Villar richest in Philippines – Bloomberg

MANILA, Philippines — Real estate tycoon Manuel Villar Jr., a former senator and House speaker, emerged as the country’s richest in the latest Bloomberg Billionaires index, a roster of the world’s richest people.

Villar, father of Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, has a total net worth of $6.72 billion or roughly P232 billion, according to the Bloomberg index.

The lone Filipino on the list, Villar placed 383rd among 500 of the world’s richest people, sliding 123 spots from last year when he placed 260th.

Tesla Inc. founder Elon Musk topped the list with a net worth of $195 billion followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $185 billion. Bill Gates came in third with a net worth of $134 billion. Bernard Arnault and Mark Zuckerberg completed the top five billionaires, with a net worth of $116 billion and $102 billion, respectively.

Villar, known as the brown taipan for having Filipino roots compared to other Chinese-Filipino and Spanish-Filipino billionaires, has a sprawling business empire comprising Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., Golden Bria Holdings, The All Value Group, among others. In recent years, the family-owned empire also forayed into telecommunications and water.

In 2018, President Duterte signed into law a bill granting a 25-year congressional franchise to Villar’s telco Streamtech Systems Technologies Inc.

The Bloomberg Billionaires index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. Bloomberg said the index is a “dynamic measure of personal wealth based on changes in markets, the economy and Bloomberg reporting.”

Each net worth figure is updated every business day after the close of trading in New York.

Villar is also a constant member of the Forbes billionaire list.

Last year, he was in second spot with a net worth of $5 billion, lower than his $6.6-billion tab in 2019.

On an individual count on the Forbes list, Villar, the husband of Sen. Cynthia Villar, would actually be the richest on the list.

The Sy siblings of the SM Group, sons and daughters of the late tycoon Henry Sy, occupy the top spot with a net worth of $13.9 billion.