According to The Washington Times, upwards of 24,000 couples in the U.S. petitioned for an annulment, but few of them can say that a divorce has cost them $1.14 billion.
Chinese business mogul and creator of the dating app “Grindr” is currently going through a divorce that will cost him roughly $1.14 billion.
According to a statement from his company, Zhou Yahui will have to transfer nearly 300 million shares of his company to his wife, Li Qiong.
The couple’s apparent split is yet another example of the toll divorce can take on the commercial ventures of some of China’s business leaders.
In the most recent court hearing, the Haidian district court in Beijing awarded Ms. Li 70.5 million of Kunlun’s shares.
Looking at the most recent stock prices, those shares are equivalent to approximately $1.14 billion. The equity transfer would make this divorce one of the most expensive in China’s history.
The way equity is handled by business owners in China makes divorces especially costly, although this one may take the cake.
However, recent studies have shown that there may be a season for divorce.
In new research that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Julie Brines, a sociology professor at the University of Washington, and Brian Serafini, a doctoral candidate there, reported “what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of filings for divorce.”
The press release reveals that the researchers believe that families use the holidays as an attempt to heal and create a happy atmosphere for themselves.
However, once March rolls around, couples realize that their last-ditch effort has failed. Hence, the spring divorce spike.
August is another month drenched in divorces, believed to be the result of back-to-school season.
According to the researchers, the broader economic climate seems to affect these patterns — the predictable two-spike pattern was disrupted at the height of the recession, for example.
Zhou Yahui’s divorce comes at the tail end of the summer spike, but following the trends hasn’t made his legal battle any less expensive.
However, according to some, he may still come out better off. After the equity transfer, he will still have a majority 35% stake in his company.
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