The latest Hurun Rich List for 2017 has seen the ousting of the former top two position holders, as well as a decline in the share of wealthy from the real estate sector.
According to the list Xu Jiayin (许家印), the chairman of Evergrande Group, is currently China’s richest individual with personal wealth of 290 billion yuan, followed by Ma Huateng (Pony Ma), the chairman and CEO of Internet giant Tencent, who personal wealth is estimated at 250 billion yuan.
Flamboyant Alibaba founder Ma Yun (Jack Ma) an beleaguered head of founder of property conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group fell to 3rd and 5th place respectively, after dominating the top two spots for the past several years.
Rupert Hoogewerf pointed out to The Beijing Daily that the two richest individuals in China were still from the real estate and IT sectors, with Xu Jiayin replacing Wang Jianlin and Pony Ma replacing Jack Ma.
IT magnates are best represented amongst China’s top ten wealthiest individuals, occupying a total of four spots, while the number of real estate tycoons has fallen by one since last year to three in 2017.
The percentage of placeholders on Hurun’s Rich List hailing from the real estate sector has declined now for the second consecutive year, from 16.1% in 2015 to 15.4% in 2016, to 14.6% in the current year.
According to Hurun the Chinese government’s property control policies such as sales and purchase restrictions have served to dim the prospects of real estate tycoons.
Manufacturing tycoons saw their share of spots on the list increase even further, to 27.9% from 26.2% last year, while IT and financial services also saw their percentage of the list slightly increase, putting the sectors in third and fourth position respectively.
This year the list features a total of 2,130 entrepreneurs with the addition of 74 new individuals, for a doubling in number in the space of five years.
The average wealth of entrepreneurs featured the Hurun Rich List has increased 12.5% compared to 2016 to reach 8.1 billion yuan (USD$1.23 billion), while the threshold for joining the list is 2 billion yuan.
The province of Guangdong is currently host to the largest number of super-wealthy individuals featured on the rich list, with an increase of 52 from last year to 284 in total.
Zhejiang province is second, with an increase of 15 individuals to 263 in total, while Jiangsu province comes in third with a total of 133 placeholders.
