The world's oldest billionaire is an Asian nonagenarian who has handed over the reins of the shipping company he founded 51 years ago to his son, but nevertheless has kept his eyes on the ball.
Chang Yun Chung topped the newest annual «Forbes» list of billionaires not as the richest – but as the oldest. The 99-year-old Singaporean tycoon founded freight firm Pacific International Lines (PIL) in 1967.
Since then, PIL has grown into one of the leading shipping companies which inked a key deal with China-based Cosco Shipping Lines Company last year. Today, his son Teo Siong Seng, or «S.S. Teo» runs the family firm, but his father, who reportedly had to wait until he was 97 to become a billionaire, remains chairman.
Refugee to Billionaire
The roots the family's wealth are in China: Chang traded second-hand ships in and out of the country as well as other emerging economies in the 1950s. Today, PIL is in the top-20 of worldwide shipping firms.
PIL also owns a controlling stake in Singamas, which operates factories, depots and terminals in China and Hong Kong. Chang is a rags-to-riches billionaire: he reportedly spent one year in prison as a Chinese refugee in what was then Malaya for supplying food and medicine to resistance fighters.
Publicity-Shy
He moved to Singapore after Japan surrendered to Allied forces, and worked for years in the shipping industry before striking out on his own with two freight boats when he was 49. Like many billionaires, Chang does not court publicity.
«I think I’m lucky. I’m...hardworking, honest, and I always fulfill my promises, that is my principle,» he said in a documentary film.
