Asia has a very rich young man, thanks to his company that makes vaccines and another which makes bottled water.
Zhong Shanshan has seen his fortune raise $ 7bn (£ 5.1bn) this year, helping him beat Mukesh Ambani of India and Jack Ma of China.
His net-worth is $ 77.8bn, making him the richest man in the continent of Asia according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
$77Bn Net Worth
Mr Zhong’s businesses has been journalism, mushroom farming and health care.
Mr Zhong took vaccine-maker Beijing Wantai Biological public in April listing its shares on the Chinese stock market.
Three months later he did the same with Nongfu Spring, his bottled water company, which he unveiled in a public listing in Hong Kong.
At the time this pushed him further than Alibaba founder Jack Ma who was once the richest man in China and Asia.
Since then Nongfu Spring has become one of the hottest lists in Hong Kong and its shares have exceeded 155% since its inception.
Beijing Wantai Biological shares are over 2,000% and are among those making the Covid-19 vaccine.
This impressive rise has attracted Mr Zhong to the forefront of Asia and is one of the fastest-growing wealth amasment in history, according to Bloomberg.
Wealth Gap Widens
Many of the richest people in the world have seen their fortunes rise in the midst of a pandemic, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
In India, Mr Ambani saw his fortune surge $18.3bn to $76.9bn as he struck deals to transform his conglomerate Reliance Industries into a technology and e-commerce titan.
Earlier this year, Facebook claimed to have invested $ 5.7bn in the low-cost internet company Reliance Jio, owned by Mr Ambani.
However, Jack Ma saw his fortune drop from a high of $ 61.7bn in October to a low of $ 51.2bn as his Alibaba regime faces increasing scrutiny by Chinese authorities.
Alibaba is being investigated over claims of monopolistic behaviour while its affiliate Ant Group had its bumper stock market listing blocked in November.
Most of China’s new billionaires come from the technology industry. But growing tensions between China and the US over Huawei, TikTok and WeChat have also lowered China’s tech goods.
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