Zhong Shanshan, the chairman of Nongfu Spring Co, a bottled-water company China, is now richer than Warren Buffett as his fortune surged to US $91.7 billion. Zhong acquired vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co public in April.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhong's fortune increased US $13.5 billion to US $91.7 billion since the start of the year. Mr Zhong, the biggest winner from Asia, amassed more than US $71 billion this years, the most after Tesla's Elon Musk and Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos.
Nongfu shares jumped 18 per cent in the first two trading days of 2021 alone.
Nicknamed locally as the "Lone Wolf", the 66-year-old billionaire is now the sixth-richest person on the planet. He dethroned India's Mukesh Ambani as Asia's wealthiest person last week.
According to Bloomberg's wealth index, this is only the second time a Chinese national rank into the world's Top 10 - property tycoon. Earlier Wang Jianlin hit No 8 in 2015 - and no one from the mainland has ever reached this high so far.
Warren Buffett is outside that group with a US $86.2 billion fortune, but the Berkshire Hathway founder has given away more than US $37 billion of stock since 2006, the report revealed.
Analysts are bullish on Nongfu and Investors are bullish on Chinese consumer shares as China is recovering from Covid-19.
Zhong is also reported to helped his relatives become billionaires. His younger sister, Zhong Xiaoxiao, and three of his wife's siblings each hold a 1.4 per cent stake in Nongfu worth US $1.3 billion, based on the ownership listed in the company's prospectus from last year.
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