As an Asian business man, I admire the many that succeed in the world of milking cow: money. This is a list of billionaire based on the Forbes list of 2013 richest people in the world: the 1 percent. If you don’t see your name on this list, please email me. I’ll do my best to add you the next year, in the mean time send me some dough by buying my book. Cheers!
Asia’s richest person Li Ka-shing added $5.5 billion to his fortune as shares of his biggest holdings, Cheung Kong, Hutchison Whampoa and Husky Energy, all jumped 10% or more. He scooped up another $860 million in dividends in 2012. At age 84, Li still oversees one of the world’s most far-reaching empires with 260,000 employees in 52 countries. Li controlled companies bought British gas supplier Wales & West Utilities for $1 billion in October; his third utilities acquisition in the U.K. in 24 months. He now supplies gas to a quarter of all Brits. Last summer Li officially announced his succession plans, positioning his elder son Victor to take over management and control of the publicly traded assets. Son Richard, also a billionaire who runs his own businesses, will get cash and help on deals. The elder Li is also an investor in Facebook, Spotify, social TV platform Stevie, Kaiima, Everything.Me and Hola.org Kaiima, Everything.Me and Hola.org.
Mukesh Ambani’s fortune dropped $1 billion though he remains India’s richest person and his Reliance Industries remains country’s most valuable company. Reliance, along with its partner BP, will be investing $5 billion in KG-D6, the country’s largest offshore gas field where output has sharply declined and which has been the subject of scrutiny by a federal auditor. Despite hectic lobbying with the federal oil ministry, it has not yet secured a price increase for gas. Ambani is also preparing to roll out 4G services for which he may reportedly lease towers from Reliance Infratel, run by his once-estranged sibling Anil. Mukesh and his wife Nita throw lavish parties, the latest being for British prime minister David Cameron on his recent trip to Mumbai.
The fortune of Lee Shau Kee, chairman of Henderson Land, got over a $2 billion boost as shares of his real estate developer rose in tandem with red-hot property prices in Hong Kong. Lee expects demand in the property market to continue rising this year, despite attempts by Hong Kong authorities to cool the market with higher property taxes for foreign buyers and mortgage restrictions. He recently lobbied for the government to remove expensive land premiums for agricultural land, so that Henderson can build affordable houses. He’s reportedly also mulling donating farmland for low-cost housing. Lee’s early business partner was Sun Hung Kai Properties founder Kwok Tak-seng.
Property tycoons Thomas and Raymond Kwok who run Sun Hung Kai Properties, a dominant player in Hong Kong’s frothy real estate market, are set to appear in its biggest corruption trial later this year. In a scandal that rocked Hong Kong and the region, the duo were charged early last year for making $4 million in payments and loans to former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, in exchange for political leverage. The stock, which tumbled to a one-year low when the scandal broke has since recovered, its reflecting the strength of the real estate market. Family matriarch Kwong Siu-hing survives her husband, hard-driving founder Kwok Tak-seng, who died in 1990, and maintains a say over the family’s holdings.
Indian-born steel baron Lakshmi Mittal is facing hard times; his fortune dropped more than $4 billion in the past year, and is down $14.6 billion in two years as shares of his ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, tanked due mainly due to slumping demand in Europe, which forced it to take a $4.3 billion writedown. It reported a net loss of $3.7 billion in 2012. Despite its debt rating being downgraded to junk status, the steelmaker raised $4 billion in an offering of shares and convertible notes in January in a bid to reduce its $21.8 billion debt. It has been selling non-core assets and shutting down certain sites; in May, it sold American unit Skyline Steel to Nucor for $605 million. It has also inked a deal to sell a 15% stake in a Canadian mine to Korea’s Posco and China Steel Corporation for $1.1 billion. But its plan to close two idle furnaces in France were put on hold after the government threatened to nationalize its operations. Longtime London resident, he and his son Aditya were among the torch bearers for the 2012 Olympics Torch Relay. Son-in-law Amit Bhatia’s family recently partnered Air Asia’s Tony Fernandes and the Tata group, to start a new airline in India.
Cheng Yu-Tung is one of Hong Kong’s great postwar titans of commerce. He retired as chairman of flagship New World Development at the end of 2012, succeeded by son Henry. Rising real estate values nearly doubled the price of New World’s Hong Kong-traded stock, but shares in family’s Chow Tai Fook Jewellery weakened on disappointing profits. Grandson Adrian oversees family’s retail investments, which also include the Giordano clothing store chain. Granddaughter Sonia leads expanding hotel empire.
Dhanin Chearavanant, the head of Charoen Pokphand Group, one of world’s largest agribusiness conglomerates, made headlines in February with the biggest-ever foreign acquisition of a Chinese company when he bought a 15% controlling stake in China’s second-ranked insurer, Ping An, for $9.4 billion, from HSBC. About half of the group’s assets are listed; share price of telecom firm True doubled over past year, while group’s 7-Eleven operation rose more than 60%. The group derives more than half its sales in China, from chicken farms, feedmills, Lotus hypermarkets and Shanghai’s Superbrand mall. CP began as a seed shop that his father set up in Bangkok in 1921 soon after immigrating from Guangdong, China. Dhanin was Forbes Asia magazine’s Businessman of the Year in 2011. His hobby is raising bantam chickens.
Founder and CEO of Asia’s largest apparel company, Fast Retailing, known for its Uniqlo casual clothing shops, Tadashi Yanai continues to expand the brand outside of Japan, most recently opening his first store in Indonesia. The company also owns the Theory and Helmut Lang brands. Yanai’s success in converting customers has helped increase the company’s stock price by two-thirds over the past year. Recently he announced he would retire in 2014; succession planning under way, with speculation that his 2 sons may take helm.
The Philippines richest man Henry Sy saw his fortune swell by more than $5 billion as shares of his holding firm SM Investments, the country’s most valuable company, surged by over 50%, fuelled by reports that it may merge its property units. SM Prime, which he controls and is run by son Hans, is the Philippines largest mall developer; it opened a fifth mall in China in December. Unibank, run by daughter Teresita Sy-Coson, is the country’s largest bank. He came from China as a child to work in his father’s convenience store. Starting with a small shoe store in Manila, he built one of the country’s largest retail groups.
Lee Kun-Hee is chairman of Korea’s largest conglomerate, Samsung Group, which accounts for almost 20% of Korea’s gross domestic product. Lee has been in a legal fight with his brother Lee Maeng-Hee, the eldest son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-Chul. The dispute is over an inheritance worth $3.7 billion. The elder Lee claims that he is entitled to stakes in Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life Insurance. A court dismissed Lee Maeng Hee’s case in February 2013, but he is appealing the decision. Shares in Samsung Electronics hit an all-time high in January 2013, helping to propel Lee Kun-Hee’s fortune up by $4.7 billion. Lee has overseen Samsung since 1987, taking over just two weeks after his father’s death. During his tenure as chairman, the group’s market cap has jumped from just under $1 billion to more than $240 billion. As a member of the International Olympic Committee, he successfully led Korea’s bid to host the 2018 games in Pyeongchang.
Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s fortune more than doubled as shares of his Thai Bev, Thailand’s largest brewer and maker of Chang Beer, doubled in past year. He beat out Indonesia’s Riady family for control of Singapore-based beverage and property company Fraser & Neave in a $11 billion deal. Through publicly listed bottling company Serm Suk, he introduced Est Cola to Thailand with aim to grab market share from Pepsi and Coke. Owns Bangkok’s famous tech-mall Pantip Plaza, Hotel Plaza Athenee in Manhattan, plus hotels in Asia, the United States and Australia, residential, commercial and retail buildings in Singapore and Thailand. TCC Land, his private property arm, opened outdoor mega mall and entertainment complex in Bangkok, in April of last year. Son of Bangkok street vendor, he made fortune selling inexpensive beer and whiskey. Took his Thai Bev public in Singapore in 2006.
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