Property developer Manuel B. Villar Jr. and port magnate Enrique K. Razon Jr. are 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 fortune although they all remain 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 wealth to $8.6 billion.
Razon, 63, became the country’s second richest man, with $7.3 billion, adding $1.7 billion to his wealth as he expanded his businesses to include water utility, power and integrated resort as well as gambling.
The Sy siblings saw their fortunes recovering to a combined $13.6 billion, after their net worth fell by $4 billion to $12.6 billion last year, the biggest drop in US dollar terms. All of the siblings net worth, however, were down.
Henry Sy Jr. was 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. president and CEO, is the country’s third richest person with $3.4 billion, while property developer Andrew Tan came in fourth, tied with Henry Jr., with $2.5 billion.
Tycoon Lucio Tan, now 88, returned to the listing with $2.4 billion while Lance Gokongwei slipped lower in the rankings with $1.4 billion along with Jollibee Foods Corp. founder Tony Tan Caktiong at $1.2 billion, and Iñigo Zobel with $1 billion.
At this year’s listing, Frenchman Bernard Arnault stood at number one 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 as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany’s–to new heights,” the magazine said.
Elon Musk, who held the top spot last year, has slipped to second spot as shares of his electric carmaker Tesla fell 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 price.
Larry Ellison, with net worth of $107 billion, cofounder of software giant Oracle, takes the fourth spot while investing legend Warren Buffet, with $106 billion, came in 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.
