China’s richest 400 tycoons shrug off economic slump to increase their combined wealth by 22 per cent to US$1.29 trillion
- Qin Yinglin, chairman of Muyuan Foodstuff, almost quadrupled his wealth to US$16.6 billion, as China’s pork crisis has sent the company’s shares through the roof
- Jack Ma, former chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, once again topped the Forbes list with a net worth of US$38.2 billion
China’s richest 400 people got a lot richer this year. The ongoing US-China trade war and the country’s slowing economic growth hardly had any effect as their combined wealth grew by nearly 22 per cent to US$1.29 trillion from US$1.06 trillion last year, according to Forbes Asia.
More than half of the tycoons on the list saw their fortunes rise this year, with those involved in consumer-focused industries racking up large gains.
The total wealth of the richest top 10 rose from US$214.7 billion in 2018, a year which saw significant declines in net worth, to US$246 billion this year.
The threshold for making the top 400 was US$1 billion, up from US$840 million last year.
Topping the list once again was Jack Ma, former chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, whose net worth climbed to US$38.2 billion from US$34.6 billion last year, as New York-listed Alibaba gained on China’s continuing e-commerce boom. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.