EYESHENZHEN  /  Companies  /  News  /  

Pony Ma becomes richest Chinese: Hurun

Writer:   | Editor: Betty Ye  | From:  | Updated: 2018-04-03

Pony Ma, co-founder and CEO of Tencent, is now known as the richest Chinese entrepreneur with a total fortune of 295 billion yuan (US$46.55 billion), according to Hurun’s latest Global Fortune List.

This year’s global fortune list has ranked a record number of 2,694 billionaires from 68 countries. Assets under the billionaires’ names used for the ranking were valid as of Jan. 31, 2018.

Ma, 47, is the 13th to be named the richest Chinese person on the Hurun lists. He ranks 15th among all of the billionaires on the list. His ranking has gone up by 23 places since last year.

The report points out that Tencent was actively engaged in the retail industry at the end of last year, when it invested in multiple large-scale supermarkets within 50 days.

Xu Jiayin, chairman of the board of the real estate giant Evergrand Group, is ranked second among all of the Chinese tycoons and 20th worldwide. It is Xu’s first time on the top 10 Chinese list.

Another magnate, Lee Shau Kee, head of the Hong Kong-based Henderson Real Estate, is the third-richest Chinese, according to the list. Lee owns total assets valued at 215 billion yuan. The stock market price of Lee’s corporation has increased by 25 percent since last year, exceeding HK$200 billion (US$25.56 billion).

This year’s ranking for Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group, is not as good as previous years as he only comes in at 4th place among all Chinese entrepreneurs despite Alibaba’s good performance on the U.S. stock market. His global ranking is No. 26, six places down from last year.

Worldwide, seven out of the top 10 global billionaires are from the United States. The global list is led by Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg, the three richest men in the world.

According to the analysis, the top four billionaire-producing industries are technology, real estate, manufacturing and investment.