Richest Women In The World, Half Of Them From China

Hurun Research Institute came out with its latest rich list report. Whats amazing is not the overall China rich but the standing of Chinese women in wealth accumulation. I can safely say that the bulk of rich ladies, mostly inherited their wealth from their families or got the wealth following the death of their husband. The capitalistic China is still young, hence not much wealth is passed down as there is not much wealth to pass in the first place.

This also points to the fact that there is probably "more equality" for women in the business or corporate world in China, and that should be studied more closely by these so called "gender equality champions" of the world like the US and Europe. Its not enough to just have laws that promote equality and discourages gender bias, there are still invisible glass ceilings and plenty more "attitudes and structural discrimination" in these so called developed nations.

Even so, gender bias is still a long way from being totally equal, even in China where they have half of the world's richest women billionaires.

Interesting Facts From The China Rich List:

• AVERAGE WEALTH GREW 64% OVER PAST TWO YEARS; PROPERTY SECTOR WAS THE BIGGEST CREATOR OF WEALTH. FASTEST GROWING ARE HEALTHCARE, I.T., RETAIL AND APPAREL SECTORS.
  
• 1363 INDIVIDUALS WITH BILLION CHINESE YUAN (US$150 MILLION), UP FROM 1000 LAST YEAR AND ONLY 24 TEN YEARS AGO.
• 189 US DOLLAR BILLIONAIRES THAT WE KNOW OF, SUGGESTING THAT THE ACTUAL TOTAL COULD BE 400 TO 500 BILLIONAIRES IN CHINA, LARGEST NUMBER IN THE WORLD.
• 95% GENERATED WEALTH FROM GROWING DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION; LESS THAN 5% CAME FROM EXPORTS.
• 11 CHINESE WOMEN MAKE UP THE 20 RICHEST SELF-MADE WOMEN IN THE WORLD.
• LAST YEAR’S NUMBER ONE, WANG CHUANFU, DROPS TO TWELFTH PLACE. FORMER NUMBER ONE, JAILED RETAIL TYCOON HUANG GUANGYU AT TWENTY FIRST PLACE.
• 30YR BASKETBALL PLAYER YAO MING YOUNGEST SELF-MADE INDIVIDUAL.
• AND AMUSINGLY… RABBITS WERE MOST POPULAR STAR SIGN AMONG THE RICH LIST, WANG THE MOST POPULAR FAMILY NAME.

(12 October 2010,Beijing) Hurun Research Institute today releases the Hurun Rich List 2010, the twelfth annual ranking of the richest individuals in China. The Hurun Rich List 2010 ranks 1363 individuals with personal wealth of one billion Chinese yuan (US$150 million) and follows on from the earlier release on 29 September of the Hurun Top Five.

Despite the domestic stock markets down 10% over the past year, the richest Chinese have seen their fortunes continue to grow fast: the average wealth of the Hurun 1000 grew 64% over the past two years and 26% in the past year.

Today there are 1363 individuals with billion Chinese yuan (US$150 million), up from 1000 last year and only 24 ten years ago. There are 189 US Dollar billionaires that we know of, suggesting that China today has more billionaires than anywhere else in the world, 400 to 500 billionaires, surpassing even the US.

65-year old Zong Qinghou of Wahaha is the richest man in China with a personal fortune of US$12 billion. ‘Drinks King’ Zong has grown Wahaha into China’s dominant drinks business with expected profits this year of US$1.5 billion and 30,000 employees. This year, Wahaha finally settled its protracted dispute with France-based Danone. Zong, who, together with his wife and daughter owns 60% of Wahaha, has jumped up from twelfth place in last year’s list.

Li Li & family caused a sensation when Hepalink went public in May, catapulting him straight into second place on the list with a personal fortune of US$6 billion. Li Li, 46 years, his wife Li Tan and her cousin Shan Yu founded the business in 1998 and together own a 75.6% stake. Hepalink makes heparin,a blood thinner purified from pig intestines, used to prevent blood clots. This is the first time a pharmaceutical tycoon has made it into the Top Five of the Hurun Rich List.

Top Ten of Hurun Rich List 2010

2010 Rank	Wealth US$ billion	Name	Age	Company	Industry
1 *	12	Zong Qinghou & family	65	Wahaha	Drinks
2 *	6.0	Li Li & family	46	Hepalink	Pharmaceutical
3	5.6	Zhang Yin & family	53	Nine Dragons Paper	Recycled paper
4 *	5.4	Liang Wen’gen	54	Sany	Heavy machinery
5= *	5.3	Robin Li Yanhong	42	Baidu	Search engine
5=	5.3	Yan Bin	56	Ruoy Chai	Drinks,Property,Investments
7=	5.0	Liu Yongxing & family	62	East Hope	Aluminium,Feed
7=	5.0	Wang Jianlin	56	Wanda	Property
7=	5.0	Zhang Jindong	48	Suning	Retail,Property
10	4.9	Xu Rongmao & family	60	Shimao	Property

* New to Top Ten

Liang Wen’gen is proof of the adage that if you want to make money in a gold rush, sell shovels to gold miners. 54 year old Liang jumped 16 places to fourth with a personal fortune of US$5.4 billion. Liang sells construction equipment to businesses feeding off the great Chinese urbanisation boom and has, in the process, made himself richer than any property developer.

Liang’s wealth rose sharply largely after listing a second subsidiary, this time in Hong Kong. The only company from the Hurun Top Five headquartered in China’s poorer Western regions, Liang has overseen Sany’s growth into one of the world’s biggest makers of construction equipment, with sales last year of US$4.5 billion and 46,000 employees. Liang has 58.2% of the group.

Robin Li Yanhong saw his wealth double year on year, placing him fifth on the list with US$5.3 billion. 42-year-old Li has Google’s departure from China to thank for Baidu’s sharp share increase, and is this year lining up Baidu to take on Taobao in the online shopping market.

Yan Bin has grown his fortune on the back of a strong performance in sales of Red Bull energy drinks in China, which are expected to hit US$800 million this year. Fifty-six year old Yan started his business in Thailand and is also known by his Thai name of Chanchai Ruayrungruang. Apart from Red Bull, Yan owns the luxury Reignwood Group, which includes the best-known golf club in Beijing.

‘Paper Queen’ Zhang Yin, 53 years, sees her wealth grow by almost a billion US dollars to US$5.6 billion on the back of growth in the domestic retail market. Li Li’s rise, however, drops Zhang down one place to third. Notwithstanding this, Zhang remains the richest woman in China, and the richest self-made woman in the world.

Property King Wang Jianlin of Wanda is one of only three people from last year’s Top Ten to increase their rankings, up three places to seventh with a personal fortune of US$5 billion. Wanda has announced that by the end of this year, it expects to have 42 completed Wanda Plazas and 18 five-star hotels around the country, and owns the country’s largest cinema chain. Wanda is one of four companies in the Top Ten, including Wahaha,East Hope and Ruoy Chai not yet to have gone public. Wang is a big collector of art.

60-year-old property tycoon Xu Rongmao is the most consistent performer of the Hurun Rich List, having been in the Top Ten now for ten years.

Liu Yongxing, the winner of the Hurun Most Respected Entrepreneur of the Decade in 2008, drops down two places to seventh with US$5 billion. Starting out with pig feed, Liu’s most valuable business today is industrial manufacturing of alumina.

Zhang Jindong of Suning has risen to seventh place with a personal fortune of US$5 billion. Suning has eight individuals on the Hurun Rich List. With 1100 stores, Suning has seen its market value pull away from its rival Gome, owned by 41-year old Huang Guangyu, who continues to make the headlines, despite being in jail. Huang, ranked 21 with US$3.5 billion, is locked in a battle with the current chief executive of Gome. Gome also has 1100 stores under its brand, 740 of which are held by the listed company that is a third owned by Huang. Huang used to be the richest man in China in 2008,but was sentenced to fourteen years in jail for graft and embezzlement. Zhang owns 31.7% of Suning.

Astonishingly, Chinese women now make up eleven of the twenty richest self-made women in the world. Of the nine non-Chinese, three made their fortunes in the fashion sector (Zara, Benetton and Gap) and three are from the UK.

Hurun Self-Made Women Billionaires 2010

Rank	Country	Wealth US$m	Name	Age	Industry / Company
1	China	5,600	Zhang Yin	53	Nine Dragons Paper
2	China	4,100	Wu Yajun	46	Longfor Property
3	China	4,000	Chen Lihua	69	Fuhua International
4	Spain	3,500	Rosalia Mera *	66	Zara
5	China	3,200	Xiuli Hawken	47	Renhe Group
6	Russia	3,000	Elena Baturina *	47	Construction,Private equity
7	China	2,600	Zhu Linyao	40	Huabao International
8	US	2,500	Doris Fisher *	78	GAP
9	US	2,300	Oprah Winfrey *	56	US television hostess
10	China	2,200	Zhang Xin	45	SOHO China
11	Italy	2,000	Guiliana Benetton *	72	Benetton
12	China	1,700	Chen Ningning	38	Pioneer Metals Holdings
13	China	1,500	He Qiaonu	44	Orient Landscape
14	China	1,400	Huang Xi	\	Zhongsheng Group
15	UK	1,320	Ruth Parasol #	43	Internet gambling
16	US	1,300	Meg Whitman *	54	eBay former CEO
17	UK	1,290	Mary Perkins #	66	Specsavers
18	China	1,200	Dai Weili	48	Marvell
19	China	1,100	Zhou Yaxian	50	Shenguan Holdings
20	UK	1,000	JK Rowling *	44	Harry Potter writer

Source: All wealth calculations from Hurun Rich List 2010 except for * World's Billionaires Forbes 2010 and # Sunday Times Rich List 2010

In the battle of the sexes, businesswomen in China are growing at the same speed as that of the men. The key difference is that the average wealth of the Top Fifty Richest Women is still only a third that of the Top Fifty Richest Men.