The number of billionaires in China has overtaken that of the US for the first time, an annual survey said yesterday, despite slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
China now has 596 billionaires, up a “staggering” 242 over the last year, Shanghai-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report said, surpassing the 537 Americans.
“Despite the slowdown in the economy, China’s richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever,” Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said in a statement.
Real estate and entertainment magnate Wang Jianlin (王健林) dethroned Alibaba founder Jack Ma (馬雲) as the country’s richest person, Hurun’s annual wealth ranking showed.
Wang, who founded conglomerate Wanda, saw his fortune jump more than 50 percent to US$34.4 billion, helped by a surge in the stock price of a listed unit.
Wang is known outside China for a string of overseas acquisitions including the organizer of Ironman extreme endurance contests, Swiss sports marketing group Infront, and a stake in Spanish soccer club Atletico Madrid.
He burst into the spotlight in 2012 by buying US cinema chain AMC Entertainment for US$2.6 billion.
Wang took the top spot back from Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, because of a collapse in the Internet company’s New York-quoted shares, which were the world’s biggest initial public offering when it listed last year. Ma’s wealth still stands at US$22.7 billion.
Beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou (宗慶后) of Wahaha remained in third place with just over US$21 billion, while Pony Ma (馬化騰), founder of Internet giant Tencent, which operates popular messaging app WeChat, took fourth place with a little under US$19 billion.
Lei Jun (雷軍) of smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is seeking to challenge Apple, jumped five places to fifth by doubling his wealth to more than US$14 billion.
Yan Hao (嚴昊) of road builder China Pacific Construction was sixth while the founder of search engine giant Baidu, Robin Li (李彥宏), dropped to seventh amid worries over his company’s huge spending to expand its business.
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