Yang Huiyan, once Asia's richest woman, lost $28.6 billion in nearly two years as Country Garden, the real estate company she steered, sank deeper into debt crisis.
Unable to pay bond payments due on August 7, Country Garden is facing the risk of default if it fails to pay in full within the 30-day grace period.
Ms. Yang’s fortune has fallen $28.6 billion, or 84%, from its peak in June 2021 to $5.5 billion, the biggest drop in dollar terms among the ultra-rich tracked by Bloomberg since then.
The 41-year-old tycoon's fortune comes largely from her stake in Country Garden, one of the few private companies to survive the liquidity crisis that devastated China's real estate sector following Evergrande's default nearly two years ago.
Ms. Yang Huiyan, Chairwoman of Country Garden, is currently the fourth richest woman in China. Photo: Bloomberg
As China’s largest real estate company by revenue, Country Garden has been included on the government’s list of “high-quality” developers, eligible for capital support from state-owned banks in November 2022.
However, the company's shares have fallen nearly 60% year-to-date as falling home sales and rising refinancing costs hit China's property industry.
The Foshan-based company had revenue of 430 billion yuan ($60 billion) in fiscal 2022. In July, the company reported revenue of 128.76 billion yuan ($17.8 billion) in the first six months of the year, down 30% from the same period last year. As of the end of 2022, the company had debt of 1.4 trillion yuan ($199 billion).
However, Country Garden’s owner is not the biggest loser in the history of China’s real estate industry. Previously, real estate tycoon Hui Ka Yan, Chairman of Evergrande Group, lost nearly $40 billion, from a peak of $42 billion in 2017 to $3.2 billion in 2021, when the group went bankrupt.
Hui Ka Yan's Evergrande empire went bankrupt in 2021, causing a crisis in China's real estate industry. Photo: Bloomberg
The ensuing property crisis triggered record defaults overseas, wiped out billions of dollars in investment, and delayed thousands of construction projects. But before the crash, the sector’s rapid expansion had made people like Yang and Xu among the richest people in China. Yang remains the country’s fourth-richest woman.
In July, Ms. Yang transferred 55% of her personal stake in Country Garden (worth about $826 million) to a charity founded by her sister.
Ms. Yang's father co-founded Country Garden in 1992 and transferred a controlling stake to her in 2005, after she joined the company as his personal assistant.
She became China's richest woman at the age of 25, after Country Garden raised $1.65 billion in its Hong Kong IPO in April 2007. In 2023, she took over as sole chairwoman after her father stepped down due to age .
Nguyen Tuyet (According to Bloomberg, Business Insider, Financial Times)
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