SF Express boss Wang Wei’s net worth jumps US$2.4b in one day as shares continue to soar
Wang Wei swaps spots with Tencent’s Pony Ma to become third richest man in China - at least for a day
SF Express, dubbed “China’s Fedex”, saw its shares surge by the daily limit of 10 per cent Tuesday for a fourth straight session, pushing the total net worth of its chairman Wang Wei’s to 180.4 billion yuan (US$26 billion), helping him unseat Tencent’s Pony Ma Huateng to become the third richest man in China.
The courier service company, which went public on Friday through a reverse acquisition of a listed shell company, rose limit-up by 10 per cent Tuesday to close at 66.8 yuan in Shenzhen.
The company’s total market cap jumped to 279.5 billion yuan, making it the most valuable stock on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In mainland Chinese markets as a whole, SF Express was the 21st biggest company by market cap.
Nonetheless, the company has a small public float of 130 million shares, only 3.2 per cent of its total issued share capital. Public float refers to shares that are available for trading in the public market, as opposed to locked-in stocks held by other parties.
Therefore, its free-float market cap only stood at 8.5 billion yuan as of Tuesday.
Tuesday’s trading turnover for SF Express was also relatively small, reaching 836 million yuan.