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Bloomberg divulge the daily Billionaire Index
Bloomberg has lately come up with the “Bloomberg Billionaires Index,” the first daily global ranking of the richest people in the world as part of their coverage of wealth. The change in the index is reflected by the stock fluctuations and economic/company news dynamically measured on changing markets and will be updated every business day at 5:30 p.m.
Bloomberg Professional service customers can access each billionaire’s profile including detailed analysis of how that person’s fortune has been tallied drawing on Bloomberg data and reporting.
As per Bloomberg professional, in calculating net worth, they strive to provide the most transparent estimates available. Their full methodology behind the numbers is available here. The rankings launched Sunday night with Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim edging out philanthropist Bill Gates for the top spot.
Rich Chinese gorges thousand on hunting endangered species
China has lately come up with a new name for them as the super power in the world of luxury. All the surplus cash-flow invites some immoral activities too. A Chinese hunting club in Beijing has offered the trips to Africa or North America at $79,377 per person. Under this package, members can shoot down polar bears or other animals by using rifles or bows and arrows. To hunt specific animals you need to fork out more money. But that isn’t stopping these barbaric Chinese rich people, with as many as 100 bookings completed.
Established by an American of Chinese origin, you need to undergo special training to enter the club. While hunting licenses are restricted, advance booking for the Chinese is available as most of these animals are protected. As for cost of hunting, a male lion or polar bear is $50,000; a female lion is $15,000, while the rhino is most expensive at $100,000.
Chinese tycoons snap up Bordeaux chateaux
The world’s largest producer of alcohol from goji berries and an elusive tycoon have become the latest super rich Chinese investors to invest in Bordeaux wine estates.
Zhang Jinshan, 48, founder of the Ningxia Hong group based in northwestern China, bought Chateau du Grand Moueys from its German owner on Friday. Grand Moueys is a sprawling, 170-hectare (420-acre) estate near the village of Capian in Bordeaux’s Entre-Deux-Mers region.
Chinese customers prefer relatively unknown estates in modest “appellations” — the approved wine-growing areas. They can buy a chateau with vineyards for the price of a Paris apartment. Last November, Groux brokered the sale of Chateau Monlot, a seven-hectare Saint Emilion grand cru, to actress Zhao Wei and her husband for some $5.4 million.
The investments reflect China’s spectacular thirst for Bordeaux, which now accounts for exports of 420,000 hectolitres per year worth 322 million euros to France, according to the Bordeaux Wine Council.
Chateau purchases are often part of a larger strategy to cash in on China’s wine boom.
The Haichang Group, which has interests in shipping, real estate and amusement parks, is working with CCIB to bring Bordeaux’s popular Wine and Dine festival to the northeastern Chinese technology hub of Dalian next July.
As per the managing director of Zhang’s estate, Li Lijuan, there is already too much water. A pool would be bad Feng Shui referring to the Chinese practice of aligning properties with what are believed to natural forces around them.
China set to become world’s biggest gold market
China as a country is slowly emerging as the new super power and is all set to compete with India for the very title; is all set to overtake India in one area soon by has becoming the world’s biggest gold market. As per the World Gold Council annual report for 2011, the amount of gold bought in China rose 20 percent in 2011 over the year before to 770 metric tons while the amount of gold bought in India was 933 metric tons. The council said it’s “likely that China will emerge” as the world’s largest gold market for the first time in 2012 as it has already moved into top place on a quarterly basis. The rise in inflation and weakening rupee which made gold more expensive, could be attributed as the main cause for India losing the title of the world’s largest gold market. Besides this, rising incomes in China have led to a surge in demand for luxury goods and gold jewelry.
A $100,000 around-the-world trip gets sold in 13 seconds in China
The Chinese luxury lovers wish to take a guided tour of the world too, as a 66-day around-the-world tour got sold out in 13 seconds flat after the reservation hotline was thrown open. Priced at US$104,654, the tips organised by Ctrip.com, one of China’s biggest online travel agencies has only 11 people onboard, as the 12th didn’t want to share accommodations. The visa process took about six months to complete as the group started from Shanghai on January 29. The group will stop over at Australia first, and proceed for a 24-day tour in South America, with a cruise onboard Silversea from Ushuaia to Antarctica in the offing. The trip also includes a stopover at mardi gras Brazilian carnival, a 10-day cruise in the Mediterranean, dining at Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, a stay at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and a visit to the Aurora Borealis in Finland’s glass-ceilinged Kakslauttanen hotel.
Hermes products will cost more
The economy is struggling and people are penny pinching, but that has does not seem to deter Hermes from raising their prices. Citing high cost of raw-materials like silk, cashmere and crocodile skin, the ridiculously expensive French luxury brand will proceed with the increases in early February. Anyone remotely interested in fashion knows Hermes’ Birkins & Kellys bags, accessories, scarves and shoes demand a huge price. With this price hike there will be an approximate 9% increase. On the other hand the residents of the United States are religiously counting their stars as the increase in prices has been inculcated in Europe and Asia.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal invests $300 million in Twitter
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Saudi Arabia’s Prince has recently invested an amount of $300 million in Twitter. It has no apparent connection whatsoever with the recent activists using Twitter as a medium to express their opinions and bring together the masses in this year’s Arab uprisings.
According to analysts in October of this year Twitter was valued at about $8.4 billion, which means should be about 3.6% of the company. It so seems that this investment was made several months ago when existing Twitter shareholders sold $400 million of shares.
In an emailed statement from Prince Alwaleed’s talks about this transaction with San-Francisco based Twitter Inc., which he said was part of a drive “to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.” Prince Alwaleed has focused his investments in several verticals including banks, hotels and media companies, such as Citigroup Inc., News Corp., Apple Inc. and Time Warner Inc. News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He is also developing a new Arabic-language satellite-news channel with Bloomberg LP.
Prada’s Store in Lenox Square Mall Atlanta
The space is designed by the very famous Architect Roberto Baciocchi. It occupies about 450 square meters on a single level, and carries Prada ready-to-wear, bags, accessories and footwear collections for both women and men.
The new store also features an entrance, alternating windows and light boxes framed in polished steel profiles. The interior of the store is divided in rooms of varying sizes, defined by the elements that mark Prada’s brand identity worldwide: a black and white chequered marble floor and walls covered in pale green cloth.
The women’s rooms, are embellished by niches covered with saffiano leather, green cloth walls and large smoky mirrors. The furnishing is completed by lilac velvet sofas and steel and crystal counters.
The men’s area is defined by masculine materials and finishes: rosewood furniture and details in polished steel, castorino-coloured velvet sofas and display counters with shelves in black saffiano leather.
Luxury product makers eyeing India as their next destination
With the Western world facing the worst credit crunch ever, luxury goods makers are searching for the next location were they can sell their glitzy brands and luxury products. And it looks like India just fills the bill.
While India makes up just 0.4 percent of global luxury good sales, the market is growing at 25 percent a year, according to a recent Bain & Co. study. There are 1.5 million households in India who could afford luxury goods, compared with 1.6 million households in China, according to McKinsey. The numbers have prompted some luxury brand names to open retail stores in the largest cities in India in recent months, despite the economic downturn. New entrants say that gaining a foothold in India has not been easy, and doing business has been difficult.
Roberto Cavalli, a designer who also attended the conference, said he made his first trip to India more than 40 years ago and the country remains one of his biggest inspirations, and one of the first places he looks whenever he thinks of a new collection. A trip to Madras for one of his collections made entirely from leather remains “one of the most fabulous trips of my life,” he said.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee, an Indian designer, says “India is not brand obsessed like the rest of the world,” perhaps because Indians have much closer relationships with their families.
Scattered cash closes German Autobahn for half hour
Some people either have lots of money or have no brains. A 23 year-old man apparently failed to heed the words of caution sending a fat stack of hundred, two-hundred and five-hundred euro bills flying through the air and scattering all over the road near Hanover, Germany while he was driving on the Autobahn. Police arrived at the scene and spent half an hour helping the man recover 20,000 of the 23,000 euros that went airborne.
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