China’s Rich List – fallen favourites
#37 Rong Zhijian – Once he was chairman of CITIC Pacific. Then he made a bad currency bet that left CITIC having to shore up CITIC Pacific with capital of USD 1.5 billion. Fast forward to April and Rong found himself resigning as chairman of CITIC Pacific. Fast forward again and now he’s down USD 1.3 billion from 2008 to USD 2.4 billion, lowering him to 37th place.
#41 Du Shanghua/Rizhao Steel – While fate has ben kind to NPC member Shen Wenrong of Sha Steel, things haven’t been quite so great for another steel man, Du Shuanghua. Du, 44, lost USD 2.8 billion in 2009, which sent him careering from 2008’s second place to 2009’s 41st. This is down to his bitter and losing battle with Shandong Steel, a newly formed group controlled by the Shandong provincial government, which forcibly consolidated his company in September.
#155 Peng Xiaofeng/LDK Solar – Evidently it’s only bold moves for Peng Xiaofeng. First he was the fastest entrepreneur to make it onto the list from start-up, having founded his LDK Solar in 2005. But now that the price of polysilicon, the main raw material used to make photovoltaic panels, has plummeted worldwide, and European governments are not subsidising solar as much as before, LDK Solar has lost 75% of its value. For Peng that translates to a loss of USD 3.2 billion. Now worth USD 800 million, he has plummeted from 4th in 2008 to 155th in 2009.
China International Business – Nov 2009
come back tomorrow for – China’s Rich List Company Zijin Mining