NET WORTH: $21.8 billionAGE: 68RESIDENCE: BrentwoodSOURCE OF WEALTH: Health care, investments, mediaLAST YEAR: $19.1 billionCHANGE: +14%THE MONEY: Soon-Shiong saw his stake in NantKwest Inc. and NantHealth Inc., his two publicly traded biotech companies, increase by more than $1 billion over the past year. NantKwest and Soon-Shiong’s privately held company ImmunityBio were selected to participate in the Trump administration’s Warp Speed program to fast-track development of Covid-19 vaccines. That news, combined with a small cancer treatment breakthrough earlier in the year, drove NantKwest shares up 10-fold and prompted a similar increase in Soon-Shiong’s privately held biotech portfolio companies. He also received a $710 million cash payout when Celgene Corp. — the company that bought his Abraxis Bioscience for $2.9 billion in 2010 — was sold last year to pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. His other holdings, including a 4.5% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, a residential and commercial real estate portfolio, and an art collection, also saw significant increases in value. Not all was golden for Soon-Shiong, however. The Los Angeles Times is currently worth less than half of the $500 million Soon-Shiong paid for the paper and its related assets two years ago. And now that bankrupt Verity Health System’s assets have been distributed, Soon-Shiong — who had invested more than $300 million into the system prior to bankruptcy, making him its largest creditor — has on net received less than $250 million in bankruptcy court-approved payouts. That shortfall is in large part due to his $135 million purchase of St. Vincent Medical Center from bankrupt Verity.THE BUZZ: Soon-Shiong further raised his public profile in April when he purchased St. Vincent Medical Center in Westlake out of bankruptcy for $135 million and announced that the hospital would reopen to treat Covid-19 patents and host a coronavirus research center. He had initially proposed that the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, which he and his wife Michele Chan lead, would make the purchase. But when that idea ran into opposition from state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Soon-Shiong bought the hospital out of his own pocket.
