This undated photo shows Zhong Shanshan, founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring Co Ltd. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Zhong Shanshan is setting new wealth records.
The chairman of Nongfu Spring Co, a bottled-water company that’s ubiquitous in China, is now richer than Warren Buffett as his fortune surged US$13.5 billion since the start of the year to US$91.7 billion on Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring Co, is now the world's sixth-richest person with an US$91.7 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It’s only the second time a Chinese national has broken into the world’s Top 10
Zhong, 66, is now the sixth-wealthiest person on the planet. Nongfu shares jumped 18 percent in the first two trading days of 2021, taking the advance since their September listing to more than 200 percent. They gained 0.7 percent on Wednesday.
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Nicknamed locally as the “Lone Wolf” for avoiding involvement in clubby business groups or politics, Zhong also took vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co public in April. The stock has soared more than 2,800 percent.
Zhong dethroned India’s Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s wealthiest person last week and is close to entering the rarefied realm of individuals worth more than US$100 billion. Buffett is outside that group with an US$86.2 billion fortune, but the Berkshire Hathaway Inc founder has given away more than US$37 billion of stock since 2006.
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Investors are snapping up Chinese consumer shares as the country demonstrates it’s recovering from COVID-19, while analysts have grown increasingly bullish on Nongfu.
Zhong has also helped four relatives become billionaires. His younger sister, Zhong Xiaoxiao, and three of his wife’s siblings each hold a 1.4 percent stake in Nongfu worth US$1.3 billion, based on the ownership listed in the company’s prospectus from last year. The firm has produced dozens of millionaires, including more of Zhong’s relatives and employees.
While COVID-19 upended much of the global economy in 2020, it was a good year for the world’s ultra-rich. The 500 wealthiest people added US$1.8 trillion to their fortunes and were worth a combined US$7.6 trillion by year-end. Zhong, the biggest winner from Asia, amassed more than US$71 billion, the most after Tesla Inc’s Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc’s Jeff Bezos.
