China, Home To Big Bourses, Gets A New Stock-Trading Software Billionaire

China is home to some of the world’s largest stock exchanges, including the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange. So it makes sense that financial trading and information software entrepreneurs linked to the country’s securities industry have gotten rich. 

A businessman among that group joined the ranks of the world’s billionaires today.

Huang Shan, chairman of Shenzhen Fortune Trend Technology, had a fortune worth 9.16 billion, or $1.3 billion, after the company’s shares climbed by 87% on their debut in Shanghai.  Huang holds a 68% stake in the business. (See Chinese-language story here.)  

Huang is at least the second billionaire to be minted in the past week and a half.  Sichuan Anning Iron and Titanium’s chairman Luo Yangyong joined that group on April 17 when the mineral product supplier climbed by 44% on its Shenzhen Stock Exchange debut, leaving him with worth the equivalent of $1.7 billion. (See related story here.)

Mainland China had 389 billionaires on the 2020 Forbes Billionaires List released earlier this month, following only the United States with 614 listees. Other China financial software billionaires include Yi Zheng, chairman of Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network of Hangzhou, who is worth $3.1 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. China’s wealthiest person is Tencent Holdings CEO Pony Ma, which a fortune worth $46 billion.

Though China’s first-quarter economic growth shrank by its largest percentage in decades amid this year’s COVID-19 pandemic, many investors believe its performance has bottomed out (see related story here).   In the optimist camp, Starbucks announced today it would team up with Sequoia Capital China to invest in start-ups.

 –with Maggie Chen