Girl power! Record number of female billionaires as 172 women make Forbes list

The youngest billionaire in the world is also a woman.

24-year-old Perenna Kei became China's newest billionaire in December when Logan Property Holdings went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Kei has an 85 per cent stake in the company, more than her 47-year-old father Ji Haipeng who is chairman.

Her stake in the company is operated through a trust, which her father is excluded from - explaining her monumental rise.

Rapidly expanding: Kei owns an 85 per cent stake in Chinese real estate company Logan Property Holdings. Above, one of Logan's apartment complexes in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen - where they are headquartered

According to the Forbes, she is worth $1.3billion which brings her in at number 1,284 of the 1,645 billionaires on the list.

She is the 37th richest person on the Hing Kong list.

But the world's youngest billionaire remains mostly a mystery besides the fact that she graduated with an economics and finance degree from the University of London and is unmarried.

According to the company's prospectus, Kei's full name is Kei Perenna Hoi Ting, but she has also gone by Ji Peili in the past.

The Chinese elite are famous for going by other names in order to keep their wealth private.

She is currently a non-executive director at the Shenzhen, China-based company which made 6.6billion yuan in 2012. 

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  Spanx founder Sara Blakely is one of the world's richest women after launching her underwear brand at the age of 29

  Number 9: Christy Walton - At the top, and the only woman to make it into the top 10, Christy Walton is worth $36.7billion thanks to inheriting part of the Wal-Mart family fortune when her husband, founder Sam Walton's son John T. Walton, died. 
  
• Number 11: Liliane Bettencourt - In second place, and worth $34.5billion, the L'Oreal heiress remains France's richest person. The 91-year-old's fortune increased this year as the company's stock surged. She gave up directly running the business years ago.
• Number 13: Alice Walton - The third richest woman is another Walton family member, worth $34.3billion. The daughter of visionary retailer Sam Walton, she is Christy's sister-in-law.She opened her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2011, featuring works from her own private collection.

• Number 46: Gina Rinehart - In fourth place, Gina Rinehart, is an Australian mining heiress, worth $17.7billion. The billionairess has tumbled 10 places in this year's list, despite seeing her wealth increase. In 2011, the boom in the mining industry dramatically increased the size of her wealth, leading many to speculate she could have claimed the top spot as the world's richest person.

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  Granddaughters of Estee Lauder, Aerin Lauder and Jane Lauder

  Number 49: Susanne Klatten - The world's fifth richest woman is Germany's wealthiest female, Susanne Klatten, estimated to be worth $17.4billion. She inherited a 12.6 per cent share in BMW from her late father Herbert Quandt. Together with her brother and mother, the family own a 50 per cent share of the automobile company.

• Number 73: Laurene Powell Jobs - Steve Jobs' widow is the largest individual stakeholder in Disney, making her shares in the company three times more valuable than her Apple shares - the company co-founded and and run by her husband until his death in October 2011.

• Number 580 - Oprah Winfrey - The TV star, worth $2.9billion, turned 60 in January but has not let that get in the way of her career, refusing to slow down. She is the only African-American billionaire on the Forbes list.

• Number 687: Folorunsho Alakija - Nigeria's first female billionaire, is estimated to be worth $2.5billion after striking it rich with an oil business.

• Number 1092: Denise Coates -  The 46-year-old British gambling magnate Denise Coates, who started Bet365 and is worth $1.6billion.

• Number 1442: Jane Lauder -Estee Lauder's granddaughters are also new additions, thanks

  

  Fashion mogel Tory Burch is ranked number 1565 in the Forbes rich list

  mostly to their inherited make-up empire fortunes. Jane Lauder, worth $1.15billion, is expected to take over control of Clinique in April.

• Number 1465: Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer - Sister of Jane Lauder, Aerin runs her own lifestyle brand and is worth an estimated $1.1billion.

• Number 1565: Sara Blakely - The Spanx founder is worth $1billion. At 43 years old she is the world's youngest self-made billionaire. She isn't finished changing the way women look in their clothes, and is set to add super comfortable high-heels to her portfolio. The Forbes 2012 cover star has rolled out a series of Spanx, standalone stores, across America's east coast. At the age of 29, Blakely invested her $5,000 savings into trying to design flattering underwear. Six months later she had founded the line that has made her her fortune, and retains complete control of the company.

• Number 1565: Tory Burch - Sharing the same spot as Spanx founder, Tory Burch is also worth $1bililon. The fashion mogel joined the rich list this time last year, after a huge growth in her preppy womenswear brand. The designer owns a 28.3 per cent stake in the business, which has its flagship store in Beverley Hills' Rodeo Drive.