Zhong Shanshan replaces Ambani as Asia’s richest man

Wednesday 06th January 2021 05:24 EST
 

Zhong Shanshan, founder of bottled water company Nongfu Spring has overtaken Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani as the richest person in Asia, with a net worth of $77.8 billion. According to The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhong’s net worth has surged $70.9 billion making him the richest man in Asian above both Mukesh Ambani and China's Jack Ma. Two major factors behind the surge in his wealth are the mega listings of his vaccine manufacturing company Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co in April followed by that of his bottled water company Nongfu on the stock markets. Nongfu Spring turned out to be one of Hong Kong’s best listings and its shares have jumped 155 per cent since their debut, and the shares of the vaccine company have increased over 2,000 %. The 66-year-old has tried his fortune in several spheres and has even worked as a journalist, a construction worker, a beverage sales agent before getting on with his own business.

Interups opts out of AI bidding process

New York-based Interups Inc has withdrawn from the Air India bidding process. Last Tuesday was the last day for filing an expression of interest (EoI) physically by those who had submitted the same online by the deadline of December 14 and the retirement fund of NRIs did not do the same, ostensibly due to a clause that could have led to a “potential legal disqualification”. The Interups EoI submitted on December 14 had proposed 49% ownership for it and remaining 51% for the employees. However, a consortia of 209 AI employees, led by the airline’s director (commercial) Meenakshi Mallik, have filed their own EoI. Interups chairman Laxmi Prasad said a clause of the AI sale mandates that “no two interested bidders either individually or as a member of consortium shall be entitled to take the benefit of financial strength of the same affiliate for the purpose of participating in the proposed transaction either directly or indirectly”. With employees being a common affiliate - a formal consortia in the case of Mallik’s EoI and a proposed one by Prasad - the Interups chairman says there could have been a “potential legal disqualification”.

Fraud cases drop in first half of FY21

There has been a sharp drop in both the number and value of banking frauds reported in the first half of FY21. According to RBI data, based on occurrence date, the first half of FY21 saw 1,132 fraud cases worth £118.2 million. Last year, the same period saw an occurrence of 4,493 cases amounting to £2.19 billion. Only 817 card and internet frauds worth £2.6 million were reported during the first half compared to 2,463 frauds for £11.9 million under the same category last year.

In terms of reporting, the first half saw only 3,488 cases of frauds worth £6.46 billion compared to 4,410 cases of £19 billion in the first half of the previous year. In terms of volume and value, fraud in loans continued to be the biggest component, accounting for over 98% of the value of all reported cases.


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