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China's richest also relatively young

A journalist reads the latest copy of Forbes magazine at a press conference in Beijing yesterday to announce the magazine's list of China's 400 wealthiest people. PHOTO: AFP

A 37-year-old appliance merchant topped a list of China's richest businesspeople released yesterday by the business magazine Forbes, leading a group of young entrepreneurs who have profited from the country's economic boom.

Wong Kwong-yu (黃光裕), founder of Gome Appliances (國美電器), saw his wealth expand to US$2.3 billion, driven by a jump in homebuying by China's newly prosperous middle class, according to Forbes.

The release of the 400-person Forbes China Rich List comes at a time when some of China's richest businesspeople are ensnared in scandals. A real estate tycoon ranked 16th on last year's list was arrested last month in a corruption investigation.

Wong is also caught up in a high profile bank fraud case. Chinese media have reported that he is under investigation over US$165 million in loans extended by the Bank of China between 1997 and 2004.

Trading of Gome shares in Hong Kong was suspended on Tuesday following the report but later resumed, and Gome said it had received no notice of such a probe.

From fame to infamy * Zhang Rongkun, the 16th richest on last year's list, last month became the first person formally arrested in a billion-dollar pension fund scandal shaking Shanghai. * Xu Jiayin, No. 52 on this year's list, allegedly owes US$3.6 million in taxes. * Wang Dejun, No. 167 on the 2004 list, was tried on bribery charges in September. * Zhou Zhengyi, the 11th richest in the 2002 rankings, was tried for manipulating stock prices in 2004. He received a three-year jail sentence. * Yang Bin, No. 2 on the 2001 list, was tried on charges of bribery, fraud and illegal encroachment of farming land in 2003. He received an 18 year prison term. Source: AFP

The probe reportedly centers on Wong's older brother, a real estate developer. Wong's name also is spelled Huang Guangyu.

The combined wealth of China's 400 richest people jumped 51 percent to US$110 billion since Forbes' list last year.

YOUNG WEALTH

The number of US dollar billionaires also increased to 15 from 10 last year and just three the year before.

Nearly one-quarter of those on this year's list are under age 40, reflecting the fact that most of China's fortunes have been made in the past decade as retail, Internet and real estate companies sprang up to serve a booming consumer market.

"China's richest are a lot younger than America's richest," said Russell Flannery, Forbes' Shanghai bureau chief and compiler of the list, at a news conference.

"A big reason for the jump in wealth is the success they have had in listing their companies overseas," Flannery said.

"For Chinese private sector companies that have long been overshadowed by state-owned enterprises, access to capital markets is going to improve their competitiveness at home and abroad. That's very good news for them," he said.

No. 2 on the list was property developer Xu Rongnao (許榮茂), with a fortune of US$2.1 billion, followed by Larry Yung (榮智健), chairman of conglomerate Citic Pacific, with US$2 billion. Yung, also known as Rong Zhijian, was No. 1 last year.

SELF-MADE WOMAN

The richest woman was No. 5 Zhang Yin (張茵), who built a business recycling paper into Nine Dragons Paper Co (玖龍紙業), China's biggest maker of paperboard for packaging, at US$1.5 billion.

Zhang was No. 1 on a list of China's richest released Oct. 11 by journalist Rupert Hoogewerf, who used to compile Forbes' rankings.

Flannery said Forbes calculated Zhang's wealth separately from the stakes that her husband and brother own in Nine Dragons. If their holdings were added together, the family would be No. 1 on the Forbes list.

The magazine noted that No. 16 on last year's list, Shanghai developer Zhang Rongkun (張榮坤), was dropped this year after he was arrested in a corruption investigation and his company's share price plunged.

The Shanghai Communist Party secretary has been dismissed in the scandal over allegations that government pension funds were improperly invested in real estate. Other officials are being questioned.

SMALLER FORTUNES

Forbes noted that the average age of businesspeople on its China list was 46.5, compared with 65.7 for the comparable US list.

But their fortunes also were smaller, averaging US$950 million for China's 400, versus US$13.2 billion for the US list, Forbes said. The minimum net worth required to make China's 400 rose this year to US$100 million, up from US$62 million last year.

China's top 40 richest include six women, compared with seven in the US top 40, but the Chinese include self-made millionaires such as Zhang, while the US women inherited their wealth, Forbes said.

Guangdong Province was home to most of the super-rich, with 66 of the top 400, followed by Zhejiang Province at 47, Shanghai with 44 and Beijing with 41.
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