The better half: Wife of Dennis Uy is newest billionaire

The country’s stock market has churned out the latest billionaire, a female, and she happens to be the wife of Davao’s favorite businessman, the well-connected serial entrepreneur Dennis Uy.

According to regulatory disclosures, Cherylyn Chiong Uy will own 13.33 percent of a P75-billion company, Udenna Holdings Corp., once the former shall have taken over and merged the listed ISM Holdings by next month.

Currently valued at P10 billion, that 13.33-percent bloc should even gain higher valuation when Udenna Holdings conducts a secondary offering, post-ISM acquisition.

In addition to the Udenna bloc, the 38-year-old Mrs. Uy is listed as owning 21 percent of Chelsea Logistics Holdings, as well as the designated “representative” of Udenna Corp., the family corporation which owns 8.19 percent of Phoenix Petroleum.

That 21 percent Chelsea bloc has a current market value of P2.54 billion, while the 8.19 percent Phoenix bloc is worth another P1.25 billion.

Taken together, the 38-yearold Mrs. Uy has stock holdings worth easily P15 billion, including her 21 percent ownership in Philippine Resorts Group, the listed holding company that will eventually own the two casino-resorts that her husband is building in Mactan and Clark.

Even better, Mrs. Uy is the treasurer of the Udenna Group,

Cherylyn Uy which means she gets to sign not only the checks, but she also controls his corporate spigot.

... as husband joins dollar billionaires’ club

Speaking of the husband, Dennis Uy should finally make it to the Forbes list.

Uy now has five listed companies under his belt, with a combined market valuation of about P145 billion, and still climbing. Even on the unsupported assumption that he personally controls only half of that growing pie, that half is still safely within the billion-dollar territory.

That is not even counting the coming Mislatel/China Telecom venture, whose speed of congressional approval for franchise is even faster than the blink of Ricky Razon’s eye on More Power.

Amid the growing US-led alliance to ban Huawei, deputy director general Vicente Agdamag of the National Security Council told the House franchise committee last week that Uy’s joint venture partner, China Telecom, “does not pose a security threat to the country.”

Just like Globe and Smart, China Telecom is expected to use Huawei hardware for its 5G roll-out when it becomes the Philippines’ third telecom player.

Heard through the grapevine

Ayala Land’s Malaysian subsidiary has sounded off the Malaysian government that it has no objection to sparing from demolition a disputed Hindu temple within an Ayala redevelopment project in a Kuala Lumpur suburb.

The Malaysian subsidiary, MCT Berhad, had botched a takeover attempt of the temple late last month, triggering night-long rioting that left two dozen vehicles burned and a fireman seriously hurt.

In the aftermath of the violence, a private sector initiative has started a fund-drive, hoping to raise money to buy the half-hectare temple lot from the Ayala subsidiary and turn over the ownership to a Hindu trust.

E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com