Sy moves up, Villar enters Forbes list of billionaires

MANILA, Philippines - Eleven Filipinos are included in Forbes’ 2015 list of richest people in the world.

Filipino-Chinese tycoon Henry Sy Sr. continues to be the wealthiest man in the Philippines.

The 90-year-old SM supermalls, banking and property tycoon ranked 73rd among the world’s richest with an increased net worth of $14.2 billion from $11.4 billion last year.

Sy’s net worth was attributed to the continued growth of his SM Investments Corp. and his more recent venture, the City of Dreams Manila resort and casino, which opened in December 2014.

JG Summit Holdings Inc. founder John Gokongwei Jr. landed on 254th spot in Forbes’ list of world’s billionaires with $5.8 billion net worth.

According to Forbes, JGSHI stock skyrocketed on strong venue growth, which operations include airlines, telecoms, property development, banking, hotels and power.

Gaming mogul Enrique Razon Jr. placed 291st with $5.2 billion in net worth. He is chairman of Bloomberry Resorts Corp., developer of the Solaire Resort and Casino, which opened in 2013. He also owns the largest port operator in the Philippines, the International Container Terminal Services Inc.

Losing third spot and sliding to fourth in country rankings was tycoon Andrew Tan with $4.8 billion. Globally, Tan, who is behind conglomerate Alliance Global Inc., dropped 11 notches to 330th from 319th last year.

Airline and tobacco magnate Lucio Tan was this year’s biggest loser among Filipinos who remained in the list, as his fortunes declined to $4.4 billion from $6.1 billion in the 2014 Forbes list.

Tan ranked 227th in the world and second in the Philippines last year and finished this year as 369th globally and fifth locally.

Metrobank Group’s George Ty was tied with Tan as the 369th richest man in the world and fifth in the country. Ty ranked 764th in global rankings last year.

Other Filipinos who made it in the elite list are David Consunji (405th) with $4.1 billion, Jollibee’s Tony Tan Caktiong (690th) with $2.7 billion, Puregold’s husband and wife tandem of Lucio and Susan Co (810th) with $2.3 billion, insurance businessman Robert Coyuito Jr. (1,054th) with $1.8 billion, and former Senate president Manuel Villar (1,190th) with $1.6 billion.

This is the first time that Villar is included in the global list of billionaires.

Sy and 10 other Filipino billionaires together raked a combined fortune worth $51.9 billion or about P2.28 trillion – a little less than the Philippine government’s P2.6 trillion national budget this year.

Filinvest Group’s Andrew Gotianun, who was 1,565th in last year’s rankings, is not in this year’s list.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the world’s richest with a wealth of $79.2 billion, while Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helú took the second spot with a net worth of $77.1 billion.

“Despite some global economic turmoil – plummeting oil prices, weakened euros, ruinous rubles – it was still a pretty good year for billionaires overall,” Forbes said.

Forbes’ global wealth team found 1,826 billionaires posting an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago.

“The jump is driven in part by 290 newcomers, our biggest ever freshman class, which helps push the total number of billionaires in the world to 1,826,” Forbes said.