Success Is The Best Revenge: Pandemic Epicenter In China Gets A New Billionaire

The China city that will go down in history as the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak in the country earlier this year nowadays has this to cheer about: Wuhan has become home to one of China’s newest billionaires.

Shares in Wuhan-headquartered snack retailer Bestore gained 4.1% at the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday to close at a record 77.28 yuan. That left chairman Yang Hongchun with an estimated fortune with worth the equivalent of $1.1 billion. Bestore went public at 11.90 yuan a share in February.

Companies like Bestore are seen as a good investment by those who expect domestic demand and consumer spending to underpin China’s economy at a time of global economic tumult. China’s GDP contracted 6.8% in the first quarter from a year earlier as the Covid-19 impact peaked.

Shares in Three Squirrels, a China online snack business, also closed at a record on Friday. The company is led by Zhang Liaoyuan, who debuted on the 2020 Forbes Billionaires List published in April with a fortune worth $1.5 billion; that increased to $2 billion as of today.   Underscoring hopes for China’s snack niche, PepsiCo. acquired another industry leader, Be & Cheery, in February for $705 million.

China is home to the world’s second largest number of billionaires after the United States. The biggest group among them live in Beijing.  Other Wuhan billionaires include Huang Li, chairman of Wuhan Guide Infrared, whose Shenzhen-traded shares have more than doubled in the past year on growing demand for its thermal imaging system amid the global pandemic.

Wuhan reopened in April after a 76-day lockdown in connection with the pandemic.

Click here for a Chinese-language version of this post.

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China Gets A New Tech Billionaire

-with Maggie Chen

@rflannerychina