FILIPINO BILLIONAIRES

Forbes Magazine has listed the world’s billionaires for 2017. Included are 14 Filipino billionaires, ranked, worldwide, from 94th (Henry Sy with $12.7 billion estimated wealth) to 1795th (Roberto V. Ongpin with an estimated $1.1 billion wealth).

The 14 richest Filipinos, per Forbes 2017 rankings, are:

1) Henry Sy Sr. $12.7 billion;

2) John Gokongwei Jr. 5.8 billion;

3) Lucio Tan 3.7 billion;

4) George SK Ty 3.5 billion;

5) Enrique Razon Jr. 3.4 billion;

6) Tony Tan Caktiong 3.4 billion;

7) David Consunji 3.1 billion;

8) Andrew Tan 2.5 billion;

9) Roberto Coyiuto, Jr. 1.5 billion;

10) Manuel Villar 1.5 billion;

11) Ramon S. Ang 1.4 billion;

12) Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. 1.2 billion;

13) Roberto V. Ongpin 1.1 billion;

14) Edgar Sia 1.0 billion

The weekly business magazine BizNewsAsia has updated its own rankings of the richest Filipinos or billionaires.

The richest Filipinos, per BizNewsAsia, are:

Henry Sy $10.6 billion;
John Gokongwe Jr. 6.3 billion;
Jon Ramon Aboitiz 5.0 billion;
Lucio Tan 4.4 billion;
Iñigo Zobel and sister 4.0 billion;
Tony Tan Caktiong 3.1 billion;
Enrique Razon Jr 3.1 billion;
Ramon S. Ang 2.6 billion;
George SK Ty 2.4 billion;
David Consunji 2.0 billion;
Lucio Co 1.7 billion;
Andrew Tan 1.6 billion;
Roberto Ongpin 1.5 billion;
Manny Villar 1.0 billion;
Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. 1.0 billion;
Edgar Sia II 902 million

Henry Sy Sr., 92, owns 60% of SM Investments Corp., which owns the largest retailing chain, (SM, 60 malls in Philippines which are visited by 3.5 million people daily; seven malls in China); the largest property company, SM Prime Holdings; and the largest bank (BDO with P2 trillion assets).

Though cash-rich, Henry is raising capital. SM recently issued P20 billion (out of a planned P50 billion) in retail bonds at 5.1590% due 2023. BDO had a P60 billion rights offering at P83.75 per share at one share for every P5.095 shares owned. BDO has lately focused on micro lending. It has financed most of the casinos.

John Gokongwei Jr., 90, owns 52% of JG Summit Holdings Inc., the conglomerate which owns the largest branded consumer foods business in the Philippines (URC), the largest domestic airline (Cebu Pacific which last year more than doubled its profits to P9.8 billion and flew 19 million passengers); the second largest retail chain (44 Robinsons malls by October 2016), the second largest hotel chain (15 hotels with 2,357 rooms), and one of the biggest real estate companies in revenues, projects and amounts invested in projects (Robinsons Land).

JG has also stakes in PLDT (4.73%), petrochemicals, and banking.

Third richest, the family of Jon Ramon Aboitiz, 68, owns 60% of Aboitiz Equity Ventures which is into six main businesses: Power distribution, generation, and retail electricity supply; financial services (its Union Bank is strong on tech); food manufacturing; real estate; infrastructure; and portfolio investments.

AEV owns 55% of VECO which is the second largest privately-owned distribution utility in the Philippines in terms of customers and annual GWh sales and is the largest distribution utility in the Visayas.

It owns 100% of Davao Light and Cotabato Light which the is the third largest privately owned distribution utility. AEV owns the power plant in Subic and a 44% equity in Pampanga’s san Fernando Electric.

Fourth richest Lucio Tan, 83, has two major assets in the Philippines—LT Group and Philippine Airlines. His LT Group holdings are valued at $2.42 billion while those in PAL are valued at $1.97 billion.

The LT Group has the following businesses:

Distilled Spirits (Tanduay Distillers, Inc.), the third largest distilled spirits producer in the Philippines; Beverages (Asia Brewery, Inc.), one of the Philippines’ leading producers of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages; Tobacco (Fortune Tobacco Corp.), the leading tobacco manufacturer and distributor in the Philippines; Banking (Philippine National Bank), the fourth largest private commercial bank in terms of total assets in 2015; and Property Development (Eton Properties Philippines, Inc.), which has a diverse portfolio of property development projects throughout the Philippines.

Of late to prepare for the future, Kapitan entered into joint ventures — with Philip Morris for tobacco: Heineken for beer, Ayala for real estate, and a prospective foreign investor for PAL.

Iñigo zobel, 59, and his sister Mercedes own 26% of Ayala Corp. valued at $2.65 billion. He himself owns 27% of San Miguel Corp. valued at $1.32 billion.

Ayala Corp. has the following businesses: Real estate (Ayala Land); water (Manila Water); industrial technologies (IMI); power generation (AC Energy); banking (Bank of the Philippine Islands); Telecom (Globe Telecom).

When one talks about the rich Ayala it should be Iñigo and not his cousins Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Fernando Zobel de Ayala who jointly own less than 7.5% of Ayala valued at $765 million.

Phenomenal has been the rise to power and wealth of Ramon S. Ang, the vice chairman, president and chief operating officer of San Miguel Corp. RSA owns 22.48% of SMC valued at $1.1 billion.

This month, his IPO of 100%-owned Eagle Cement values the company at P75 billion or $1.495 billion, which together with his SMC holdings, put his wealth at $2.59 billion.

Under Ang, SMC diversified into fuel (Petron), power generation, and infrastructure. Its $5 billion diversification is now beginning to pay off even while SMC’s traditional core businesses continue to rake in revenues and profits – beer, food, and packaging.

In 2016, the biggest SMC companies in profits were: San Miguel Brewery P17.65 billion, Petron P23.79 billion, P10.82 billion, and Purefoods P5.976 billion.

In operating income, the rankings are: SMB P27.18 billion, SMC Global Power P26.7 billion, Petron P23.79 billion, San Miguel Holdings (infra), P9.84 billion; Purefoods P8.93 billion; Packaging P2.58 billion, and Ginebra P978 million.

Sixth richest Filipino, Tony Tan Caktiong, 64, owns 57% of Jollibee Foods Corp. (largest fast food retailer) which is valued at $2.23 billion. He also owns 37% of DoubleDragon Properties worth $902 million.

Jollibee Foods Corp. is the largest Asian restaurant company. In 2016, the Jollibee Group opened 340 stores, the biggest store openings in a single year in JFC’s history; 243 in the Philippines, 97 abroad — 60 in China, 30 in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and 7 in the US.

HENRY SY, SR., 92

Forbes Rank #1

Wealth $12.7B

BNA Rank #1

Wealth $10.6B

Source of wealth:

Retailing, property, banking

He owns 67% of SM Investments Corp., which owns the largest retailing chain, (SM, 60 malls in Philippines which are visited by 3.5 million people daily; seven malls in China); the largest property company, SM Prime Holdings; and the largest bank (BDO with P2 trillion assets). Recent initiatives:

Issued P20B of retail bonds at 5.1590% due 2023 which is a maiden issue from the P50B shelf registration with the SEC

Retail

Completed merger of specialty retail stores
Opened 28 food, 9 department stores and 153 specialty stores in 2016, 80% outside Metro Manila
Alfamart currently operating 234 stores

Banking

BDO priced P60B rights offering at P83.75/sh, with 1 share per 5.095 shares held
TPG invested in ONB to develop micro-lending
China Bank forms China Bank Securities Corp. to service equities-related transactions

Property

Issued P10B fixed rate bonds
Partially opened SM Tianjin in China

JOHN GOKONGWEI, JR., 90

Forbes Rank #2

Wealth $5.8B

BNA Rank #2

Wealth $6.3B

Source of wealth:

Retailing, property, telco

He owns 52% of JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. JG owns the largest branded consumer foods business in the Philippines (URC), the largest domestic airline (Cebu Pacific which last year more than doubled its profits to P9.8 billion and flew 19 million passengers); the second largest retail chain (44 malls by October 2016), the second largest hotel chain (15 hotels with 2,357 rooms), and one of the biggest real estate companies in revenues, projects and amounts invested in projects (Robinsons Land); also petrochemicals, and banking.

John also owns 4.73% of PLDT valued at P16.54 billion.

They say only John can match Henry Sy in business vision and savvy and gutsy entrepreneurship.

Much of the day to day operations of the business has been transferred to his only son, Lance Gokongwei, a finance and engineering wizard, who is CEO of most of the companies. John, if you believe it, has retired.

JON RAMON ABOITIZ, 68

Forbes Rank N/A

Wealth N/A

BNA Rank #3

Wealth $5.0B

Source of wealth: Power, banking

His family owns 60% of Aboitiz Equity Ventures which is into six main businesses: Power distribution, generation, and retail electricity supply; financial services (its Union Bank is strong on tech); food manufacturing; real estate; infrastructure; and portfolio investments.

AEV’s major power assets include:

An effective 55% equity interest in VECO, which is the second largest privately-owned distribution utility in the Philippines in terms of customers and annual GWh sales and is the largest distribution utility in the Visayas region;
100% equity interest in each of Davao Light and Cotabato Light. Davao Light is the third largest privately owned distribution utility in the Philippines in terms of customers and annual GWh sales;
An effective 64% ownership interest in Subic EnerZone Corp. (SEZ), which manages the Power Distribution System (PDS) of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA); and
An effective 44% ownership interest in San Fernando Electric Light and Power Co., Inc. (SFELAPCO), which holds the franchise to distribute electricity in the city of San Fernando, Pampanga, in Central Luzon and its surrounding areas.

LUCIO TAN, 83

Forbes Rank #3

Wealth $3.7B

BNA Rank #4

Wealth $4.4B

Source of wealth:

Tobacco, beverages, banking

He has two major assets in the Philippines—LT Group and Philippine Airlines. His LT Group holdings are valued at $2.42 billion while PAL are valued at $1.97 billion.

LT Group has interests in the following businesses:

Distilled Spirits (Tanduay Distillers, Inc.), the third largest distilled spirits producer in the Philippines; Beverages (Asia Brewery, Inc.), one of the Philippines’ leading producers of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages; Tobacco (Fortune Tobacco Corp.), the leading tobacco manufacturer and distributor in the Philippines; Banking (Philippine National Bank), the fourth largest private commercial bank in terms of total assets in 2015; and Property Development (Eton Properties Philippines, Inc.), has a diverse portfolio of property development projects throughout the Philippines.

In recent years to prepare for the future, Kapitan entered into joint ventures — with Philip Morris for tobacco: Heineken for beer, Ayala for real estate, and a prospective foreign investor for PAL.

IÑIGO ZOBEL, 59

Forbes Rank N/A

Wealth N/A

BNA Rank #5

Wealth $4B

Source of wealth:

Land, beer, power, infra

He and his sister Mercedes own 26% of Ayala Corp. He owns 27% of San Miguel Corp. which is the largest company in revenues and profits and one of the most diversified and dynamic conglomerates in the Philippines.

Zobel is the chairman of Top Frontier (since 2008) and the chairman of its executive committee (since 2013). He is also the chairman of E. Zobel, Inc. (since 1983), IZ Investment Holdings, Inc. (since 2013) and Prime Zygnet Holdings Inc. (since 2015); director of San Miguel Corp. (since 2009); president of Manila North Harbor Port, Inc. (since 2015); and a director of E. Zobel Foundation, Inc., Calatagan Golf Club, Inc., Calatagan Bay Realty, Inc., Hacienda Bigaa, Inc., MERMAC, Inc., among others.

In 1983, Iñigo’s father, Enrique Zobel, (1927-2004) then the president of Ayala Corp., helped Eduardo Cojuangco, acquire 51% of San Miguel Corp., which was controlled by the Sorianos, cousins of Zobel and Zobel-de Ayala. In 1998, Cojuangco look over majority ownership and management control of SMC.

TONY TAN CAKTIONG, 64

Forbes Rank #6

Wealth $3.4B

BNA Rank #6

Wealth $3.1B

Source of wealth:

Fast food, property

He owns 57% of Jollibee Foods Corp. (largest fast food retailer valued at $2.23 billion). He also owns 37% of DoubleDragon Properties worth $902 million.

The new stores still excluded those from joint ventures that are not majority-owned: Highlands Coffee +71 and Pho 24 +3, located mostly in Vietnam; 12 Hotpot +3 in China and Smashburger +51 outlets, mostly in the United States.

Including these non-consolidated joint ventures, the JFC Group would have opened a total of 468 new stores in 2016 (equivalent to 1.3 new stores per day).

JFC is allotting P14 billion in capital expenditures in 2017. Jollibee sees continued strong profitable growth in the years ahead.

ENRIQUE RAZON, JR., 57

Forbes Rank #5

Wealth $3.4B

BNA Rank #7

Wealth $3.1B

Source of wealth: Ports, casinos

He owns 61.43% of ICTSI valued at $2.15 billion. ICTSI has 30 terminals concessions and port development projects in 20 countries, half of them in Asia. He also owns 58% of Bloomberry Resorts valued at P46.71 million ($931 million) which operates an integrated casino, hotel and entertainment complex at Entertainment City, Parañaque.

Ricky Razon has been a director of International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) since December 1987 and has been chairman since 1995.

Concurrently, he is the chair-CEO of Bloomberry Resorts Corp., Prime Metroline Holdings, Inc., Quasar Holdings, Inc., Falcon Investco Holdings, Inc., Achillion Holdings, Inc., Collingwood Investment Co. Ltd., Bravo International Port Holdings, Inc., and Provident Management Group, Inc.; Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, Inc.; the chairman of Sureste Realty Corp., Monte Oro Resources and Energy, Inc., and Pilipinas Golf Tournament Inc.; and a director of Sureste Properties, Inc., ICTSI (Hong Kong) Ltd., Australian Container Terminals, Ltd., Pentland International Holdings Ltd., CLSA Exchange Capital, Xcell Property Ventures, Inc., and Asian Tour.

RAMON S. ANG, 63

Forbes Rank #11

Wealth $1.4B

BNA Rank #8

Wealth $2.6B

Source of wealth:

Beer, power, infra, cement

He owns 22.48% of SMC valued at $1.1 billion and 100% of Eagle Cement valued at $1.496 billion. In two years, Eagle Cement will become the No. 1 cement producer.

In 2007, Ang had a moment of clarity. For giant San Miguel Corp. to grow bigger and faster, and to help the Philippines grow as well, it couldn’t rely mainly on the conglomerate’s three traditional businesses – beer, food, packaging. SMC must leverage its scale, reach, and multidisciplinary capabilities.

Today, SMC is No. 1 beer, food, packaging, petroleum refining and marketing, power generation, and tollways. It is moving aggressively into mass transport, airports, coal, cement, hotels, resort and island development, even while expanding frenetically its core businesses – beer, food, packaging which are also market leaders.

The company’s subsidiaries either enjoy a dominant or strong and leading market position. SMC’s businesses have combined EBITDA value of P1,051 billion. Beer and Ginebra are worth P307 billion, Food P116 billion, Packaging P46 billion, Power P124 billion, Fuel and Oil P317 billion, and Infra P141 billion.

GEORGE S.K. TY, 84

Forbes Rank #4

Wealth $3.5B

BNA Rank #9

Wealth $2.4B

Source of wealth: Banking, autos

He owns 59.30% of holdings company, GT Capital valued at $2.4 billion.

GT Capital is engaged in automotive (Toyota, P115 billion sales and P10.5 billion in profits in nine months of 2016); banking (Metrobank, P50.4 billion in interest income and P12.6 billion in profits in first nine months 2016); property (Federal Land, P7.53 billion in sales and P1.139 billion in profits in first nine months 2016); and power (Global Business Power Corp., P6.84 billion in sales and P859 million in profits in the first five months of 2016).

Nine-month profits rose 46% to P12.3 billion on 38% rise in revenues to P157.12 billion.

Revenue growth came from the: (1) increase in the combined auto sales of Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP) and Toyota Manila Bay Corp. (TMBC) from P86.65 billion to P129.73 billion comprising 83% of total revenue; (2) increase in the combined real estate sales and interest income on real estate sales of Federal Land, Inc. (Fed Land) and Property Company of Friends, Inc. (PCFI) from P6.33 billion to P922 billion; (3) higher equity in net income of associaties which grew from P4.09 billion to P6.49 billion; and (4) one-time gain on sale of investments in subsidiaries aggregating to P2.02 billion.

EDUARDO COJUANGCO JR., 81

Forbes Rank #12

Wealth $1.2B

BNA Rank #15

Wealth $1.0B

Source of wealth: Beer, power

ECJ bought into SMC in 1983 when it had only P6.6 billion in sales and P403 million in profits.

SMC chalked up profits of over P52 billion up 80%, on revenues of nearly P685 billion. That’s a return on sales of 7.6%. In both profits and sales, SMC clearly outperformed both SMIC and Ayala during 2016.

Underpinning SMC’s phenomenal growth was its massive expansion and diversification SMC undertook during 2008 to 2015, in addition to its core businesses—beer and beverage, foods, and packaging.

Says Cojuangco: “I never thought San Miguel could be so big and so successful in such a short period.” To think that I the past, Danding even thought of selling the conglomerate, first to Manny Pangilinan, and later to Lucio Tan. Fortunately, both deals fizzled out. In both instances, the sale didn’t push thru because of problems or demands by the buyer.

Consequently, ECJ thought San Miguel would be in better hands under him and his stalwart executive, Ramon S. Ang.

DAVID CONSUNJI, 95

Forbes Rank #7

Wealth $3.1B

BNA Rank #10

Wealth $2.0B

Source of wealth: Construction

He owns 66% of DMCI Holdings valued at $1.60 billion.

DMCI Holdings’ construction arm, D.M. Consunji, Inc. has signed major infrastructure projects worth P9 billion to build tollways, power, and water projects from public and private proponents.

“We started the year strong with these newly-awarded contracts. Hopefully, this will be the start of the aggressive rollout of mega-infrastructure projects across the country. We really need the additional roads and facilities,” said DMCI President Jorge A. Consunji.

Awarded in January was the P1.3 billion Bued Viaduct and roadway construction of Section 3B-4 Bued to Rosario, La Union of the Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway of Private Infra Development Corp. (PIDC).

MPCALA Holdings, Inc. has been awarded DMCI a contract worth P7.2 billion for the Laguna portion of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway Project.

The group’s DMCI Homes has P12 billion capex for 2017; P8.4 billion for project development and P3 billion will be used for land acquisition. It will build eight projects with 15,300 units worth P57 billion.

ANDREW TAN, 67

Forbes Rank #8

Wealth $2.5B

BNA Rank #12

Wealth $1.6B

Source of wealth:

Property, Food and beverages

He owns 57% of Alliance Global Group worth $1.5 billion, and 70% of Global Estate Resorts, Inc. worth $1.5 billion.

Andrew is the Philippines’ largest township developer, biggest hotel owner, biggest brandy maker, and second biggest fast-food operator.

AGI is one of the leading conglomerates in the Philippines, with interests in property development, food and beverage manufacture and distribution, quick-service restaurants and integrated tourism development businesses.

AGI subsidiary, Megaworld is one of the leading property developers in the Philippines having pioneered the “live-work-play-learn” lifestyle concept for large-scale, mixed-use planned communities or townships that integrate residential, commercial, leisure and entertainment, and education/training components.