A 45-YEAR-OLD female entrepreneur who came to work in Shenzhen 20 years ago is expected to become the richest woman in China, with an estimated net worth of 46.6 billion yuan (US$7.456 billion) after her company goes public this week, local Chinese-language media reported yesterday.

    Lens Technology (Lens), founded by Zhou Qunfei in Shenzhen in 2003, launched its initial public offering (IPO) yesterday on Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company’s market value is estimated by stock brokers to jump to 53 billion yuan after the trading of her company’s shares begins, according to a report by yesterday’s Shenzhen Economic Daily.

    Zhou, who is the company’s president, currently holds 97.69 percent of the company’s shares. Her company earned 1.176 billion yuan in net profit last year.

    A Hunan native, Zhou was born in 1970 and came to Shenzhen about 20 years ago. She started working for BielCrystal Manufactory Ltd. (BielCrystal), which deals in mobile phone glass, multi-media and electronics production.

    Zhou left BielCrystal and founded Lens. Her company has been competing with her former employer in many fields ever since, according to the paper.

    She later relocated the company to Hunan. Lens’ output exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2013.

    Dubbed as “mobile phone glass queen,” Zhou has maintained a low profile. It’s not known how she secured large orders from Apple Inc. in the United States.

    Both Lens and BielCrystal are glass panel suppliers for Samsung and Apple. The two companies are known for competing with each other over talent and clients.

    (Martin Li, Huang Wentao)