AFP, Shanghai :
The largest stock offer in history has made Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, China’s richest person with a fortune of $25 billion, an annual wealth ranking in the world’s second largest economy showed Tuesday.
“It has been an amazing year for China’s best tycoons despite the jitters about the Chinese economy,” said China-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report in its annual rich list.
Ma reaped more than $800 million selling shares in the company he set up 15 years ago as Alibaba listed on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, based on company filings, with the value of his remaining stake of 7.8 percent surging to more than $17 billion by Monday.
Last year, the estimated wealth of the former English teacher turned Internet entrepreneur was just over $4.0 billion, which did not even place him in the top 20.
Alibaba’s listing raised a total of $25 billion.
But only one other Alibaba co-founder, now vice president of its China investment team Simon Xie, made the rich list, Hurun Report said.
Property tycoon Wang Jianlin, whose Wanda company bought US cinema chain AMC Entertainment, dropped to second place from first last year with a fortune of $24.2 billion as the deflating of China’s real estate bubble chased most developers out of the top 10.
A new face, Li Hejun of renewable energy firm Hanergy, tied for third place with $20.8 billion, alongside beverage magnate Zong Qinghou of Wahaha.
