Billionaires

Bubble-Tea Chain Bigger Than Starbucks Yields $8 Billion Fortune

  • China’s Mixue Group to list in Hong Kong on Monday March 3
  • Two brothers behind the firm are its biggest shareholders
A Mixue store in Jakarta, Indonesia.Photographer: Xu Qin/Xinhua/Getty Images
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In the late 1990s, university student Zhang Hongchao opened a cold drinks stall in Zhengzhou, a city of about 13 million in central China. A decade later, his younger brother joined the business.

Now, they’re richer than the mastermind behind the rapid global expansion of Starbucks Corp.