Business & Economy

Hurun Report: China’s rich listers add $1.5tn to wealth in 2020

Beijing, Oct 21 (efe-epa).- China’s richest people have added more wealth so far in 2020 than the previous five years combined, growing by the equivalent of half of the United Kingdom’s annual GDP despite the pandemic, the Hurun Report said Wednesday.

Topping the list for the third consecutive year was Alibaba founder Jack Ma with an estimated wealth of $58.8 billion.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of Hurun Report, widely regarded as a Chinese equivalent to the Forbes rich list, said: “This year has seen the biggest wealth increase in the 22 years of the Hurun China Rich List.

“Stock markets boom and a flurry of new listings have minted five new dollar billionaires in China a week for the past year.

“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.”

He added: “China’s rich listers added $1.5tn, the equivalent of half the UK’s annual GDP, to take them to US$4 trillion, more than the GDP of Germany, the fourth biggest economy in the world.”

Coming second in the list was Pony Ma, the founder of tech conglomerate Tencent, with a reported wealth of $57.4 billion.

He was followed by Zhong Shanshan, the magnate behind the bottled water company Nongfu, who has amassed a wealth estimated at $53.7 billion.

“Zhong Shanshan is one of the few entrepreneurs in the world to build not one, but two $10bn companies.

“The other in this rarified club from China is Liu Qiangdong, whilst Jack Ma stands alone as the only person in the world to have founded two companies each with a valuation of over $100bn,” Hoogewerf said.

Related Articles

Back to top button