The couple that briefly topped the list of the mainland's richest people saw their net worth shrink yesterday by 5.1 billion yuan (HK$5.81 billion) after shares in the company they founded, Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical, plunged the daily trading limit.
Hepalink tumbled 10 per cent, the daily maximum, only two minutes after trading opened on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's SME board. Shares remained unchanged at 160 yuan until the market closed at 3pm, down 17.78 yuan from Friday.
Li Li and Li Tan, the couple who own 288 million shares of Hepalink, lost the title of the mainland's richest people amid the single-day drop as their combined net worth shrank to 46 billion yuan.
Hepalink is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to make heparin for the US market. Heparin is made from purified pig intestines. It is used in vaccines as a blood thinner to prevent blood clots, especially for patients with heart conditions. Hepalink buys heparin from mainland suppliers and purifies it to meet FDA standards.
The Lis had jumped to the top of China's rich list on Thursday thanks to a strong trading debut by Hepalink but have now been unseated by Hangzhou Wahaha Group boss Zong Qinghou, whose personal wealth was estimated to top US$7 billion (47.85 billion yuan) by Forbes magazine in March.
'The [Hepalink] shares are still overvalued,' TX Investment Consulting analyst Song Kai said. 'Trading of the stock will be volatile in the coming months before the release of its first-half earnings report.'
Hepalink surged 18.4 per cent last Thursday on the first day of trading. The stock continued to rise on Friday, closing 1.49 per cent higher and boosting the Lis net worth to 51.2 billion yuan. Friday's closing price of 177.78 yuan translated into 88 times its 2009 earnings.