Hurun Report released the Hurun Global Self-Made Women Billionaires List, a ranking of the self-made women billionaires found in the world. This is a sublist of the Hurun Global Rich List 2017 series, released on 7 March. Valuations are a snapshot of 15 January 2017.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher, Hurun Report, said, “There are now more self-made women billionaires than ever before, however they only come from 12 countries in the world. We chose International Women’s Day to release this list, to celebrate the achievement of women in business.”
Key Findings:
88 billionaires from 12 countries.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, “For every one self-made woman billionaire we found, we have missed at least one if not more, so you can bet your bottom dollar that the real number of self-made women dollar billionaires in the world is no less than 200 today.”
China has the most number of self-made women billionaires with 56, followed by USA with 15.
Average wealth US$2.2bn, up 11%; Average age 57 years, seven years younger than those on the Hurun Global Rich List.
Total Wealth US$194bn.
43 saw their wealth increase. 33 saw their wealth decrease or stay the same. 12 new faces, led by sports team owner Denise York and car dealership tycoon Gail Miller, both from the USA.
1/4 share wealth with spouse.
Rupert Hoogewerf said, “Whilst every effort was made to value the women in their own right, in some cases the shareholdings are in both names and not possible to value in the individual’s name.”
67% derived wealth from publicly listed companies.
TMT has the most number of self-made women billionaires with 13, followed by Manufacturing and Retail with 11 billionaires each. The main difference with the Hurun Global Rich List 2017, was that Investments came in third above Real Estate.
The richest woman in the world is Liliane Bettencourt of L’Oreal, followed by Alice Walton of Walmart and Jacqueline Mars of Mars, who inherited from her father Forrest Mars Jr. Of the Top 20 richest women in the world, only two are self-made, with the rest inherited. Interestingly, Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of Steve Jobs, derives most of her wealth from Walt Disney rather than Apple.
Rupert Hoogewerf said, “There can be no question anymore that China is the best place in the world to be a woman entrepreneur. The question I am often asked is ‘Why is China producing so many of the world’s most successful women in business?’ There is no Chinese in the Top 10 of the world’s self-made billionaire men, yet 6 of the Top 10 world’s self-made women billionaires are from China. The one-child policy coupled with traditional childcare, whereby grandparents often play a much larger role in bringing up the children than in developed countries, is perhaps a reason. Another is the business boom this generation has enjoyed in China.”
Top 10 Self-Made Women
6 of the Top 10 are from China, led by Chen Lihua, 76.
With US$7.2bn, Chen Lihua, 76, of FuWah, is the most successful businesswoman in the world. Growing up in poverty, Chen moved to HK before returning to Beijing to set up her real estate group. Chen is married to well-known actor Chi Zhongrui.
‘Touchscreen Queen’ Zhou Qunfei, 47, of Lens Technology has US$6bn and was the richest self-made women in the world in 2015, after her company went public.
Zhou Hongwen, 46, co-founded Tomorrow Group with husband Xiao Jianhua. Recently, Inner Mongolia-born Zhou and Xiao have been in the news after Xiao went missing, presumed to be helping the Chinese authorities with their inquiries. They are worth US$5.5bn.
Tina Green, 64, is the richest non-Chinese on the list. Together with husband Philip Green, they have US$ 5.5bn, and today live in Monaco. She owns all the family shares in Jersey-registered Taveta Investments.
Chen Chunmei, 52, along with husband Gong Hongjia, with a net worth of US$5.3bn, get most of their wealth from Hikvision Digital Technology, one of the world’s largest supplier of video surveillance products.
With a net worth of US$4.8bn, Judy Love, 79, co-founded Love's Travel Store & Country Stores along with husband Tom Love in 1964. Today Love’s has more than 300 locations in 39 states.
Another former Number One woman in the world, Wu Yajun, 53, made her fortune with leading real estate brand Longfor. Wu started out as a journalist.
‘Scrap Paper Queen’ Zhang Yin, 60, with a net worth US$4.5bn, is another former Number One in 2006. Zhang built a big scrap paper trading business out of California, before starting her own factories in China.
‘Chinese Restaurant Queen’ Peggy Cherng, 69, along with husband Andrew, are co-founders of the Chinese food restaurant chain Panda Express. Panda Express is one of the world's largest family-owned restaurant chains, with US$2.5 billion in sales. Burma-born Cherng recently purchased a beachfront mansion in Honolulu.
Lynda Resnick shares US$4.2bn with husband Stewart Resnick. Resnick is an active supporter of the arts in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Other women of note that make the list
- JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter, made the list with US$1.4bn.
- He Qiaonv of Orient Landscape was the most generous self-made woman last year, donating US$450 million to charity
- Oprah Winfrey has the largest social media following of any billionaire on the list
- Sheryl Sandberg is Facebook COO
Top 10 Youngest self-made Women Billionaires
Hangzhou-based Wu Yan, 36 of Hakim is the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world. There are 10 aged 45 or under.
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