Forbes releases list of Taiwan’s richest

Tsai Hong-tu, 55, and his family are Taiwan’s wealthiest people with a net worth of US$8.5 billion. Tsai chairs many subsidiaries of Cathay Financial Holdings, including Cathay Life Insurance and Cathay Real Estate, whose stock has risen in 2008 because of a recovery in its real estate business.

Tsai and his family inherited their fortune from their father Tsai Wan-lin, who was also considered the richest man in Taiwan with a fortune of US$4.6 billion when he died in 2004.

Close behind Tsai is veteran entrepreneur Wang Yung-ching (also known as Y.C. Wang), 91, who founded Formosa Plastics Corporation, Asia’s largest petrochemical producer, five decades ago.

With only an elementary school education in his pocket, this son of a tea farmer accumulated a wealth estimated at US$6.8 billion, up from US$5.4 billion according to a 2006 Forbes survey.

Rounding out the top 3 is 57-year-old Terry Gou, who started Hon Hai Precision Industry in 1974 with US$7,500. Today, the company is the largest contract manufacturer for IT industry big names, such as Apple, Nokia and Nintendo, with a net worth of US$6 billion, up from US$5.5 billion in Forbes magazine’s 2007 list of the world’s richest people.

The top woman entrepreneur in the list is the 50-year-old daughter of Y.C. Wang, Cher Wang, who runs HTC, a mobile phone manufacturer. With her husband, she takes the fifth place in the list with a net worth of US$3.5 billion.

Chao Teng-hsiung, 64, a property developer who also built fortune from scratch is the biggest gainer this year as he padded his fortune to US$1.8 billion. Chao, currently chairman of the Farglory Group, landed at number 13 on Forbes inaugural list of Taiwan’s 40 richest, amid reports that his company stock has nearly quadrupled in the past two years, making it Taiwan’s most valuable publicly traded real estate developer, said Forbes.

The youngest member of the Forbes lineup is 43 year-old Steven Pan, chairman of Formosa International Hotels. With his family, he has amassed a US$580 million fortune in the management of Taiwan’s luxury hotels.

Taiwan’s 40 tycoons are worth US$77 billion; close to rival Japan (US$89.9), but far behind the United States, which totals 469 billionaires by itself — the collective net worth of the 400 mightiest American billionaires reached US$1.54 trillion last year according to Forbes.

Local stocks have risen 4 percent since the beginning of the year, and the Taiwan dollar has jumped 6 percent on hopes Ma will pursue stronger links with China, where a booming economy has already attracted about 1 million Taiwan investors.

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