Hurun most successful Chinese heritage brands 2023 – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

The Hurun Research Institute released the Hurun Most Successful Chinese Heritage Brands 2023, for the fourth year, ranking the 100 most successful brands from China with at least 60 years or more of history. “TCM, Baijiu and Foods make up half of the brands on the Hurun Most Successful Chinese Heritage Brands 2023, showing the sectors that have had the deepest impact over generations of Chinese consumers,” says Rupert Hoogewerf, the Hurun chief researcher at the Hurun website.

The three main pillars of this list were the age of the brand, representing 40% of the total index; the value of the brand, defined as market cap for listed companies and recent valuation for non-listed companies, representing 40% of the total; and cultural heritage, representing 20% of the total.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Chairman and Chief Researcher said: “This is the fourth year of the Hurun Most Successful Chinese Heritage Brands, and this year we added 14 new brands to the mix, including well-known brands, such as Jian Nan Chun Chiew, HengYuanXiang and Arctic Ocean Soda.”

“TCM, Baijiu and Foods make up half of the brands on the Hurun Most Successful Chinese Heritage Brands 2023, showing the sectors that have had the deepest impact over generations of Chinese consumers.”

“The average age of the brands on the list is 161 years old, among which the youngest is Jinhui, a 63-year-old baijiu brand, and the oldest is Yiyuanqing, a Shanxi vinegar brand, which is 646 years old.”

“Most of the brands on this list predate pinyin spelling, so for brands that had an historical link outside of China, they use the pre-pinyin English spelling of their brand. For example, ‘Kweichow Moutai’ in pinyin would be spelt ‘Guizhou Maotai’.”

“Nearly 70% of the brands on the list are in East China and North China, with 44 brands from East China, including 13 from Shanghai and 8 from Zhejiang and Anhui respectively. 25 brands are from North China, with Beijing contributing 18 of them.”

More at the Hurun website.

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Private brands enjoy consumers’ trust – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

Even during the current economic headwinds, private brands continue to get the trust of China’s consumers, says Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf, among the 2022 China Hurun Brands’List, where Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai even outranked the technology giants as Tencent and Alibaba, reports the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai was the most valuable Chinese brand for a fifth straight year, according to the 2022 Hurun Brands List. The liquor maker, which is also one of the most valuable stocks in the country, was the only brand on the list with value of more than 1 trillion yuan (US$145.2 billion).

The liquor giant’s brand value – measured through openly available economic data and surveys among consumers – was equivalent to the total values of the next six brands that followed it on the list: Shenzhen-listed liquor maker Wuliangye Yibin, Shanghai Tobacco’s China Tobacco, ByteDance’s Douyin, WeChat and parent firm Tencent Holdings, and JD.com, Hurun said. The rankings have been calculated according to the market value of listed companies based on their stocks’ closing prices on July 29 last year, and their peers’ price-to-earnings ratios for private firms.

“Chinese consumers’ trust in private brands has obviously strengthened in the recent few years. [About] 62 per cent of the companies in the ranking were brands by the private sector, compared with 61 per cent a year ago and 39 per cent a decade ago,” Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun’s chairman, said in a statement.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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Business confidence among luxury buyers sky high – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf introduces the Hurun Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey & Hurun Best of the Best Awards 2023 with some amazing results: business confidence among luxury buyers in China is sky high and was only higher in 2022.

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Number of super-rich drops as economic growth crashes – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

The shrinking economic growth hits the number of super-rich in China, reports the annual Hurun China rich list,  writes Reuters. “This year has seen the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List of the last 24 years,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of research firm Hurun Report which compiles the list.

Reuters:

China’s super-rich saw their wealth tumble by the most in over two decades this year, as the Russia-Ukraine war, Beijing’s zero-COVID measures and falling mainland and Hong Kong stock markets pummelled fortunes, an annual rich list said on Tuesday.

The Hurun Rich list, which ranks China’s wealthiest people with a minimum net worth of 5 billion yuan ($692 million), said only 1,305 people made the mark this year, down 11% from last year. Their total wealth was $3.5 trillion, down 18%.

Meanwhile, the number of individuals with $10 billion fell by 29 to 56, and the number of dollar billionaires dropped by 239 to 946 this year, it added.

“This year has seen the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List of the last 24 years,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of research firm Hurun Report which compiles the list.

The global economic outlook has this year been heavily impacted by the war in Ukraine and slowing economic growth in China that has in turn been exacerbated by the country’s ultra-strict COVID policies and a prolonged property slump.

More at Reuters.

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Guangzhou tops China’s unicorn newcomers – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

Guangzhou added in the first six months of 2022 nine new global unicorns, a privately held startup company valued at over US$1 billion – taking its total to 19, according to a new list from the Hurun List, writes the China Daily. “These unicorns are leading a new generation of disruptive technology,” says Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

 

China Daily:

“These unicorns are leading a new generation of disruptive technology. With fintech, e-commerce, business management solutions, health tech and AI, industries are now attracting the world’s top young talent and smart capital,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

Hurun has been tracking global unicorns since 2017. The index ranking the world’s startups was introduced in the 2000s. It is worth at least $1 billion but not yet listed on a public exchange.

The world’s unicorns came from 48 countries and regions, with the United States leading with 625 companies, followed by China with 312 in the first half of this year, the report said.

Beijing-based Douyin, with 1.2 billion monthly active users for its flagship TikTok, is the world’s most valuable unicorn for the second year running.

The half-year index was released on the occasion of the Global Unicorn CEO Conference, which was also held in Guangzhou on Tuesday. It invited the world’s unicorns, investors and advisers to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship, new technologies and business models.

“Unicorns are a benchmark of a world-class startup ecosystem. The more unicorns a country has, the better the startup ecosystem,” Hoogewerf said.

There has been a massive surge in unicorns since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 369 new unicorns being found in the first six months of 2022 — or two a day — according to Hoogewerf.

“The 1,200 new unicorns minted in the last two years are disrupting financial services, business management solutions, healthcare and retail,” he said.

More at the China Daily.

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China company list with highest metaverse potential – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

The Hurun research institute released on Tuesday the top-200 list of companies with the highest meta verse potential, says its chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf in the Panda Daily. ” This world is a digital living space with a new social system,” Hoogewerf says.

The Panda Daily:

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf spoke about the list of companies: “This year is the first year of the metaverse. It has only been in the last year that the mainstream has started to concentrate on it, triggered in part last October when Facebook changed its name to Meta. Our metaverse list today is designed to help identify which companies in China have the most potential in the metaverse.”

He added, “At present, the definition of metaverse that we agree with is: a virtual world that is linked and created by means of science and technology and mapped and interacted with the real world. This world is a digital living space with a new social system. Of course, it will take some time for the arrival of the metaverse era, and it is inseparable from Web3.”

More in the Panda Daily.

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New energy tops China 2021 rich list – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

Most rich in China are self-made, first in agriculture, then real estate, and the past five years in new energy, says Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf at the release of the 2021 Hurun China rich list. Compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan, mainland rich seldom inherited their wealth, he added.

Rupert Hoogewerf:

“A boom in new energy entrepreneurs, sparked by carbon reduction targets, as well as a spate of new listings of tech-related companies drove this year’s Hurun China Rich List to records heights, adding more than 20%, both in terms of number of individuals and also total wealth. Another factor was adding in entrepreneurs from HK, Macao and Taiwan for the first time, however, with only 200, this was not a significant factor.”

“100 times in 20 years. Twenty years ago, we could only find 19 individuals with US$300mn, but over the last 20 years, this has grown over 100x to almost 3,000, showing the growth of the Chinese economy. Based on this trajectory, expect the Hurun China Rich List to grow to as many as 5,000 within ten years. At the billionaire level, it is a similar story: Back in 1999, there were none, with the first wave of 100 coming through in 2007, before breaking through the 500-mark in 2015 and since Covid, almost doubling to 1185 known billionaires today, 50% more than the US, which has just under 700 known billionaires. At this rate, expect China to have 2,000 known billionaires by 2030.”

“Half of this year’s list are new faces compared with five years ago, showing the dynamism of China’s private sector. New sectors and business models are changing the landscape of the list. 20 years ago the top 10 was led by agriculture, then 10 years ago it was real estate. Five years ago it was the second wave of internet platforms, whilst today it is new energy.”

“Zhang Yiming of ByteDance at 38 becomes only the fifth person since our first rich list in 1999 to make the Top 3 whilst still in his thirties, the others being Ding Lei of Netease, Chen Tianqiao of Shanda, Huang Guangyu of Gome and Yang Bing of Euro Asia. Keep watching. Zhang Yiming is a likely candidate to become the next Number One in China, especially if he gets to list ByteDance.”

“From the Hurun China Rich List, we can see which industries and business models are on the up and which are on the way down. New energy has had an amazing year, whilst real estate, home tutoring services, pork production and video gaming have had a bad year. Embattled Xu Jiayin of Evergrande was down US$25bn to leave him with just over US$10bn. In home tutoring, Tom Zhang Bangxin of TAL Education lost US$14bn to leave him with less than a billion, whilst Chen Xiangdong of Genshuixue lost US$12.5bn, dropping him off the list. Pork producers Liu Yonghao and Qin Yinglin were down US$8bn and US$5bn. Video gaming leader Pony Ma of Tencent was down US$10bn.”

“The average ‘Hurun Rich Lister’ was born in 1965, started his business in 1994 at the age of 29, broke into the list in 2012 at the age of 47, and is now 56 years old with US$1.9bn.”

“Succession is a hot topic in China. US$1.5tn of wealth is likely to pass down from the first generation entrepreneurs on the list to the nextgen over the next 20 years. The Lee Kum Kee family is the only 100-yr old family dynasty on the list.”

Only 4% or 122 individuals inherited their wealth. 60% are from Taiwan and Hong Kong, with 41 from Taiwan and 28 from Hong Kong, followed by 9 from Guangdong, 8 from Zhejiang and 7 from Shanghai. “96% of the Hurun China Rich List is first generation self-made wealth,” Hoogewerf said.

More at the Hurun website.

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2020 triggered off unprecedented creation of wealth – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

The world never saw so much reaction of wealth as during 2020, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher of the Hurun China Rich List, despite the coronavirus crisis triggered off by COVID-19. Even seasoned rich-researcher Hoogewerf is amazed by the number of billionaires China created over the past months, he tells Devdiscourse, citing the newly released Hurun China Rich List 2020.

Devdiscourse:

Ant is expected to create more mega-rich through what is likely to be the world’s biggest IPO, as it plans to raise an estimated $35 billion through a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The combined wealth of those on the Hurun China list – with an individual wealth cut-off of 2 billion yuan ($299.14 million) – totaled $4 trillion, more than the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Germany, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, the Hurun Report’s chairman.

China is minting new billionaires at a record pace despite an economy bruised by the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to booming share prices and a spate of new stock listings, according to a list released on Tuesday. The Hurun China Rich List 2020 also highlights China’s accelerated shift away from traditional sectors like manufacturing and real estate, towards e-commerce, fintech and other new economy industries.

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, retained the top spot for the third year in a row, with his personal wealth jumping 45% to $58.8 billion partly due to the impending mega-listing of fintech giant Ant Group . Ant is expected to create more mega-rich through what is likely to be the world’s biggest IPO, as it plans to raise an estimated $35 billion through a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The combined wealth of those on the Hurun China list – with an individual wealth cut-off of 2 billion yuan ($299.14 million) – totaled $4 trillion, more than the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Germany, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, the Hurun Report’s chairman. More wealth was created this year than in the previous five years combined, with China’s rich-listers adding $1.5 trillion, roughly half the size of Britain’s GDP.

Booming stock markets and a flurry of new listings have created five new dollar billionaires in China a week for the past year, Hoogewerf said in a statement. “The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year. China’s entrepreneurs have done much better than expected. Despite Covid-19 they have risen to record levels.”

According to a separate estimate by PwC and UBS, only billionaires in the United States possessed greater combined wealth than those in mainland China. China has accelerated capital market reforms to aid a virus-hit economy, accelerate economic restructuring and fund a “tech war” with the United States.

More at Devdiscourse.

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Meet China’s newest richest person, Zhong Shanshan – Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

Zhong Shanshan, founder of the bottled water company Nongfu Spring, pushed Alibaba’s Jack Ma from his position as the richest in China. Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher of the Hurun China Rich List, explains how Zhong made it to the top, at CNN Business. Hoogewerf expects a new boom in billionaires from China, he says.

CNN Business:

Zhong’s new status also puts him ahead of Pony Ma, who founded Tencent. Unlike Jack Ma and Pony Ma, Zhong is not a tech entrepreneur. Outside of his stake in Nongfu Spring, he is the head of a vaccine maker, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy. That company went public in Shanghai this year, which also helped boost Zhong’s wealth.

“You would have typically expected the number one in China to come from [technology],” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of wealth research firm Hurun Report.

Zhong is also known for being more low-profile and reclusive compared to other top business leaders, which has earned him the nickname “lone wolf.”

“He’s not known to have many entrepreneur friends,” said Hoogewerf, a longtime China watcher who is based in Shanghai. “He just kind of gets on with his own business.”

But even prior to his latest success, Zhong’s track record was impressive.

“Zhong Shanshan is one of the few people in China to not just build one $10 billion business, but two $10 billion businesses,” said Hoogewerf. “It’s pretty remarkable.”

Zhong’s ascent underscores the rapid pace of wealth creation in China.

Earlier this year, China was already home to most of the world’s billionaires, with more than the United States and India combined, according to a global rich list compiled by the Hurun Report….

A report released by Deloitte on Wednesday said that “several other developments are set to sustain the prevailing trend of listings in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong over the rest of this year,” including the approval of cross-listing rules and a new tech index in Hong Kong.

That will likely spawn even more billionaires in China, Hoogewerf predicts.

He estimates that about 100 new billionaires will be created in China this year because of the IPO boom. That’s “one every four days. Two a week,” he said.

More at CNN Business.

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How Nongfu’s Zhong Shanshan became one of China’s wealthiests – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

Zhong Shanshan, the owner of bottled water producer Nongfu became through its IPO suddenly one of the wealthiest people in China, in a time when IT in a post-COVID economy seems to be leading, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of Hurun, the China Rich List to the China Daily. Consumption tycoons have become the winners in post-COVID China, he adds.

The China Daily:

Zhong, the 66-year-old former journalist-turned-health product entrepreneur, owns 84.4 percent of Nongfu’s shares. The share surge pushed his fortune to more than $57 billion, calculated as per Nongfu’s opening price on Tuesday. At one point, Zhong’s wealth even overtook that of Jack Ma’s $51.4 billion and Pony Ma’s $56.7 billion, before falling.

Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, in which Zhong is the biggest shareholder, is one of the leading manufacturers of infectious disease diagnostics and has been traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange since early this year.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, said Zhong is the 17th Chinese businessman to take the No 1 position in terms of wealth during the last two decades. He is also a good example of the dynamism of the Chinese economy, he said.

“Who would have thought that Zhong, a man who sells bottled water, in the age of IT and post-COVID economy, could actually become the richest man in China overtaking Jack Ma and Pony Ma,” said Hoogewerf.

“Zhong is pretty special. He has built two businesses, both of which have valuations of over $10 billion. Very few people in China have managed to build two $10 billion businesses from scratch.”

Hoogewerf said after the epidemic, the global economy has suffered significantly, with China being the sole exception. “In China, many consumer tycoons have not just grown but flourished in the past six months possibly because a lot of investors looked for relatively safe havens. Traditional leaders in the consumer sector were able to give investors that reassurance,” he said.

More at the China Daily.

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Unicorns flourish in China and the US - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

China is home to four out of five largest unicorns - startups valued over one billion US dollars, second to the US, says the latest report by the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, published on Tuesday. “The rest of the world needs to wake up to providing an ecosystem that allows unicorns to flourish,” says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun report to the South China Morning Post. 

The South China Morning Post:

China is home to four of the world’s five largest unicorns – start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion – as the country recorded 227 such companies at the end of March, despite its protracted tech and trade war with the United States.

That total was behind the US tally of 233 unicorns in the same period, according to this year’s edition of the Hurun Global Unicorn Index released by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute on Tuesday. It said the US and China accounted for a combined 79 per cent of the world’s 586 known unicorns, based on valuations at the end of March.

“The US and China continue to dominate … despite representing only 40 per cent of the world’s GDP and a quarter of the world’s population,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of privately held Hurun Report, in a statement on Tuesday. “The rest of the world needs to wake up to providing an ecosystem that allows unicorns to flourish.”

The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.9 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Italy, according to Hurun Research.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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China's top health care firms do very well - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

The coronavirus might have put pressure on many industries, the top healthcare companies in China do very well, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher of the Hurun Report in Laingbuissonnews.com. Healthcare is the third largest industry for non-state controlled companies in China, after manufacturing and real estate.

Laingbuissonnews.com:

The average value of the Top 100 most valuable private healthcare companies in China is US$6.5bn, according to The Hurun Research Institute’s new “Hurun China 100 Most Valuable Private Healthcare Companies 2020” list. The cut-off to make the list was US$2.1bn. 

“Coronavirus has thrown the spotlight onto China’s top healthcare companies. Six companies from the Hurun Top 100 saw their share price up by half between January 20 and February 28, led by medical product business Allmed, which doubled in value, and followed by respiration equipment provider Yuyue, which rose 62%. Expect to see some of these companies continue to grow as the virus spreads around the world,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report. 

He went on to explain that China’s top healthcare companies are now worth five times that of five years ago. 

“China’s privately controlled healthcare companies are much more valuable than their state-controlled counterparts. The largest state-controlled healthcare business, TCM investment platform Changchun High &New Technology Industries, currently valued at US$13.8bn, would not have made the Top 10,” said Hoogewerf. 

Healthcare is the third largest industry for non-state controlled companies in China, after manufacturing and real estate.

More at Laingbuissonnews.com

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China has more billionaires than the US and India combined - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

The annual Hurun Global Rich List counted today more billionaires in China than in the US and India combined, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Shanghai-based Hurun Report after its publication on Wednesday, to Caixin. In 2019, China created 182 billionaires, three times the number as those in the U.S., according to the Hurun Report.

Caixin:

Despite a slowdown in the economy and trade tensions with the U.S., China had 799 billionaires in 2019, more than both the U.S. and India put together, according to the annual Hurun Global Rich List, which measured the wealth of some 2,816 billionaires from 71 countries and regions.
“China today has more billionaires than the U.S. and India combined,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, which published the rankings Wednesday. He added that a boom in tech valuations and strong stock markets in China, the U.S. and India pushed the number of global billionaires to a record high of 2,816.
In 2019, China created 182 billionaires, three times the number as those in the U.S., according to the Hurun Report.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who retired in September last year, climbed a place to become the world’s 21st richest person with a net worth of $45 billion last year, retaining his title as China’s wealthiest person. Ma ranked just ahead of Tencent’s Pony Ma with a net worth of $44 billion and Xu Jiayin of property developer Evergrande with $33 billion.
An overseas pushback against Huawei and a U.S. blacklisting did not prevent the company’s founder, 76-year-old Ren Zhengfei from growing his personal fortune by 7% to $3 billion. He ranked at 903rd, the same as U.S. President Donald Trump.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was the world’s richest man for a third consecutive year with a $140 billion fortune, according to the list.

More in Caixin.

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Creating value is more than making sales - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

Private companies in China have become more important than sometimes appreciated, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Hurun Research Institute in its latest report, according to the South China Morning Post. They have grown eight times in the past decade, pay most taxes and create most jobs. "Creating value is more than making sales," says Rupert Hoogewerf. The China Morning Post: China’s 10 largest companies have grown eight-fold in value over the past decade, according to an inaugural Hurun Research Institute report, shedding light on a sector that contributes half of the nation’s tax receipts and 80 per cent of jobs.

The South China Morning Post:

The 10, led by e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding, were valued a combined US$1.8 trillion, a size that would rank them as the 10th largest by gross domestic product surpassing Canada, were they an economic entity, based on International Monetary Fund data. The snapshot comes from an inaugural list of 500 most valuable private companies released by Hurun on Thursday, and based on data up to November 2019.

Alibaba (US$545 billion), Tencent Holdings (US$408 billion), Ping An Insurance (US$215 billion) are the top trio. Huawei, the subject of US security scrutiny over alleged embedded spyware in its telecoms systems, was ranked fourth, with a valuation of US$172 billion while Alibaba’s unlisted affiliate Ant Financial came in fifth at an estimated US$143 billion...

“Companies on the Hurun China 500 create significant value for local governments, in terms of GDP, industry development, tax revenues and skilled labour,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun report.

Half of them are in emerging industries, especially in the fields of advanced manufacturing, health care, media and entertainment and e-commerce, the report shows. About two-thirds are listed companies, while the rest are non-listed companies or only partially listed, he added.

“We are in an era when it is about value created rather than sales generated that ought to be used to differentiate the best companies in China,” Hoogewerf said. “Some of the Hurun China 500 make only relatively small revenues, but create massive shareholder value.”

More in the South China Morning Post.

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Less wealthy Chinese families - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

For the first time in five years' time, the number of rich Chinese families has dropped, says this year's Hurun Wealth Report, according to the China Daily. Both a dropping economy and the trade war triggered off the effect, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Hurun Report, now in its 11th year.

The China Daily:

Economic slowdown and the trade tensions between China and the United States have resulted in a minor slide in the number of affluent families in China, said the Hurun Wealth Report 2019 released on Tuesday. 

As of Dec 31 last year, the number of high–net-worth Chinese families with household assets of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) dropped 1.5 percent from a year earlier to 1.98 million, according to the report. The number of ultra-high-net-worth Chinese families with household assets of 100 million yuan also contracted by 4.5 percent to 127,000. 

Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chief researcher of Hurun Report, said it is the first time in five years that a drop has been recorded in the number of high–net-worth Chinese families. China's economic slowdown and restructuring, the trade conflict between China and the United States, combined with the 20 percent slide in the major A-share indexes last year, have resulted in the contraction, he said. 

Beijing is still home to the largest number of high–net-worth families, with 288,000 households in the city owning assets of at least 10 million yuan. Guangdong comes second, followed by Shanghai. 

The majority of 65 percent of these 10-million-yuan asset families own their own businesses. Company executives, property market investors and professional stock market investors are the less commonly found occupations in this category. 

However, the number of wealthy Chinese families with household assets of 6 million yuan reached 4.94 million by the end of 2018, up 1.2 percent year-on-year, according to the report.

More in the China Daily.

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China has fewer wealthy people than ever - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

For the first time in 21 years the annual Hurun (China) rich list notes fewer wealthy people, says its chairman Rupert Hoogewerf to AFP. "Nearly 40 percent of those in the rich list two years ago has dropped off," he said.

 AFP:

The number of ultra-wealthy individuals dipped in China this year, a report said Thursday, as the government seeks to rebalance the economy and tackle high levels of toxic debt. 

Those listed as the wealthiest -- with holdings worth at least 2 billion yuan ($281 million) -- fell to 1,819 this year, down from 1,893 last year, according to data compiled by the Hurun Report. 

"This is the first time in 21 years that the Hurun (China) Rich List has shrunk for two consecutive years," said Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf. 

"The only other years the list shrunk, and only very slightly, were in 2008 at the time of the global financial crisis and in 2002 after the tech bubble burst." 

Traditional sectors such as manufacturing and real estate have suffered as companies "caught up in too much debt" have started shedding assets, affecting their founders' net worth, Hoogewerf added. 

"Nearly 40 percent of those in the rich list two years ago has dropped off," he said. "It's part of a very conscious decision by the Chinese government to try and restructure the economy." 

Billionaires who made their money in IT, pharmaceuticals and education were replacing the old guard... 

With a younger generation of entrepreneurs making their way up the rankings, 39-year-old Colin Huang Zheng, of e-commerce site Pinduoduo, became the first self-made entrepreneur born in the 1980s to enter the top 10. 

"Colin Huang has created a world first, making $20 billion since founding Pinduoduo just four years ago," Hoogewerf said. 

"Nobody in the world has ever made that much from a standing start." 

Eleven people born in the 1990s also made the list.

More at AFP.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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