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E-commerce tycoon Ma and his family slipped to
No. 3 in China, and No. 34 globally, on the Hurun Global Rich
List, with a personal wealth of $24.5 billion. He was pipped by
Li with a net worth of $26 billion. The No. 2 spot was held by
Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd's Wang Jianlin and his
family.
Li's Hanergy Group has been the subject of analyst concern over
what the Financial Times last week called "unconventional
practices" between the firm and its $19.7 billion Hong
Kong-listed subsidiary Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd.
Most of the subsidiary's reported revenue since 2010 came from
equipment sales to its parent and a large chunk of contracts
were unpaid as of 2013, the FT reported. (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6c74497e-a62a-11e4-abe9-00144feab7de.html#axzz3QeHf2tJr)
Hanergy Thin Film Power Group will "expand our customer base and
diversify our source of revenue" and the majority of contracts
owed had been repaid, the company said in a filing to the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange last week addressing the FT report.
Just one of the world's top 20 wealthiest people came from
Greater China though it minted more billionaires than anywhere
else in the past year. Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing was at No.
16 with a net worth of $32 billion, while the rest were mainly
from the United States. Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates topped
the list with $85 billion, beating Mexico telecoms tycoon Carlos
Slim.
Still, Greater China, with 430 billionaires, accounted for more
than anywhere except the U.S., which had 537. The next closest
was India with a distant 97.
Alibaba's Ma partly dropped on the list after his company's
stock price fell more than 13 percent in the past week, sending
shares to a three-month low, in the wake of disappointing
quarterly results on Thursday and an unusually public spat with
a Chinese regulator.
China's real estate, manufacturing and technology industries
were the chief creators of wealth, the Hurun report showed.
Richard Liu, chief executive of JD.com Inc, Alibaba's biggest
rival in e-commerce, saw his wealth quadrupled to $6.7 billion
after leading his firm to a New York listing in 2014, becoming
the biggest gainer of the year.
China's domestic stock market rally also accounted for some of
the new billionaires in China, Hurun said.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Paul Carsten; Editing by
Christopher Cushing)
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