Exclusive | Singapore’s wealthiest man is US$1 billion richer every month as Mindray’s ventilators fly off production line on Covid-19 demand

Singapore’s wealthiest man is getting richer to the tune of more than US$1 billion a month this year, as the stock price of his medical devices company soared by almost 50 per cent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The fortunes of Li Xiting, the co-founder and chairman of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, have risen by US$4.3 billion this year to US$13.5 billion, according to Bloomberg data, or an average of US$37.7 million every 24 hours. That makes Li, born in eastern China’s Anhui province, the wealthiest man in Singapore, where he has been a citizen since at least 2018.

Mindray’s shares have jumped since the coronavirus pandemic, which was first reported in central China’s Hubei province, spread worldwide, sickening more than 2 million people. The stock on Thursday traded near a record-high of 270.52 yuan on the ChiNext market in Shenzhen, giving it a market value of 329 billion yuan (US$46.5 billion).

“Orders for our products increased sharply in March,” Mindray said in an email to a query by South China Morning Post. “We received orders from 100-odd countries for our medical devices to fight against the epidemic.”

The company, whose products include imaging devices and patient monitors, said it received an order for nearly 10,000 sets of medical equipment, including ventilators, imaging devices and patient monitors from Italy alone, declining to divulge the price of each device. Italy has Europe’s second-highest caseload, with 187,327 confirmed cases at last count, and a death toll of 25,085.

Ventilators provide mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe.