Zhong Huijuan Facts: 13 Things to know about the self-made billionaire woman

Zhong Huijuan is a 59-year-old Chinese entrepreneur who started a pharmaceutical company empty-handed. Currently, she has been named the world’s richest self-made women billionaire with 106 billion yuan (about $15.1 billion). Although she was unknown to several business individuals or personalities, she has currently become the talk of the town. Today, Zhong Huijuan is popular as Asia’s richest woman.

In this blog, we will discuss several Zhong Huijuan facts that portray her journey to becoming a self-made billionaire. But before we proceed with our enlisted Zhong Huijan facts, let us take a glimpse of her life.

Who is Zhong Huijuan?

Zhong Huijuan is a renowned Chinese pharmaceutical executive. In 1995, she founded Hansoh Pharmaceutical and currently spearheads as the CEO, and chair of the company.     Zhong completed her undergraduate in July 1982 in chemistry from Jigansu Normal University. She taught Yan’an middle school in Lianyungang in the early 1990s, she founded Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group in 1995.

In the year 1995,Zhong left her job as a chemistry teacher to run the fledgling company and started up her company with about ten employees at initial.  In 2000, she launched the oral formulations company. In 2016 received financing from Hill house Capital Group, one of the most prominent private equity firms in Asia.

Zhong’s husband Sun Piaoyang is a maker of anti-tumor drugs whose stock has returned about 16,300% since it went public in Shanghai almost two decades ago. Currently, Sun is worth $9.3 billion owing to the success of his Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. He is also a billionaire in his own right, owing to his fortune in the pharma sector as well. Together, Zhong and her husband are among the world’s richest pharma families.

Let us learn some fascinating facts about Zhong Huijuan’s career and her business life.

Zhong Huijuan Facts about her illustrious career

1. Instead of manufacturing different types of medicines and drugs, Zhong established a company that develops drugs to treat a variety of health issues as well as for central nervous system diseases, cancer, infections, diabetes, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular treatments.
2. Zhong Huijan and her husband Sun Piaoyang are poised to be among the world’s richest pharma families, with a combined fortune that rivals the Sacklers, who made a fortune selling opioids, and the Bertarellis of Switzerland.
3. In 2007, Zhong received the March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter award, which recognizes outstanding working women in China.
4. In 2019, when Hansoh Pharmaceutical had its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and raised US$1 billion, Zhong Huijan became the richest self-made woman in Asia, with a net worth of US$10.5 billion.
5. By 2019, Zhong’s company had become the largest producer of psychotropic drugs in China. In 2020, she was the world’s 9th richest woman according to Forbes, as well as the 20th richest person in China according to Hurun Research Institute’s annual list.
6. Zhong holds her 66% stake in the company through the Sunrise Trust, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, and has received around US$750 million in dividends since Hansoh was founded in 1995.

Zhong Huijuan facts about her Business life

7. For the company’s growth, Zhong reinvested 5% of sales revenue into R&D, developing products including antibiotics, cancer treatments, and psychotropic, endocrine, and gastrointestinal drugs.
8. The R&D budget later grew to nearly 10% of revenue, an unusually high level for a Chinese pharmaceutical company. Zhong owns 66% of the company through the Sunrise Trust, registered in the British Virgin Islands.
9. The Hansoh Pharmaceutical Company, which researches and produces drugs for six major therapeutic areas, reported 1.9 billion yuan in profit in 2018, an 18% increase from a year earlier, the prospectus shows. The drugmaker gets almost half of its revenue from cancer treatments.
10. Before going public, Hansoh raised US$344 million from nine cornerstone investors including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Chinese investment firm Boyu Capital. The company raised US$1 billion upon its summer 2019 debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange, bringing its valuation to US$10 billion.

Zhong Huijuan facts: Pivoting Hansoh Pharmaceutical

11. Zhong’s company Hansoh cornerstone investors include Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte, and Hillhouse Capital, Asia’s biggest private equity buyer, helping to draw more market interest in Friday’s IPO.
12. The Hansoh Company said on Thursday that the retail portion of the offering was 12 times covered. Hengrui’s earlier success also may help bolster investor confidence in Hansoh.
13. The IPO will make Zhong China’s third-richest woman, after two real estate moguls. Health-cares spending in China has surged to 5.9 trillion yuan ($853 billion) last year from 3.5 trillion yuan in 2014, and is projected to top 9.4 trillion yuan in 2023, Hansoh said in a prospectus for the offering.

Emerging as the self-made billionaire

Hard work is deeply rooted in china’s culture. This whole engaged culture is derived from a Confucian principle called chi ku, which means “persisting through hardship”. Similarly, workers in china especially tech entrepreneurs are often compelled to put in what is called the “996”—working from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week.

This extreme push is also grounded in another Confucian ethic, that of individual sacrifice for the benefit of family, town, or employer. Zhong has been born and bought up in this work culture. That is how she quit her job and started her own company and put all her energy and effort into growing this company. 

Zhong Huijuan Facts to Learn From

Zhongrepresents the unique generation of entrepreneurs in China. She achieved success not through constant working hours but by choosing a logical pathway in her concerned field of interest. Zhong did all this not for the money or just to liberate herself from 9 to 5 jobs, instead, she worked hard and that way because she was passionate about her work, she loves doing her work.

According to Forbes, Zhong Huijuan was the world’s 89^th richest person with a net worth of US$ 19.7 billion in the year 2021. Moreover, in 2021, Zhong had revenue of 9.9 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zhong Huijuan is the perfect example of a woman who can achieve anything. It is not necessary to have generational wealth to become successful or gain new designations, one can achieve it through hard work and true passion also.

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