Beijing, China:
Until not too long ago, couple of persons had even heard of the Chinese billionaire with a gruff reputation who constructed a fortune on China’s seemingly unquenchable demand for his ubiquitous red-capped bottled water.
But reclusive Zhong Shanshan has turn out to be Asia’s richest man following the stock listings final year of his Nongfu Spring mineral water and separate pharma firm Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which has tapped into enormous demand for Covid-19 test kits.
Zhong’s net worth has surged to $85 billion and created him the seventh-richest individual on the planet, Hurun Report, a China-based compiler of “rich lists”, stated final week.
Called a “lone wolf” by Chinese media for his uncommon public appearances and aversion to interviews, Zhong has accomplished one of the quickest accumulations of wealth in history, according to Bloomberg.
He became the very first Chinese entrepreneur to enter Hurun’s leading-ten worldwide wealthy list this year, leaping out of nowhere to place him hot on the heels of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and American investor Warren Buffett.
Not undesirable for a person who dropped out of college at the age of 12 in the course of the political upheaval of China’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, and whose later jobs integrated bricklayer, carpenter and news reporter, according to Chinese media.
Zhong founded Nongfu Spring in 1996 and nevertheless owns an 84 % stake in the firm which, according to industry investigation firm Mintel, holds more than a quarter of the bottled water industry in China, exactly where lots of persons stay clear of tap water more than wellness issues.
In contrast to charismatic Alibaba founder Jack Ma — who Zhong dethroned as China’s richest man — small is recognized about Nongfu’s billionaire boss aside from his gruff image.
“I don’t have the habit of flattery in my personality,” he when told Chinese media in a uncommon interview.
“I don’t like to deal with people and have to drink,” he added, referring to a Chinese business enterprise culture that encourages excessive wining and dining to cement bargains.
His fortunes have risen just as these of Chinese tech corporations have slid.
Political scrutiny
Ma is now worth a comparatively paltry $55 billion, according to Hurun, following government regulators launched an anti-monopoly investigation into his tech empire, which has pummelled Alibaba’s share cost and left a enormous IPO by monetary arm Ant Group in limbo.
Although Alibaba and Nongfu are headquartered in the humming eastern tech hub of Hangzhou, Zhong is not a frequent attendee at the city’s business enterprise events, one neighborhood entrepreneur told China Economic Weekly.
A former business enterprise companion told state media he when attended an business conference with Zhong, who “went to the stage to give a speech, and offended everyone as soon as he opened his mouth”, devoid of offering particulars of the offending words.
Alongside Nongfu, which listed final year in Hong Kong, Zhong is also the most significant shareholder in Wantai, which went public in Shanghai.
The group’s speedy Covid-19 test offers final results in 75 minutes and, according to its site, has shipped more than 10 million kits.
Wantai is also establishing a Covid-19 vaccine nasal spray in conjunction with a prominent university.
Wantai is the biopharma arm of Yangshengtang Group, a health-related firm Zhong founded 3 years ahead of Nongfu, which specialises in infectious ailments and says it is the biggest production base in Asia for HIV diagnostic reagent.
Hurun says the share listings make Zhong one of only a handful of entrepreneurs in the globe today to have founded more than one $10 billion business enterprise.
Zhong has a stake, investment or board part in more than one hundred corporations, according to Chinese business enterprise information.
But like other higher-profile Chinese industrialists, he has to tread a line involving industrial results and official scrutiny.
“The Chinese Communist Party wants Chinese businesses to become big and become international, but it also wants to retain some degree of control over them,” stated Yun Jiang, director of China Policy Centre in Canberra.
She says no higher-profile business enterprise persons can completely hope to “escape political scrutiny” — especially when they seem on wealthy list rankings.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)