Sy still Phl’s richest, 52nd in world
Shopping mall and banking magnate Henry Sy remains the richest man in the Philippines with a net worth of $20 billion, according to the 2018 Forbes list of the world’s billionaires.
Sy is the 52nd richest man in the world and leads 11 other Filipinos who made it to the global roster of 2,208 billionaires.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos seized the top spot from Microsoft’s Bill Gates for the first time with a fortune of $112 billion. (See related story on Page 12.)
The other Filipino billionaires in the prestigious “triple comma club” of the world are John Gokongwei Jr. (ranked No. 305 with a net worth of $5.8 billion);
Enrique Razon Jr. (404 with a net worth of $4.9 billion); Lucio Tan (441, net worth of $4.7 billion); Tony Tan Caktiong (550, net worth of $4 billion); George SK Ty (572, net worth of $3.9 billion); and Manuel Villar Jr. (791, net worth of $3 billion).
Others on the list are: Andrew Tan (887 with a net worth of $2.7 billion); Ramon Ang (965, net worth of $2.5 billion); Robert Coyiuto Jr., (1,650, net worth of $1.4 billion); Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. (1,756, net worth of $1.3 billion) and Roberto Ongpin (1,999, net worth of $1.1 billion).
Among the Filipino billionaires, Villar grew his fortune the most, nearly doubling it to $3 billion from $.1.65 billion in the 2017 list. All of them grew their wealth this year compared to the 2017 list except for Coyiuto, whose fortune slightly dropped to $1.4 billion from $1.5 billion in the previous list.
Sy’s $20-billion net worth, meanwhile, is equivalent to six percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Bezos, Amazon chief executive officer, dislodged Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has been the richest person in the world for 18 of the past 24 years. Bezos grew his fortune to $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from 2017, the biggest one-year gain ever.
Gates’ fortune grew to $90 billion from $86 billion last year, while legendary investor Warren Buffett, worth $84 billion, fell to third spot even as his net worth increased from $75.6 billion in 2017.
Others in the top five include French industrialist Bernard Arnault, with a fortune of $72 billion, who ascended seven spots in the ranks to fourth place. Arnault, the man behind LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest maker of luxury goods, is the richest person in Europe for the first time since 2012.
Rounding out the top five is Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, worth $71 billion.
Spanish clothing retailer Amancio Ortega, the man behind the Zara fashion chain, is at number six, dropping out of the top five for the first time since 2011. Ortega’s net worth is $70 billion, a $1.3-billion decrease from 2017.
In all, there were 2,208 billionaires in this year’s list, up from 2,043 in 2017, with an average net worth of $4.1 billion, a record high.
The total combined net worth of this year’s billionaires was $9.1 trillion, up from $7.7 trillion last year.
There were 1,490 self-made billionaires in this year’s list, more than the 1,371 in 2017.
US President Donald Trump, worth $3.1 billion, ranked 766th, falling from 544th in 2017.
Trump’s fortune has fallen $400 million since the 2017 billionaires list, due partially to falling values of Midtown Manhattan real estate and declining revenues at several Trump golf properties.