Haidilao's Zhang Yong is crowned Singapore's richest man for the second year running. His wife, Shu Ping, also a co-founder of the hot pot restaurant chain, joins him on the list this year, too. The list sees four new entrants including co-founder of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, Li Xiting, worth US$17.8 billion, who comes in at second place.
Forbes has released its annual 50 Richest list for 2020 and in the top spot for the second consecutive year in Singapore is Zhang Yong, the billionaire co-founder of successful Sichuan hot pot restaurant chain Haidilao. This year, his wife, Shu Ping, joins him at the top of the list. She is also a co-founder and director of their brand, which was founded in China back in 1994. Self-made billionaire Zhang, who is now a naturalised Singapore citizen, is also China’s richest restaurateur and currently owns over 300 Haidilao outlets all over the world. The couple’s combined net worth is US$19 billion.
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Singapore’s 50 richest had their overall net worth increase to US$167 billion this year, according to Forbes. This is in spite of the current recession that the country is facing due to the coronavirus global pandemic.
This year’s list also welcomes four new faces: Li Xiting, co-founder and chairman of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics; David Chen, co-founder of gaming and e-commerce firm Sea; Binny Bansal, co-founder of Indian shopping site Flipkart; and Teo Swee Ann, co-founder and CEO of semiconductor firm Espressif Systems.
Li, a naturalised Singapore citizen, is a new entrant on the list coming in second with a net worth of US$17.8 billion. His company, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co Ltd, manufactures and distributes medical equipment. The huge demand for his company’s ventilators during the pandemic has helped to boost both his net worth as well as the company's shares. Back in April, Bloomberg reported that he had added US$3.5 billion to his net worth this year alone (averaging about a billion a month) and was among the top five gainers in the world. Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, had added US$3.4 billion to his net worth this year.
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