IT’S OFFICIAL: JACK MA OF ALIBABA RICHEST MAN IN CHINA WITH US$25BN FORTUNE
354 DOLLAR BILLIONAIRES IN CHINA, NEW RECORD.
2 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES BORN IN EIGHTIES
HURUN REPORT - LEADING AUTHORITY ON CHINA’S WEALTHY - RELEASES CHINA RICH LIST 2014
l Jack Ma of Alibaba, 50, becomes the 11th Number One in 16 years of the Hurun Rich List, with a fortune of US$25bn, surpassing Wang Jianlin of Wanda in second place with US$24.2bn.
l Despite the scale of Alibaba’s IPO, only Jack Ma and one other shareholder make the list, Xie Shihuang.
l There are 354 dollar billionaires, up 39 on last year. 10 years ago there were only 3.
l ‘Renewable Energy King’ Li Hejun, 47, of Hanergy makes the Top 3 for the first time, with US$20.8bn.
l 3 of the Top 6 speak fluent English: Jack Ma, Li Hejun and Robin Li, demonstrating the globalization of the Chinese private sector.
l 819 saw their wealth grow (last year 672) of which 343 (last year 115) were new faces.
l Total wealth comes to US$1.4 trillion, more than the GDP of countries like Spain or South Korea.
l 5 new faces in the Top 10: Jack Ma, Li Hejun, Yan Jiehe, Liu Qiangdong and Lei Jun.
l 26 are under forty and self-made, two of whom are dollar billionaires: Chen Ou, 31, of Jumei with US$1.5bn, and 34-year old Zhang Bangxin, 34, of TAL Education worth US$1.05bn. Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher said, “The entrepreneurial spirit that has caught China seems not to be abetting, with 8 self-made individuals born in the eighties making the list. Any country would be proud of that.”
l IT has seen the biggest boom. 5 of the Top 10 are in IT. It’s been a good year for entertainment, investments, cars, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing. It has been a bad year for steel and shipping. Manufacturing and real estate are the primary source of wealth for almost half the list.
l Social Media. 7 of the Top 10 on the Hurun Rich List are amongst the most popular social media bloggers, showing the huge impact these individuals are having in China. Real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi is the newly-crowned ‘social media king’ with 27m followers, followed by actor and investor Jet Li.
l Going global. Wang Jianlin of Wanda and Guo Guangchang of Fosun have been leading the global charge of the Hurun Rich List. Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher said, “The Hurun Rich List has seen more action on the international front than in the previous 15 years added together.”
l 8 of the Fortune Global 500 are controlled by people from the Hurun Rich List, led by Yan Jiehe of China Pacific Construction, which came in at Number 166.
l Residences. Beijing is the city of choice to live in with 180 individuals living there, 40 more than last year. Shanghai, surprisingly, comes in third behind Shenzhen again.
l Anti-corruption campaign. 18 of last year’s list are in varying degrees of trouble with the authorities, of which 11 still made the list this year.
l 12% are self-made women, led by Chen Lihua, 73, the most successful businesswoman in the world.
l Political appointments. 166 of the Hurun Rich List, up 13 from last year, are either delegates to the 12th NPC or CPPCC. 7 are members of the standing committee of the 12th National People’s Congress, 8 are vice chairmen of the All-China Federation of Industry and Trade. 40% of the Top 50, almost triple the average on the list, have senior political appointments.
l Chinese star signs. While it has been a good year for monkeys and a bad year for dogs, rabbits have dominated the Hurun Rich List for yet another year, with oxen and pigs propping up the bottom yet again. Jack Ma is a dragon and Wang Jianlin is a horse.
l Hainan Clearwater Bay of Agile, a luxury holiday home development targeted at Chinese from across the country, is title sponsor of the Hurun Rich List for the 6th successive year.
(23 September 2014, Beijing) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun Rich List 2014, the 16th annual ranking of the richest individuals in China. Wealth calculations are a snapshot of 15 August 2014. The Hurun Rich List 2014 is sponsored by Hainan Clearwater Bay of Agile for the sixth year running.
It has been an amazing year for China’s best tycoons despite the jitters about the Chinese economy. Stock markets in Shanghai and HK shot up 71% and 61% respectively, with the ChiNext up a remarkable 104%; there were a record 354 dollar billionaires, up 39 on last year, up 103 on two years ago and up 351 on ten years ago, when there were only 3; the cut-off to make the Top 100 is now US$2.3bn, 15 times that of ten years ago; the list has expanded by 271 names, despite keeping with the same cut-off as last year of 2bn CNY (US$330 million); 819 individuals saw their wealth grow, of which 343 were new faces. The total wealth of this year’s Hurun Rich List is US$1.4 trillion, equivalent to 15% of the GDP of China, and larger than the GDP of countries like Spain or South Korea.
Jack Ma Yun is officially crowned the Richest Man in China. A 38% rise in Alibaba’s stock on the first day of trading rocketed Jack Ma into the Number One position with a fortune of US$25bn, up five times on last year. Ma is the 11th Number One in the 16 years of the Hurun Rich List. Ma’s fortune is mainly made up of his 6% holding in Alibaba and his 46% share in Alipay. Having achieved the world’s largest IPO, raising US$25bn, expect to see more of Alibaba on the international stage. Only one other Alibaba co-founder makes the list, Simon Xie Shihuang with US$1.6bn, the others hidden in the management team share structure.
60-year-old Wang Jianlin’s wealth grew 7% to US$24.2 billion, but it was not enough to keep his Number One title. Internationally, it has been a busy year with real estate acquisitions in Chicago, LA, Australia’s Gold Coast and Madrid. Wang’s domestic real estate business grew by a staggering 30% to US$31bn last year, and in September this year, Wang announced Wanda was going for a HK listing, which could value the business as much as US$50bn. Also in the summer, Wang joined forces with two other Top Ten Tycoons, Pony Ma of Tencent and Robin Li of Baidu, to announce an online retail joint venture to take on Alibaba. Cinemas, art collections, you name it, Wang is expanding his footprint at a prodigious rate. Son Wang Sicong has one of the most viewed microblogs in China.
47-year old ‘Renewable Energy King’ Li Hejun of Hanergy shot up to third place with a fortune of US$20.8bn. Li’s big turning point came in 2011 when a dam he built in Yunnan came online, today generating almost US$1bn in cash flow. Li has been ploughing this into thin-film solar and making acquisitions in the US and Europe to shore up his first-mover advantage. Today Li’s solar business generates the equivalent of the electricity needed to power a city with a population of 10 million for a year. Li last year listed part of his solar business, which makes up US$5bn of Li’s wealth. Li owns 97.6% of Hanergy.
69-year old Zong Qinghou, a former Number One, dropped down one place to third, despite his wealth growing 9%, on the back of a strong sales performance by Wahaha. Zong’s daughter Kelly Zong Fuli is playing a more important role in the business.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher said, “Jack Ma is the 11th Number One we have had in China in the last 16 years, showing the dynamism of the Chinese economy, and a stark reminder of the growth potential that is being realized in the emerging markets. Ten years there were only 3 dollar billionaires, now there are 354.”
Hurun Rich List 2014 - The Top 10
Wealth US$bn / Main company / Industry / Age1 * / Jack Ma Yun & family / 25 (+500%) / Alibaba / IT / 50
2 ↓ / Wang Jianlin & family / 24.2 (+7%) / Wanda / Real estate, entertainment / 60
3 * / Li Hejun / 20.8 (+862%) / Hanergy / Renewable energy, HEP / 47
3 ↓ / Zong Qinghou & family / 20.8 (+9%) / Wahaha / Drinks / 69
5 ↓ / Pony Ma Huateng / 18.1 (+75%) / Tencent / IT, entertainment / 43
6 - / Robin Li Yanhong & Melissa Ma Dongmin / 17.5 (+110%) / Baidu / IT / 46, 44
7 * / Yan Jiehe & Yan Hao / 14.2 (+372%) / China Pacific Construction / Roads / 54, 28
8 ↓ / Yan Bin / 10.0 (+20%) / Reignwood / Red Bull, real estate / 60
9 * / Richard Liu Qiangdong / 8.8 (+715%) / JD.com / IT / 40
10 * / Lei Jun / 7.5 (+181%) / Xiaomi Technology / IT, investments / 45
Source: Hurun Rich List 2014 sponsored by Hainan Clearwater Bay of Agile
↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 10
The Top 10
For the second year running, there are five new faces in the Top 10, showing the dynamism of the Chinese economy. This year’s new faces in the Top 10 are Jack Ma, Li Hejun, Yan Jiehe & Yan Hao, Richard Liu Qiangdong and Lei Jun.
Five made their money from IT, two more than last year. There were only two real estate tycoons, down from six last year. The average age of the Top Ten is 51 years, two years younger than the list as a whole.
Interestingly, 4 of the Top 10 speak fluent English, a record number for the Top 10 of the Hurun Rich List, suggesting they are becoming more global. They are Jack Ma, Li Hejun, Robin Li and Richard Liu.
43-year old Pony Ma, continues his amazing growth, up another 75% to US$18.1bn and fifth place. Tencent, in which Ma has 10.25%, has become the most valuable brand in China, ahead of China Telecom, according to the latest Hurun Most Valuable Brands List. In the past year, Tencent bought 15% of JD.com, whose founder Liu Qiangdong also makes the Top 10.
Husband and wife Robin Li and Melissa Ma, saw their wealth rebound with a vengeance, after 2 years of slight drops, this year doubling to US$17.5bn and 6th place.
54-year old Yan Jiehe shoots back into the Top 10 after an eight year break. This year Yan broke into the Fortune Global 500, straight in at Number 166 with revenues of US$61bn, making China Pacific Construction the largest private company in China today. 28-year old son Yan Hao is CEO, making him the youngest CEO of a Global 500 company.
60-year old Yan Bin saw sales of Red Bull in China last year grow 30% to US$2.5bn, driving up his wealth to US$10bn. In the past year, Yan spent just over US$200 million buying Wentworth Golf, one of the UK’s best-known golf courses, to add to a previous US$600m investment in a luxury development in London. Yan also paid out US$170 million for a stake in a coconut water brand, which he plans to take to China.
40-year old Richard Liu Qiangdong took JD.com public in August this year, catapulting him into the Top 10 for the first time with a personal fortune of US$8.8bn, ahead of archrival Zhang Jindong of Suning, who dropped to 11th place. JD.com has not yet made a profit. Liu has 20.7% of JD.com.
45-year old serial entrepreneur Lei Jun saw his wealth shoot up to US$7.5bn on the back of Xiaomi’s continued growth. In 2014, Xiaomi expects to sell 60 million phones.
What happened to Last Year’s Top 10?
Real estate has not managed to keep up with IT this year, such that 3 real estate tycoons dropped out of last year’s Top 10, including Yang Huiyan, Xu Rongmao and Xu Jiayin. Yang’s County Garden’s stock price dropped off the cliff earlier this year after a profits warning and badly timed investments into Malaysia, just when MH370 disappeared. Xu Jiayin has not been far from the headlines again this year, with the announcement that he was bringing in China’s Richest Man Jack Ma as a 50% equity partner in his soccer team, Guangzhou Evergrande, and that he was investing into South Korea’s largest plastic surgery business, as a way of reducing Evergrande’s reliance on real estate.
Two of last year’s fastest climbers dropped back down again. Great Wall Autos founder Wei Jianjun, 50, saw his wealth shrink by 28% to US$6.2bn, dropping him out of the Top 10 this year to 22nd place. Jiang Bin, 48, of GoerTek, a supplier to Apple, dropped down 29 places after a 40% shrink in his wealth due to a profits warning.
Richest Under 40. Of the 62 individuals under the age of 40, 26 are self-made and 36 are inherited.
There are two self-made dollar billionaires under 40: Chen Ou, 31, of Jumei is the youngest self-made billionaire with a fortune of US$2bn, from his 35.6% holding in recently listed Jumei, an online retailer for cosmetics. Another is Zhang Bangxin, 34, of TAL Education worth US$1,050. In total there were 8 self-made individuals on the Hurun Rich List born in the Eighties.