Digital Desk: As China's real estate crisis
hits the country's developers, including her Country Garden Holdings Co., Yang
Huiyan is no longer the wealthiest lady in Asia.
Savitri Jindal of India, who has a wealth of $11.3 billion
thanks to her conglomerate Jindal Group, which operates in a variety of sectors
including metals and power generation, surpassed Yang on Friday in the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index. She lost ground to fellow Chinese mogul Fan
Hongwei as well, who gets his income from the chemical-fiber manufacturer
Hengli Petrochemical Co.
Yang, who became one of the youngest millionaires on the earth
in 2005 after inheriting her father's interest in the real estate firm, has
experienced a spectacular collapse. She has held the title of richest woman in
Asia for the last five years, which reflects the quick expansion of China's
real estate market.
Her fortune has decreased by more than half this year to $11
billion, and last week, when her Country Garden, China's largest property
developer, announced that it needed to seek equity at a discount, the stock
fell to its lowest level since 2016, the drop accelerated. About 60 percent of
Country Garden and a 43 percent share in its management-services division are
owned by Yang, who is now in her early forties.
Jindal, 72, is the 10th richest individual in India's population
of 1.4 billion and the richest lady in the country. Shortly after her husband,
the company's founder OP Jindal, died in a helicopter accident in 2005, she was
appointed chairwoman of the Jindal Group. The corporation also works in cement,
energy, and infrastructure. It is India's third-largest steel producer.
In recent years, Jindal's net worth has fluctuated
significantly. After the Covid-19 pandemic caused a drop in value to $3.2
billion in April 2020, it rose to $15.6 billion in April 2022 as a result of
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Fan, 55, has also suffered a decline in her wealth this year, but she has fared better than some other Chinese billionaires. It exemplifies the breadth of her corporate empire, which began as a state-owned textile plant in Wujiang, in the eastern Jiangsu province, that went bankrupt.
Fan, an accountant by trade, and her husband Chen Jianhua founded Hengli Group in 1994. The company then expanded into polyester, petrochemicals, oil refining, and tourism. Last year, the company generated revenue of 732.3 billion yuan ($109 billion). The Bloomberg wealth index pegs Chen's net worth at $6.4 billion.
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