Savitri Jindal of India has unseated China’s Yang Huiyan as Asia’s richest woman. Huiyan’s fortune eroded due to the real estate crisis in her country that has pulled down her Country Garden Holdings along with other developers.
Seventy-two-year-old Jindal who is India’s richest woman and the country’s 10th-richest person is the chairperson of the Jindal Group. She took over the mantle after her husband, founder OP Jindal, died in a helicopter crash in 2005.
The company headed by her is the third-largest producer of steel in India and also operates in cement, energy and infrastructure.
Jindal surpassed Yang on Friday in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with her $11.3 billion fortune. Yang not only lost the first spot to Jindal but also slipped below fellow Chinese tycoon Fan Hongwei to occupy the third spot now.
Hongwei derives her wealth from chemical-fibre company Hengli Petrochemical Co.
Yang in 2005 inherited her father's stake in the real estate developer to become one of the youngest billionaires of the world. She was Asia’s richest woman for five years reflecting the rapid growth of China's property sector.
