China's richest tech titans have seen $87 billion of personal wealth wiped out since the start of July amid government crackdown
- Some of China's richest industrialists have watched as $87 billion of their personal wealth has evaporated amid Beijing's regulatory crackdown, according to calculations by the Financial Times.
- Among the hardest hit has been Colin Huang, founder of the e-commerce site Pinduoduo, who has lost a third of his wealth - worth $15.6 billion.
- Since the beginning of July, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has lost $2.6 billion, but the losses total $13 billion since November, when an earlier crackdown on Alibaba's Ant Group began.
Some of China's richest industrialists have watched as $87 billion of their personal wealth has evaporated amid Beijing's regulatory crackdown, according to calculations by the Financial Times.
The FT looked at the two dozen Chinese billionaires tracked by Bloomberg, finding that their combined net worth has fallen 16% since the Chinese government began its campaign against Didi Chuxing at the end of June.
Among the hardest hit has been Colin Huang, founder of the e-commerce site Pinduoduo, who has lost a third of his wealth - worth $15.6 billion. Pinduoduo's stock has lost some 27% of its value since the beginning of July.
"We've seen a realignment of wealth creation," Rupert Hoogewerf, chief researcher at the China-focused outfit Hurun Report, told the FT.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been spared some of the worst losses recently, but that is in part because his fortune was crimped by an earlier crackdown on Ant Group, Alibaba's financial arm, last November. Since the beginning of July, Ma has lost $2.6 billion, but the losses total $13 billion since November.
Still, some Chinese tycoons have benefited from the regulatory assault. Zhong Shanshan of water bottler Nongfu Spring has become China's richest man at $72 billion in net worth, up $5 billion since the end of June. Likewise, China's leading industrialists in the auto and renewables sectors have seen their wealth multiply in the last couple of months.
The biggest losses have come from Chinese billionaires in the tech industry. However, some billionaires in other sectors, such as real estate and healthcare, have also been hit.