China's former richest female billionaire loses 80% of her fortune

Country Garden real estate chairman Yang Huiyan recorded the world's biggest drop in assets as the company sank deeper into a debt crisis.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Yang Huiyan's fortune has fallen 84% since peaking in June 2021. On August 8 alone, she lost 8.2%.

The 41-year-old billionaire’s fortune comes largely from his stake in Country Garden, China’s largest property developer by sales last year. Shares of the company have fallen 60% this year as slumping home sales and soaring borrowing costs have battered China’s property industry.

That brought Yang’s fortune down $28.6 billion from its peak, the biggest drop among the group of rich people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index over the same period. Yang is now worth $5.5 billion.

Country Garden Chairman Yang Huiyan. Photo: Imagine China — Country Garden Chairman Yang Huiyan. Photo: *Imagine China*

Country Garden missed interest payments on two batches of bonds earlier this week. If it fails to repay within the 30-day grace period, it will be considered in default.

Yang's father, Yeung Kwok-keung, co-founded Country Garden in 1992. He transferred his stake to his daughter in 2005, when Yang joined the company as an assistant to learn from and succeed her father.

Yang became mainland China's richest woman at the age of 25, after Country Garden's IPO in Hong Kong in 2007. This year, she became the company's chairwoman when her father stepped down due to his age.

Over the past two years, the fortunes of China’s real estate tycoons have plummeted as the country’s property industry has plunged into crisis. The cause is believed to be Beijing’s “three red lines” policy, which was introduced to reduce systemic risk by limiting the ability of real estate firms to borrow new money.

The thirst for liquidity has sparked a series of defaults, wiped out billions of dollars in investment and delayed the construction of thousands of homes. Previously, the rapidly growing housing sector had helped make real estate billionaires among China’s richest.

Another real estate billionaire, Hui Ka Yan – chairman of Evergrande Group – also recorded a sharp decline in assets compared to the peak. Hui owned 42 billion USD in 2017, but now only has 3.2 billion USD. Evergrande is considered China's debt bomb with more than 300 billion USD in liabilities. In 2021, the company became the center of attention because it almost missed the bond interest payment deadline many times.

Ha Thu (according to Bloomberg)

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