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.
“A boom in new-energy entrepreneurs, sparked by carbon reduction targets, as well as a spate of new listings of tech-related companies drove this year’s Hurun China Rich List to record heights, adding more than 20 per cent both in terms of the number of individuals and also their total wealth,” said Hoogewerf.
Zeng Yuqun, the 53-year-old founder of China’s largest battery maker CATL, tripled his wealth to US$47.4 billion, catapulting him into third place. Eight of the 10 biggest climbers on the list were connected to the new-energy industry, including electric vehicle (EV) makers Wei Jianjun and Han Xuejuan of Great Wall Motor, and Wang Chuanfu of BYD.
Tencent founder Pony Ma, 50, saw his fortune fall 19 per cent to US$49.2 billion, placing him fourth, on the back of a crackdown on video gaming targeted at children.
Jack Ma, last year’s richest person, dropped down four places to fifth with a net worth of US$39.6 billion, after Ant Group’s stock flotation was suspended and Alibaba, the owner of this newspaper, was fined a record US$2.8 billion for monopolistic practices.
The Hurun China Rich List 2021 was 22 per cent larger than the previous year’s, with 2,918 individuals meeting the minimum threshold. The total wealth of those that made the cut rose by about a quarter to US$5.3 trillion.
China added almost one US-dollar billionaire a day for the past year, adding 307 to a total of 1,185, five times more than a decade ago. China is likely to have 2,000 known billionaires by 2030, Hoogewerf said.
