Forbes Philippines’ 2019 Richest List Overhauled By Sy Siblings And Other Second-Gen Billionaires

3 min read By eCompareMo on September 30, 2019

The second generation of Filipino tycoons, led by the Sy siblings—successors of the late taipan Henry Sy Sr.—made their debut in the 2019 Forbes Philippines Rich list.

This year saw a dramatic reshuffle in the country’s roster of billionaires after several long-time members passed away.

According to Forbes list of “2019 Forbes Philippines Richest”, the Sy siblings are the wealthiest family in this part of the world.

The siblings have a combined net worth of $17.2B coming from their property, banking, and retailing businesses.

Running in the family

The Sy siblings dislodged property tycoon Manuel Villar, who made the top spot last year. Villar has since dropped to second place with a net worth of $6.6B.

The second-generation Sys—namely Elizabeth, Hans, Harley, Henry “Big Boy” Jr., Herbert, and Teresita (Sy-Coson)—made it to the list for the first time this year, replacing their father as the new No. 1, a position that the late SM group patriarch held for 11 consecutive years.

(Read: 11 Pieces Of Financial And Management Wisdom From Henry Sy)

Rolling in it

Based on the list created by Forbes Philippines in the October issue of Forbes Asia, here are the 30 richest Filipinos this 2019. (See the complete listhere.)

Other second-generation successors on the list are the Ty siblings of GT Capital.

Alfred, Alesandra, Anjanette, and Arthur Ty took the ninth place with a combined net worth of $2.6B. The siblings succeeded their father George Ty, who made GT a major conglomerate with interests in the automotive, banking, insurance, power generation, and real estate sectors.

Campos siblings Jeffrey, Jocelyn, and Joselito was also featured in the list. They made it to the 23rd spot replacing family matriarch Beatrice Campos, with a combined net worth of $650M from pharmaceutical giant Unilab.

New blood

The Sy, Ty, and Campos siblings were among the six newcomers on the list along with Dennis Uy, the Davao-based tycoon who is at No. 22 with a net worth of $660M and real estate developer Delfin Wenceslao Jr. (No.25) with a total fortune of $500M.

Another first-timer is Antonio Lee Tiu, who ranks No. 49. Tiu has a net worth of $135M from AgriNurture, the agri-products company he founded 22 years ago.

(Read: Which Universities Have Produced The Most Filipino Billionaires?)

A merry-go-round

Since 2017, Forbes is no longer including families in which the founder of the business has died, unless the successors are wealthy enough to make the cutoff individually. In these cases, they combine the inherited fortunes just like in the case of the Sy and Campos siblings.

Forbes compiled the list using information from individuals, stock exchanges, analysts, private databases, government agencies, and other sources. Net worth was based on stock prices and exchange rates as of the close of markets on September 6.

Private companies were valued by using financial ratios and other comparisons with similar publicly traded companies.

Based on that computation, 21 of the 50 entries saw their fortunes go up, while 16 others saw a decline.

Manuel Villar remains at No. 2 with a net worth of $6.6B, while John Gokongwei Jr. retains at the 3rd spot with $5.3B, up from $4.4B.

Enrique Razon Jr. rose one position to No. 4 at $5.1B, up from $3.9B.

Jollibee Foods Corp. chairman Tony Tan Caktiong (No. 7), is among those whose fortunes declined. His net worth went down to $3B. The decline could possibly be a result of the hit shares of Jollibee took after announcing the $350M acquisition of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.