40 Taiwanese named in annual billionaire report

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Forty Taiwanese people have been named in an annual billionaire report published with collaboration by the global financial services networks of UBS and PwC Friday, an increase from 35 in the previous report.

According to the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report 2019, 11 Taiwanese billionaires were added to the list for the wealth they possessed in 2018.

Their wealth added US$1.1 billion to the overall holdings of Taiwan's 40 richest people, whose combined assets reached US$85.5 billion last year -- up 1 percent from 2017.

Of the 11 newcomers, several are from the property, raw materials and retail sectors, with three being self-made, said the report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers and UBS Group AG. Their average age is 73.

At the same time, six Taiwanese were removed from the list, the report said.

Many of the 40 Taiwanese billionaires are from conventional industries such as the property and financial sectors, with an average age of 69 -- five years older than the global average.

Among the 40 Taiwanese billionaires, there was only one woman, who made her fortunes in the real-estate sector and was one of the 11 billionaires newly added to the 2019 report, PwC Taiwan said.

Twenty-seven of the billionaires were self-made, whose wealth accounted for 63 percent of the total owned by the 40 billionaires, the report said.

Sixteen were aged over 70 and planned to grant or give a total of US$29.8 billion in wealth to the younger generation in their family within the next 20 years, it said.