A 24-Year-Old Boy Becomes a Billionaire Overnight in China

You don’t require years of hardship to make wealth or a billion empire, you can be a billionaire at any age, just as the 24-year-old son of pharmaceutical moguls, who became a billionaire overnight with $3.8 billion in shares from the family business and gratis.

Eric Tse, son of Tse Ping and Cheung Ling Cheng, both directors of Sino Biopharmaceutical, became one of the wealthiest persons in Asia overnight, when his parents decided to give him about a fifth of the company’s share capital this week, a stake which is worth more than $3.8 billion. 

The move also catapulted Eric Tse into China’s growing class of ultra-rich. He also made his way to Forbes ranking of the 550 wealthiest people on the planet. Eric Tse is now worth more than the US President Donald Trump as a businessman, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. 

The transfer of wealth was meant to “refine the management and inheritance of family wealth”, according to the statement released by the company. Tse also was named an executive director of Sino Biopharmaceutical and is added to its executive board committee. Now with this arrangement, he will earn a little less than $500,000 a year along with other bonuses.

The company said Tse is not interested in being recognized on global rich lists, as the statement said, “In response to nomination for Billionaire List or wealth ranking organized by media or other organizations, [Tse will endeavor not to participate] in such rankings in his own name, and would recommend participating in such nominations in the name of the Tse Ping family”. 

Tse is born in Seattle and had his initial schooling in Beijing and Hong Kong. He graduated recently from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance. After his graduation, joined Tsinghua University in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar.

He is now working as a director for at least five other company boards in Hong Kong, which also includes a firm named for the conglomerate of Thailand’s wealthiest family. 

Tse said about his fortune, “My parents, seniors and elders genuinely believed in my potential and helped me without expecting any return”, he also added, “By the time I was 19, I was thinking about how I could deliver the same positive energy and passion to the people around me”.

Tse may be minted newly as a billionaire, but his Instagram posts show he is occupied with wealth and celebrities around all the time across the world for years. In the posts he can be seen smiling with retired NBA player Yao Ming at the Basket Ball World Cup, he is seen cozy with supermodel Bella Hadid at a Bulgari party in Venice, posing with Princess Charlene of Monaco and a Selfie with singer Rihanna in New York. 

The new status of Tse comes as China, for the first time, surpassed the United States, claiming the largest share of the world’s richest people. A report from Credit Suisse this week said 100 million Chinese citizens are listed among the top 10 percent of all earners, while the US has 99 million people on that ranking.