India’s business tycoon Savitri Jindal overtook Chinese billionaire Yang Huiyan atop the wealth rankings as China’s real-estate developers reel from a mortgage boycott.
What Happened: Jindal’s net worth surpassed Huiyan on global rankings and stood at $11.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
It’s been a dramatic fall for Huiyan, whose fortune nearly halved to $11 billion this year as China’s property crisis hammered business for Huiyan’s Country Garden Holdings CTRYY CTRYF and other real estate developers. Huiyan was one of the youngest billionaires on the planet after inheriting her father’s stake in the real estate development company in 2005.
And for the past five years, she was also Asia’s richest woman, but the property crisis has pushed her below other Chinese billionaires, including Fan Hongwei of chemical-fiber company Hengli Petrochemical.
While at the same time, the 72-year-old former politician and Jindal conglomerate chairperson’s net worth grew by nearly $1.2 billion – all thanks to the recent jump of 16.64% in the Indian-listed stock of Jindal Steel & Power Limited.
Jindal, who took over the steel and power business from her husband Om Prakash Jindal after his sudden death in 2005, is also India’s richest woman and the 10th-richest person in the country.
The conglomerate produces steel and operates in cement, energy, and infrastructure.
In Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people, there are 68 women – led by Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of L’Oreal LRLCF, who’s worth $75 billion, followed by American philanthropist Julia Koch and Walmart Inc’s WMT founder Sam Walton’s daughter Alice Walton.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Europe and Asia coverage by following this link
Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.