39-year old Huang Guangyu is the richest man in China for the third time in five years with a personal fortune of US$6.3 billion. Huang made his fortune with Gome, a household appliance retailer, and has since been expanding into Beijing property and private equity investments. Huang is also China’s cash-richest individual, having cashed out US$1.9 billion to date by selling privately-held retail outlets to Gome’s HK-listed vehicle, in which he still retains a 35% shareholding. Since dropping out from school aged sixteen, Huang has built Gome into China’s largest retailer by sales with 1400 outlets and sales last year surpassing US$10 billion. His Suning rival Zhang Jindong also makes the Top Ten with a personal fortune of US$3.2 billion.
9 October 2008, Shanghai. The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun 2008 Retail Rich List , the first in a series of sub-lists taken from the 2008 Hurun Rich List series. This is the fifth annual Hurun Retail Rich List ranking the 30 richest Chinese entrepreneurs from the retail sector.
Huang Guangyu is back at number one for the fourth time in five years with a fortune of US$3.6 billion.
Huang made his fortune with Gome, a household appliance retailer, and has since been expanding into Beijing property and private equity investments. Huang is also China's cash-richest individual, having cashed out US$1.9 billion to date by selling privately-held retail outlets to Gome's HK-listed vehicle, in which he still retains a 35% shareholding. Since dropping out from school aged sixteen, Huang has built Gome into China 's largest retailer by sales with 1400 outlets and sales last year surpassing US$10 billion.