Financial Information Company’s Listing Creates China’s Newest Billionaire

The chairman of one of China’s largest financial information companies has formally become the country’s newest billionaire after a successful listing at the Shanghai Stock Exchange today.

Shares in Shanghai Great Wisdom closed at 25.38 yuan, or about $3.85, up from their IPO price of 23.20 yuan. Chairman Zhang Changhong’s 386 million shares in the company were worth 9.8 billion yuan, or approximately $1.5 billion, at the day’s close.

Buoyed by a strong economy, China has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing countries for new billionaires in recent years. It had 128 of them on Forbes Asia’s China Rich List published last October, the second-largest group in the world after the United States.

Shanghai Great Wisdom provides financial statistics and analysis to about 10 million users daily though PC terminals plus another two million via mobile phone, according to a report by brokerage SWS.

In China, the company competes with domestic rivals such as Hexin, East Money Information, Qianlong Technology International Holdings, Beijing Compass Technology and Nasdaq-listed China Finance Online.  

China, which is promoting renewable energy, earlier this month minted its first wind energy billionaires, and mainland companies such as Suntech, Trina and Yingli are among the world’s leaders in solar.

Lofty valuations and the popularity of short-term trading may make Chinese wealth estimates volatile.

 – with Maggie Chen