Chen is chairman of Hengli Group, an oil refining, petrochemicals and textiles business. The Suzhou, China-based group produces polyester chips and filaments for use in packaging, electronic and pharmaceutical industries. It's publicly traded petrochemicals division had revenue of 178 billion yuan ($31 billion) in 2021.
Chen Jianhua's net worth of $9.34B can buy ...
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The majority of Chen's fortune is derived from Hengli Group, an oil refining, petrochemicals and textiles business.
The Sushou, China-based group had revenue of 220 billion yuan ($31 billion) to the 12 months ended on June 30, 2022, according to a company filing. It's valued based on the average price-to-earnings multiple of three publicly traded peers: Hengyi Petrochemical Co., Tongkun Group Co. and Hengli Petrochemical Co.
Chen also has a 22.6% stake in Hengli Petrochemical, the publicly traded petrochemicals division, according to the company's Nov. 2, 2022 disclosure. His wife Fan Hongwei transferred almost the entire stake held by one of the holding vehicle to him on Sept. 22, 2022 and this led to a $1.8 billion increase in the calculation of Chen's net worth on Oct. 14, 2022.
Cao, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Chen was born in March 1971 in Jiangsu, eastern China. He quit school at the age of 13 before making his first fortune in silk trading.
With his experiences in silk and textiles, Chen started his own chemical fiber business, the predecessor of Hengli Group in 1994 after acquiring assets from a state-own firm, according to company filing. The group later expanded into petrochemical, tourism and real estate sectors.
Chen became chairman and manager of Hengli Group in 2002 and his wife Fan Hongwei later took up the chairmanship of publicly traded unit Hengli Petrochemical, the main division of Hengli Group. It went public on the Shanghai stock exchange in November 2016 through a backdoor listing, according to a company filing.