How China's Self-Made Women Billionaires Earned Their Fortunes

Just eight women rank among the 100 wealthiest people in China, according to the Forbes list of China’s 100 richest, published last week. Of those eight women, two inherited their fortunes. The other six are self-made billionaires – a pretty impressive statistic, considering that just 7 of the 45 women on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans built their own fortunes.
What’s amazing is how young, relatively speaking, most of the Chinese women billionaires are. Five out of the six are in their forties. Their youth speaks to the incredible growth of capitalism, and the growth of the economy, in recent decades in China.
Real estate has proven to be the key business for four of these six Chinese women. Wu Yajun, the wealthiest of this elite cohort, ranks number 5 on the China list with an estimated net worth of $6.2 billion. She chairs the board of Longfor Properties, which trades in Hong Kong. She owns about 75% of the company’s stock. Longfor develops a broad range of properties –including residential, office buildings, high-rise apartments and shopping malls. She joined the company in 1994 in Chongqing, where it was founded. It’s now headquartered in Beijing.
Chan Laiwa’s fortune is also tied primarily to real estate. Chan, who’s 71, ranked number 17 richest in China with a net worth estimated at $2.8 billion. She founded Fuwah Group, one of Beijing’s largest real estate developers, in 1988. It is still privately owned. Chan is reported to have purchased her first few real estate properties with profits from a furniture repair business she started in Hong Kong.
Zhang Xin cofounded property developer Soho China with her husband, Pan Marita, after experience working on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs and Travelers. She ranks number 21 on Forbes list of richest in China with a net worth of $2.65 billion, down from $3.3 billion a year ago. Zhang is the company’s CEO; Pan is the chairman. They founded Soho China together in 1995; it now ranks as Beijing’s largest real estate developer, and focuses on developing commercial properties. Soho tapped renowned architect Zaha Hadid to design one project.
The flavorings business forms the basis of Chu Lam Yiu’s fortune. Chu, who is just 42, founded the precursor to Huabao International in 1996 –at age 26. The company began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2004 after acquiring a listed company. Chu, who owns about 38% of Huabao, ranks 39^th on the Forbes China list with an estimated net worth of $1.93 billion, down from $2.2 billion a year ago. Huabao was one of several Chinese companies singled out by short sellers over the past year for accounting issues. The company denied any wrongdoing and shares recovered their losses.
Chen Ningning built an early fortune in the steel business but now most of her fortune lies in publicly traded Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Group, where she is an investor (not an executive). She owns just under 10% of the company. In 2007 Chen sold a $640 million stake in steelmaker China Oriental to ArcelorMittal, which is led by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.  Chen, who is just 41 years old, ranks 40^th on the Forbes China rich list with a net worth of $1.9 billion, up from $1.8 billion a year ago.
The sixth self-made female Chinese billionaire is He Qiaonv, who founded landscape architecture and interior construction firm Beijing Orient Landscape. She ranks 52^nd on the Forbes China Rich List with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion, down from $1.68 billion last year. Beijing Orient Landscape is publicly traded and He owns about 65% of the company.
See the full list of China’s 100 Richest here.
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