RETAIL tycoon Henry Sy and 10 other businessmen from the Philippines made it this year to Forbes’ annual list of the world’s billionaires.
The 91-year-old Sy, who has interests in real estate development, shopping malls and banking, maintained his spot as the richest man in the country.
He improved his ranking to 71st from 73rd last year despite a drop in his net worth to $12.9 billion from last year’s $14.2 billion.
In second place was business mogul John Gokongwei with a net worth of $5 billion for 270th place in the overall list.
Gokongwei, whose ranking fell from last year’s 254th spot as his net worth dropped from $5.8 billion in 2014, owns JG Summit with interests in food and beverages, airlines, telecoms, property development, banking, hotels and power generation.
Beer and tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan came in third in the country with net worth placed at $4 billion, which was good for 380th place.
Tan’s LT Group has interests in banking, property development, beverages, spirits and tobacco. In 2014, Tan retained 100 percent control of Philippine Airlines, the country’s oldest airline.
The fourth Filipino who made it to the list was 83-year-old George Ty of the Metrobank Group.
Ty, with a net worth of $3.7 billion, was ranked 421st, lower than last year’s ranking of 369th.
Aside from Metrobank, Ty also has investments in power generation, the automotive industry and real estate development.
In fifth, sixth and seventh place were DMCI’s David Consunji, Megaworld’s Andrew Tan and Jollibee founder Tony Tan Caktiong, each with a net worth of $3 billion.
In eighth place was Enrique Razon Jr. of the International Container Terminal Services Inc., whose ranking fell to 722nd from last year’s 291st place. His net worth was valued at $2.4 billion from last year’s $5.2 billion.
Rounding up the list of Filipino billionaires were Puregold’s Lucio and Susan Co with $1.6 billion; Prudential’s Robert Coyiuto Jr. with $1.6 billion; and Vista Land founder and former Senator Manuel Villar with $1.3 billion.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was once again the world’s richest person on Forbes’ 30th annual ranking of the world’s billionaires.
The technology guru has topped the list for 17 of the last 22 years, with a current net worth of $75 billion, down from $79.2 billion in 2015.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, on the other hand, was the biggest gainer on the 2016 list. His fortune is up $11.2 billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth richest man in the world.
