PROPERTY developer Manuel B. Villar Jr. and port magnate Enrique K. Razon Jr. are now the richest Filipinos, according to Forbes magazine.
The Sy siblings, heirs to the shopping mall and banking empire built by their late father Henry Sy Sr., continue to see a drop in their fortunes but are all in the list.
Villar, 73, the country’s richest man, continued to defy the odds set by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and added $800 million to his fortunes to $8.6 billion.
Razon, 63, became the country’s second richest man, with $7.3 billion, adding $1.7 billion as he expands his businesses to water utility, power and integrated resort and gambling.
The Sy siblings saw their fortunes recovered to a combined $13.6 billion, after its net worth fell by $4 billion to $12.6 billion last year, the biggest drop in dollar terms. All of the siblings’ net worth, however, were down.
Henry Sy Jr. was tagged fourth richest Filipino, with $2.5 billion, followed by Hans Sy and Herbert Sy, both with $2.4 billion.
Harley Sy and Teresita Sy-Coson both have $2.2 billion and Elizabeth Sy has $1.9 billion.
Ramon S. Ang, San Miguel Corp.’s president and CEO, is the country’s third richest person with $3.4 billion, while property developer Andrew Tan came in at fourth, tied with Henry Jr., with $2.5 billion.
Tycoon Lucio Tan, now at 88, came back into the list with $2.4 billion, while Lance Gokongwei slid to the bottom part of the list with $1.4 billion, along with Jollibee Foods Corp. founder Tony Tan Caktiong at $1.2 billion and Iñigo Zobel with $1 billion.
During this year’s list Frenchman Bernard Arnault was at number one spot on Forbes billionaire’s list for the first time, with $211 billion. “Record sales and profits have driven shares of his luxury goods leviathan LVMH—which owns brands such Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany—to new heights,” the magazine said.
Elon Musk, who held the top spot last year, has slipped to second as shares of his electric carmaker Tesla fell by nearly 50 percent following the April 2022 announcement of his $44-billion takeover of Twitter.
Musk’s loss in wealth is second only to that of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who’s the world’s third-richest person, worth $114 billion. He’s $57 billion poorer than in 2022 thanks to a 38-percent decline in the e-commerce giant’s stock.
Larry Ellison, cofounder of software giant Oracle with net worth of $107 billion, takes the fourth spot, while investing legend Warren Buffet, with $106 billion, came in at fifth worldwide.
“More billionaires hail from the United States than any other country, with 735 American citizens on the ranking, worth a total of $4.5 trillion. China [including Hong Kong and Macau] remains second, with 562 billionaires, followed by India 169, Germany 126 and Russia 105,” the magazine said.