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When Zhang Kongyuan started his sneaker business over three decades ago, he couldn’t afford a regular factory. So he converted a pig farm next to rice fields in western Taiwan.
Today, the founder of Huali Industrial Group is worth more than $ 13 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Huali Corporation, a shoe maker for companies like Nike, Converse, and Vans, produces more than 180 million pairs of shoes per year.
Huali’s shares have jumped 162% since its IPO on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in April, propelling founder Zhang, who owns 87% of the company with his family, to the top of the island’s wealthy list. overtaking Foxconn partner Terry Jo, which makes iPhone phones for Apple.
Zhang was born into a farming family in Taiwan in 1948. After graduating from Agricultural College, he began working in a factory that produced women’s shoes, according to a report by the Taiwanese Business Weekly, saving money. money to start his own shoe business in Taiwan and Guangdong in southern China in the 1980s.
In 1990, Zhang founded Liangxing Industrial with partners in Hong Kong, according to Huali’s initial public offering. The Liangxing Group went public in Hong Kong in 1995 and was later renamed Symphony Holdings.
In 2004, Zhang founded Huali Company in Zhongshan, China, near Hong Kong, and 10 years later, he and his family bought assets from Symphony to develop Hualei and resigned their post as Director of Symphony the same. year.
Huwali reported $ 2.1 billion in revenue last year, with 21 manufacturing bases around the world until the end of 2020, according to the prospectus.
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