Forbes released its Chinese rich list 2005 in
Beijing on which Larry Rong Zhijian and his family has secured their leading position, with 13.3 billion yuan, and is followed by Zhu Mengyi (Hopson), with 11.6 billion yuan, and William Ding Lei (Netease) with 10.3 billion yuan.
The list was issued 20 days after Rupert Hoogewerf, who had worked for Forbes, issued his version of list of 100 richest Chinese. It is the eighth Forbes made China rich list since 1995. It has doubled the number of people on the list to 400 from 200 this year.
Fan Luxian, Chief Representative of Forbes
Shanghai Office, commented that this was the first time that the list had been enlarged to 400 wealthiest Chinese, the same number as the Fobes American rich list. The 400 Chinese richest possess 1.48 billion yuan per capita on average and the threshold is 500 million yuan.
Fan told the
Beijing Times that the total private assets of the 400 Chinese wealthiest reached 591.5 billion yuan. The top 100 and 200 hold 3.32 billion yuan an 2.28 billion yuan per capita, soaring 38 percent and 26 percent over last year respectively. Fan added that a position on this year's list was more expensive than last year. The one at the end of the 200 China rich list last year had 650 million yuan while the one this year has 1 billion yuan.
Half of the positions this year are taken by young tycoons below 45 years old. Fan said they were princelings who inherited wealth from their father and leaders in emerging industries.
Among them there are 7 in media and entertainment industries whose average age is 41.3 and 30 are in IT industry which is preserves for young professionals. Li Zhaohui is a typical example of successful princelings. Son of Li Haicang, founder of Shanxi-based steel giant Haixin, Li Zhaohui came to throne of his father's business in haste following his father's death, restored Haixin to the normal operation, and led the business into the capital market where his father had never tried.
Qiao Qiusheng began to be at wheel of Henan Huanghe Enterprises, a diamond producer, in a similar situation as Li. He ranks the 187th on the list. And Ms. Zheng Laili is vice president of her father's Kangnai Group.
Fan added that many hopefuls were standing under the shadow of their father generation but had begun to increasingly influence the future of their businesses. The rich in the younger generation hold high diplomas and have a better idea about how to take the advantage of international partners and financial tools on mature markets.
Fan still remembered that 20 tycoons worth 100 million yuan to 1 billion yuan were on Forbes' first China list. 7 of them are still on the list after 10 years. They are Liu Yonghao (New Hope Group), Liu Yongxing (East Hope Group), Cai Tianzhen (Titan Oil), Zhang Guoxi (Guoxi Group), Zhang Hongwei (China Orient Group), Shi Yuzhu(Giant Investments) and Han Wei and his wife (Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group).
In addition, Zhejiang province is home to most rich people on the list. 60 of them have made Zhejiang their headquarters. 55 magnets on the list have set up their head office in Guangdong, 50 in
Shanghai and 47 in Beijing.
It is noteworthy that 4 big shots have built their headquarters in the US, two in Singapore and 25 in Hong Kong.
25 of the 400 on the list are women.
The top 10 on Forbes China rich list: Larry Rong Zhijian, Zhu Mengyi, William Ding Lei, Wong Kwong Yu, Liu Yongxing, Liu Yonghao, Guo Guangchang, Xu Ming, Xu Rongmao, Tianqiao Chen.
