Yao is the founder and largest shareholder of Oppein Home Group, the biggest cabinet maker in Asia. The Guangzhou-based company exports products to 128 countries around the world. It reported revenue of 11.4 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in 2018 with 6,000 global showrooms and almost 20,000 employees.
Yao Liangsong's net worth of $4.53B can buy ...
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Yao’s net worth is derived from a 69% stake in Oppein Home Group. The Guangzhou-based company is the largest cabinetry manufacturer in Asia and exports products to 128 countries around the world, according to its website. It has almost 20,000 employees, according to the company's 2018 annual report.
Oppein began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in March 2017 and had revenue of 11.4 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in 2018. He owns his shares directly, according the company's 2019 third-quarter report. About 5% of his shares are pledged and removed from the net worth summary.
Yao also owns about 1.8 million convertible bonds, according to a company disclosure dated Nov. 4, 2019. The asset is valued based on Oppein Home Group's share price in December 2019.
Yang Yaoxing, a spokesperson for the company, declined to comment on the billionaire's wealth.
Yao Liangsong was born in Meizhou, China in August 1964. He graduated from the Beihang University with a degree of machine engineering and was assigned his first job as a teacher at an aviation school in Jiangxi in 1986, where he set up a school magazine called Grassland for the students, according to a television interview on Shenzhen-based CETV in 2009.
Yao left teaching and started his own restaurant business two years later, which failed and left him in debt, which he helped pay off by selling medical equipment. Yao's sister inspired him to establish Oppein Home Group in Guangzhou in 1994, according to Oppein's website on April 2017. The company began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in March 2017 with Yao serving as chairman of the group.
The billionaire maintains positions in the People's Political Consultative Committee of Guangzhou Baiyun District and the General Chamber of Commerce, according to the company's initial public offering prospectus in March 2017.