China Evergrande Group’s stock price has surged nearly 400% in 2017. Evergrande's founder and chairman, Hui Ka Yan (also known as Xu Jiayin in Mandarin Chinese), has been riding the wave to an immensely higher echelon of wealth.
His net worth rose by roughly $27B since the start of the year due to his more than 70% stake in the company, China’s largest developer based on assets. He is one of the top-three richest men in China, rotating which slot as deals close and stocks fluctuate.
Hui has been called China’s Donald Trump: He likes the finer things in life even if they put him in debt. He has spent billions gobbling up the Guangzhou Evergrande soccer team, an insurance company and a home in Sydney, Australia, that violated foreign purchase rules and had to be vacated.
Even the business model of Evergrande has some wondering how sustainable the company is. It has a mammoth pile of debt that keeps growing. The company’s net debt was $49.3B at the end of 2016, double what it had been at the end of 2015. — Cameron Sperance
