Chinese billionaire Zhong Shanshan has become Asia’s richest man following the stock listings last year of his Nongfu Spring mineral water and separate pharma company Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which has tapped into massive demand for Covid-19 test kits.
Zhong’s net worth has surged to $85 billion and made him the seventh-richest person on the planet, Hurun Report, a China-based compiler of ‘rich lists‘, said last week.
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Often called a ‘lone wolf‘ by Chinese media for his rare public appearances and aversion to interviews, Zhong has achieved one of the fastest accumulations of wealth in history, according to Bloomberg.
He became the first Chinese entrepreneur to enter Hurun’s top-ten global rich list this year, leaping out of nowhere to put him hot on the heels of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and American investor Warren Buffett.
Zhong founded Nongfu Spring in 1996 and still owns an 84 percent stake in the company which, according to market research firm Mintel, holds more than a quarter of the bottled water market in China, where many people avoid tap water over health concerns.
In contrast to charismatic Alibaba founder Jack Ma — who Zhong dethroned as China’s richest man — little is known about Nongfu’s billionaire boss aside from his gruff image.
His fortunes have risen just as those of Chinese tech companies have slid.
Ma is now worth a comparatively paltry $55 billion, according to Hurun, after government regulators launched an anti-monopoly investigation into his tech empire, which has pummelled Alibaba’s share price and left a massive IPO by financial arm Ant Group in limbo.
Although Alibaba and Nongfu are headquartered in the humming eastern tech hub of Hangzhou, Zhong is not a regular attendee at the city’s business events, one local entrepreneur told China Economic Weekly.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK