The Chinese stocks crash cost this Monday to the richest tycoons in the country more than 52 billion dollars.
Zhong Shanshanknown as China’s bottled water king, led the decline when his fortune fell by 5 billion dollarswhile that of Pony Ma Tencent Holding lost $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The actions of Nongfu Spring Zhong fell 10 percent in Hong Kong trading, the biggest drop in 18 months, though he remains China’s richest person with a fortune of $60.3 billion.
Tencent regressed the most since 2011 after a report that it is facing a record fine by violate anti-money laundering regulations. Pony Ma, once the country’s richest person, is now ranked third with a net worth of 35.2 billion.
The drop followed information that Russia had asked China for military assistance for their war in the Ukraine. Despite China denying the information, traders were concerned that Beijing’s possible opening to Vladimir Putin could provoke a global backlash against Chinese companies, including sanctions.
The United States and China will hold their first high-level face-to-face talks since the invasion on Monday.
The crash cost the 78 Chinese billionaires who are among the 500 richest people in the world a total of 52.1 billion dollars.
Tencent fell 9.8 percent at its lowest price since March 2020. The Wall Street Journal reported that the People’s Bank of China found that its WeChat Pay had enabled the transfer of funds for illicit purposes, among other problems. While China’s industry crackdown has already wiped billions off the value of the nation’s tech giants, Tencent had so far managed to avoid regulatory action.
Zhang Yiming of ByteDance, which is privately held and thus more protected from recent market volatility, is the second-richest person in the country, with a fortune of $44.5 billion.
Jack Mawho was the richest in China before Pony Ma surpassed him, he now ranks fourth with a net worth of 34.3 billion. His fortune topped $60 billion at the end of 2020, before the government began its antitrust campaign, halting the listing of his payments company Ant Group just two days before it was scheduled to go public.
On Friday, shares of Didi Global fell a record 44 percent as the ride-sharing giant suspended preparations to list in Hong Kong. Its founder, Cheng Wei, lost her status as a billionaire.