One Of The Most Expensive Breakups Ever? Costly Divorce Makes Woman In China A Billionaire

In what could be Asia¡¯s most expensive breakup ever, a woman in China has become a billionaire.

Du Weimin, the chairman of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., transferred 161.3 million shares of the vaccine maker to his ex-wife, Yuan Liping, according to Gulf News, taking her into the ranks of the world's richest. The stock was worth $3.2 billion (Approx Rs 2 lakh 42 thousand crore) as of Monday.

Reporesentational Image/Shortpedia

The filing shows that 49-year-old Yuan directly owns the shares.

She is Canadian citizen residing in Shenzhen who served as a director of Kangtai between May 2011 and August 2018, and is now the vice general manager of subsidiary, Beijing Minhai Biotechnology Co. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Beijing's University of International Business and Economics.

To give Du's controlling right to the company, Yuan signed a concert party agreement giving her voting rights to him, according to the regulatory filing. Du's net worth has now dropped to about $3.1 billion from $6.5 billion before the split, excluding his pledged shares.

South China Morning Post

Kangtai, in February said, it would develop a vaccine to fight the coronavirus. It has surged 60% this year, taking its market value to more than $13 billion. It lost 3.6% on Monday after the divorce news.

56-year-old Du, was born into a farming family in China's Jiangxi province. He studied chemistry in college and began working in a clinic in 1987. He became a sales manager for a biotech company in 1995, according to the prospectus of Kangtai's 2017 initial public offering. In 2009, Kangtai acquired Minhai, the company Du founded in 2004, and he became the chairman of the combined entity. In China, DU is not the only one who had to pay a steep price for a divorce.

Representational Image/Wikimedia Creative Commons

In 2012, Wu Yajun, who at one point was the nation's richest woman, transferred a stake worth about $2.3 billion to her ex-husband, Cai Kui, who co-founded developer Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. In 2016, tech billionaire Zhou Yahui gave $1.1 billion of shares in his online gaming company, Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., to ex-wife Li Qiong after a civil court settlement.

All these settlements show that Chinese rich can remain filthy rich even after losing about half their wealth in divorce settlements.