Tech and Real Estate Lift the Fortunes of China’s Richest
Xu Jiayin — an entrepreneur behind China Evergrande Group, one of the country’s most aggressive property developers — has become the
country’s richest person, according to a survey released on Thursday by The Hurun Report, which tracks wealth in the country.
Hurun valued the wealth of Mr. Xu, chairman and founder of China Evergrande, at $43 billion, largely
because of his firm’s Hong Kong-listed shares, which have soared five times in the past year.
2 on the Chinese wealth list, he succeeds Jack Ma, whose net worth fell 2 percent to $30 billion
because he sold down his stake in his firm’s financial affiliate, Ant Financial.
Among the leaders of the other gray rhinos, Guo Guangchang, the chairman of the financial
conglomerate Fosun, saw his wealth rise 40 percent to $9.3 billion, according to Hurun.
In June, a senior banking regulator warned that some of the country’s biggest companies could pose a systemic risk to state banks, reflecting Beijing’s anxiety
that mounting debt levels could destabilize the Chinese economy.
Hurun said he and his family’s net worth fell 28 percent to $23 billion in the last year.
The survey reflects a surge of money going into companies like Tencent and Ant Financial — the internet giants
that run WeChat and Alipay — as investors bet on more users going cashless
