Hon Hai’s Billionaire Chairman to Give 90% of Wealth to Charity

Original Source By Janet Ong July 24 (Bloomberg) — Terry Gou, Taiwan’s third-wealthiest businessman and chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has pledged to donate 90 percent of his wealth to charity, the billionaire’s aide said. The tycoon, estimated by Forbes magazine with $6 billion of wealth, announced his plan yesterday at a banquet to celebrate his engagement to Delia Tseng, the United Daily News reported today. Gou’s special assistant and Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding confirmed the plan, saying the billionaire has consistently given to charity and that there was no start date to his latest cause. Gou, 57, joins Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and other industrial philanthropists who’ve pledged most of their fortunes to charities. Buffett in June 2006 said he would give about 85 percent of his $44 billion fortune to charity, mostly to a foundation started by his close friend Gates. Widowed in March 2005 when his wife Lin Shu-ru succumbed to breast cancer, Gou is scheduled to marry Tseng on July 26 in Taipei, United Daily News said today. Tseng had approved of Gou philanthropic pledge, the newspaper said. Hon Hai, with a market capitalization of $31.2 billion, is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer for customers including Apple Inc. and Nokia Oyj. Gou, who founded the Taipei-based company in 1974 with $7,500, now holds 720.3 million Hon Hai shares valued at more than NT$109 billion ($3.6 billion) based on today’s closing price. The executive in September 2007 donated NT$15 billion through his Yong Lin Charity Foundation to the National University of Taiwan to build a new cancer ward and fund research against the disease, Ding said. Gou’s brother died of leukemia last year. (c) 2008 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved.