SHANGHAI • China is minting new billionaires at a record pace despite an economy bruised by the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to booming share prices and a spate of new stock listings, according to a list released yesterday.
The Hurun China Rich List 2020 also highlights China's accelerated shift away from traditional sectors like manufacturing and real estate, towards e-commerce, financial technology and other new economy industries.
Mr Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, topped the list once again, with his personal wealth jumping 45 per cent to US$58.8 billion (S$80 billion) partly due to the impending mega listing of fintech giant Ant Group.
Ant is expected to create more mega rich people through what is likely to be the world's biggest initial public offering (IPO), as it plans to raise an estimated US$35 billion through a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The combined wealth of those on the Hurun China list - with an individual wealth cut-off of two billion yuan (S$406 million) - totalled US$4 trillion, more than the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Germany, according to Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf.
More wealth was created this year than in the previous five years combined, with China's rich-listers adding US$1.5 trillion, roughly half the size of Britain's GDP.
Booming stock markets and a flurry of new listings have created five new dollar billionaires in China a week for the past year, Mr Hoogewerf said in a statement. "The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year. China's entrepreneurs have done much better than expected. Despite Covid-19, they have risen to record levels."
According to a separate estimate by PwC and UBS, only billionaires in the United States possessed greater combined wealth than those in mainland China.
China has accelerated capital market reforms to aid a virus-hit economy, speed up economic restructuring and fund a "tech war" with the US.
To expedite IPOs, regulators launched a US-style IPO system on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style Star Market and Shenzhen's ChiNext. Chinese corporate listings in Hong Kong and Nasdaq have also turbo-charged the fortunes of company founders.
Mr Zhong Shanshan, who recently listed his bottled water maker Nongfu Spring in Hong Kong, shot straight into the top three with US$53.7 billion, trailing Tencent founder Pony Ma at US$57.4 billion.
The wealth of Mr He Xiaopeng surged 80 per cent to US$6.6 billion after the listing of his electric vehicle maker Xpeng Motors in New York during the summer.
REUTERS
