On October 20, the Hurun Research Institute released the “2020 Hurun China Rich List”. According to the list, 44-year-old Chen Zhiping, the founder of Smoore, who specializes in electronic cigarettes, ranked 59th with 64 billion yuan, becoming the richest man in the electronic cigarette industry.
Public information shows that Smoore International Holdings Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Smoore”) was formerly known as Shenzhen Smoore, mainly engaged in electronic cigarette OEMs, and its customers include Japan Tobacco, British American Tobacco, etc. In December 2015, Shenzhen Smoore was listed on the NEEQ and delisted from the NEEQ on June 5, 2019.
One year after its delisting, Smoore changed its old name Mike Weier to Smoore and re-entered the capital market. On July 10, 2020, Smoore International was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with an issue price of HK$12.4 and a fund-raising of HK$6.86 billion. The stock price of Smoore International was HK$31 when the market closed that day. Compared with the closing price on the day of listing, the share price of Smoore has risen by more than 20% in the three months since the listing. As of the close on October 20, the market value of Smoore International reached 218.3 billion Hong Kong dollars (a contract of 188.271 billion yuan). As of the end of the first half of 2020, Chen Zhiping, founder of Smoore, holds 34.13% of the company’s shares.
It is worth noting that in the “2020 Hurun China Rich List”, in addition to Chen Zhiping, Smoore has 4 founding shareholders on the list, all of which are on the list for the first time.
