Forbes rich list: Financial turmoil hits China's super-wealthy

SHANGHAI: The credit crunch and financial crisis have more than halved the combined wealth of China's richest people, Forbes magazine said Thursday as it released its annual Chinese billionaires list.

The ranking illustrates how fortunes have risen and fallen over the past tumultuous year as the net worth of China's 40 richest people fell 57 percent to 52 billion dollars from 120 billion dollars last year, Forbes Asia said.

Coming out on top was Shanghai-based agricultural feed tycoon Liu Yongxin with a net worth of three billion dollars while 20 billionaires including paper recycling queen Yan Cheung, who was once ranked as China's richest person, have dropped off the list entirely.

Last year's number one, property heiress Yang Huiyan, saw 14 billion dollars wiped off of her fortune in part due to ill-timed acquisitions, Forbes said. She fell to number three on this year's list with 2.22 billion dollars.

Number two on the list, with 2.7 billion dollars, is Huang Guangyu, founder of Gome, China's largest chain of consumer electronics stores. Huang, a native of south China's Guangdong province who also goes by the Cantonese name Wong Kwong Yu, moved up eight spots from last year.



Liu, this year's number one, started building his fortune in 1982 when he and his three brothers used 120 dollars in savings to start raising quails and chickens, the magazine said.

They split up the business in 1995 and are now China's only family of billionaires.

Liu moved to Shanghai, where his East Hope Group is one of China's biggest feed companies, the magazine said. He also owns aluminium smelters.

Among those who from last year's list who failed to return was Larry Yung, whose Citic Pacific lost up to 2 billion dollars due to unauthorised currency bets.