Jack Ma loses title as China’s richest man after coming below Beijing’s scrutiny By Reuters

By Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh

BEIJING (Reuters) – Alibaba (NYSE:) and Ant Group founder Jack Ma has misplaced the title of China’s richest man, a listing printed on Tuesday confirmed, as his friends prospered whereas his empire was put below heavy scrutiny by Chinese language regulators.

Ma and his household had held the highest spot for China’s richest within the Hurun World Wealthy Record in 2020 and 2019 however now path in fourth place behind bottled water maker Nongfu Spring’s Zhong Shanshan, Tencent Holding’s Pony Ma and e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:)’s Collin Huang, the most recent record confirmed.

His fall out of the highest three comes “after China’s regulators reined in Ant Group and Alibaba on anti-trust points,” the Hurun report mentioned.

Ma’s latest woes have been triggered by an Oct. 24 speech during which he blasted China’s regulatory system, resulting in the suspension of his Ant Group’s $37 billion IPO simply days earlier than the fintech large’s public itemizing.

Regulators have since tightened anti-trust scrutiny on the nation’s tech sector, with Alibaba taking a lot of the warmth; the market regulator launched an official anti-trust probe into Alibaba in December.

Chinese language regulators additionally started to tighten their grip on the fintech sector and have requested Ant to fold a few of its companies right into a monetary holding firm to be regulated like conventional monetary companies.

Ma, who just isn’t identified for shying away from the limelight, then disappeared from the general public eye for about three months, triggering frenzied hypothesis about his whereabouts. He re-emerged in January with a 50-second video look.

China’s present richest man, Zhong, made his first look on the prime spot largely due to the share worth performances of Nongfu Spring and vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Organic Pharmacy Enterprise, which he additionally controls.

Tencent’s Ma noticed his wealth swell 70% over the 12 months to 480 billion yuan ($74.16 billion) whereas Pinduoduo’s Huang’s fortune grew 283% to 450 billion yuan, the record mentioned. As compared, the wealth of Ma and his household grew 22%, to 360 billion yuan.

Zhang Yiming, founding father of TikTok proprietor ByteDance, broke into the highest 5 rankings amongst Chinese language billionaires in Hurun’s World Wealthy Record for the primary time, with an estimated private wealth of $54 billion.

(This story refiles to right date of Jack Ma’s regulatory speech to Oct. 24, not Oct. 23 in par 4)