Asia’s richest woman has lost half of her $24bn fortune in the China property crisis.
Yang Huiyan, a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden, saw her net worth plunge by more than 52% to $11.3bn from $23.7bn a year ago, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In a sign that the crisis is spreading to developers previously thought to be rock solid, Yang’s fortune took a major hit on Wednesday when the Guangdong-based Country Garden’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 15% after the company announced it would sell new shares to raise cash.
Yang inherited her wealth when her father – Country Garden founder Yang Guoqiang – transferred his shares to her in 2005. She became Asia’s richest woman two years later after the developer’s initial public offering in Hong Kong.
Country Garden has remained relatively unscathed by industry turmoil, it spooked investors with an announcement on Wednesday that it planned to raise more than $343m through a share sale, partly to pay debts.
