China's bottled water entrepreneur overtakes Warren Buffett in the global rich list

With a fortune of $91.7bn, Zhong Shanshan is now the sixth-wealthiest person on the planet

Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring, is now the sixth-wealthiest person in the world. AP

Zhong Shanshan is setting new wealth records.

The chairman of Nongfu Spring, a bottled-water company that is ubiquitous in China, is now richer than Warren Buffett as his fortune surged $13.5 billion to $91.7bn since the start of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Zhong, 66, is now the sixth-wealthiest person on the planet. Nongfu shares jumped 18 per cent in the first two trading days of 2021, taking the advance since their September listing to 200 per cent.

It is only the second time a Chinese national has broken into the world’s top 10 – property tycoon Wang Jianlin became eight in 2015 – and no one from the mainland has ever ranked this high on Bloomberg’s wealth index since it was launched in 2012.

Nicknamed locally as the “Lone Wolf” for avoiding involvement in clubby business groups or politics, Mr Zhong also took vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise public in April. The stock has soared more than 2,500 per cent.

Mr Zhong dethroned India’s Mukesh Ambani as Asia’s wealthiest person last week and is close to entering the rarefied realm of individuals worth more than $100bn. Mr Buffett is outside that group with an $86.2bn fortune, but the Berkshire Hathway founder has given away more than $37bn of stock since 2006.

Investors are snapping up Chinese consumer shares as the country demonstrates it is recovering from Covid-19, while analysts have grown increasingly bullish on Nongfu.

Mr Zhong has also helped four relatives become billionaires. His younger sister, Zhong Xiaoxiao, and three of his wife’s siblings each hold a 1.4 per cent stake in Nongfu worth $1.3bn, based on the ownership listed in the company’s prospectus from last year. The firm has produced dozens of millionaires, including more of Mr Zhong’s relatives and employees.

While Covid-19 upended much of the global economy in 2020, it was a good year for the world’s ultra-rich. The 500 wealthiest people added $1.8 trillion to their fortunes and were worth a combined $7.6tn by year-end.

Mr Zhong, the biggest winner from Asia, amassed more than $71bn, the most after Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

One notable exception is Jack Ma, who was until recently Asia’s richest person. He has not been seen in public since Chinese regulators torpedoed Ant Group’s $35bn initial public offering. His net worth has dropped about $10bn since October and he is now the world’s 25th-richest person.