Henry Sy, Lucio Tan are the two richest Filipinos, Forbes says

“A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials," a Chinese proverb says. Being no strangers to adversities, Henry Sy and Lucio Tan must know the saying pretty well. After all, these two Filipino-Chinese businessmen have transcended their origins and overcome challenges to top a list of the Philippines' 40 richest individuals as prepared by Forbes Magazine. The 84-year old Sy saw his net worth increasing to $3.8 billion, the magazine said. More than six decades after he built a modest Quiapo shoe store, the Philippines' richest Filipino now owns the country’s largest mall operator through SM Prime Holdings Inc. He also owns Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO), the Philippines' largest bank in terms of assets. Sy's listed holding company SM Investments Corp. is engaged in four core businesses -- mall development, retail, financial services, and real-estate development and tourism -- through its subsidiaries. SM Prime runs the malls while retail merchandising is subsumed under the SM chain of department stores. BDO and China Banking Corp. fall under financial services and real-estate development and tourism belong to SM Land, Inc., SM Development Corp., Costa Del Hamilo, Inc., Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club, Inc. and Highlands Prime, Inc. In the meantime, Tan escaped China as a child. He later dropped out of college and built his Philippine empire, ending up as the country's second-richest individual. The 75-year old Tan saw higher net worth of $1.7 billion, Forbes Magazine said. His two banks -- the Philippine National Bank (PNB) and the Allied Banking Corp. -- now control 90 percent of Allied Commercial Bank (ACB), making both lenders the first to own a locally-incorporated commercial bank in China. Tan also owns the flag carrier Philippine Airlines, which announced downsizing after suffering $301.4-million loss at the end of fiscal year in March. Besides offering early retirement packages, PAL will have fewer flights to US, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia to cut costs further. He also owns Asia Brewery Inc., Tanduay Holdings, Fortune Tobacco, listed Eton Properties Philippines. Inc., MacroAsia Corp. and University of the East. Forbes Magazine's latest list comes after the government announced better-than-expected second quarter economic results, indicating that the country avoided a downturn. Most of the richest Filipinos -- including Sy and Tan -- have diversified interests as represented by companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange. “Public fortunes were calculated using share prices and exchange rates as of Aug. 14. For privately held assets, we estimated what they would be worth if public. This ranking, unlike our Forbes billionaire list, includes numerous family fortunes shared by individuals and their children, grandchildren and siblings," Forbes.com said. The Philippines' third-richest person -- Jaime Zobel de Ayala -- saw his net worth unchanged at $1.2 billion. Ayala is chairman and chief executive officer of Ayala Corp., the country’s largest conglomerate with interests in real estate and hotels, financial services and bancassurance, telecommunications, electronics, information technology and business process outsourcing, utilities, among others. Coming in fourth is real estate mogul Andrew Tan who increased his net worth to $850 million. His holding company Alliance Global Group, Inc. diversified into food and beverage business and real estate development. Its subsidiaries include Emperador Distillers, Inc., Anglo Watsons Glass, Inc., Alliance Global Brands, Inc., Megaworld, Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., and Golden Arches Development Corp. His company Megaworld Corp. will match the P3.15-billion bid of Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. for the Bases Conversion Development Authority’s 8.38-hectare property in Taguig City. John Gokongwei, the fifth-richest Filipino, improved his net worth to $720 million. Gokongwei's listed JG Summit Holdings Inc. has interests in food, property development, hotel management, telecommunications, airlines, petrochemicals, and financial services. He also has businesses in power generation and insurance. As fastfood giant Jollibee soared higher, Tony Tan Caktiong’s net worth went up to $710 million, making him the sixth-wealthiest Filipino. Other quick service restaurants tucked under listed Jollibee Foods Corp. include Chowking, Greenwich, Delifrance, Manong Pepe’s, and Red Ribbon. The company he controls also owns international brands such as Yonghe King, Chun Shui Tang, Hongzhuangyuan, and Lao Dong. San Miguel Corp.’s chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. -- the country's seventh-richest individual -- saw his net worth expand to $660 million. The San Miguel Group is the largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company in Southeast Asia. SMC has announced it will initially acquire a 35 percent stake in Private Infra Dev Corp., a consortium of construction companies behind the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway project. San Miguel's energy investment arm -- San Miguel Energy Corp. -- recently acquired the 620-megawatt Limay combined cycle power plant. The eighth-wealthiest Filipino is Enrique Razon Jr. Razon owns the country’s largest privately-owned port management company, International Container Terminal Services Inc. He is also part of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, which operates the country’s transmission highway. - Ruby Anne M. Rubio