Asia’s richest woman loses half her wealth

Country Garden majority shareholder Yang Huiyan’s net worth is down to $11.3 billion

BEIJING (AFP) — Asia’s wealthiest woman lost more than half her fortune over the past year as China’s real estate sector was rocked by a cash crunch, a billionaire index showed Thursday.

Yang Huiyan, a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden, saw her net worth plunge by more than 52 percent to $11.3 billion from $23.7 billion a year ago, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Yang’s fortune took a major hit on Wednesday when the Guangdong-based Country Garden’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 15 percent after the company announced it would sell new shares to raise cash.

Yang inherited her wealth when her father — Country Garden founder Yang Guoqiang — transferred his shares to her in 2005, according to state media.

She became Asia’s richest woman two years later after the developer’s initial public offering in Hong Kong.

But she is now barely holding onto that title, with chemical fibers tycoon Fan Hongwei a close runner-up with a net worth of $11.2 billion on Thursday.

Country Garden’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 15 percent.

Chinese authorities cracked down on excessive debt in the property sector in 2020, leaving major players such as Evergrande and Sunac struggling to make payments and forcing them to renegotiate with creditors as they teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

Buyers across the country, furious at lagging construction and delayed deliveries of their properties, have begun withholding mortgage payments for homes sold before completion.

While Country Garden has remained relatively unscathed by industry turmoil, it spooked investors with a Wednesday announcement that it planned to raise more than $343 million through a share sale, partly to pay debts.