Latest costly divorce is making Chinese woman a billionaire

BEIJING: Du Weimin, the chairman of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., transferred 161.3 million shares of the vaccine maker to his ex-wife, Yuan Liping, according to a May 29 company filing, catapulting her into the ranks of the world’s richest. The stock was worth $3.2 billion as of Monday’s close.

Yuan, 49 this year, owns the shares directly, the filing shows. The Canadian citizen residing in Shenzhen served as a director of Kangtai between May 2011 and August 2018, and is now the vice general manager of subsidiary Beijing Minhai Biotechnology Co. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics, reported international media on Monday.

To secure Du’s controlling right to the company, Yuan signed a concert party agreement delegating her voting rights to him, according to the regulatory filing. Du’s net worth has now dropped to about $3.1 billion from $6.5 billion before the split, excluding his pledged shares.

Kangtai, which said in February it would develop a vaccine to fight the coronavirus, has surged 60% this year, taking its market value to more than $13 billion. It lost 3.6% on Monday after the divorce news.

Du, 56, was born into a farming family in China’s Jiangxi province. After studying chemistry in college, he began working in a clinic in 1987 and became a sales manager for a biotech company in 1995, according to the prospectus of Kangtai’s 2017 initial public offering. In 2009, Kangtai acquired Minhai, the company Du founded in 2004, and he became the chairman of the combined entity.

China’s rapidly growing economy has been an engine for the country’s richest, and Du is not the only tycoon who’s had to pay a steep price for a divorce. In 2012, Wu Yajun, at one point the nation’s richest woman, transferred a stake worth about $2.3 billion to her ex-husband, Cai Kui, who co-founded developer Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. In 2016, tech billionaire Zhou Yahui gave $1.1 billion of shares in his online gaming company, Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., to ex-wife Li Qiong after a civil court settlement.

Sometimes, a goodbye can be time-consuming too. South Korean tycoon Chey Tae-won’s wife filed a lawsuit in December asking for a 42.3% stake in SK Holdings Co. valued at $1.2 billion.