Background
Dai was born in 1959 into a large family from Jiangsu Province and the fourth of six children.
志康 戴
Dai was born in 1959 into a large family from Jiangsu Province and the fourth of six children.
He graduated from Renmin University of China with a bachelors degree in economics. He also received a postgraduate degree from the prestigious Graduate Research Program of the People’s Bank of China.
After his graduation in 1987, Dai went to work as an assistant to the head of CITIC Bank. Two years later, Dai set up a business with two friends, which failed in six months, leaving him unemployed. Though he joined Dresdner Bank shortly after, the entrepreneurial itch was too strong for Dai. In 1990 he headed down to Hainan, soon to set up one of China’s earliest fund management businesses. In 1994 Dai founded Zendai, and later restructured the group and became chairman in 1998.
Dai Zhikang dreamed of becoming the Warren Buffet of China. By age 28, he won permission to set up the first public equity fund in China and raised US$7 million in the first round. ‘We invested continually,’ he noted, ‘There came a point when I realized that the fund was in debt to the tune of US$25 million.’ Dai then asked of every debtor: ‘Give me time and I will pay you back.’ (Chen, 2003) When the market finally rebounded, the investment returned more than US$25 million. Dai next turned his attention to real estate, especially in Pudong.
The establishment of Zendai Property in August 1999 was the beginning of Dai’s real estate fortune. Although he had great confidence in Chinese stocks, Dai withdrew at what he considered to be the right time to seek better returns in real estate development. In July 2002, Zendai invested in Shanghai Century, a Hong Kong-listed entity, and Dai has since continued investing heavily in real estate. By 2003, with assets of US$180 million to his name, Dai was still asking for time but for a different reason, ‘Give me time and I will turn Zendai into a multinational corporation.’
While he was running his real estate business, Dai was also an art collector. Notable among the charitable art organizations funded by Dai is the Zendai Museum of Modern Arts in Shanghai. While not quite the Warren Buffet of China, Dai Zhikang and the Shanghai Zendai Property Limited and Investment Group continue to grow in the up and coming Chinese market. Only time will tell as to whether one day Dai can indeed announce that he is the Warren Buffet of China.