19 October, 2006. HURUN REPORT RELEASES RETAIL RICH LIST, A PART OF THE 2006 CHINA RICH LIST SERIES

• HUANG GUANGYU SURGES AHEAD LEAVING OTHERS IN WAKE
• ELETRONIC APPLIANCE RETAIL AND SHENZHEN SUPERMARKETS BOOM
• NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: ZHANG YUPING AND LUXURY WATCH RETAIL

37-year old Huang Guangyu surges ahead widening the gap between him and his nearest rival in the stakes to be China’s leading retail tycoon. This past year Huang cashed out a further US$520 million from the sale of GoMe outlets in his private holding company to his listed vehicle, making him China’s cash-richest individual. In the summer, Huang took over YOLO in the highly competitive electronic appliance retail sector further driving his share price up. Huang gained about US$2 million a day over the past year.

“Urbanization and ever-increasing household incomes have continued to be the key drivers for wealth creation in China’s retail sector,” says Rupert Hoogewerf, CEO of Hurun Report, a luxury business magazine. “The stories of these people tell the story of China’s retail boom.”

Sectors of the retail tycoons. Hypermarkets lead the field with fifteen, followed by department stores with twelve, electronic appliance retailers with nine, furniture retailers with seven and auto retailers and pharmacies with three each.

With Shenzhen having the highest average household income of the country, it should come as no surprise to see more Shenzhen retailers on the list, led by Li Binlan and He Jinming.

Interesting Retail tycoons
Zhang Jindong, founder of Suning, has seen his wealth increase by US$500 million following a 258% rally in Suning’s share price in the year ending June 30.

WuMart’s share price has increased a dramatic 420% in the year ending 30 June, the best performing privately-controlled stock.

Hurun Report valued Du Sha lower than last year on the back of falling profits following an over-aggressive expansion resulting in a cashflow crisis.

The booming luxury sector is also creating several fortunes. Led by Zhang Yuping & family following his listing this past year in HK, another to watch is Qi Jianhong, the agent for TSL, a HK jewellery brand, as well as several luxury brands in Beijing.

Largest retail companies by market cap on Retail Rich List
The biggest five retailers are all listed

* company listed on stock exchange

Some interesting stats
Average wealth of the top fifty retail tycoons is US$189 million, a 32 per cent rise on last year. As a group the top fifty have US$9.5 billion.

Guangdong has the highest number of retail tycoons with ten, followed by Beijing and Jiangsu on nine and Shanghai a distant fourth with only four.

Guangdong boasts the highest number of retail tycoon birthplaces with eleven, followed by Jiangsu on eight and Beijing on seven.

Average age of the retail tycoons is 44.9 years.

Cut-off to make top fifty is US$35 million. Last year the cut-off for the last place (number 40) was US$25 million.

Retail Rich List increased to fifty individuals up from forty last year.

2006 is the third year of the Retail Rich List.

Methodology
The Retail Rich List is a sublist of the Hurun Report 2006 China Rich List series and only takes into account wealth generated from the retail sector. In the case of Huang Guangyu, for example, Hurun Report only included his GoMe assets, excluding his non-retail assets (primarily his US$250 million property business), when calculating his wealth for the purpose of the Retail Rich List.

Valuing the wealth of China’s Rich is as much an art as it is a science. Our team of researchers has - for the eighth year running - traveled the length and breadth of the country cross-checking information with entrepreneurs, industry experts, journalists, bankers, and regulators, as well as previous years’ databases. The cut-off date for valuation of listed companies was August 31, 2006. For non-listed companies we valued by comparing them with their listed equivalents using prevailing industry P/E ratios. This list relates to Mainland China only. For the purposes of this list, we define Mainland Chinese as someone who was born and brought up in China, no matter what passport they might hold today.

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