More billionaires in Asia than US: Report

The number of billionaires worldwide rose above 1,500 last year, a 10 percent jump from 2015, due largely to a surge in Asia, Swiss banking giant UBS and auditors PwC said Thursday.

The number of billionaires worldwide rose above 1,500 last year, a 10 percent jump from 2015, due largely to a surge in Asia, Swiss banking giant UBS and auditors PwC said Thursday.

In an annual report, UBS and PwC said that last year marked the first time it recorded more billionaires in Asia (637) than in the United States (563), crediting the rise of China's entrepreneurs.

Europe took third spot in the report's billionaire database with 342.

Oil and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani sparked a price war in India's telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio in September. Their father, Dhirubhai Ambani, got started trading spices and yarn and eventually built Reliance into one of India's biggest private sector businesses.

Three-quarters of those who newly became billionaires in 2016 were from China and India, the findings showed.

Hinduja family's total net worth is $18.6 Billion. Four close-knit siblings (from left to right), Prakash, Srichand, Gopichand and Ashok, control multinational conglomerate the Hinduja Group. Their group's businesses range from trucks and lubricants to banking and cable television.

While the chasm between the world's rich and poor remains a burning political issue across the continents, UBS and PwC said that billionaire assets are increasingly likely to benefit the needy.

The storied family of the Samsung Group derives 35% of their fortune from Samsung Electronics, whose chairman remains in a coma after suffering a heart attack in May 2014; his son Lee Jae-yong is vice chairman of Samsung Electronics now.

"Looking further forward, we estimate that $2.4 trillion (2.1 trillion euros) of billionaire wealth will be transferred in the next two decades as billionaires age, with a significant amount going to philanthropic causes," the report said.

Premji family's overall net worth is $14.6 Billion. The family's Wipro started in 1945 as Western Indian Vegetable Products, making cooking oil from peanuts.

Chairman Azim Premji joined later. Today it's India's third-largest technology outsourcer ($7.7 billion in sales). Wipro's most recent acquisition: paid $500 million in October for Appirio, a cloud services firm based in Indianapolis.

Bulk of family's fortune is held in $103 billion (revenue) Tata Group, which was chaired by fourth generation heir Cyrus.

His great-grandfather Pallonji founded a construction business that built a reservoir in Mumbai that supplied water to residents. His grandfather Shapoorji acquired the stake in Tata Sons back in the 1930s.

Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, reported the best profit in 5 years.Lakshmi eventually separated from his siblings and founded Mittal Steel, which in 2006 merged with Arcelor.

The Godrej family controls the $4.6 billion (revenue) Godrej Group, a 120-year-old consumer-goods giant. Key group companies include Godrej Consumer Products, chaired by Adi Godrej's daughter Nisaba and Godrej Properties, run by his son Pirojsha. The family owns a vast parcel of land in suburban Mumbai that remains its biggest asset.

Kumar Birla chairs the $41 billion (revenue) Aditya Birla Group, a commodities empire. In August he announced the merger of Aditya Birla Nuvo with cash-rich Grasim Industries and the demerger of the financial-services business into a separate company. In March Birla's UltraTech Cement concluded the $2.4 billion acquisition of rival Jaypee Group's cement units.

The family fortune is up, partly thanks to a 75% run-up in shares of Bajaj Finserv. The 90-year-old Bajaj Group has interests ranging from two-wheelers to financial services to sugar.