China's rich seek safety in gold, emigration

 中国千万富翁热衷投资黄金和移民

Chinese multimillionaires are backing off domestic property market investments in favor of gold and emigration, says a report released by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Company on Wednesday.

The demand for real estate trusts, private funds, gold and private equity (PE) has increased significantly among China's rich during the past two years as rising inflation, a bumpy stock market and new real estate regulations have made alternative investments less attractive. By the end of last year, total net investment in gold had surged 80 percent from a year earlier. The outstanding volume of PE products also rose by 30 percent during this period. Traditional investments such as cash and deposits, stocks, real estate and mutual funds saw a major decline over the last two years. Such assets now only account for 70 percent of total investment, down from 80 percent in early 2009.

The report also found increasing interest in investment immigration, a form of temporary or permanent residence that some countries, such as the U.S. and Canada, give to foreign citizens when they invest a large sum of money and create jobs, particularly in areas with high unemployment. Nearly 60 percent of all HNWIs surveyed had successfully acquired an investment immigration visa or were considering pursuing one. About 27 percent of China's billionaires - those with investable assets exceeding 100 million yuan - had emigrated.

According to the report, the number of Chinese high net worth individuals (HNWI) - those with at least 10 million yuan in investable assets - reached 500,000 in 2010 and is expected to top 590,000 this year. South China's Guangdong province has the largest number of HNWIs, about 70,000 or 15 percent of all HNWIs in China. Shanghai and Beijing took second and third with 47,000 and 44,000 multi-millionaires respectively.

昨日，招商银行和贝恩管理顾问公司联合发布了《2011中国私人财富报告》，显示千万富翁投资国内房地产热情下降，投资黄金和移民的意愿强烈。

就富人的投资方向而言，近两年，受到高通胀、股市震荡和新楼市调控政策的影响，地产信托、阳光私募、黄金投资、私募股权投资等其他类别投资方式在富人中呈现井喷式增长。2009年初，以现金与存款、股票、房地产和基金为代表的传统投资类别占比高达80%左右，至2011年，四类资产占比下降至70%左右。2010年年末黄金净投资额较2009年增长80%左右。2010年私募股权投资类产品的年末余额较2009年增速达到30%。

投资移民迅速增长这一趋势在调研中也得到印证。近60%接受调研的千万富翁已经完成投资移民或有相关考虑。而亿万富翁（可投资资产规模在1亿元人民币以上）中，约27%已经完成了投资移民。

该报告显示，2010年可投资资产一千万人民币以上的中国高净值人士数量达50万人，预计2011年，该人群数量将达59万人。其中广东省的千万富翁最多，约7万人，占全国千万富翁的15%，上海和北京分列2、3位，人数约为4.7万人和4.4万人。