Yang Huiyan, Asias richest woman, loses half her fortune

Yang
Huiyan, Asia’s richest woman, has lost nearly half her fortune on account of
China’s burgeoning real estate crisis.  Huiyan,
41, saw her fortunes take a major hit Wednesday as her company, Country Garden,
saw its shares fall by 15% in the Hong Kong stock index after it announced it
would sell new shares in a bid to raise cash. Huiyan’s net worth plunged by 52%
from 23.7 million in 2021 to 11.3 million, according to the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index.

Huiyan
inherited Country Garden from her father and company founder Yang Guoqiang in
2005, Chinese state media reports. Two years later, she became Asia’s richest
woman after Country Garden shares made an initial public offering in the Hong
Kong stock market. Huiyan is, however, struggling to stay Asia’s richest woman
with Fang Hongwei, with a net worth of $11.2 billion, breathing down her neck.

Huiyan’s near-fall
from grace happened after China’s Communist Party cracked down on real estate
companies with big debts. Evergrande and Sunac were left struggling to make
payments and forcing them to renegotiate with creditors as they were on the verge
of bankruptcy. China’s property buyers have seen companies delay delivery of
properties and consumers have begun to withhold mortgage payments for under-construction
homes before completion.

Country
Garden has remained unperturbed by the turmoil in the real estate industry.
However, its decision to sell some of its shares to raise cash $343 million spooked
the market.

Proceeds
from the share sale would go into “refinancing existing offshore indebtedness,
general working capital and future development purposes,” according to a Country
Garden filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China’s
banking regulator has called upon consumers to protect to property sector and
meet “reasonable financing needs”. China’s property sector makes up for 18-30%
of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and is a key driver of growth in
the world’s second-largest economy.