China Has a New Richer Person, with Jack Ma Dethroned, Banking and Finance



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Thursday, September 24, 2020 – 10:31 am

[SHANGHAI] A bottled water and vaccine mogul has become China’s richest person on a day also marked by massive losses among the global tech elite.

Zhong Shanshan’s net worth reached $ 58.7 billion on Wednesday, $ 2 billion more than Jack Ma’s, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zhong is now the second richest person in Asia, behind Mukesh Ambani of India, and he is the seventeenth richest in the world, ahead of Charles Koch and Phil Knight.

Nicknamed the “Lone Wolf” for his avoidance of politics and club business groups, Zhong’s fortune has risen $ 51.9 billion in 2020, more than anyone else in the world except Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Elon Musk of Tesla. .

Both suffered sharp declines on Wednesday as tech stocks faltered and Tesla plunged after its “Battery Day” event fell short of expectations. Musk’s fortune was reduced by nearly $ 10 billion.

The initial public offering (IPO) of bottled water company Nongfu Spring, which turned out to be Hong Kong’s most popular among retail investors, boosted Zhong to the three richest in China earlier this month. That came after vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise’s April listing raised its net worth to $ 20 billion in early August.

Zhong now leads a wealth ranking in China that is generally dominated by people who made their fortunes from tech companies.

While Zhong has surpassed Ma as China’s richest, the tech mogul could soon regain top spot, which he held for most of the past six years after Alibaba went public in the United States.

Ant Group’s IPO next month is poised to boost Ma’s fortune, with his stake estimated at $ 28 billion if the company achieves the $ 250 billion valuation that people familiar with the matter have said it targets.

Wednesday was brutal for US tech stocks, which fell further since the beginning of this month. Musk’s wealth drop was the largest among the people in Bloomberg’s ranking of the 500 richest people in the world, followed by Bezos, whose net worth fell by $ 7.1 billion.

Musk is now worth $ 93.2 billion and Bezos is now worth $ 178 billion.

Zhong added nearly $ 4 billion on Wednesday, more than anyone else on the index.

BLOOMBERG



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