The Australian-born Chinese tycoon went from being a poor man to a successful man who negotiated cooperation with a British prince. He lost 18.6 billion in his career during the ups and downs of his career. Who is he? Why is there such an ups and downs in the business career?
In recent years, the domestic photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly, and one of the first people to start business in this field was an Australian Chinese, Shi Zhengrong.
In 2006, at the age of 43, Shi Zhengrong became the richest man in China with a net worth of 18.6 billion. At the same time, because he was engaged in the photovoltaic industry, he was regarded by the industry as the father of China's photovoltaic industry.
He is such a top tycoon in the industry. He was once a poor child from a rural area. In 1963, Shi Zhengrong was born in a not wealthy family in Jiangsu. He has shown extraordinary learning ability since he was a child, and has At the age of 16, he was officially admitted to the optical research major of Jilin University.
In 1983, due to his strong English communication skills, Shi Zhengrong was sent overseas to study for graduate school. So in 1988, Shi Zhengrong officially entered the University of South Wales in Australia to study.
The teacher at that time was Martin Green. This professor had won the Nobel Environmental Prize for solar energy research. Afterwards, Shi Zhengrong made breakthrough progress in the field of optics under Martin's guidance. .
In 1993, Shi Zhengrong became an Australian citizen. In 2000, Shi Zhengrong began to consider returning to China to start a business. At that time, under pressure from his family, he chose to sell all his savings and return to China alone with 400,000 US dollars to start a business.
After returning to China, Shi Zhengrong only had 400,000 US dollars and several technology patent certificates. Unaccompanied, he met Li Yanren. Because Shi Zhengrong said that if he gave himself 8 million, he would return a world-leading company to the investor. This investment spirit moved Li Yanren. After that, he relied on his contacts in Jiangsu to join forces with well-known enterprises such as Little Swan and Shanhe Pharmaceutical. In 2001, After raising US$6 million, plus Shi Zhengrong's US$400,000 and technology worth US$1.6 million, Wuxi Suntech Solar Power Company was founded.
However, starting a business was quite difficult for Shi Zhengrong. At that time, he was faced with multiple pressures from the company and team members. In order to solve the business difficulties, he worked non-stop in the factory, and his legs would often break due to Sore from holding one position for a long time.
After that, Suntech Group produced its first piece of equipment, and the company began to gradually gather together. After that, Shi Zhengrong went abroad to run the market and expanded the company into production in 2003.
After that, the company bought old equipment that had been eliminated from abroad, saving more than 10 million yuan. Relying on advanced equipment and related technologies, Suntech quickly got out of the losses in 2002 and turned it into a subsidiary in 2004. Revenue performance increased by a full 20 times.
In 2005, Suntech was listed in the United States. After the market closed that day, Shi Zhengrong's personal net worth exceeded US$1.441 billion, making him a well-deserved rich man.
However, after the company went public, Shi Zhengrong's mentality began to change. Faced with huge revenue and profits, Shi Zhengrong became greedy for pleasure.
He once said, "I will never make a penny again, I will only spend money." Since then, he has purchased nearly 10 luxury cars and spent US$200,000 on chartered flights to talk about photovoltaic solar energy with the British prince. cooperation.
At that time, the scale of China's photovoltaic industry could indeed support Shi Zhengrong's extravagant behavior, but there were also huge hidden dangers, that is, most of the market share of the domestic photovoltaic industry was in the hands of foreign companies, and the equipment Most machines and raw materials must be imported from abroad.
In other words, Shi Zhengrong's business operations are, to a certain extent, assembling foreign equipment and materials, lacking core technological competitive advantages.
Later in 2008, the price of silicon materials for manufacturing photovoltaic solar products increased, causing the company's profit margins to be extremely compressed. At the same time, many competing companies emerged in the domestic industry, and the development of Suntech Group entered an unprecedented stage. the cold period.
As of 2012, Suntech Group's debt scale reached 81.8%, production profits were not enough to fill the funding gap, and the stock price also showed a downward trend.
At this turbulent time, Shi Zhengrong was forced to resign as CEO and chairman of the company. In March 2013, Suntech Group went bankrupt and reorganized, and officially delisted in February 2014. Since then, Shi Zhengrong has completely transformed 186 Billionaire's fortune was ruined.
Today, Shi Zhengrong has changed from an industry leader to the CEO of a bankrupt company, and the domestic photovoltaic industry has also lost an outstanding enterprise.