SHANGHAI: The largest stock offer in history has made Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, China’s richest person with a fortune of $25 billion, an ann­ual wealth ranking for the country showed on Tuesday.

Ma, who had to persuade friends to give him $60,000 to start Alibaba just 15 years ago after being rejected by US venture capitalists, now leads a company valued at more than $200bn after listing on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.

Know more: Alibaba raises record $25bn in Wall Street debut

“It has been an amazing year for China’s best tycoons despite the jitters about the Chinese economy,” said China-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report in its annual rich list.

Ma reaped more than $800 million from selling shares through the initial public offering in Alibaba, based on company filings, with the value of his remaining stake of 7.8 per cent surging to more than $17bn by Monday.

Last year the estimated wealth of the former English teacher turned Internet entrepreneur was just over $4bn, which did not even place him in the top 20, according to the 2013 survey.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014