Jack Ma, Masayoshi Son, Colin Zheng Huang, and Pinduoduo founder are from left to right.
Forbes.
The world's richest people had a dramatic year. The 2,660 billionaires made an estimated $1.6 trillion in the first half of the year. The losses got bigger as the bounties got bigger.
The 10 tycoons who lost the most wealth in the year saw their net worths fall by a collective $150 billion.
Six of the ten billionaires with the largest net worth declines of the year are from China. Hundreds of billions of dollars in value from Chinese companies were wiped out in a stock sell-off due to an escalating regulatory crackdown by the Chinese government. Pinduoduo shares lost two-thirds of their value this year through Friday, December 10, while the shares of the Chinese company fell 50%. The firms and others are facing fines andStrict new Chinese laws related to data security and monopolistic practices. The founder of Pinduoduo lost more wealth than anyone else on the planet over the course of the year, and the founder ofAlibaba lost more wealth than anyone else on the planet.
The Chinese billionaires who led the world in wealth growth in 2020 are just 4% richer than a year ago. China Evergrande Group, a real estate developer with more than $300 billion in debt, is threatening a broader crisis as it struggles to get out of it. The founder of Evergrande lost $18 billion in two years, making him the world's biggest billionaire loser for the second year in a row. He was worth $9.1 billion as of December 10, down from $36 billion in March. Also down: Yong Yong, a Singapore-based hotpot tycoon who lost most of his wealth after a coronaviruses miscalculation; Anthony Hsieh, an American mortgage mogul who was briefly one of the top 10 richest people on the planet; and Japanese clothing.
The losses of last year's cohort were a factor of three. Carlos Slim Hélu, the Mexican mogul whose family controls América Mvil, Latin America's biggest mobile telecom firm, lost $5 billion in 2020. That is less than half of the drop recorded by the tenth billionaire loser of 2021, Hansoh Pharmaceutical chairwoman, and seven times less than the No. 1 spot holder.
The net worths of 2,660 billionaires were assessed by Forbes to measure fortunes for this article. The biggest loser in dollar terms were those with investments in publicly traded companies.
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1. Colin Zheng Huang.
China has citizenship.
Drop: $40.2 billion.
Net worth is $22.4 billion.
The founder of Pinduoduo, Huang, has been hit the hardest by China's regulatory crackdown. The billionaire lost most of his fortune this year as Pinduoduo's shares fell. The six-year-old company was further devastated by the sudden resignation of the chairman in March, just as Pinduoduo overtook Alibaba as the country's largest ecommerce company, measured by annual active buyers. Its stock fell after it missed revenue expectations.
The images are from the same company.
2. Jack Ma.
China has citizenship.
Drop: $21 billion.
The net worth is $37 billion.
Ma, who was once China's richest person and one of its most outspoken tycoons, spent a lot of time out of the public eye after regulators took harsh action against his companies. The Chinese regulators quashed the planned $35 billion IPO of Ant Group in November 2020. In April, they hit the e-commerce giant with the highest-ever antitrust penalty imposed in China,alleging that it violated anti-monopoly rules. The market cap of the Chinese company is down more than 42% so far this year, shaving $37 billion off his fortune.
3. It's called Hui Ka Yan.
China has citizenship.
Drop: $18 billion.
Net worth is $9.1 billion.
For the second year in a row, Hui is a billionaire loser. The financial crisis at China Evergrande Group has bled billions of dollars from him. The real estate giant, which he founded and chairs, was trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the equivalent of $0.19 per share on December 15th, after default on its debt to global investors. The developer was forced to sell his shares and inject $1 billion of his own money into the company in order to keep it alive. He is under pressure to restructure Evergrande's $300 billion in liabilities as fears of a larger debt crisis in China's real estate market are growing. Forbes calculated that Evergrande paid $8 billion in dividends through 2020.
The information contained in this article is provided by Bloomberg Finance LP.
4. The person is Zhang Yong.
Citizenship: Singapore.
Drop: $15.9 billion.
Net worth is $7 billion.
The founder and chairman of the biggest hotpot chain in China is named Zhang. After years of rapid growth, the restaurant giant made a risky bet of doubling its number of locations to almost 1,600. With fresh waves of Covid-19 and consumer wariness about Haidilao's communal dining experience, there hasn't been demand to match. The company said in November that it would shut down 300 stores by the end of the year. In the year through December 15, shares are down 71%, leaving the billionaire with a poorer fortune.
South China Morning Post.
5. The person is Tadashi Yanai.
Japan has citizenship.
Drop: over $13 billion.
Net worth is $30.4 billion.
Fast Retailing, the owner of popular brands Theory and Uniqlo, has lost a third of its fortune this year. The retailer's pretax profits soared more than 70% from 2020 but were still heavily impacted by on-and-off Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns this year. It had to contend with issues with its suppliers in the country, where a military coup sparked violent unrest, as well as allegations of human rights abuses in China. Fast Retailing denied the claims.
6. Lei Jun.
China has citizenship.
Drop: over $13 billion.
Net worth is $16.3 billion.
The fortune of Lei, the founder and chairman of Xiaomi, one of the world's most popular smartphone brands, was nearly halved this year. The regulatory scrutiny that damaged other Chinese tech giants did not hurtXiaomi, but it did struggle with supply chain issues and tough competition. In its third quarter earnings in November, it posted its slowest pace of sales growth since early 2020 due to the chip deficits it projected will continue well into the future.
The images are from the same company.
7. Masayoshi Son is related to Masayoshi Son.
Japan has citizenship.
Drop: $13.6 billion.
Net worth is $25.1 billion.
Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of Softbank Group, was affected by the uncertainty surrounding Chinese firms. Chinese tech companies such as Didi Global are among the key investments of Softbank. The Vision Fund lost $7.3 billion in the three months ending September 30 due to the Chinese government offensive against these companies and the tumbling value of some of Softbank's most high-profile IPOs. The founder of Keyence Corp., Take Takizaki, has been named Japan's richest person after the stock market crashed.
The Associated Press.
8. Daniel Gilbert.
citizenship: U.S.A.
Drop: $13.2 billion.
Net worth is $28.6 billion.
The stock price of Dan Gilbert's company, Rocket Companies, was volatile in the year. When his fortune increased to $80 billion during a short squeeze in March, he became one of the top 10 richest people in the world. As of December 15, the online lender's share price had fallen by more than half, as revenues and profits from the booming business of cycle 2020 slowed. In the first nine months of this year, Rocket reported a net income of over $1 billion, compared to over $3 billion in net income and over $4.7 billion in revenue during the same period in 2020.
The images are from VCG.
9. There is a person named Zhang Bangxin.
China has citizenship.
Drop: $11.3 billion.
The net worth is $1.2 billion.
It is not a good time to be in the tutoring business. The founder and chairman of TAL Education can attest to that. The Chinese government argued that the after-school tutoring industry had been hijacked by capital and was putting too much pressure on children and parents. The stock of companies like TAL Education plummeted as regulators unveiled strict new rules, including a ban on raising capital from overseas investors and a requirement for tutoring companies to register as nonprofits. The net worth of some tutoring entrepreneurs has plummeted, such as Larry Xiangdong Chen, the CEO of education firm GSX Techedu, whose fortune has dropped to $250 million from a peak of $15.8 billion.
The China Group is via the Getty Images.
10. There is a person named Zhong Huijuan.
China has citizenship.
Drop: $10.4 billion.
The net worth is $10 billion.
The founder and CEO of Hansoh Pharmaceutical is Zhong. After guiding the company through its IPO, she became one of the richest women in the world. Zhong and her daughter own more than three quarters of the company. The IPO listing price of HK$14.26 per share is now less than 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 This year, Zhong's wealth has dropped by more than 50%. She is married to a Chinese billionaire.
