For the 8th consecutive year, the SM malls owner topped the 2015 Forbes Philippines Rich List with a net worth of $14.4 billion, up by $1.7 billion compared to last y
"The country's richest man is even richer as the value of his publicly traded conglomerates, SM Investments and SM Prime Holdings, have increased by 17 percent and 20 percent, respectively over the past year," Forbes said.
Sy also has a stake in electricity firm National Grid Corp., and is the owner of BDO Unibank, the country's largest bank in terms of assets, loans, deposits, capital and trust funds.
Landing at the No. 2 spot is JG Summit’s John Gokongwei Jr., with a net worth of $5.5 billion.
Gokongwei moved up three spots after his company’s stock rose 30 percent driven by strong revenues from his petrochemical businesses and earnings from investment in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Andrew Tan of Alliance Global moved up to the third spot with $4.5 billion, down from $5.1 billion previously.
Rounding out the top 5 on the 2015 list are LT Group’s Lucio Tan ($4.3 billion) and International Container Terminal Services’ Enrique Razon Jr. ($4.1 billion).
Razon slipped to the fifth spot after seeing a drop in his net worth of more than $1 billion.
Newly-minted billionaire Dean Lao of D&L Industries is a new addition to the list at No. 16 as he saw his net worth soar to $1.1 billion, a 76 percent increase from last year's $625 million.
D&L manufactures aerosol cans as well as fats and oils used in food products like margarine, cocoa butter and ice cream.
Oscar Lopez also reached billionaire status with investments in ABS-CBN, telecom, and power distribution. Lopez Holdings is also among the firms cashing in on clean-energy projects in the Philippines.
The net wealth of Philippines’ richest are compiled based on stock prices and exchange rates as of the close of markets on August 14.
The top 10 richest in the Philippines are:
1) Henry Sy
2) John Gokongwei Jr.
3) Andrew Tan
4) Lucio Tan
5) Enrique Razon Jr.
6) George Ty
7) Aboitiz Family
8) Jaime Zobel de Ayala & family
9) David Consunji
10) Tony Tan Caktiong
The list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and other sources.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
