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Germany home to growing 'super rich' class

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Germany home to growing 'super rich' class
Photo: DPA

Germany is now second only to the United States when it comes to "super rich" households worth more than $100 million (€70 million), according to a study published this week.

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The Boston Consulting Group’s eleventh annual Global Wealth report found that there are 839 ultra wealth families in Germany, beating evening oil-rich Saudi Arabia with only 826.

But the study confirmed America remains the land of the loaded and home of the bling, with 2,692 household classified as being super rich.

The findings might come as somewhat of a surprise, considering Germans do not dominate lists such as Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's most wealthy people. However, the BCG study showed Germany's riches are simply spread across more extremely wealthy households rather than concentrated in the hands of a few billionaires.

Co-founder of discount supermarket chain Aldi, Karl Albrecht, remains Germany's richest person (and twelfth worldwide) with a fortune equivalent to $25.5 billion. The next German name to make Forbes' list was only number 38, mail-order king Michael Otto with $16.6 billion in the bank.

BCG calculated the assets of German private investors to be €5.2 trillion, noting that the wealthy in Germany tended to favour less risky investments than their foreign counterparts.

Whereas Germany's private wealth is likely to see annual growth of 3.8 percent until 2015, the rich in China and India are set to see their fortunes grow 14 and 18 percent growth respectively during the same period.

China currently has only 393 super rich households, but the rising Asian powerhouse easy beats Germany for "average" dollar millionaires. Though Germany has 400,000 millionaires overall, China has 1.1 million.

The Local/rm

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