Alibaba’s IPO last week made founder Jack Ma the richest man in China with an estimated $25 billion fortune.
Ma, who owns 6 percent of Alibaba and 46 percent of its closely related company, Alipay, was
millions ahead of the second man to make the Hurun Rich List 2014. Second on the list is Chinese business tycoon Wang Jianlin with a fortune of $24.2 billion.
Alibaba’s stock shot up 38 percent Friday, the first day of trading after the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. went public with a record-shattering $25 billion initial public offering. As the stock climbed, so did Ma’s bank account. For 2014, his estimated worth was five times what it was in 2013.
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“The Hurun Report's rich list is one of the most closely-watched and
accurate assessments of wealth in China,” BBC News said of the annual report that has assessed the country’s economy for 16 years.
“It has been an amazing year for China’s best tycoons despite the jitters about the Chinese economy,” the report said. “Stock markets in Shanghai and HK shot up 71% and 61% respectively, with the ChiNext up a remarkable 104%; there were a record 354 dollar billionaires, up 39 on last year, up 103 on two years ago and up 351 on 10 years ago, when there were only 3.”
The total wealth of the billionaires on the Hurun list is $1.4 trillion, which accounts for 15 percent of the gross domestic product of China.
Hurun pointed to a boom in information technology that put five IT tycoons in the Top 10.
“It’s been a good year for entertainment, investments, cars, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing,” the Hurun release said. “It has been a bad year for steel and shipping. Manufacturing and real estate are the primary source of wealth for almost half the list.”
Ma, a former English teacher, did not lead Alibaba to success overnight.
He told Forbes that the company lost money through over-expansion in 2001 and made $1 in profit in 2002.
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