Real estate is a tried and tested investment route for many. However, bearing its harshest brunt is Asia’s richest woman who lost substantial wealth over the last year as China’s real sector faced one of its biggest dull in a decade. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Yang Huiyan, who is a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden, saw her net worth drop by more than 52 percent to $11.3 billion (from a whopping $23.7 billion) a year ago.
The plunge was mainly after Guangdong-based Country Garden’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 15% after the company announced it would sell new shares to raise cash. Although the marquee had remained unaffected by the industry upheaval, it shocked investors with its announcement stating that it planned to raise more than $343m through a share sale, partly to pay debts.
Proceeds from Country Garden’s sale will be used for “refinancing existing offshore indebtedness, general working capital, and future development purposes” as stated by the company in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Yang, who inherited her wealth when her father – Country Garden founder Yang Guoqiang, became Asia’s richest woman two years later after the developer’s initial public offering. However, she is now struggling to hold the coveted position.
Further, China’s property crisis is further expected to deepen due to the gloomy Q2 growth figures that are apparently the worst since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country’s Government has thus called on lenders for support to meet the “reasonable financing needs” demanded by the property sector.
What awaits China’s property market, is for time to tell!
