China’s Super Rich Lose $52 Billion After Stocks Crash

The plunge in Chinese stocks on Monday cost the country’s richest tycoons more than $52 billion.

Zhong Shanshan, known as the bottled water king of Chinaled the decline when his fortune fell by $5 billion, while Pony Ma’s Tencent Holding Ltd. it lost $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The actions of Nongfu Spring Co. Zhong fell 10% in Hong Kong trading, the biggest drop in 18 months, though he remains China’s richest person with a fortune of $60.3 billion. Tencent has regressed the most since 2011 after a report that it faces a record fine for violating anti-money laundering rules.

Pony Maonce the richest person in the country, now ranks third with a net worth of $35.2 billion.

The drop followed reports that Russia had asked China for military assistance for its war in Ukraine. Despite China denying the information, traders were concerned that Beijing’s possible opening to Vladimir Putin could provoke a global backlash against Chinese companies, including sanctions. The United States and China will hold their first high-level face-to-face talks since the invasion on Tuesday.

The crash cost the 78 Chinese billionaires who are among the 500 richest people in the world a total of $52.1 billion.

Tencent it fell 9.8% to its lowest price since March 2020. The Wall Street Journal reported that the People’s Bank of China found that its WeChat Pay had enabled the transfer of funds for illicit purposes, among other problems. While China’s industry crackdown has already wiped billions off the value of the nation’s tech giants, Tencent had so far managed to avoid regulatory action.

Zhang Yiming ByteDance Ltd., which is privately held and therefore more insulated from recent market volatility, is the second-richest person in the country, with a fortune of $44.5 billion.

Jack Ma, who was China’s richest before Pony Ma overtook him, now ranks fourth with a net worth of $34.3 billion. His fortune exceeded US $ 60,000 million at the end of 2020, before the Government began its antitrust campaign, stopping the listing of his payment company Ant Group Co. just two days before it was scheduled to go public.

On Friday, shares of Didi Global Inc. fell a record 44% as the ride-sharing giant suspended preparations to list in Hong Kong. Its founder, Cheng Wei, lost her status as a billionaire.