Page 58 - Forbes - Asia (October 2019)

The Philippines’ 50 Richest

THE LIST SY SIBLINGS
Lasting Legacy

1.
SY SIBLINGS
$17.2 BILLION Ì THE JANUARY DEATH of one of Asia’s
SM INVESTMENTS best-known tycoons—Henry Sy, Sr.—
heralded the transfer of a colossal for- Teresita Sy-
tune in generational wealth and placed Coson, 68
2.
MANUEL VILLAR a new No. 1 atop the list of the Philip-
$6.6 BILLION S pines’ richest. The combined $17.2 bil- As chair of BDO Unibank
GOLDEN BRIA lion of the six Sy siblings includes a part and co-vice chair of SM
AGE: 69 of their late father’s estate and is made Investments, she is the
de facto head of the
up largely of stakes in their publicly group. She opened SM’s
3. listed SM Investments and SM Prime. first department store
JOHN GOKONGWEI JR. The late tycoon moved to the Philip- when she was 22.
$5.3 BILLION S pines from China’s Fujian province at
JG SUMMIT the age of 12 and learned the ropes of re-
AGE: 93
tail at his family’s convenience store. In
1958, he opened his own small shop sell-
4.
ENRIQUE RAZON JR. ing shoes in Manila that he aptly named
$5.1 BILLION S Shoemart. Over the next two decades,
INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER Sy gradually expanded Shoemart into a
TERMINAL SERVICES chain known simply as SM. In 1979, he
AGE: 59 and his eldest daughter Teresita opened
one of the nation’s largest department
5. stores. Today, SM is one of Southeast
JAIME ZOBEL Asia’s largest conglomerates, with inter-
DE AYALA ests in shopping malls, supermarkets,
$3.7 BILLION T banks, hotels, real estate and mining.
AYALA CORP.
AGE: 85 Revenue and net profits at SM Invest-
ments, which account for the lion’s share
of their fortune, both grew 13% last year
6.
LUCIO TAN on robust performance at its three core Harley Sy, 59
$3.6 BILLION T businesses—retail, banking and prop-
LT GROUP erty. The performance was good enough Harley is an executive director
AGE: 85 for SM Investments to secure a spot of SM Investments, a director of
on our Global 2000 and inaugural Best China Banking and an adviser to
7. Over a Billion lists this year. BDO Unibank.
TONY TAN SM’s property arm, SM Prime,
CAKTIONG reported a 14% increase in revenue in
$3 BILLION T 2018 and a 17% jump in net income,
JOLLIBEE
AGE: 66 due largely to property sales and rental
income from its malls.
Sy, who died at age 94, was the Phil-
8.
RAMON ANG ippines’ richest person for 11 consecu- Herbert Sy, 62
$2.8 BILLION T tive years and in 2018 ranked No. 52 on
SAN MIGUEL the World’s Billionaires list.
AGE: 65 While day-to-day operations are A director of SM Prime,
Herbert manages SM’s
now run by professionals from out-
supermarket operations,
9. side the family, the Sy siblings are all comprising 900 stores
TY SIBLINGS involved in various parts of the business.
$2.6 BILLION Ì —Grace Chung across the Philippines.
GT CAPITAL HOLDINGS

56 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2019