Australian Billionaire James Packer: China's Love For Luxury and Gambling Will Change Our World

Wikimedia CommonsCrown Limited's annual general meeting is on today and James Packer was pleased to tell shareholders its $600 million investment in a Macau casino is now worth about $6.2 billion.

Packer achieved this by targeting the new middle class of China and, judging by Crown's strategy, there are bigger opportunities with the new rich of Asia.

"China's middle class will change the world," Packer says. "Through their spending power and tastes, this Chinese middle class will profoundly alter every aspect of our economy."

This chart tells the story, the difference between the market in Australia and Asia.

Packer told shareholders :

* The middle class in China now number 300 million, equal to the population of the USA

* And by 2030 China is expected to have 1.4 billion middle class consumers compared to 365 million in the USA and 414 million in Western Europe

* The Chinese like to spend their money on travel in style staying at five star hotels, buying high end retail

* 80 per cent of Chinese travelling outside the country for the first time head for a casino

* By 2015 China will account for 20 per cent of the global luxury market.

* In 2012, Chinese tourists spent US$102 billion on international tourism, making it the number one outbound tourist market in the world.

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