Even for the Chinese Scrooges the golden times seem to be over
From Tencent's Pony Ma to ByteDance's Zhang Yiming via Alibaba's Jack Ma. Here's who goes up and who goes down in the rankings of China's super rich. Names, numbers and economic forecasts
China's economic crisis is also weighing on the country's super rich. The founders of giants like Tencent, ByteDance and Alibaba are seeing their fortunes plummet, and China's billionaires list gains 133 members but loses over 200.
THE HURUN CHINA RICH LIST
The Hurun China Rich List ranks the richest people in China with a minimum net worth of 5 billion yuan ($690 million). However, only 1,305 people have reached the threshold this year, an 11% drop from last year, according to the South China Morning Post .
Their total wealth was $3.5 trillion, or 18% less than in 2021.
The number of Scrooges with $10 billion or more is down 29 and the number of billionaires is down 239 this year.
"This year saw the largest drop in the Hurun China Rich List in 24 years," said Rupert Hoogewerf, president and lead researcher at Hurun Report.
THE CAUSES
The strict restrictions due to the zero Covid policy undertaken by Beijing for more than two years now, combined with the decline in local stock markets and a prolonged real estate collapse are the main causes of the shrinking of some Chinese empires.
Entrepreneurs in the real estate and healthcare sectors were hardest hit, according to Hoogewerf, while the slowdown in the global economy, steep declines in technology stocks and slow economic growth due to Beijing's measures led to the losses.
In addition, a two-year regulatory crackdown – which has hit China's biggest tech names such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings – and concerns that President Xi Jinping will sacrifice growth weighed on investor confidence , CNN observes. economy in favor of ideology – as reaffirmed at the last congress of the Communist Party of China (PCC) which handed him a third mandate.
KNOWN NAMES AT A LOSS
Among the Chinese billionaires who are laughing a little less this year, the names of Pony Ma of Tencent, Zhang Yiming of ByteDance and Jack Ma of Alibaba stand out. Due to the country's economic slowdown they have all seen their fortunes plummet by as much as 32%.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR
In proof of what Hoogewerf said, Yang Huiyan, the majority shareholder of Country Garden Holdings, saw his fortune drop 59% to $10.7 billion, the largest drop on this year's list.
Another significant case is that of the president of China Evergrande, Hui Ka-yan. It topped the list five years ago, but has now dropped 102 spots, plummeting to 172nd and dropped out of the top 100 as the value of its flagship company plummeted under the weight of more than $300 billion in liabilities.
Real estate developers, SCMP notes, made up 50% of the list 20 years ago, 20% 10 years ago, 15% five years ago and 10% this year.
WHO IS THE RICHEST OF THE RICH IN CHINA
The top spot for the second year went to Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water brand Nongfu Spring, reaching an all-time high with a fortune of $65 billion, up 17%.
WHO GOES UP AND WHO GOES OFF
Just behind the king of water, ByteDance's Zhang Yiming maintains second place, but sees his net worth drop 28% to $35 billion as his company's valuation falls.
While in third place we find Zeng Yuqun, president of the battery giant CATL.
Pony Ma, on the other hand, loses a position going from fourth to fifth place. His wealth, after that of Yang Huiyan, suffered the second largest decline on the list, falling 32% to $30.7 billion.
And Alibaba's Jack Ma also drops four positions in the standings, occupying ninth place.
Comeback for Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing who climbed from eighth to fourth place in the rankings, with assets increasing by 2% to $31.4 billion, surpassing Pony Ma and Jack Ma for the first time in the past last five years.
THE IMF FORECASTS
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), recalls the Guardian , forecasts that the Chinese economy will expand by only 3.2% in 2022, the slowest rate since the 1980s, if we exclude the 2.4% pace of 2020 , influenced by the Covid.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/anche-per-i-paperoni-cinesi-sembrano-finiti-i-tempi-doro/ on Mon, 14 Nov 2022 17:15:51 +0000.