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Chinese ‘Lone Wolf’ topples Buffet as planet’s 6th-richest

Dubai - The low-profile chairman of Nongfu Spring Co is now the sixth-wealthiest person on the planet.

Within days after dethroning Reliance boss Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s richest man, Chinese bottled-water king Zhong Shanshan has now usurped Warren Buffet as his fortune soared $13.5 billion since the start of 2021 to $91.7 billion.

The low-profile chairman of Nongfu Spring Co., a bottled-water company that’s ubiquitous in China, is now the sixth-wealthiest person on the planet.

Nicknamed “Lone Wolf,” Zhong’s meteoric rise was driven by Nongfu shares that jumped 18 per cent in the first two trading days of 2021, taking the advance since their September listing to more than 200 per cent as the world’s 500 richest people added $1.8 trillion to their combined net worth this year and are now worth $7.6 trillion, according to according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhong’s dramatic elevation was also aided by a 2,800 per cent surge in the value of stocks of vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.

Berkshire Hathaway founder Buffett, an investment wizard and a celebrated philanthropist who has given away more than $37 billion of stock since 2006, is now worth $86.2 billion.

Another notable example of philanthropy is MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man. Scott redefined what a rich-person generosity can be, giving away almost $6 billion in a few months. However, even after donating money at an unprecedented pace, she ended 2020 significantly richer than at the start.

Zhong’s dramatic thrust into the rarefied limelight coincides strangely with the mysterious absence of erstwhile richest Asian and Jack Ma. He has not been seen in public since Chinese regulators torpedoed Ant Group Co.’s $35 billion initial public offering. His net worth has dropped about $10 billion since October and Ma has now been relegated to the world’s 25th-richest ranking.

Zhong, now 66, is the second Chinese national who has broken into the world’s Top 10 -- property tycoon Wang Jianlin hit No. 8 in 2015 -- and no one from the mainland has ever ranked this high on Bloomberg’s wealth index since it launched in 2012.

Zhong, who is close to entering the most exclusive club of individuals worth more than $100 billion, has also helped four relatives become billionaires. His younger sister, Zhong Xiaoxiao, and three of his wife’s siblings each hold a 1.4 per cent stake in Nongfu worth $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.

As Covid’s shockwaves upended industries, fortunes of the world’s 500 richest people recorded a 31 per cent jump, the biggest annual gain in the eight-year history of the index and a $3 trillion jump from the market’s nadir in March.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, riding a wave of online retail boom, remains the world’s richest person while Elon Musk leapt to the second spot after Tesla Inc. skyrocketed in value.

Combined the two gained about $217 billion in 12 months, enough to send $2,000 cheques to more than 100 million people.

Ambani, who had ventured to transform his conglomerate into an e-commerce and tech colossus in 2020, saw his wealth sliding to $76.5 billion from $90 billion earlier last year, relegating him to the world’s 11th richest rank from fourth in Bloomberg index. — issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com