Wang Qicheng and the making of a young self-made Chinese billionaire

At 23, Wang Qicheng always wore a shirt, a pair of glasses, and kept his hair short and neat at work, hoping to make himself look older and more trustworthy to his clients.

Twelve years later and looking relaxed in his office in Hangzhou, Wang, 35, is dressed in a black casual T-shirt and black slacks, as he recounts how he built a vast fortune at such a young age.

Now the owner of a conglomerate of nearly 70 wholly or partly controlled companies, including a listed firm with a market value of 10 billion yuan (HK$12.2 billion), Wang talks engagingly about being the youngest self-made billionaire in the A-share market.

What began as a university graduate start-up specialising in intelligent building engineering, Hakim Unique Group expanded rapidly into other areas – some related, some not – including internet finance, media, and health care through buying shares in companies or acquiring them outright.

“I like meeting new challenges,” Wang said, explaining why he dabbled in unfamiliar fields. Despite their disparate features, he believes the firms in his empire benefit each other, forming an “ecosystem”.

Through intelligent building projects such as door control systems and free public Wi-fi, Hakim, the company Wang built from scratch, amassed a large database of users, who became potential targets of the group’s newly established internet finance services.