BEIJING (Reuters) – Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, has lost the title of China’s richest man, a list published Tuesday found as his peers thrived while his empire was heavily scrutinized by Chinese regulators.
Ma and his family had ranked first for China’s richest in the Hurun Global Rich List in 2020 and 2019, but are now fourth behind Zhong Shanshan, bottled water manufacturer Nongfu Spring, Pony Ma of Tencent Holding and Collin Huang of e-commerce, Pinduoduo. the last list was displayed.
His drop from the top three comes “after Chinese regulators curbed Ant Group and Alibaba over antitrust issues,” the Hurun report said.
Ma’s recent woes were triggered by an Oct. 24 speech in which he destroyed China’s regulatory system, which led to the suspension of his $ 37 billion Ant Group IPO just days before the fintech giant’s IPO.
Regulators have since tightened antitrust controls over the country’s tech sector, with Alibaba taking on much of the heat; the market regulator launched an official antitrust investigation into Alibaba in December.
Chinese regulators have also begun to tighten their grip on the fintech sector and have asked Ant to merge some of its businesses into a financial holding company to be regulated like traditional financial firms.
Ma, who is not known for staying out of the spotlight, then disappeared from the public eye for about three months, sparking frenzied speculation about his whereabouts. He appeared again in January with a 50 second video appearance.
China’s current richest man, Zhong, first came out on top, thanks in large part to the price performance of Nongfu Spring and vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, which he also controls.
Tencent’s Ma saw his wealth increase 70% over the year to 480 billion yuan ($ 74.16 billion), while Pinduoduo Huang’s fortune grew 283% to 450 billion yuan, the list said. In comparison, Ma and his family’s wealth grew 22% to 360 billion yuan.
Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, broke into the top five Chinese billionaires in Hurun’s Global Rich List for the first time, with an estimated personal wealth of $ 54 billion.
(This story refers to the correct date of Jack Ma’s regulatory speech on October 24, not October 23 in par 4)
Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Gerry Doyle