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It is said that when Henry Sy Sr. left his home in Xiamen, China to travel to the Philippines and help his father tend a sari-sari store in Echague, Manila, his mother, Tan O Sia, not wanting her young son to feel homesick, told him to never look back.
Sy must have heeded her mother’s advice, helping him to overcome whatever homesickness he might have felt when he arrived in his new home, a penniless 12-year-old boy with nothing but the shirt on his back and 10 centavos in his pocket.
That was half of the 20 centavos, it was said, he and a fellow passenger he befriended found on the vessel bound for Manila and which the latter had called their “lucky money.”
“Lucky,” indeed, is a description apropos for the boy whose folks were named Sy Chi Sieng, which, in Chinese, means “to achieve success ultimately.”
Luck, Sy had in abundance. But more than just luck, the good fortune of this man, who years later would become the undisputed Philippine retail and supermall king, was brought about by a combination of sheer will and dogged determination, grit, patience and a passion for hard work.
All those traits, along with humility, he ingrained into the minds of his six children who, today, play key roles in the vast business empire that he had built.
Eulogizing Sy when he passed away in January 2019 at the age of 94, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, who had known Sy since he was an impoverished grade-school boy vending newspapers and shining shoes in Carriedo, Manila in the late 1940s, said, “Though successful in his ventures, including BDO, the largest Philippine bank, Henry Sy (Sr.) remained humble, self-effacing and family-centered. He treasured his six children whom he said were ‘my teammates and friends in the office and at home.’”
If he were around today, the patriarch Sy would be beaming with pride over how much his offspring have grown what he had started. From his first shoe store, Shoemart in Quiapo, his businesses have expanded into SM Prime Holdings, one of the largest developers not only of malls, but residences, offices, hotels and convention centers as well, in Southeast Asia; SM Development Corporation (SMDC), one of the largest integrated property developers in the region; BDO Unibank, the largest private bank in the country (as of June 2024), various others in the transport, logistics, renewables and tourism sectors, all grouped under SM Investment Corporation (SMIC), currently one of the largest Southeast Asian business conglomerates.
Sy’s eldest child, Teresita “Tessie” Sy Coson, says she and her siblings Elizabeth (“Betty”), Henry Sy Jr., Hans, Herbert and Harley didn’t have much choice in terms of a career path; they were “born into a business family; it is really a destiny (or as a third-generation Sy put it, We were not forced (into the business), but we didn’t have a choice).”
Coson was the first of her siblings to immerse herself in work in ShoeMart, the first shoe store built by her father in Manila. She had a knack for sales and merchandising, and in 1972, he asked her to open his first department store in Manila.
She was 22 and had no formal training in running a department store, but she had confidence. “You don’t know how to be scared when you’re young,” Coson says. To dispel her feelings of inadequacy, she went to trade fairs, read up on business books and learned on the job.
Coson may have been given an advantage because she was the daughter of the business owner, but she knew that that only meant she had to work harder than anyone else to banish thoughts that things were made easy for her because of her status. “You have to really prove yourself to earn respect,” she said.
She progressed at work, and so did the family business, with the first shopping mall, SM North EDSA, rising in Quezon in 1985. Five years later, Coson was made president of SM Department Stores, now part of the SM Retail Group. From less than 10 stores when she started, that number grew to over 40 by the time she quit to concentrate on the family’s retail and savings bank, Banco de Oro, in the mid-1990s.
From a savings and retail bank, BDO was transformed, with Coson at the helm, into a uni-bank, with investment banking along with corporate and retail services.
BDO, then already the fifth largest Philippine bank in 2004, acquired, initially, 24 percent of the third largest bank in the country, Equitable; BDO’s stake was increased to 35 percent in 2005, and in 2007, BDO merged with Equitable to form Banco de Oro Unibank, then the country’s second largest bank.
Under Coson, BDO Unibank by 2008 rose to number one, a ranking it continues to hold today — the largest Philippine bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits and trust funds under management, with a distribution network comprised of over 1,500 branches and some 5,000 ATMs across the country.
Today, Coson, 74, is chairperson of BDO Unibank and vice chairperson of her family’s holding company, SMIC. She is one of the most admired and well-respected businesswomen in the country not only for her brilliance and outstanding success in contributing to the remarkable growth of her family’s businesses, but also because, through all the power and influence great wealth as hers and her family could wield, she remains humble — as evinced, for instance, by a snapshot taken of her standing alone and unattended while waiting for her luggage to come along in a carousel at an airport terminal.
“Our parents taught us not to forget where we came from, we should never forget,” she told a group of young Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs in a recent gathering.
Like Coson, her younger sister Elizabeth says their father made her and her siblings aware from an early age that they have to be part of the family business. The children were asked to work, particularly during the holiday season, which saw the entire family at work in the department stores.
“‘Who will mind the store,’ my father would ask, and so, our remembrance of holidays, the busiest time in the retail industry, was of the entire family stationed at the Makati (department) store, working alongside our mom.
In terms of academics, Elizabeth says that while her father had many expectations, “in school, there was no need for us to be first or second honors; he would always advise us to just be good persons.”
Henry Sy Sr.’s second eldest child spent nine years with the Investor Relations group of SM Prime Holdings, today the country’s largest integrated property developer in terms of assets.
She then went on take the helm at SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation (SMHCC), which oversees the family’s hotel and conventions business. With a combined inventory of 1,980 rooms and over 38,000 sqms of leasable convention space, SMHCC’s properties are comprised of Taal Vista Hotel, Pico Sands Hotel, Conrad Manila, Lanson Place Mall of Asia, Radisson Blu Cebu, Park Inn by Radisson Bacolod, Park Inn by Radisson Clark, Park Inn by Radisson Davao, Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo and Park Inn by Radisson North Edsa.
She put up SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia Complex in 2007 which, with 21,000 sqm of leasable space, is currently the largest privately managed exhibition and convention center in the country.
There are seven other SMXCC-managed exhibition and convention venues in key cities around the country.
Elizabeth Sy was a recipient of the SKAL International Tourism Personality Award for Hotel Category in 2019.
An art enthusiast, she has commissioned former Cultural Center of the Philippines president, now SMHCC consultant Nes Jardin to curate art pieces by noted Filipino artists for exhibition at the Conrad Manila.
She holds other senior positions in the SM Group, including being a member of the Executive Committee and Trust Committee of the Board of Directors of BDO Private Bank Inc.; the chairman of the Nazareth School of National University; and advisor to the board of SMIC. Likewise, she is the designated Honorary Consul General of Iceland in the Philippines, and an active member of the board of trustees of the World Wildlife Fund.
The eldest of Henry Sy Sr.’s male children is his namesake, Henry Sy Jr., who is also known by his nickname, “Big Boy.” Henry Jr. graduated from De La Salle University — just like all of his three brothers — and, like all of his siblings, was quickly absorbed into the SM business holdings. One of his first major senior positions in the family’s holding company, SMIC (also referred to as the SM Group) was as director of SM Prime, the property arm of the Group.
Under his watch, SMDC, SMIC’s real estate developer, grew in a span of 10 years from being a relatively minor player in the Philippine real estate industry to what is currently known as one of the leading developers in the region.
In 2013, SMDC was absorbed by SM Prime in a merger that had Sy Jr. as brand strategist while his younger brother, Hans remained as president. This was a move toward a full-range property development group that would cover hotels, office, residential and shopping malls. “He (Henry Jr.) is the thinker, and I’m the executioner. We work well together,” Hans Sy said. A year later, Henry Jr. would become chairman of SM Prime.
In 2016, Henry Jr. became active in the construction industry, venturing with the government for certain infra projects. He put up his own cement business under the brand name, “Big Boss Cement” during the Duterte administration’s “Build Build Build” infrastructure push.
He also became chief executive of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in 2010 after he acquired a 30 percent stake in the NGCP, the operator of the country’s transmission highway, for $350 million. Seven years later, he resigned, to focus on his family’s real estate business.
Henry Jr. has continued his father’s legacy for education through the Henry Sy Foundation. He and his brother Hans are signatories in an agreement for the creation of a Medical Sciences building in the University of the Philippines-Manila, a joint effort between the Henry Sy Foundation and the UP Medical Alumni Foundation Inc. involving a donation of some P300 million.
His being a devout Christian gave him strength and solace when tragedy struck his immediate family. In March 2021, the eldest of his two daughters, Jan Catherine, died at the age of 29 from sepsis.
Saying the passing of his daughter, who had been his executive assistant, left him “broken,” Henry Jr. disclosed that it had been Jan who always made sure he remained grounded in faith.
In his eulogy for Jan, he recalled, “Since she was a little girl, she was the one who kept asking me to come with her to church.”
There are two particular things that distinguish Henry Sy Sr.’s fourth child, Hans Sy: his compassion for those who have less in life as manifested in his philanthropic works, for which he has been recognized and highly lauded, and his passionate advocacy for sustainability and the environment.
In 2019, Forbes named him one of the “Heroes of Philanthropy: Catalyst for Change,” earning a spot in the Forbes Asia list for his charitable work involving Child Haus, a hospice for young cancer patients which he wholly supported using his own, not the conglomerate’s, funds.
More recently, he was conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award by the 2024 Asia Pacific Tambuli Awards for his numerous contributions to charity.
In 2016, Hans Sy surprised not a few when he stepped down as SM Prime president (he continues to be Clchairman, SM Prime Holdings Executive Committee) and currently, other than serving as SMIC adviser and chairman of both China Banking Corporation and the family-owned National University, he has practically retired from the daily corporate grind.
His taking a step back from business life was a move he made to give him more time and freedom to pursue his advocacies. His sustainability initiatives through SM, e.g., transforming SM malls into greener spaces integrated with such sustainable practices as rooftop solar panels and water recycling facilities, among many others, is well-recognized, and has led to him being the first and only Filipino member on the ARISE International Board, a group under the UN for global leaders on disaster risk reduction management.
Hans Sy had long pushed for sustainability efforts within SM. In 2014, for instance, he made a milestone achievement by leading the largest installation of solar panels in the country, that is, 5,760 such panels laid atop SM City North Edsa’s multilevel car park.
Earlier this month, he was honored by the Philippine Retailers Association and the Department of Trade and Industry with the Philippine Retailers Association Outstanding Filipino Retailers President Award for his visionary leadership in retail development.
Like their elder siblings, the two youngest children of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr., Herbert and Harley, have likewise carved a path within the vast SM business empire.
Herbert Sy has been a director of SM Prime since 1994; he is also adviser to the Board of SMIC and is currently the chairman of Supervalue Inc., the company which operates all SM Supermarkets, the cornerstone of SM Group’s retail empire.
He likewise is chairman of Super Shopping Market Inc., and Sanford Marketing Corporation as well as a director at Alfamart Trading Phils., Inc., and China Banking Corporation.
For his part, Harley Sy, the youngest among the siblings, is the executive director of SMIC and is, likewise, a director of China Bank and an adviser of BDO Private Bank. He is co-vice chairman of SM Retail whose retail chains include Ace Hardware and Toy Kingdom.
In August 2022, Mr. Sy increased his ownership stake in SMIC by 5.795 percent through a stock exchange with Allfirst Equity Holdings Inc. That strategic acquisition not only bolstered his personal stake, it also demonstrated his commitment to the company’s continued growth. The acquired shares came with ownership of geothermal fields in Tiwi, Albay and Makban, Laguna, further diversifying SMIC’s portfolio.
Through his progeny, the patriarch’s life and visions, live on, and how. Not too bad, for an émigré who came to this country many moons ago, with nary a cent in his pocket, and only his hard work, grit and his wits about him as he pushed on to carve a better life for himself and his children. And what a life it had been.
