- Singapore’s wealthiest man Li Xiting is already $4.3 billion richer this year. He’s now worth $13.5 billion, according to Bloomberg data.
- Xiting is the co-founder of a medical devices company, and he can thank his rising fortune from booming orders for medical equipment — particularly ventilators — as nations try to deal with the coronavirus.
- A spokesperson told the South China Morning Post, about 100 countries had already made orders, including an order for 10,000 ventilators from Italy.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Singapore’s wealthiest man’s fortune has grown by about $1 billion a month this year from selling ventilators to nations trying to combat the coronavirus.
Li Xiting, who is the co-founder and chairman of a medical devices company called Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, has had his fortune increase by $4.3 billion this year, according to the South China Morning Post, as the company’s stock price “soared” by almost 50%.
He’s now worth $13.5 billion, according to Bloomberg data — which is a 47% increase. It equates to his fortune increasing on average by about $37.7 million every 24 hours.
Demand for Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics’ ventilators has boomed, as healthcare workers around the world struggle without enough to treat people. Ventilators — a medical device that helps patients breathe — are critical to treating COVID-19 patients whose lungs are assailed by the respiratory illness.
And unlike the highly competitive nature of producing masks — 38,000 mask companies have registered to make masks in China this year alone — it’s a small market since building ventilators is technical and highly specialized.
A spokesperson for the company told the South China Morning Post: “Orders for our products increased sharply in March. We received orders from 100-odd countries for our medical devices to fight against the epidemic.”
The spokesperson said it received an order for about 10,000 ventilators from Italy, although the exact price of a ventilator wasn’t clarified.
Li isn’t the only billionaire to do well out of the pandemic. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos fortune has grown substantially as Amazon sales surged, Business Insider previously reported. As of April 24, he’s worth an estimated $145 billion.
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