Two of the founders of the nation’s largest handset camera lens supplier 27 years ago made their debut on the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest individuals this year.
Former Largan Precision Co (大立光) chairmen Scott Lin (林耀英) and Tony Chen (陳世卿) ranked 33rd and 40th respectively on this year’s list, thanks to a more than doubling of the company’s share price in the past year, according to Forbes magazine.
Lin and his family have a net worth of US$1.2 billion, while Chen and his family have US$950 million, the magazine said.
Largan counts Apple Inc as its largest client. HTC Corp (宏達電), BlackBerry Ltd, Nokia Oyj, Samsung Electronics Co, Xiaomi Corp (小米), Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and ZTE Corp (中興) are also major customers.
The market value of the Nantun District (南屯), Greater Taichung-based company reached NT$299.8 billion as of yesterday, when its share price rose 0.68 percent to NT$2,235, the most expensive stock on the local bourse.
Increasing investor confidence in the company’s growing business, bolstered by orders from Apple and non-Apple clients, has lifted the stock 83.95 percent so far this year and 142.93 percent over the past 12 months.
On Wednesday, Daiwa Capital Markets Taiwan became the latest foreign brokerage house to raise its target price for the company, placing it at NT$2,560 from its prior forecast of NT$2,400.
Daiwa cited increasing revenue contribution from Chinese smartphone brands for the upgrade.
Largan is expected to further benefit from the launch of two new iPhone 6 models despite likely smaller spec upgrades, Daiwa analyst Kylie Huang (黃奎毓) said in a client note.
Meanwhile, Want Want Holdings Ltd (旺旺控股) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), who has a net worth of US$9.6 billion, continued to lead the club of Taiwan’s wealthiest this year, Forbes said.
The nation’s second-richest title went to the Wei brothers of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), with US$8.6 billion.
The group includes Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) in Taiwan and instant-noodle brand Master Kong (康師傅) in China.
The third, fourth and fifth wealthiest are Fubon Group (富邦集團) founder Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才) and family, with US$7.9 billion; Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), with US$6.05 billion; and Lin Yu-lin (林堉璘), founder of the Hong Tai Group (宏泰集團) and a prominent commercial property developer, with US$6 billion, the report said.
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