- Stimulus has boosted wealth after property crisis, crackdowns
- The nation’s richest person changed a record number of times
China’s billionaires are slowly starting to recover their wealth after three years of losses from a property crisis and Xi Jinping’s push for common prosperity at the expense of powerful private business owners.
The combined fortunes of 55 of the nation’s wealthiest tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index have risen 16% to $809.6 billion since the beginning of January, after a rollercaster year marked by sweeping easing measures from Beijing that ultimately drove stocks higher.
Tech tycoons are leading the rebound. Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Pony Ma is the biggest winner of the year, with his fortune surging by more than a third to $47.9 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, which tracks the world’s 500 richest people. He was followed by Lei Jun, founder of smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp., which has surged on its rapid push into electric vehicles. The tech billionaire has added $12.8 billion.
The gains come after China spent several years reining in the country’s most powerful tech firms, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Didi Global Inc., along with their ultra-rich founders. That clampdown eroded investor and entrepreneurial confidence and chilled a private sphere that was crucial in propelling the Chinese economic miracle of past decades.
“As we learned from the past, billionaires in China can adapt to markets and trends, continue to innovate and create wealth for society and themselves,” said Maximilian Kunkel, chief investment officer, global family & institutional wealth at UBS Group AG’s global wealth management, said at a briefing earlier this month.
Among the other gainers, Chen Tianshi, Chairman of AI processor-maker Cambricon Technologies Corp., and Wang Ning, the billionaire behind toymaker Pop Mart International Group Ltd., have both seen their fortunes triple this year.
Still, it’s been a bumpy ride to get there. The title of China’s richest person changed hands most frequently in a single year since Bloomberg’s wealth ranking began in 2012, underscoring how the shifting forces in China have sent ripples through the economy and created new opportunities for owners of businesses with mass-market appeal.
After becoming China’s richest person in August, Colin Huang, the billionaire founder of PDD Holdings Inc., which runs bargain online retailer Temu, only occupied the spot for 18 days. He is on track to conclude the year as the country’s biggest wealth loser.
Huang replaced bottled-water billionaire Zhong Shanshan in August, but the tech mogul quickly ceded the spot to Zhong after his firm warned of a slowing sales outlook in an analyst call. Tencent’s Ma ascended to the top rank weeks later with his company’s shares boosted by blockbuster new games, before Beijing’s stimulus blitz put Zhong back to number one.
Huang’s total fortune is down $15.5 billion to $36 billion and Nongfu Spring Co.’s Zhong follows with a drop of $9.5 billion.
The pool of wealth from Chinese nationals on Bloomberg’s wealth index has fallen by 34% from a peak of $1.2 trillion at the end of 2020. In recent years, China’s business dynamism has gone from supercharging global wealth growth to diluting it as the country’s common prosperity campaign took hold, UBS said in a report published earlier this month.
And, the nation’s rich face fresh uncertainty with President-elect Donald Trump’s threats for tariffs on a broad swathe of imports from China.
Lately, Chinese leaders have been shifting their tone to signal bolder economic support and easing monetary policy to help solve the real estate crisis and stimulate consumption. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s co-founder, made a rare appearance this month to celebrate affiliate Ant Group’s anniversary and discussed how artificial intelligence could bring opportunity to the fintech.
“Volatility in billionaire wealth may continue as a function of public market volatility,” said Kunkel. “That said, wealth creation in China remains as a key underlying trend.”
Written by: Venus Feng and Pui Gwen Yeung @Bloomberg
The post “China’s Billionaires Are Making Money for First Time Since 2020” first appeared on Bloomberg