China's property crisis: Asia's richest woman loses 50% of her fortune

Beijing: A Billionaire index on Tuesday showed that Asia's richest woman has lost more than half her fortune over the past year due to a cash crunch experienced by China's real estate sector.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a major shareholder of Country Garden, a Chinese property giant, Yang Huiyan, had her net worth drop more than 52 per cent from $23.7 billion a year to $11.3 billion a year ago.

Yang's fortunes suffered a great loss after the listed shares of Guangdong-based Country Garden's Hong Kong fell 15 per cent on Wednesday following an announcement by the company saying that it would sell new shares to raise cash.

Yang inherited her fortune in 2005 when her father -- Country Garden founder Yang Guoqiang -- transferred his shares to her, according to state media.

Two years after the developer's initial public offering in Hong Kong, Yang became Asia's richest woman, AFP reported.

She holds that title by a thread, as chemical fibers tycoon Fan Hongwei is the runner-up with a net worth of $11.2 billion on Thursday.

In 2020, Chinese authorities cracked down on over-indebtedness in the property sector, forcing major players such as Evergrande and Sunac to renegotiate with creditors as they struggle to make payments and are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Consumers across the country, angered by construction delays and delayed delivery of their properties, have begun withholding mortgage payments on homes sold before completion.

While the industry turmoil has not had a devastating effect on Country Garden, it shocked investors on Wednesday when it announced plans to raise more than $343 million in a stock sale, in part to pay off debts.

Country Garden, in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, said that the money from the sale would be used for "refinancing existing offshore indebtedness, general working capital and future development purposes."

Amid the analysts' and policymakers' fear of financial contagion, the banking regulator in China has urged lenders to support the property sector and meet the "reasonable financing needs" of firms.

In the world's second-largest economy, 18-30 per cent of the GDP is accounted for by the property sector and is a key driver of growth.

Following the release of the worst Q2 growth figures since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, analysts have warned that the industry is stuck in a "vicious cycle" that will further dent consumer confidence