Evergrande, Alibaba, Tencent bosses suffer wealth erosion as bottled water tycoon Zhong Shanshan takes China Rich List crown
- Nongfu Spring founder takes the top spot, as Beijing’s crackdown on the property sector delivers a blow to the wealth of real estate tycoons
- Li Ka-shing ranked eighth with a fortune of US$33.4 billion as the list expanded to include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for the first time
Entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were included for the first time in the list of China’s super-rich, or those whose wealth exceeds 2 billion yuan (US$313 million), according to Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report. Some 200 from those cities made the list – about 7 per cent of the total – with Hong Kong’s best-known tycoon Li Ka-shing taking eighth place.
Zhong, 67, saw his fortune grow by US$3.9 billion to US$60.6 billion over the past year, topping the prestigious list for the first time. He was placed third in 2020.
The market value of Nongfu Spring and Beijing Wantai Biological, his two listed companies, grew by 10 per cent and 40 per cent respectively in the last 12 months, according to the Hurun Research Institute.
Hong Kong property magnate Li ranked eighth with a fortune of US$33.4 billion, while Henderson Land’s Lee Shau-kee took the 15th spot with US$26.4 billion.
“From the Hurun China Rich List, we can see which industries and business models are on the up and which are on the way down,” said Hoogewerf. “New energy has had an amazing year, whilst real estate, home tutoring services, pork production and video gaming have had a bad year.”
Mainland Chinese property magnates have been a regular feature of the top 10 in previous years, with two making the cut in 2020.