Yin is chairman of Ruentex Group, a Taipei-based conglomerate. The group has three publicly traded Ruentex companies in Taiwan and is involved in textiles, real estate, medical and education industries. It also controls Nan Shan Life Insurance, a closely held insurer with revenue of NT$640 billion ($21.4 billion) in 2018.
Samuel Yin's net worth of $4.57B can buy ...
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The majority of Yin's wealth is derived from Ruentex Group, the closely held company he inherited from his father. The Taipei-based conglomerate had revenue of NT$703 billion ($23.5 billion) in 2018, according to a rating by China Credit Information Systems.
Ruentex Group owns 91% of closely held Nan Shan Life Insurance through holding company Ruen Chen, according to a 2015 Ruentex Development presentation. The insurer is valued using the average price-to-book value multiple of three publicly traded peer companies: China Life Insurance, Fubon Financial Holding and Cathay Financial.
Ruentex Group also has stakes in publicly traded subsidiaries Ruentex Development Co, Ruentex Industries and Ruentex Engineering & Construction, according to stock exchange filings as detailed in the asset notes.
Yin also owns about 6% of Sun Art Retail, a hypermarket operator in China, through BVI companies. He had agreed to sell his stake to Taobao China Holding, according to an agreement dated Nov. 20, 2017, but still retained the stake two-years later, according to the company's 2019 semi-annual report.
Yin declined to comment on his net worth.
Samuel Yin was born in Taipei in 1950. He studied history at the city's Chinese Culture University before completing his MBA at National Taiwan University and receiving a PhD from National Chengchi University, according to his biography on the website of the Tang Prize Foundation.
He joined his father's textile maker Ruentex Industries and helped establish real estate division Ruentex Developments in 1977. A prominent supporter of closer ties between Taiwan and China, he stepped down as chairman of Ruentex Industries in 1993, and began focusing on investing in China.
The first RT-Mart hypermarket opened in Taiwan in 1997. A year later, he set up Chinese grocer Sun Art in conjunction with France's Auchan chain. The merchant started to trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2011, the same year Yin bought a controlling stake in Taiwanese insurer Nan Shan from AIG.
The billionaire, who is married with two children, started the Tang Prize in 2013 to encourage scientific and cultural research.