BEIJING, July 28, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Asia's wealthiest woman lost more than
half her fortune over the past year as China's real estate sector was rocked
by a cash crunch, a billionaire index showed Thursday.

Yang Huiyan, a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden,
saw her net worth plunge by more than 52 percent to $11.3 billion from $23.7
billion a year ago, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Yang's fortune took a major hit on Wednesday when the Guangdong-based Country
Garden's Hong Kong-listed shares fell 15 percent after the company announced
it would sell new shares to raise cash.

Yang inherited her wealth when her father -- Country Garden founder Yang
Guoqiang -- transferred his shares to her in 2005, according to state media.

She became Asia's richest woman two years later after the developer's initial
public offering in Hong Kong.

But she is now barely holding onto that title, with chemical fibres tycoon
Fan Hongwei a close runner-up with a net worth of $11.2 billion on Thursday.

Chinese authorities cracked down on excessive debt in the property sector in
2020, leaving major players such as Evergrande and Sunac struggling to make
payments and forcing them to renegotiate with creditors as they teetered on
the edge of bankruptcy.

Buyers across the country, furious at lagging construction and delayed
deliveries of their properties, have begun withholding mortgage payments for
homes sold before completion.

While Country Garden has remained relatively unscathed by industry turmoil,
it spooked investors with a Wednesday announcement that it planned to raise
more than $343 million through a share sale, partly to pay debts.

Proceeds from the sale would be used for "refinancing existing offshore
indebtedness, general working capital and future development purposes,"
Country Garden said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China's banking regulator has urged lenders to support the property sector
and meet the "reasonable financing needs" of firms as analysts and
policymakers fear financial contagion.

The property sector is estimated to account for 18-30 percent of the
country's GDP and is a key driver of growth in the world's second-largest
economy.

Analysts have warned that the industry is mired in a "vicious cycle" that
would further dampen consumer confidence, following the release of dismal Q2
growth figures that were the worst since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.