Savitri Jindal (72, photo), wife of the founder of the Indian steel and energy company Jindal Group, has been named Asia’s richest woman.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on the 31st of last month (local time), Jindal’s fortune was $11.3 billion (regarding 14.7 trillion won), the highest among Asian women. Hengli Petrochemical Chairman Pan Hongwei of China followed by a narrow margin.
Jindal took part in managing the group following her husband, OP Jindal, the founder of Jindal Group, died in a helicopter crash in 2005.
Huiyan Yang, who has held the position of Asia’s richest woman for the past several years, has been pushed down to third place with a fortune of $11 billion (regarding 14.4 trillion won). Huiyan Yang, the major shareholder of Country Garden, a Chinese real estate company,’s fortune has shrunk to less than half from $23.7 billion (regarding 31 trillion won) in January. The country garden stock price plummeted due to government regulations and the real estate recession.
In the ranking of the richest in Asia, Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group of India, took first place. Adani has a fortune of $118 billion (regarding 154 trillion won), surpassing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the fourth richest person in the world. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is said to have a fortune of 6.28 billion dollars (regarding 8.2 trillion won).
By Park Joo-yeon, staff reporter grumpy_cat@hankyung.com