The usual plan is to become a billionaire and remain a billionaire but for some billionaires, 2021 became the year they lost a bulk of their fortunes.
While the top five billionaires have seen their fortunes expand even more rapidly in 2021, the same cannot be said of some others who have had to deal with huge net worth declines. From January 2021 through to the month of December, their collective losses amount to about $152 billion.
Of the ten billionaires to have had the most losses in 2021, six of them are Chinese. This may be as a result of a regulatory crackdown by the Chinese government on some businesses including e-commerce, prompting stock sell-offs that wiped billions of dollars from Chinese companies.
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Zhong Huijuan, founder, chairwoman and CEO of the Chinese drugmaker, Hansoh Pharmaceutical lost $10.4 billion as shares in the company dropped more than 50% and is now at $1.82 per share. As a result of the drop of the company’s shares, her wealth has also dropped by 51%.
Zhang Bangxin, Co-founder and chairman of education services firm, TAL Education a child tutoring firm. The firm saw its stock plummet as the government imposed new regulations on the business among which includes that tutoring companies who teach the same courses as the schools should be listed and operate as a charity. The company dropped $11.3 billion and is now worth $1.2 billion.
Daniel Gilbert, an American born CEO of Rocket companies a mortgage company located in the United States of America, lost $13.2 billion leaving the current net worth of the company at $29.6 billion.
Lein Jun, the founder of the smartphone company, Xaomi lost over $14 billion as the company suffered from supply chain distribution issues together with opposition from its competitors. The company is currently worth $16.3 billion.
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Mayasoshi Son, Japanese billionaire founder and CEO of Soft bank group, an investment company, which has invested in multi-billion-dollar companies like Ali baba and ride-hailing app, Didi, was affected by the Chinese government regulations, His net worth dropped by $13.6 billion and he is now worth $25.1 billion.
Tadashi Yanai, a Japanese billionaire shareholder lost some of his fortunes to the tune of $14 billion as his shares in Clothing retail companies like Uniqlo and Theory dropped about 34%. Factors responsible for the drop include and not limited to Covid restrictions and lockdowns affecting its factory in Vietnam, issues in its supplier facilities in Myanmar sparked by unrest in the country, and allegations of forced labour on minorities. His current net worth is $30.4 billion.
Zhang Yong, Singaporean businessman and CEO of Haidilao, China’s biggest hot pot chain with locations all over the world lost $15.9 billion as its expansion and opening of an additional 1600 stores was affected by Covid. The company has stated that 300 of the stores would be shut down. Yong is currently at a net worth of $4.6 billion from $23 billion he was worth in April.
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Colin Zheung Huang, founder of e-commerce company, Pinduoduo. The shares of the company fell by 64% and so did his fortune, He lost $40.2 billion and is now worth $22.3 billion.
Hui Kai Yan, Chinese billionaire and CEO of the real estate company, China Evergrande Group lost some of his fortunes for the second year in a row. Share rate of the company dropped to $0.19 per share as the company defaulted in paying its debts to its international investors. The real estate mogul reportedly put $1 billion of his personal fortune into the company to keep it alive. He lost $18 billion and is now worth $9.1 billion.
Jack Ma, the billionaire and CEO of Ali baba lost $21.4 billion. A $2.8 billion dollar tax was imposed on the company, the highest ever anti penalty trust tax imposed by the Chinese government, with allegations that the company violated anti-monopoly rules this brought a 37% drop to his net worth. His current net worth is $37 billion.