A run-up in the shares of China residential real estate developer Times Property Holdings has minted the country's latest billionaire couple.
Shum Chiu Hung, the chairman and founder of the Guangzhou-headquartered business, and his wife Li Yi Ping were worth a combined $1.1 billion as of Friday.
Times shares eased 0.5% to HK$6.26 on Friday after reaching a record high of HK$6.29 at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a day earlier. The stock has more than doubled in value in the past year.
Shum started his business career in real estate development in 1999, and has experience in trade, finance and real estate development, according to a company biography. Times went public in Hong Kong in 2013. Shum holds an EMBA degree from Fudan University in Shanghai. Li doesn’t hold a seat on Times’ board and owns her shares separately from Shum. The two together own nearly 69% of the company’s shares.
China is home to the world’s second-largest number of billionaires after the United States. Jack Ma, the chairman of e-commerce leader Alibaba Group, is currently the country's richest man with a fortune worth $35 billion, according to the real-time Forbes Billionaires List.
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