(Yicai Global) Feb. 13 -- Shares of Shanshan dropped after Zheng Yonggang, the founder of the world's No. 1 supplier of anode materials for consumer electronics, died of a heart attack.

Shanshan's stock price [SHA: 600884] closed 3.2 percent down at CNY18.62 (USD2.70) after tanking as much as 6.4 percent intraday.

Zheng died at the age of 65 on Feb. 10, the Ningbo-based company said in a statement on its WeChat account recently. In January, he still presided over the firm's 2023 economic work conference.

The founder's total shareholding in Shanshan's parent company was 40.1 percent before his death, according to business data platform Tianyancha. The businessman was ranked as No. 1,864 on China's 2022 Rich List with a net worth of CNY12.5 billion (USD1.8 billion), based on Hurun Report.

Zheng was a strategic entrepreneur as he founded Shanshan in 1989 as a clothing brand. The popular men's suit brand went public in 1996. In 1999, when China’s garment industry was peaking, the company began its transformation into a maker of lithium-ion battery materials. In 2018, the firm spun off its clothing business for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

In 2021 and 2022, Shanshan counted Contemporary Amperex Technology, LG Chem, BYD, Tesla, Daimler-Benz, and BMW as some of its anode clients. Moreover, it acquired LG Chem’s polarizer business in 2021 to become the world’s largest manufacturer of such optical filters. Besides that, Shanshan is engaged in financial services, trade logistics, and real estate.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi