The fortunes of China’s richest were shaken due to tumbling stocks and a falling currency, during credit and trade worries in 2018. The year was only fortunate for the youngest billionaire of China, Yang Huiyan. She added around US$6.1 billion to her wealth in a mere week. By January 10, 2018, Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world accounted US$6.6 billion to his net worth which made Yang rank in second place. This created a buzz amongst the people who grew curious to know about the mystery billionaire.
Yang Huiyan Beating the Norms with Her Business Skills
Yang is a 2003 graduate of Bachelor of Arts/Science from the Ohio State University. Today she is a Chinese property developer and the majority shareholder of Country Garden Holdings, which landed her as the richest woman in Asia position. Her father laid the foundation of the real estate company Country Garden in 1997 and later Yang took upon the responsibility in 2005. Yang is Vice-Chairperson of the board’s governance committee and helped to raise about $410 million selling new shares in 2014.
Yang has been contributing to the Foshan-based Business from a young age, as she used to attend company meeting s as a teenager. By dedicating her skills and hard work, she has helped the company to grow stronger with the passing years. Recently in 2019, Yang recorded a net worth of US$21.2 billion.
The Magical 96 Hours of 2018
Yang Huiyan, Vice-Chairman of Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings, witnessed her wealth rise in the first four trading days of 2018 due to the company’s share surge. The magical 96 hours in the last year, contributed US$2 billion gain to her fortune. The company’s shares surged even further in the next week. By January 8, it was reportedly the top gainer with an increase of 7.4 percent. These reports boosted the 36-year-old billionaire’s rank to the fourth position. Her wealth was estimated to surpass about US$27 billion in the second week of 2018.
Who is Yang Huiyan?
Yang ranked amongst the top 50 on the global billionaire’s list. The reports and news fuelled the buzz of a new entrant in the market. Regardless of her high profile fortune, she has always been media-shy and is hard to find on the internet. There are, however, some insights about her life and her company that has made it to the reports in the Chinese media.
The notable SEVEN verities,
- Yang Huiyan was chronicled as Asia’s wealthiest woman and China’s youngest billionaire in 2018.
- Yang owns 57% of real estate developer Country Garden Holdings, a stake largely transferred to her by her father Yeung Kwok Keung in 2007.
- Yang chairs Bright Scholar Education Holdings, a Chinese education company, which is the largest operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China. It made it on the list of the New York Stock Exchange in 2007.
- Yang married the son of a top Chinese official that she met on a blind date in 2004. Cheng Chong is reportedly from Harbin and has graduated from Tsinghua University.
- Yang’s younger sister Ziyang is also a part of the Country Garden’s board.
- Her father is a self-made tycoon. He has reportedly said that he could not afford to pay school fees and has managed to study with the help of a scholarship.
- In 2008, Yang Huiyan has watched her fortune lose more than two-thirds of its value as China’s stock markets plummeted along with those in the west.
Maintaining the Streak
Though China has about 60% of the world’s most successful female entrepreneurs, Yang has succeeded to keep the streak going on for 7 straight years as China’s richest women. According to Forbes China, currently has a fortune of $18.68 billion. Despite the acceleration of wealth reduction in the last year’s global stock market, Yang is striving to be amongst the top billionaires’ list.
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