BEIJING (Reuters) – Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, lost the title as the richest man in China, showed a list published on Tuesday while his peers prospered while rich by Chinese regulators among the loop was taken.
Mom and his family topped China’s richest list on the Hurun Global Rich List in 2020 and 2019, but now follow fourth place behind bottled water maker Nongfu Spring, Zhong Shanshan, Tenony Holding’s Pony Ma and e-commerce Collin Huang, Pinduoduo showed the latest list.
The Hurun report said it was falling out of the top three, after China’s regulators in Ant Group and Alibaba overturned.
Mom’s recent misery was caused by a speech on October 24 in which he exploded China’s regulatory system, leading to the suspension of its $ 37 billion Ant Group exchange just days before the listing of the fintech giant.
Regulators, meanwhile, have intensified confidence surveys across the country’s technology sector, with Alibaba taking much of the heat; the market regulator launched an official antitrust investigation into Alibaba in December.
Chinese regulators have also begun to tighten their grip on the fintech sector and have asked Ant to fold some of its businesses into a financial holding company that should be regulated like traditional financial companies.
Mom, who is not known for shying away from the limelight, then disappeared from the public eye for about three months, causing furious speculation about his location. He reappeared in January with a 50-second video appearance.
China’s current richest man, Zhong, made his first appearance at the top, largely thanks to the share price performance of Nongfu Spring and the vaccine manufacturer Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which he also controls.
Tencent’s Ma saw its wealth grow by 70% during the year to 480 billion yuan ($ 74.16 billion), while Pinduoduo’s fortune in Huang grew by 283% to 450 billion yuan. In comparison, the wealth of Mom and his family grew by 22% to 360 billion yuan.
Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, broke into the top five rankings among Chinese billionaires in Hurun’s Global Rich List for the first time, with an estimated personal wealth of $ 54 billion.
(This story coincides with the date of Jack Ma’s regulatory speech on October 24 and not on October 23 in par. 4).
Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Edited by Gerry Doyle