Li Hejun, China’s richest man, lost $15 billion in one hour on Wednesday after shares of his company Hanergy fell 47 percent in Hong Kong.
Li is chairman of the solar panel firm and owns more than
80 percent of the company, according to CNN Money. All told this week, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group suffered an $18.6 billion market value loss.
The company requested that trading be
suspended Wednesday, Reuters reported.
A company representative told the press that Li missed Wednesday's annual shareholder meeting because he was attending the opening of Hanergy’s clean energy exhibition in Beijing.
Many had been skeptical of Hanergy's meteoric rise over the past year. At one point, CNN Money noted, the company was worth more than $45 billion, catapulting Li past Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma as the richest man in China. Over the past year, shares had risen an astounding 625 percent.
There were even whispers of market manipulation when Hanergy claimed earlier this year that 60 percent of its sales came from its parent company, Hanergy Holding Group, according to CNN Money.
Hanergy wasn't the only company whose shares took a nosedive this week.
According to NBC News, Goldin Financial and Goldin Property fell more than 40 percent, meaning that billionaire owner Pan Sutong lost an estimated $11 billion between the two.
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