World's newest billionaire emerges from Asia’s most expensive divorce

A brand new female billionaire has cropped up from one of Asia’s most costly divorce.

The chairman of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co, Du Weimin gave 161.3 million shares of the vaccine maker to his ex-wife, Yuan Liping, which instantly propelled her into the list of the world’s richest, as per 29th May filing.

The valuation of the stock was priced $3.2 billion as of Monday’s close.

Yuan Liping, who turned 49 this year, possesses the shares directly, but signed an agreement handing over the voting rights to her ex-husband, the filing displays. The citizen of Canada, who stays in Shenzhen, worked as a director of Kangtai. Currently, she is the vice general manager of subsidiary Beijing Minhai Biotechnology Co. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of International Business and Economics Beijing.

Kangtai shares had skyrocketed the previous year and have carried on their ascent since February, when the company put out a plan to make a vaccine to fight Covid-19. They slipped for the second day Tuesday after the news of the divorce, losing 3.1% as of 9:44 am in Hong Kong and bringing the market value of the company to $12.9 billion.

Du Weimin’s net worth has now gone down to around $3.1 billion from $6.5 billion ahead of the divorce, cutting out his pledged shares.

Du Weimin (56) was born in China’s Jiangxi province into a farming family. After studing chemistry in college, he started working in a clinic and became a sales manager for a biotech firm in 1995, as per the prospectus of Kangtai. In 2009, Kangtai obtained Minhai, and became the chairman of the combined entity. Minhai is the company Du founded in 2004.

China’s growing economy has been an engine for the country’s richest, and Du is not only tycoon who has had to pay a great price for a split. Earlier, Wu Yajun, who was china’s richest woman, gave a stake of around $2.3 billion to her ex husband, Cai Kui, who co-founded developer Longfor Group Holding Ltd.

South Korean's 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. That would make her the second-largest shareholder of the company should she win the case, which is still underway.

The most expensive split till now is that of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos. The Amazon.com Inc. Jeff gave 4% of the online retailer to his ex-wife who now has a $48 billion fortune and is the world’s 4th richest woman.

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