Entrepreneurs Li Zongsong and his wife Gu Xiaojia have emerged as China's newest billionaires following a successful bid for their pharmaceutical firm in December. The husband and wife own a combined 38% stake in the Shenzhen-listed company Jiangsu Jiujiujiu Technology following a stock swap after finalizing the sale of their Shanxi Bicon Pharmaceutical Group shares to Jiujiujiu.

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Jiujiujiu Technology acquired 100 percent of Bicon at an estimated price of 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion).  The couple used to own a 53 percent stake in Bicon, which, after conversion into Jiujiujiu shares, gives them $1.2 billion today.

Jiujiujiu manufactures chemicals and advanced pharmaceutical ingredients. Bicon, meanwhile, is known for manufacturing drugs for children's flu and cardiovascular diseases.

China is second only to the U.S. in terms of having the most number of billionaires in the world and the figure keeps on rising - giving China the distinction of being the country with the world's fastest-growing number of new billionaires.

Li graduated from Sun Yat-Sen University and established Bicon in Shanyang County in Shannxi in 1997 with Gu, as the company's director. Gu, meanwhile, holds a Canadian citizenship.

According to Hurun, China produced over 242 billionaires in 2014, a 70 percent leap from its 2013 figure. Despite the shaky situation of Chinese the market and the slowdown of the economy, the Chinese super-rich continue to prosper.  

"Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever, and creating more wealth than any country has ever done before in a year," Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report's chairman and chief researcher, explained.

Tagsli zongsong, gu xiaojia, Jiangsu Jiujiujiu Technology, Shanxi Bicon Pharmaceutical Group