China´s entrepreneurs become investors – Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf´s Hurun China Rich list published on Monday its inaugural ranking of the country´s wealthiest investors, topping Fosun´s Guo Guangchang. Part of a trend, says Rupert Hoogewerf in the Financial Times. “I see a clear trend of entrepreneurs in China actively moving towards becoming investors.”

The Financial Times:

Another Fosun executive, Liang Xinjun, who is CEO, also made it into the Top 10 of the Hurun Midas Rich List, a ranking announced on Monday by the Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based magazine run by Rupert Hoogewerf, who also compiles the “China Rich List”.

Guo is known as the “Warren Buffett of China”, after the CEO of US investment firm Berkshire Hathaway. But he himself demurs at the title, casting himself as Buffett’s student. “We’re learning from his investment methods,” Guo was quoted as saying...

While some companies are increasingly searching overseas for growth and returns, the majority – such as Capital Today run by the top ranking woman investor, Kathy Xu Xin (below) – have been fully engaged by opportunities in the domestic market.

Since 2005, Xu’s fund has invested in Tudou, a video sharing website, Z-Kungfu, a fast-food chain, Ganji, a classified ads website, Inoherb, a green cosmetics company, Zbird, an online diamond retailer and JD.com, an electronic e-commerce company.

When JD.com went public, Xu made more than 100 times her initial investment, according to the Hurun Report.

“The stories of these people tell the story of the investment sector in China and many of them are the unsung heroes behind China’s most successful companies,” Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at the Hurun Report, said.

“I see a clear trend of entrepreneurs in China actively moving towards becoming investors,” he added. “You can see this through more and more studying EMBAs, and significantly all of them wanting to send their children to the world’s top universities to study finance.”