the next two to three years.

The report predicts that by 2030, there could be an US$8.2 trillion potential for retail capital mobilization, of which US$112 billion could be from Hong Kong, largely due to the city's rising domestic wealth.