China Herald: A new wave of wealthy Chinese

Rupert Hoogewerf

Famous wealthy Chinese like Wang Jianlin and Jack Ma are still up and running, but a new wave of billionaires is moving up in the ranks of the annual Hurun China rich list, says its founder, Rupert Hoogewerf to Reuters. “Today it is about using the capital markets for financial investment,” he says, like Baoneng’s Yao Zhenhua.

Reuters:

Yao Zhenhua, the chairman of Baoneng Group and the biggest riser since 2015, saw his wealth shoot up 820% to $17.2 billion, elevating him to fourth in the overall list. Yao has been at the center of a hostile takeover battle for China’s largest real estate developer China Vanke Co Ltd.

Hurun founder Rupert Hoogewerf said Yao represented a new wave of wealthy Chinese, those whose money came from playing the financial markets as opposed to more traditional routes like trade or manufacturing.

“There’s a new type of wealth creation coming out,” he told Reuters, adding China was having to adapt as the wider economy was “very materially slowing down”. “Today it is about using the capital markets for financial investment,” he said.

Baoneng, a financial conglomerate that had been a relative unknown, rose to prominence over the last year by becoming the largest shareholder in Vanke, though drew criticism from Vanke’s own chairman over where it was getting its funds.

More in Reuters.

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