AP, SHANGHAI
China’s construction boom has propelled a maker of pile drivers and other heavy machinery to the top of the country’s rich list.
The Hurun Rich List 2010, China’s equivalent of the Forbes list, said 55-year-old Liang Wengen (梁穩根), a former weapons plant manager and chairman of Sany Heavy Industry Co (三 一重工), leads the country’s fast-growing ranks of super-wealthy.
A surge in Sany’s share price doubled his fortune last year, to US$11 billion, said Rupert Hoogewerf, who studies China’s wealthy and compiled the list.
Consumer goods, Internet and property tycoons dominated the top of the list.
China’s fast-growing economy has helped it to shrug off much of the impact of the global financial crisis: of the Hurun list of China’s 1,000 richest people, 271 were billionaires in US dollar terms, up from 189 last year, he said.
Zong Qinghou (宗慶后), head of the Wahaha (娃哈哈) beverage empire, dropped to second place with US$10.7 billion, while Robin Li Yanhong (李彥宏), chairman of search engine company Baidu Inc (百度), was third, with US$8.8 billion. Red Bull energy drinks mogul Yan Bin (嚴彬) was fourth, with US$7.8 billion.
China has thrown trillions of dollars into new housing, railways and other infrastructure, driving a massive construction boom that has benefited manufacturers of machinery, cement and other building materials.
Sany, based in Hunan Province, makes construction, road, excavating, hoisting and port machinery, as well as wind turbines.
Founded in 1989 by Liang and several associates as the Hunan Lianyuan Welding Material Factory, the company listed its shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2003. The company’s share price has risen from a 52-week low of 8.19 yuan to its current 15.59 yuan. Liang holds a 58 percent stake in Sany Group.
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