4. Wang Jianlin
Company – Dalian Wanda Group
2016 earnings – $ 8.6 billion
Wealth increase – 35.5%
3-year in a row, China’s richest man, and entrepreneur deserves to be this high on our list for he has earned more than $8 billion this year. Being the founder and chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, he is holding a monopoly over the real estate business in China, owning more than 21 million square meters of investment property, including hotels, department stores, and shopping malls. Moreover, in 2012 he purchased the AMC Theater, which, along with 213 cinemas that he already owned, made him the big shot in the field of movie and theater. Big game means big money – he expects to triple a multi-billion investment regarding the purchase of U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment and in that way to bring the Hollywood to China. Construction of theme parks, and various sport-tourism-entertainment facilities in China and worldwide, as well as a 95-story skyscraper in Chicago, are part of his megalomaniac plans that will certainly reserve him a place on the most-successful lists in years to come.
