Towering crash for Mr Jewel
JEWEL investor and Asia’s richest man Wang Jianlin is reported to have lost $6.5 billion in a fortnight thanks to China’s stockmarket crash.
According to Forbes business magazine, Mr Wang took the second biggest hit of anyone in China, behind copper entrepreneur Wang Wenyin, who lost $7.3 billion.
With $32.3 billion, Wang Jianlin remains Asia’s richest man.
In the past year he has backed the $970 million Jewel resort project at Nerang and established a new airline with the sole purpose of creating direct flights between the city and China.
The devastating dive of Chinese stocks could have farreaching consequences for the Gold Coast. Mr Wang is among a wave of Chinese people and companies to have invested in the Gold Coast during the past year.
Iin December, a Chinese company outlaid $15.5 million to acquire a 3810sq m holding at 83 Scarborough St where tenants include ANZ and HSBC banks.
In November, China’s Huixin Real Estate Group paid Catholic order Sisters of Mercy $27 million for the 1.5ha Star of the Sea property on Marine Pde. Huixin plans a multitower resort and lifestyle precinct for the site.
Forbes said the 205 Chinese billionaires it kept track of had lost a total of $195 billion since the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index hit its peak on June 12.
Hong Kong’s market had plunged 25 per cent since June while stocks in Singapore had also fallen yesterday. Singaporean interests on the Coast include Ho Bee’s Rhapsody at Broadbeach and Banyan Tree’s mega resort at the far northern end of the Esplanade.
Hong Kong investor Tony Fung has multi-billion-dollar plans for Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Nerang.