Alibaba's Jack Ma is now China's richest person
Published on Sep 23, 2014
Chinese online retail giant Alibaba CEO Jack Ma arriving at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Sept 19, 2014. The largest stock offer in history has made him China's richest person with a fortune of US$25 billion (S$32 billion), an annual wealth ranking for the country showed on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: AFP
SHANGHAI (AFP) - The largest stock offer in history has made Mr Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, China's richest person with a fortune of US$25 billion (S$32 billion), an annual wealth ranking for the country showed on Tuesday.
Mr Ma, who had to persuade friends to give him US$60,000 to start Alibaba just 15 years ago after being rejected by US venture capitalists, now leads a company valued at more than US$200 billion after listing on the New York Stock Exchange on Sept 19.
"It has been an amazing year for China's best tycoons despite the jitters about the Chinese economy," said China-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report in its annual rich list.
Mr Ma reaped more than US$800 million from selling shares through the initial public offering in Alibaba, based on company filings, with the value of his remaining stake of 7.8 per cent surging to more than US$17 billion by Monday.
