Real estate tycoon Manuel B. Villar is the only Filipino to be included in the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, a daily ranking of the world’s top 500 richest people.
Villar, who derives his fortune from his real estate, retail, and death care businesses, was ranked by Bloomberg as the 382nd richest in the world as of January 9, 2021, with a total net worth of $6.76 billion.
Despite the pandemic, Villar managed to increase his wealth slightly by 1.4 percent from the same period last year.
The Bloomberg list ranks Tesla’s Elon Musk as the world’s richest person with a total net worth of
US$209 billion, followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with $186 billion, and Bill Gates with $134 billion.
Villar is the founder and chairman of Vista Land & Lifescapes, the largest home builder in the Philippines. The firm has built about 300,000 homes in more than 140 cities.
The former Senate president also owns stakes in Golden Bria Holdings, a property and death care company, and Vistamalls, a shopping mall operator.
Villar owns 89 percent of Golden Bria though Fine Properties, Cambridge Group and directly. He also owns roughly 75 percent of Vista Land through Fine Properties, Althorp Holdings, Manuela Corporation and directly.
The husband of Sen. Cynthia Villar and father of Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and Las Pinas Rep. Camille Villar also owns majority interest in home improvement retailer AllHome Corp.
In September, Forbes Magazine ranked Villar as the Philippines’ richest person. He was also recognized as one of Forbes Asia’s 15 “Heroes of Philanthropy” for 2020.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people. In calculating net worth, Bloomberg News strives to provide the most transparent calculations available, and each individual billionaire profile contains a detailed analysis of how that person's fortune is tallied.