Three quarters of Shanghai's super rich are entrepreneurs with only a fraction of their assets in investments, underlining the challenges faced by the region's private bankers.

Three quarters of Shanghai's super rich individuals are business owners with only a fraction of their assets in investments, shows a new report, underlining the challenges faced by the region's private bankers. 

Of the Eastern city's 90 dollar billionaires, 75 per cent are entrepreneurs, while half of Shanghai's 370,000 dollar millionaires are business owners, according to new data from the Hurun Report in conjunction with independent financial advisor Gao Fu Club.

Shanghainese billionaire's corporate assets account for three quarters of their total wealth portfolio. The properties they live in are worth more than RMB15 million, accounting for 15 per cent of their total fortune and their cars are valued at more than RMB2 million.

Cash and other investments account for only 8 per cent of their total wealth, which makes wealth management a difficult sell for the private bank's looking to tap in on China's gold rush. 

As for the rest of the city's ultra -rich, 15 per cent are real estate investors. Investments in the real estate market account for two thirds per cent of their total investments, with the properties they live in accounting for a fifth and others, 15 per cent. They are most likely to own cars worth over RMB2 million.

Professional investors account for a tenth of super-rich individuals in Shanghai. These individuals invest nearly 80 per cent of their assets towards stocks, cash and others. They own more than RMB20 million of real estate and their cars are worth more than RMB2 million.

“Beijing may be the capital of China, but Shanghai is the capital for international Chinese, with more of the top international Chinese entrepreneurs settling here than any other city," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report.

Trends and types

The second annual Shanghai Wealth Report showed that pig feed king Liu Yongxing and street fashion guru Zhou Changjian are the richest individuals living in Shanghai with personal fortunes of RMB41 billion and RMB32 billion respectively.

Shanghai’s super-rich individuals account for 12.9 per cent of those throughout China, while the Eastern city ranks third in China in terms of number of rich and super-rich individuals, after Beijing and Shenzhen.  

Property tycoon Ye Lipei is the richest Shanghainese, followed by art collecting husband and wife Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei with personal wealth of RMB17 billion and 11 billion respectively.

Property developer Xu Jiankang is the most generous philanthropist living in Shanghai, donating RMB30.1 million last year.  Shi Jianxiang is the most generous Shanghainese, donating RMB 25.3 million last year.

Property, manufacturing and investments are the top three sources of wealth for the Shanghai billionaires.

Shanghai is attractive for women entrepreneurs with 23 per cent of the richest 82 being female compared with only 15.5 per cent of the Hurun Rich List 2011. Shanghai’s youngest self-made Renminbi billionaire is 32-year old basketball player Yao Ming.