Beijing: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd`s Jack Ma is no longer China`s richest man, according to a report on Tuesday, with the top spot snatched by Li Hejun, a solar energy entrepreneur whose Hanergy Holding Group Ltd has come under fire for its intragroup dealings.
E-commerce tycoon Ma and his family slipped to No. 3 in China, and No. 34 globally, on the Hurun Global Rich List, with a personal wealth of $24.5 billion. He was pipped by Li with a net worth of $26 billion. The No. 2 spot was held by Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd`s Wang Jianlin and his family.
Li`s Hanergy Group has been the subject of analyst concern over what the Financial Times last week called "unconventional practices" between the firm and its $19.7 billion Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd.
Most of the subsidiary`s reported revenue since 2010 came from equipment sales to its parent and a large chunk of contracts were unpaid as of 2013, the FT reported. (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6c74497e-a62a-11e4-abe9-00144feab7de.html...)
Hanergy Thin Film Power Group will "expand our customer base and diversify our source of revenue" and the majority of contracts owed had been repaid, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last week addressing the FT report.
Just one of the world`s top 20 wealthiest people came from Greater China though it minted more billionaires than anywhere else in the past year. Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing was at No. 16 with a net worth of $32 billion, while the rest were mainly from the United States. Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates topped the list with $85 billion, beating Mexico telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim.
Still, Greater China, with 430 billionaires, accounted for more than anywhere except the U.S., which had 537. The next closest was India with a distant 97.
Alibaba`s Ma partly dropped on the list after his company`s stock price fell more than 13 percent in the past week, sending shares to a three-month low, in the wake of disappointing quarterly results on Thursday and an unusually public spat with a Chinese regulator.
China`s real estate, manufacturing and technology industries were the chief creators of wealth, the Hurun report showed. Richard Liu, chief executive of JD.com Inc, Alibaba`s biggest rival in e-commerce, saw his wealth quadrupled to $6.7 billion after leading his firm to a New York listing in 2014, becoming the biggest gainer of the year.
China`s domestic stock market rally also accounted for some of the new billionaires in China, Hurun said.