In April, the American real estate website “Robb Report” exploded with news, revealing that a Chinese lady named Gu had been continuously buying three top-notch mansions in the United States over the past 18 months! She splurged a whopping 257 million USD (approximately 1.862 billion RMB) on these luxurious estates. Who exactly is this mysterious “Chinese tycoon”?
To uncover the identity of this mysterious buyer, the media went to great lengths…
The first revealed property records showed that the buyer was a lady from Shenzhen named Gu Fang. Subsequently, news circulated that her husband was the chairman of an A-share listed company, who had amassed considerable wealth over the past few years through medical products.
Combining the pieces, one of the co-founders of the A-share listed company with a market value of hundreds of billions, Mindray Medical, Xu Hang, also known as the “King of Chinese Respirators,” and his wife, Gu Fang, appeared in the public eye.
Xu Hang’s life story can be described as that of a “winner.”
Xu Hang was born in 1962, with both his parents teaching at South China Normal University.
Growing up in such a family, Xu Hang was an “exceptional child” from a young age. He was admitted to the computer science department of Tsinghua University at the age of 17. After graduating, in 1984, Xu Hang even crossed disciplines to obtain a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the Department of Electrical Engineering.
However, behind this “genius” was “99% sweat.” He once recalled his journey of learning:
“Since childhood, my father was very strict about my studies, requiring me to set learning goals for myself every day. Only after achieving the set goals could I take a short break. When I was still a child, my father set the goal for me to aim for Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the University of Science and Technology of China for my future university.”
After graduating, Xu Hang joined Shenzhen Anke, then China’s earliest high-tech medical equipment company. In a situation where talent was extremely scarce, Xu Hang was promoted to the technical director of the ultrasound department in just two years. During this time, at the age of 29, Xu Hang led his team to develop the first domestically produced color Doppler ultrasound machine and even won the National Science and Technology Progress Award.
As early as the 1990s, Xu Hang was earning a monthly salary of over ten thousand yuan based on his abilities. However, mere wealth could not satisfy the needs of Xu Hang, the “genius youth.”
At that time, nearly 90% of the domestic medical equipment market was controlled by foreign companies. Not only were we dependent on others, but we also had to spend a lot of money to purchase equipment from abroad, and this money was ultimately borne by the sick people.
Xu Hang wanted to develop more advanced domestic medical equipment, which meant a huge investment in research and development. Xu Hang had repeatedly applied to the company for funding, but was not approved. At that time, at the peak of his career, Xu Hang resolutely chose to resign.
Afterwards, Xu Hang recalled, “If I had been given 5 million at that time to do something, I would definitely not have left. It’s not about making a lot of money.”
But fortune often favors the brave.
In 1991, Xu Hang, together with his former colleagues Li Xiting and Cheng Ming, founded Mindray Medical. By 1999, Mindray Medical had achieved a revenue of over one billion yuan from its own products. In 2006, Mindray Medical became the first Chinese medical equipment company to be listed in the United States.
In 2020, China exported over 270,000 ventilators, with over 60% of them coming from Mindray Medical.
In 2021, Mindray Medical’s stock price soared to over 500 yuan per share, and Xu Hang’s net worth skyrocketed from 47 billion to 150 billion yuan. At the peak, he “earned three billion” in a day.
What does this mean? Even if Xu Hang had not chosen to start his own business, with an annual salary of one million yuan, he would have to work hard for 327 years to earn three billion.
And by then, Xu Hang had already achieved “success in both career and love.” In 2005, Xu Hang married Gu Fang, his wife who is 20 years younger than him. Although Gu Fang was exceptionally low-key, she was often regarded by the media as not inferior in appearance to “Milk Tea Sister.”
Earning gold daily and having a doting wife by his side, Xu Hang seemed to be unable to resist the temptation of wealth.
The Power of “Wealth Indulgence”:
Building Mansions for Oneself, Inviting Jack Ma to Clear the Scene for House Viewing!
In fact, shortly after welcoming his doting wife, Xu Hang gradually withdrew from the management team of Mindray Medical and became more of a major shareholder behind the scenes.
In 2007, to everyone’s surprise, Xu Hang ventured into the real estate industry, establishing Pengrui Real Estate and acquiring a piece of land in Qianhai, Shenzhen.
Why such a huge industry shift?
Xu Hang’s response was also quite “indulgent.” According to him, because the domestic mansions were all too poor in quality, he just wanted to build himself a good house.
Thus, after ten years, the famous “Shenzhen Bay No. 1” mansion appeared.
As one of the top ten mansions in Asia alongside Shanghai’s “Tomson Riviera” and Hong Kong’s “Nickelson Peak,” Shenzhen Bay No. 1 also carried Xu Hang’s “hands-on” approach during construction:
The design plan alone was overturned more than a dozen times, costing nearly 200 million yuan. All the hardware facilities in the house were of the highest international brands, and Xu Hang’s spirit of scientific research was also applied to the selection process. It is said that to choose a suitable bathtub, he flew to Germany 37 times himself.
In 2013, Shenzhen Bay No. 1 finally went on sale, with a price as high as 170,000 yuan per square meter. At that time, this price was considered “sky-high” compared to the average price of less than 30,000 yuan per square meter in Shenzhen. It even surpassed the similarly priced “Tomson Riviera,” which sold for 160,000 yuan per square meter.
At that time, people even joked that “without 5 million, you don’t even have the qualification to view the house.” Perhaps this was also the truth.
The target customers of mansions were wealthy individuals themselves. Coupled with Xu Hang’s recommendation and influence in the business community, it is rumored that not only did the richest man at the time, Xu Jiayin, spend 400 million to take two high-rise floors of Shenzhen Bay No. 1, but even Jack Ma was attracted to come and “clear the scene for house viewing.”
In recent years, although the real estate market has been sluggish, the price of Shenzhen Bay No. 1 has been rising all the way, reaching as high as 456,000 yuan
per square meter at one point, earning it the title of “ceiling price” in the Shenzhen market.
The Pengrui Real Estate alone brought Xu Hang a net profit of 3.8 billion yuan, while in the same year, Mindray Medical’s annual net profit was less than 2.6 billion yuan.
Affected by this, Xu Hang, who originally had no intention of delving into the real estate market, has made it the second half of his entrepreneurial life.
Subsequently, Xu Hang, through Pengrui Real Estate, not only invested in and constructed 12 projects but also took over the Huaxia Happiness City More project in 2021.
In fact, in addition to real estate, Xu Hang has also ventured into fields such as artificial intelligence, life sciences, and new materials, investing in domestic and foreign companies such as LITAC, Baideng, Jiabaokangle, SenseTime, Focus Media, and Perfect World.
In 2023, at the age of 61, Xu Hang ranked 99th on the “2023 Hurun Global Rich List” with a wealth of 115 billion yuan.
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Will the Astute Businessman “Change Course” Again?
In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has never lacked wealth creation myths.
In 2018, the movie “Dying to Survive,” based on leukemia patient Lu Yong, was released, making drug price reduction and supply guarantee a focus of public attention.
In the 2020 China Rich List, 22 newcomers from the medical and health industry entered the rich list, becoming the most represented new industry. For a time, capital poured into the previously “overlooked” pharmaceutical and biological industries due to “high investment, slow returns.”
In fact, many tycoons had already placed the “second curve” of their business development in the medical industry.
For example, Zhong Shanshan, who made his fortune with Nongfu Spring, founded Yangshengtang and acquired Wantai Biopharmaceutical, which developed domestically produced bivalent HPV vaccines in 2001. This allowed Zhong Shanshan to earn 13 billion yuan from 2020 to 2023, making him China’s richest man in 2021.
However, it’s only after the tide recedes that you discover who’s “swimming naked.”
As the nucleic acid testing and vaccine companies that once benefited from the epidemic quickly closed curtains, and with the simultaneous implementation of medical procurement and anti-corruption efforts, the pharmaceutical industry once again fell into chaos.
Meanwhile, Xu Hang’s turn to the real estate industry coincided with the bankruptcy of Evergrande and subsequent scandals. His Pengrui Real Estate, which still lacked the fame of Shenzhen Bay No. 1, faced extreme embarrassment, with its attempts to replicate “Shenzhen Bay No. 1” in Longhua and Yantian receiving little response and dismal sales.
It’s no wonder that Xu Hang, who made money from medical equipment, then shifted to real estate, and then moved on to buying mansions around the world. After all, mansions, as high-quality assets, can be enjoyed lavishly and sold off if necessary.
In this regard, Xu Hang, in addition to having the precision of an engineer, also possesses the shrewdness of a businessman.
In the three disclosed mansion transactions, the Xu Hang couple purchased a Hong Kong estate for 107 million USD, initially priced at a high of 166 million USD, at a discount of 35.54%; the house in Walhberg was originally priced at 87.5 million USD and was eventually purchased for 55 million USD, at a discount of 37%; and the New York property was discounted by 47% compared to the original price.
From this, it can be seen that perhaps buying mansions worldwide is not only Xu Hang’s retirement year “enjoyment” but also another “investment” specializing in mansions.