The owner and founder of SM malls all around the Philippines, Henry Sy still top the wealthiest Filipino according to Forbes Philippines Magazine latest issue up for September 2016.
Sy’s business blossomed from a simple shoe retail store in Manila in 1958. He has a net worth of $13.7 billion, billions away from Cebu Pacific CEO and founder of JG Summit John Gokongwei Jr. as ranked number two.
The 91-year-old Gokongwie has a net worth of $6.8 billion, up from $5.5 billion last year. He remains at No. 2 from the Rich list 2016.
Gokongwei has made his business into Philippine’s fifth largest company with a market capitalization of $13.2 billion which includes an airline, banking, food, hotels, power, chemicals, real estate and telecommunications and is handing over the reins of the family business to the next generation.
It was released yesterday in the Forbes Philippines Rich List 2016, naming all the country’s 50 richest people, with Henry Sy on top and Nickel Asia’s Luis Virata at 50th. Virata has a net worth of $145 million, the minimum amount required to make it to the list.