China's Richest Woman Trails Only Jeff Bezos in Growing Fortune

(Bloomberg) -- China’s richest woman Yang Huiyan added $6.1 billion to her wealth in just seven days of market trading, trailing only Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos in growing her fortune this year.

Yang, the controlling shareholder of Country Garden Holdings Co., saw her wealth surge to $29.7 billion as of Jan. 10 as shares of her real estate company rose, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bezos added $6.6 billion this year to bring his fortune close to $106 billion, the data show.

China’s real estate boom has filled the coffers of some of the nation’s biggest tycoons in recent years, including Hui Ka Yan, the chairman of developer China Evergrande Group, and Wang Jianlin, who leads Dalian Wanda Group Co. Yang is quickly closing the gap with Evergrande’s Hui, whose wealth is estimated at $39.3 billion, and has overtaken Wang’s $28.7 billion to rank as the fourth-richest individual in China.

Country Garden’s shares rose 24 percent this year through Jan. 10, before paring some gains on Thursday. The shares have more than quadrupled in the past year, amid eye-popping gains for big Chinese developers.

The 36-year-old Yang is China’s youngest billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In 2005, her father Yang Guoqiang transferred his controlling stake to her “due to his intention to train Yang Huiyan as the successor of his family’s interest” in the group, Country Garden said in its 2007 initial public offering prospectus.

--With assistance from Pei Yi Mak

To contact the reporter on this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam in Hong Kong at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Paul Panckhurst

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