Hsung Yue-ling (熊鈺麟), chairman of Ningbo Techmation Co (寧波弘訊), became the first billionaire minted in Taiwan this year after the company surged to a record on Wednesday.
Hsung, who is also known as Xiong Yulin, owns about 60 percent of Ningbo Techmation with his wife, Chou Shan-shan (周珊珊), giving him a net worth of US$1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
TIPPING POINT
The company, which makes systems that control plastic-molding machines, jumped by the exchange-imposed limit of 10 percent to 55.90 yuan at the close on Wednesday, before paring 0.3 percent at yesterday’s close in Shanghai.
The Shanghai Composite Index trimmed gains this year to 43 percent after a 6.5 percent slump yesterday, while Taiwan’s benchmark gauge TAIEX has increased 4.4 percent this year.
SO MANY BILLIONAIRES
“If you think about the pivoting away from exports toward internal consumption-driven growth in China, with a number of people also rising to a more affluent status, it’s not hard to believe there’s so many billionaires,” Joseph Poon, head of UBS AG’s ultra high-net-worth business for Southeast Asia, said at a briefing in Singapore this week.
China’s surging stock market has produced more than 50 new billionaires so far this year.
“The goal is to develop the business well,” Ningbo Techmation board secretary Zheng Qin (鄭琴) said by telephone in response to her chairman’s net worth.
Hsung founded the company with his wife more than three decades ago, when it was called Techmation Taiwan (台灣弘訊). The business, which set up Ningbo Techmation in the Chinese city of Ningbo in 2001, developed Asia’s first plastic injection controller with a screen for Chinese characters, according to its prospectus.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Taiwanese businesses have been benefiting from warmer ties with China since 2008, after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) broadened investment, trade and transport links with China.
Techmation’s biggest client is Haitian International Holdings Ltd (海天國際控股), a maker of plastic injection molding machines that is also based in Ningbo, according to the IPO prospectus.
Hsung and his wife live in New Taipei City, according to the IPO prospectus.
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