Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma has been dethroned by the head of a Chinese solar energy conglomerate as the country’s richest person, according to a report from the Hurun Research Institute released on Tuesday.
Lin Hejun, founder and chairman of Hanergy Holding Group Ltd., topped the Hurun Global Rich List 2015 with a fortune totalling 160 billion yuan ($26 billion). Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin came in second with $25 billion in personal wealth, while Jack Ma slid into third place with $24.5 billion.
Li is the majority shareholder of the Hanergy Group's Hong-Kong listed subsidiary Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, which is valued around 80 billion yuan, as well as in other unlisted industries including hydropower and solar energy, the report said.
"I'm surprised to see Li's rise," Cao Yin, director of the consultancy firm Martec Group, said to the press on Tuesday.
While Wang and Ma respectively built their wealth on China's burgeoning real estate and e-commerce sectors, Li's business revolves around thin film photovoltaic modules which his company markets independently, a rarity in China's business environment, Cao said.
Other analysts also attribute Hanergy Group's success in the stock market as the driving force in Li's success, rather than to the company's energy products.
"There are a lot of entrepreneurs in the business and they are not nearly as successful as Li, so I think Li's wealth comes from the stock market," said Ma Hong, an analyst with the Shanghai-based CBI Research Center.
In a press conference on Monday, Li told reporters "not to take it seriously" after news broke out that he will be the new richest man in China.
"The aim of making money is to do something really great instead of becoming the richest man, while the aim of doing great things is to help more people," he said.
China has a total of 430 billionaires in the global rich list, surpassed only by the U.S. with 537. However, China is the biggest gainer with 72 new entries on the list thanks to the recent stock market boom in the country, followed by the U.S. with 56. India also broke into the top three, replacing Russia with 27 new faces.