A man rides an escalator up under the skyscrapers of Pudong in Shanghai, China, on Monday, 29 July 2019. (QILAI SHEN / BLOOMBERG)

The pace of wealth creation in China just reached a whole new level.

Just ask Hu Kun, chairman of Contec Medical Systems Co. Shares of the instruments maker surged more than 10-fold in its market debut Monday and recorded a 986 percent jump through Thursday. That means the 49 percent stake Hu owns with his father took their combined fortune to US$3.1 billion practically overnight, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

At least 24 people joined the exclusive club in the first half of the year, including former teachers, accountants and software developers

Wang Guili, a Contec director who owns 15 percent of the company, is now worth US$947 million after briefly hitting billionaire status earlier in the week.

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Of the two dozen or so companies that debuted in China this week, at least three produced new billionaires.

That may become even more common as China seeks to liberalize its capital markets. Companies on Shenzhen’s ChiNext tech board no longer have trading limits during their first week, similar to the one-year-old Star board in Shanghai. The 18 firms that listed on ChiNext Monday gained an average 212 percent by the close.

Initial public offerings have been an important channel for wealth creation in China, and the coronavirus outbreak didn’t prevent the market from minting new billionaires. At least 24 people joined the exclusive club in the first half of the year, including former teachers, accountants and software developers.

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Contec sells products including oximeters, ultrasound equipment and medical monitors to more than 130 countries, including the US, India and Canada. Revenue climbed 6.8 percent last year to 387 million yuan (US$56 million), with 73 percent coming from abroad, according to the company’s prospectus.

Contec didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Monday’s IPO frenzy boosted other fortunes, including that of Steven Yang. The founder and chief executive officer of phone-charger maker Anker Innovations Technology Co was worth US$3.7 billion as of Thursday, mostly thanks to the initial pop in the shares. He’s an ex-Google employee who used his mother’s savings to found Anker in 2011.

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“We are very happy that people are sort of voting for us by buying our stock,” Yang said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday.

While the rest of the week was relatively quiet, Dai Lizhong, whose Sansure Biotech Inc debuted Friday, has also become a billionaire. His 37 percent stake in the firm is now worth US$2.8 billion, after shares surged 156 percent during the morning trading session.

And with about 25 companies in the IPO pipeline for Shanghai and Shenzhen in the next two weeks, more people might be popping Champagne corks soon.

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