How Wu Yajun, a US$16-a-month Chinese female factory worker, became a self-made billionaire

Wu Yajun once worked in a factory as a technician earning only US$16 a month. Now she's worth US$8.3 billion. The Chinese billionaire, who is now one of the world’s wealthiest self-made women, spent years working in a factory and as a journalist before she founded Longfor Properties, a property development company that reportedly brought in US$10.7 billion in revenue in 2017. Wu stepped down as Longfor's chairman in November and transferred her shares to her daughter, Forbes magazine reported. 25 richest families in the world – ranked Check out how Wu helped to create US$8.3 billion property empire. Wu and her former husband, Cai Kui, co-founded Longfor Properties, a property development company now called Longfor Group Holdings. She was the company's CEO for six years and chairman of the board from 2007 up until 2018. Meet the Ambanis, the richest family in Asia, who live in a US$1 billion skyscraper Longfor is based in Hong Kong but operates in 47 cities When Wu stepped down as chairman of the company last November she passed her 44 per cent stake to her daughter, Cai Xinyi, “for the purpose of family wealth and succession planning”, the company said. Cai is believed to be in her early 20s. While Bloomberg still attributes the fortune to Wu and not her daughter “to reflect her status as founder of the business”, Wu's net worth without her Longfor shares is unknown. According to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, Wu is the richest self-made woman in the world. Diane Hendricks, the richest self-made woman in the United States, is worth about US$5.5 billion. Hendricks is the chairwoman, sole owner, and co-founder of ABC Supply, the largest wholesale distributor of roofing materials in the US. The richest woman in the world is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the L'Oreal heiress, who's worth about US$50.9 billion. Bettencourt Meyers is the daughter of the L'Oréal cosmetics fortune heiress, Liliane Bettencourt. However, Wu came from much more humble beginnings. She was born in 1964 in Chongqing, which today is a city of 30 million people. When she was 16 started studying at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian and left with a bachelor's degree in engineering. After graduation, she was assigned to work at a state-owned factory in Chongqing, where she worked for about four years earning about US$16 a month. In 1988, when she was 24, Wu started a five-year stint as a journalist covering property at the China Shirong News Agency, during a highly profitability period for Chinese newspapers. Shh! Why the name of this luxury brand loved by the rich is a secret In 1993, after experiencing a series of problems trying to buy her first flat, Wu decided to start what later become Longfor Properties with her then-husband. In 1997, Longfor sold its first residential project in Chongqing, for US$157 per square metre, which was more than twice the average Chinese household income at the time. Longfor was one of the earliest shopping-centre developers in China. The company estimated that 300 million people had visited its malls as of 2017. In 2012, Wu was the richest woman in China until her divorce that year. She lost nearly US$3 billion of her fortune after transferring about 40 per cent of her shares to Cai. However, Wu's wealth continued to grow. In 2017, she was ranked seventh on a global list of female self-made billionaires, with a net worth of US$4.6 billion. Today, Wu ranks above the other six women on Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. Who are 6 of Japan’s richest billionaires? The billionaire is known for being discreet. In 2003, because there was such a lack of public information about her, her name was misspelled on a list of China's wealthiest people, and she was mistaken for a man. When asked why she avoids publicity, Wu said: “Well, I have nothing to talk about. I am just a person focusing on my own business.” Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

How Wu Yajun, a US$16-a-month Chinese female factory worker, became a self-made billionaire

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Problems buying her first flat led the economics graduate to launch a property company that is now worth US$8.3 billion

Problems buying her first flat led the economics graduate to launch a property company that is now worth US$8.3 billion