Shopping mall mogul Henry Sy has become The Philippines’ richest man after amassing $1.65 billion in the past year, while his peers were hurt by the global financial crisis, according to Forbes, the international business magazine.
The fortune that Sy made was the “biggest gain in absolute terms” of the country’s wealthiest 40 families, who saw their collective wealth plunge 18 per cent amid the world credit turmoil, the magazine said.
In its annual list of The Philippines’ richest people, Forbes noted that the country’s stock exchange has dropped 35 per cent in the past year, making 25 out of 40 tycoons – including those in banking and real estate – poorer.
Forbes said the Sy family is now worth $3.65 billion.
The 83-year-old and his family control SM Investments, which owns stakes in a dozen companies, including the nation’s second largest bank. Sy started off selling shoes to American GIs in The Philippines in 1958. From one store known as Shoe Mart, he built a multi-billion-dollar empire. Today he is Asia’s biggest shopping mall operator with 30 mega malls throughout The Philippines.
Jaime Zobel de Ayala and family slipped from first to third as their wealth dropped to $944 million from $1.4 billion, Forbes reported.
The stock of their conglomerate Ayala Corporation is down 46 per cent since last year in part because of the economic slowdown and declining profits in banking and electronics manufacturing.
Moving up to second place is Lucio Tan and his family, with a net worth of $1.8 billion, although this is still down by $118 million from last year. Tan controls Philippine Airline, the country’s largest cigarette firm, one of its largest brewers and mining operations.
Write comment