One of world's youngest billionaires emerges ... in China, with airline

What would Mao Zedong say? One of the world's youngest billionaires has popped up in China with an airline that tripled in value in a matter of weeks.

Wang Han, just 27, is now worth $1.2bn (£7.7m). He inherited 27% of discount airline Juneyao Airlines from his father in 2004. The Shanghai-based company sold shares in an initial public offering May 27 and the value has risen 10% a day, which is the maximum allowed, reports Bloomberg.

Wang's uncle Wang Junjin, chairman of Juneyao, owns 26% of the airline and controls 14% of department store operator Wuxi Commercial Mansion Grand Orient Co., giving him a $1.1bn (£7.1m) fortune. Wang Junhao, another uncle, already has a fortune of more than $950m (£613m) and will likely quickly become a billionaire as well.

Aviation billionaires are rare in China because the low returns make it difficult to make money in the industry. But China's burgeoning stock market this year has already created 75 new billionaires.

Forty-six of the world's wealthiest people are under the age of 40. Right now the world's youngest billionaire is believed to be 24-year-old American Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel with a net worth of $1.5bn (£9.7m), and also in the ballpark is co-founder Bobby Murphy, 26. "We weren't cool" in college, Murphy once told Forbes. "So we tried to build things to be cool."

Beer heir and New York City DJ Julio Mario Santo Domingo III, at 29, is worth $2.2bn (£1.4bn). Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is worth a whopping $33bn (£21bn), but he's already 30.