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- The offspring of China's wealthiest tycoons are in line to inherit fortunes worth tens of billions.
- As China's economy falters, some of their parents are handing over control earlier than expected.
- China has the world's second-highest tally of millionaires.
"Succession" may have come to an end, but in China a real-life version is just getting started.
Billionaire business moguls are passing their companies over to their children earlier than usual in the hopes of smoothing transitions of power and wealth amid a rocky economic climate, Bloomberg reported.
All aged under 40, Chinese heirs from at least 11 families will soon have control of wealth worth an estimated $120 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Take Zhong Shu Zi, the 35-year-old on of China's richest man. Although he may have opted for a more academic degree – English – at the University of California, Irvine, Zhong now stands to take over Nongfu Spring.
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The company, worth just over half a trillion dollars, is China's biggest bottled water producer. While he bides his time, Zhong is advising on Nongfu's business plans and investment activities.
Another US graduate, 30-year-old Gao Haichun has returned from Brown University and a brief stint working at McKinsey to chair Trinapower, one of the world's largest solar product manufacturers. The company, owned by her father, made more than $9 billion last year.
These billionaire nepo babies are standing by to reap the benefits of China's an almost uninterrupted wealth boom over the past four decades.
Founders of biggest companies have collectively built up $1 trillion of wealth and China now accounts for almost 1 in 10 of the world's millionaires, per the 2022 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report. However, it's still some way behind the US, which has about 4 in 10 of the world's millionaires.