China's Wealth Boom Is Creating A New Generation Of Self-Made Female Billionaires
Most people are aware of the enormous scale and scope of
entrepreneurship in China. The Middle Kingdom’s economy continues to grow every
day, with the number of new registered businesses up 13.2% year on year in the first half of 2017. Yet, there
is a shining minority group that is rarely spoken about – female entrepreneurs.
The last few years have been remarkable for Chinese businesswomen, so much so
that China is now the de facto capital of the self-made female billionaires’
club. Even so, 2017 has been an especially significant year as nine female
entrepreneurs made their debuts in Forbes self-made women billionaires list ranking China
far ahead of the second-placed U.S., which listed only five women this year.
Chinese women fare better in a gender
context as well. Today, almost 6% of Chinese billionaires are self-made women,
topping all other parts of the world where they number just under 2%, according
to Forbes Billionaires List 2017.
There are two key characteristics that distinguish Chinese female
billionaires from their counterparts around the world. First, they tend to
focus on single industry and secondly, they are generally politically inactive
compared to their male compatriots.
Several years ago, real estate was the fastest path to wealth for women
billionaires. Even in 2017, the top three places on China’s wealth ladder have
been occupied by real estate sourced capital, namely in the hands of Yang
Huiyang, Wu Yajun and Chen Laiwa. However, the majority of the real estate
women billionaires in China have entered list before 2010. Many newer Chinese female billionaires such as Wu
Lanlan, Chen Liying and Tang Jianfang acquired their wealth through optimizing
supply chains, specializing in the logistics, packaging and postal services
industries – acting as efficiency enablers with their husbands.
China’s richest females also seem to
be more charitable than their male counterparts. One in three women billionaires
from the list have launched philanthropic projects with their ten-digit
fortunes. The environmentalist entrepreneur He Qiaonv’s preservation initiative is one just one example of
this trend. She is founder of Beijing Orient Landscape & Environment Co
Ltd, one of Asia's largest landscape architecture companies. Ms. Qiaonv has
recently committed $1.5 billion for wildlife conservation a much
much higher figure than anyone else for this specific area, probably driven by
her own background.
Another
philanthropist businesswoman, Lei Jufang, made the donations through her company,
Tibet Cheezheng Tibetan Medicine, of which Lei is a founder. She donated at
least $7 million to support education, arts, culture and social services.
Furthermore, her company made a donation of $1 million to set up the Special
Fund of Tibetan Culture Heritage and Protection for the China Society for
Promotion of the Guangcai Program in 2007. The company also donated $1 million
worth of medicine in support of Sichuan earthquake victims in 2008.
In some cases, Chinese super-rich make
donations through their companies due to the lack of talent in the philanthropy
field and mistrust to the current governance system of the foundations like Lei
Jufang. In the years to come, we’re likely to see many other women
philanthropists in China, especially considering the rise of self-made
entrepreneurs.
These changes have set a new precedent
as the global architecture of wealth has shifted from multi-generational to
entrepreneurial ownership over the last decade. This shift has had visible
implications for China’s women, especially considering that they were mostly
benefitted from inherited capital in the past.
Combined
total wealth of women from inheritances has decreased by 20% while self-made
wealth has doubled since 2010. In addition, they managed to become
unprecedentedly successful in mingling business with family. This pattern has
brought a new understanding to the old "family business" term: key
stakeholders of the family business are husband-wife affinity rather than
traditional father-son agnatic kinship.
Hard work, adaptive culture and small
family partnership associated with the early business triumph are connecting
dots of a shape that describe today’s wealthy Chinese woman.
See Forbes coverage of the article.
Authors: Fakhri Ahmadov is Managing Director at the firm, [email protected]