From International Herald Tribune:
A 52-year-old farmer turned developer is as plain as his company’s English name – Country Garden. But the company’s debut Friday on the Hong Kong stock exchange has put him in the record books.
Shares of Country Garden soared 35 percent on the opening day of trading in one of the hottest Chinese initial public offerings of the year. When trading ended later in the day, this little-known real estate developer based in southern China was valued at $15 billion, making the family of Yang Guoqiang, a dirt-under-his-fingers real estate tycoon, perhaps the richest in mainland China.
In many ways, Country Garden’s initial public offer, which was as big as Google’s 2004 stock offering in the United States, is just the latest symbol of the meteoric rise of China and the ongoing stock market fever there.[Full Text]
– Speaking of “peasants,” see also a related discussion of “When is a Farmer not a Farmer?” from Asia Media.
