41 mainland Chinese join super-rich 'US$1b club' after share-price surge

The recent surge in share prices on the mainland has created at least 41 new super-rich people in the nation whose individual net worth exceeded US$1 billion during the past two months, Forbes business magazine estimates.

At least half of them work in manufacturing industries, and others mostly focused on the finance, energy and retail sectors.

Zhou Qunfei , 45, founder of touchscreen maker Lens Technology, tops the list. She became China's richest woman after her company, which supplies screens to electronic giants including Apple and Samsung, debuted on Shenzhen's ChiNext A-share market on March 18.

Zhou holds nearly 90 per cent of the company's stake and her personal wealth reached 67.4 billion yuan (US$10.9 billion) as her company's shares hit the daily trading limit for 16 consecutive days and closed at 113.87 yuan yesterday.

Two others who have done well on the stock market are Chen Chichang, 44, and Lin Xiaoya, 42, a couple from Guangdong province, who founded Guangdong Qtone Education in 2005.

In the past year, investors' expectations about the robust growth in online education have pushed up the Shenzhen-traded company's stock price by as much as five times to 252.4 yuan per share yesterday. The couple's personal wealth has soared to about US$1.4 billion.

Other new billionaires include Zhang Desheng, founder of multi-industry conglomerate Zhejiang Wanma Group.