Graduates pay tribute to the late Henry Sy, Sr. during a presentation of SM scholars in 2017 at SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. Sy died in January at 94 years old. (PNA photo)

The 2019 Forbes Philippines Rich List saw five long-time listees pass away since last year’s list and a second-generation successors make their debut.

The Sy siblings made it to the list for the first time this year, replacing their father Henry Sy, Sr., as No. 1, a position which the late Sy held for 11 consecutive years.

They have a combined net worth of $17.2 billion, stemming largely from the family’s SM group, the country’s largest conglomerate.

The elder Sy passed away on 20 January, nearly a month after he turned 94 on Christmas Day.

The Ty siblings of GT Capital—Arthur, Alfred, Alesandra and Anjanette—are No. 9 with a combined net worth of $2.6 billion. They succeeded their father George Ty, who built GT into a major conglomerate with interests in autos, banking, insurance, power generation and real estate.

Another new entrants and second-generation successors, the Campos siblings—Jocelyn, Joselito and Jeffrey—debut on the list at No. 23, replacing their late family matriarch Beatrice Campos. Their combined net worth of $650 million comes from the country’s pharmaceutical giant Unilab.

Jocelyn, the eldest of the three, is now chair of the company co-founded by their late father Jose Campos.

The Sy, Ty and Campos siblings are among the six newcomers on the list which also included three self-made entrepreneurs.

Among them is logistics and energy tycoon Dennis Uy, who made the list after net assets of his Udenna group rose 28% in 2018.

Uy is awaiting approval for the backdoor listing of Udenna on the Philippine Stock Exchange. He ranks No. 22 on the list with a net worth of $660 million.

Delfin Wenceslao (No. 25) makes his debut with a net worth of $500 million after taking real estate developer D.M. Wenceslao & Associates public in June 2018.

Antonio Lee Tiu, also a first-timer, is ranked No. 49 with a net worth of $135 million as shares of AgriNurture, the agri-products company he founded 22 years ago, rose steadily over the past three years.

Despite the lackluster performance of the Philippine stocks, with the benchmark index rising a mere 2%, 21 listees added to their fortunes.

The popular Coffee Project chain is one of the many business interests of Manny Villar and family.

They included former senator and Cabinet secretary Manuel Villar, who remained at No. 2 with a net worth of $6.6 billion; John Gokongwei,Jr., who retained his No. 3 spot with $5.3 billion―up from $4.4 billion; and Enrique Razon, Jr., who rose one notch higher at No. 4 with $5.1 billion, up from $3.9 billion.

One of the biggest gainers on this year’s list was Mercedes Gotianun (No. 12), whose wealth surged 91% to $2.2 billion as shares in her Filinvest Development soared after posting a 31% leap in net income for 2018.

Revenues for Filinvest’s main property and banking segments rose on higher rental income and fees from lending.

There were five returnees this year including Tomas Alcantara (No. 33, $300 million) of Alsons Consolidated Resources; Eusebio Tanco (No. 41, $205 million) of STI Education Systems; Erramon Aboitiz (No. 43, $165 million) of Aboitiz Equity Ventures; Philip Ang (No. 44, $160 million) of Nickel Asia and Bienvenido Tantoco (No. 48, $140 million) of SSI Group.

Among the 16 who saw their fortunes decline was Tony Tan Caktiong (No. 7), whose net worth was down $850 million to $3 billion. Shares in his fastfood chain Jollibee took a hit in July 2019 after the $350-million acquisition of loss-making Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. (Forbes Asia)