Li is the chairman of Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, a Chinese conglomerate with petrochemical, real estate and finance divisions. The Hangzhou-based business's main subsidiary, Rongsheng Petro Chemical Company, began trading on the Shenzhen exchange in 2010 and had revenue of 91.3 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) in 2018.
Li Shuirong's net worth of $5.56B can buy ...
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The majority of Li's net worth is derived from a 64 percent stake in Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, a closely-held petrochemical company that reported revenue of 96.7 billion yuan ($14.4 billion) in 2018, according to the company's annual report for 2018.
The Hangzhou-based business owns 70 percent of publicly traded Rongsheng Petro Chemical. Prior to Feb. 19, 2018, the valuation of Zhejiang Rongsheng only included its public holdings. Since this date, the company's stake in Rongsheng Petro Chemical and its smaller public holdings have been removed to avoid double counting. The valuation is based on the enterprise value-to sales and price-to-earnings multiples of Rongsheng Petro Chemical and Shandong Hualu Hengsheng. The valuation was updated on May 2, 2019 to reflect financials for the 12 months to Dec. 31, 2018, and this led to a $500 million decrease in the net worth calculation.
Li also owns 7.5 percent of Rongsheng Petro Chemical directly, according to the company's first quarter report for 2019. This direct stake remains included in the valuation.
Jin Weiying, spokeswoman of the company, didn't respond to Bloomberg's request for comments on the billionaire's net worth.
Li was born in Hangzhou, a city in eastern China in 1956.
In 1989, he was running a timber business when he noticed the price for fabrics soaring in China, and he decided to set up a cloth factory. With eight sewing machines, about 20 employees and 200,000 yuan from selling an early venture in the timber business, he shifted to the textiles, according to a report on the company's website.
The factory had 100 sewing machines by 1995, when competition in the industry sent him to Japan, Australia and New Zealand for ideas on how to manage growth at the company. He added polyester fiber products and petroleum chemicals, establishing the predecessor of his Rongsheng Holding Group.
The group acquired a 29 percent stake of Ningbo United, a Chinese investment company traded in Shanghai, in 2010 for 771 million yuan ($116 million). Its subsidiary Rongsheng Petro Chemical started publicly trading in Shenzhen the same year. The company was added to the MSCI Equity Index in 2017.