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.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
RSS