Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) chairman Tsai Hung-tu (蔡宏圖) and his family topped Forbes Asia’s inaugural list of Taiwan’s 40 richest people released yesterday, with assets of US$8.5 billion.
The 55-year-old Tsai’s wealth has increased since January last year, when the magazine’s annual list of the wealthiest in “greater China,” including Hong Kong and Taiwan, put it at US$7.7 billion.
Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), 91, outperformed Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) this year to take second place with a fortune of US$6.8 billion, up almost 40 percent from January last year’s US$4.9 billion. Gou was listed being worth US$6 billion, US$500 million more than last year.
Tsai’s uncle, Fubon Group (富邦集團) founder Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才), came in at No. 5 on the new list.
Wang Yung-ching’s daughter Cher Wang (王雪紅) and her husband Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦) tied Tsai Wan-tsai for fifth place, with combined assets of US$3.5 billion. Cher Wang, chairwoman of smart-phone maker High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電), was the only woman entrepreneur on the Taiwan top 40 list.
Russell Flannery, Forbes’ Shanghai bureau chief, who compiled the list, attributed the increase in the tycoons’ wealth to the recent economic recovery.
“[The nation’s] property and stock values are going up. And Taiwan’s wealth is increasing,” Flannery told a press conference yesterday.
He said that the nation’s 40 richest had a combined net worth of US$77 billion and a minimum individual net worth of US$570 million.
He said about 20 of the top 28 richest — may make it into Forbes’ annual list of the world’s richest people with US$1 billion in assets, which usually excludes wealth from other family members.
If that happens, the region would then have 88 of the richest people in the world, including 42 from China and 26 from Hong Kong, just behind the richest in the US and Russia.
Apart from the 16 Taiwanese tycoons who made Forbes’ Greater China list last year, the 24 people on this year’s list have made their fortunes in a variety of industries — finance, petrochemicals, food, shipping and real estate — not just the usual information-technology sector.
“Expectations for improved businesses after the [presidential] election have lifted shares of real estate developers and hotel operators, as they are seen as likely to benefit most from an influx of mainland [Chinese] visitors in the future,” Flannery said.
Property tycoon Rong San Lin (林榮三), the founder of the Taipei Times and the nation’s No. 1 Chinese-language daily, the Liberty Times, was ranked No. 7 on the news list with US$2.7 billion in assets.
Another real-estate tycoon, Farglory Group (遠雄集團) chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), won the cover photo slot for the June 16 edition of the magazine, even though he came in at No. 13 with US$1.8 billion.
Chao told yesterday’s press conference that he was “flattered” and that he wanted to “make more contributions to the nation’s real-estate development.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique