The net worth of Wang Wei, the CEO of SF Express, exceeded that of Pony Ma Huateng, founder and chairman of Internet giant Tencent Holdings, after the logistics company listed its shares on the Shenzhen bourse last week, media reports said on Tuesday.
The company's shares rose by the 10 percent limit on each of the four trading days so far.
The company, which floated on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange via a backdoor listing, has traded its shares under the name SF Holding since Friday. On its first trading day, the company's shares were listed under the name Maanshan Dingtai Rare Earth & New Material.
As of the close on Tuesday, the shares stood at 66.8 yuan ($9.72), taking the company's market capitalization to 279.4 billion yuan. However, the capitalization of the company's tradable shares was only 8.52 billion yuan as of Tuesday's trading end.
The company's capitalization translated into 180 billion yuan in terms of Wang's net worth, according to financial news portal wallstreetcn.com on Tuesday.
But that's not the limit to Wang's fortune, should the shares continue to rise at the current pace. According to wallstreetcn.com, it is only a matter of two days until Wang's net worth surpasses that of Jack Ma Yun, founder and chairman of NYSE-listed e-commerce giant Alibaba.
And if the shares close limit-up for four days starting from Wednesday, Wang's net worth will surpass that of Wang Jianlin, chairman of conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group and currently China's richest man, according to wallstreetcn.com.
However, "these notions [of changes in the rich list ranking] mean nothing," said Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology.
Market capitalization doesn't reflect the company's value to investors in the Chinese stock markets, Dong said, noting that valuation metrics used in the West don't really apply in China as the stock markets in the US and Europe are more mature.
"There is definitely a bubble in SF shares, comparing its share price and its revenue, but that is very common in the Chinese mainland's stock markets. After speculators shift their attention to other shares, the price will fall," Dong told the Global Times Tuesday.
As a labor-intensive industry, express delivery companies face the prospect of their profits being eroded by rising labor costs as couriers' welfare catches up.
The share price is predicted to fall before the non-tradable shares become tradable, added Dong.
