A total of 129 Shenzhen entrepreneurs entered the Hurun China Rich List 2022, with the number and wealth accounting for 10% and 11% of the total respectively, according to the list released by the Hurun Research Institute on Tuesday.
The 129 entrepreneurs’ aggregate wealth reached a whopping 2.7 trillion yuan (US$372.6 billion).
The Shenzhen entrepreneurs with the highest rankings on the list include Tencent’s Pony Ma with personal wealth of 215 billion yuan and BYD’s Wang Chuanfu with personal wealth of 145 billion yuan. Amer International Group’s Wang Wenyin family and Mindray’s Xu Hang each has wealth of 110 billion yuan.
Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water company Nongfu Spring, topped the list for the second time in a row this year. His personal wealth surged 17% year on year to 455 billion yuan, a record in 20 years.
The second and third places on the list are Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance and Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of battery provider CATL. Their personal wealth reached 245 billion yuan and 230 billion yuan respectively.
A total of 1,305 individuals with a minimum personal wealth of 5 billion yuan entered the list this year, down 11% from a year ago. Their total wealth also shrunk 18% year on year to 24.5 trillion yuan.
Industrial products, real estate, health, consumer goods, and food and beverage are the top five sources of wealth for the entrepreneurs on the list. The top three cities with the most entrepreneurs on the list are Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai, followed by Hong Kong and Hangzhou.
According to Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report’s chairman and chief researcher, this has been the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich list in 24 years, in both the metrics of overall number and total wealth.
“Part of the reason has been a global economic downturn, led by the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the generally slow post-COVID economic recovery,” Hoogewerf explained.