Indian $ millionaires on the rise: World Wealth Report

Mumbai: India had an estimated 70,000 'high net worth individuals' (HNWIs) at the end of 2004, up14.6 per cent compared with the previous year, according to the 2005 World Wealth Report released in Mumbai today by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

HNWIs are individuals with financial assets of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residence.

According to Raj Sehgal, Merrill Lynch Global 'private client's' country head for India and Global NRI, " Market ManageIndia continued to be one of the high growth areas in 2004 as around 9,000 new entrants joined the elite list of HNWIs in 2004. Despite a strong slump in the stock prices in the middle of 2004, Indian HNWIs were able to recover as capital markets recorded sharp upward rally in the second half. India featured prominently amongst the major stock exchanges in emerging economies with strong growth rate in Market Capitalisation."

"We identify trends in the marketplace to assist wealth advisors in providing timely and sophisticated advice that help to improve their clients' portfolio performance. Capgemini provides innovative technology tools, solutions and processes to wealth advisors that transitions financial advisors into the role of the highly trusted CFO so they can run their clients' investments like an institution," says Baru Rao, CEO, Capgemini India.

The world's high net worth wealth grew strongly in 2004 for a second consecutive year, increasing 8.2 per cent to $30.8 trillion, according to the 2005 World Wealth Report, released today by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

  • The number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) — individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residence — grew by 7.3 per cent to 8.3 million, a net increase of 600,000 world-wide.
  • North America led with a nearly 10 per cent growth rate to 2.7 million HNWIs, surpassing the 2.6 million in Europe.
  • Asia-Pacific's growth rate of over 8 per cent to 2.3 million HNWIs was twice that of Europe.