Fubon Group (富邦集團) founder Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才) and his family have replaced Cher Wang (王雪紅), chairwoman of smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電), as the richest person, or family, on Forbes magazine’s list of the 40 richest Taiwanese this year.
Tsai, 82, and his sons Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興) have turned Fubon Group into one of Taiwan’s most successful financial institutions, expanding from a core in non-life insurance to a brokerage-to-bank business, the magazine said.
The Tsai family saw its combined net worth increase to US$6.5 billion as of this month, up from US$6.3 billion last year, according to the New York-based business magazine.
The family, the second-richest in Taiwan last year, was tied at 146th place on Forbes’ global billionaires list, up from 156th place a year ago.
In contrast, Wang and her husband, Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦), who is president and CEO of silicon platform provider VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), saw their net worth shrink from US$6.8 billion to US$4 billion, making them Taiwan’s fourth- and the world’s 276th-richest on Forbes’ latest lists.
Want Want Group (旺旺集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) came in second on the Taiwanese list, with a fortune of US$6.2 billion. He was tied at 161st on the Forbes global list. Tsai, who ranked fourth in Taiwan and was tied at 196th worldwide last year, has seen a US$1 billion increase in his net worth over the past year.
Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) was third on the Taiwanese list this year — the same as his ranking a year ago — with a net worth of US$5.5 billion.
Gou was one of only three Taiwanese billionaires to make this year’s global top-200 richest list, at 184th. He ranked 179th worldwide last year.
Rounding out Taiwan’s top-10 were Quanta Group (廣達集團) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) in fifth place; Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) co-founder Wang Yung-tsai (王永在) in sixth; Lin Yu-lin (林堉璘), one of Taiwan’s most prominent landlords, and Cheng Shin Rubber Co (正新輪胎) founder Luo Jye (羅結) and family tied in seventh; Rong San Lin (林榮三), property and media tycoon and founder of the Liberty Times and its sister paper the Taipei Times, in ninth place; and Tsai Chen-yu (蔡鎮宇), a real-estate tycoon and former vice chairman of Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控), in 10th place.
According to the Forbes list, each of the four brothers of the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) — Wei Ying-chou (魏應洲), Wei Ying-heng (魏應行), Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交) — had a fortune of US$1.7 billion, putting them at joint 14th place on Taiwan’s richest list and 764th on the global list.
If their assets were combined, the Wei family would count as Taiwan’s wealthiest.
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