Hong Kong businessman Stephen Wong (黃宏生) was once jailed for theft and fraud. He is now staging a comeback.
Wong, who founded Chinese TV maker Skyworth Digital Holdings Ltd (創維數碼控股), has amassed a net worth of US$1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The majority of the fortune comes from his 36 percent stake in Skyworth. The rest is derived from a closely held electric-car maker that he is modeling after billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors Inc.
The Hong Kong tycoon is seeking to develop the new venture as China pushes to contain pollution and demand for electric vehicles increases. The 59-year-old resigned as chairman of Skyworth in 2006 after he and his brother were sentenced to a six-year jail term in Hong Kong for stealing more than HK$50 million (US$6.5 million) of company funds and a fraud to obtain share options.
“He wants to come back and rise again by bringing his previous experience in the capital markets and management to a new territory,” said Zhong Shi (鍾石), a Beijing-based independent auto analyst, who is a committee member of state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association. “For entrepreneurs, their experience, determination and ideas are more important than products.”
The billionaire was released in 2009, Skyworth said. His wife, Lin Weiping (林衛平), serves as chairman of Skyworth.
Wong owns more than 80 percent of electric-car maker Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus Co (南京金龍客車).
“Before setting up Nanjing Golden Dragon, Wong enjoyed a good life traveling around the world with his wife and playing golf with friends, but he felt lonely while his friends were all busy with their work — he couldn’t live an easy life and decided to come back again,” Nanjing Golden Dragon brand manager Shi Wenhui said.
The billionaire wants to make Nanjing Golden Dragon China’s top manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles within five years, Shi said.
Nanjing Golden Dragon’s goal is to become “the Tesla among new-energy commercial vehicles.”
BYD Co (比亞迪), the automaker part-owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, is China’s biggest electric-car maker. The company’s founder, Wang Chuanfu (王傳福), has a net worth of US$5.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg ranking.
“New-energy vehicles are the hot industry that tons of investors are looking at,” Zhong said.
The Chinese government has started a strategic initiative to build electric cars in China. As many as 40 models are to go on sale this year, triple the number available two years ago, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates.
“It’s good for him to enter an industry that enjoys significant support from the Chinese government,” said Cao He (曹鶴), a Beijing-based auto analyst at China Minzu Securities Co (中國民族證券).
“People like Wong won’t remain low-profile forever,” he added.
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