Initial public offering mania in China creates 3 new billionaires in a week

Initial public offerings have been an important channel for wealth creation in China

The pace of wealth creation in China just reached a whole new level.

Just ask Hu Kun, chairman of Contec Medical Systems Co. Shares of the instruments maker surged more than 10-fold in its market debut Monday and recorded a 986% jump through Thursday. That means the 49% stake Hu owns with his father took their combined fortune to $3.1 billion practically overnight, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Wang Guili, a Contec director who owns 15% of the company, is now worth $947 million after briefly hitting billionaire status earlier in the week.

Of the two dozen or so companies that