Sy, Zobel and Aboitiz families listed by Forbes as among Asia’s richest

Three local business clans landed on the prestigious 2016 Forbes list of Asia’s Richest Fam­ilies, with the Sy family of the SM empire placing 17th, with a net worth of $12.8 billion.

The Zobel family of the Aya­la Group took the 37th spot, with a net worth of $5.1 billion, and the Aboitiz family of the Aboitiz Group, was 39th, with $4.95-bil­lion net worth.

But leading the list for the second year in a row is South Korea’s Lee family, which is behind the storied Samsung Group, with a combined wealth of $29.6 billion, up from $26.6 billion last year. The family de­rives 35 percent of its fortunes from Samsung Electronics.

Chairman Lee Kun-Hee re­mains in a coma, while his only son and heir apparent Lee Jae-yong faces his biggest test yet amid a global recall of Samsung’s latest Galaxy phone. Nonethe­less, Samsung shares are up 20 percent.

Forbes said the Sy family’s patriarch, Henry Sy, the Philip­pines’s richest person, owns re­tailers and real estate throughout the country.

“The family’s SM Invest­ments Corp. is the largest retailer in the Philippines, with over 200 individual outlets. It announced in February 2016 that it is merg­ing all its retail-related business­es under SM Retail,” the maga­zine said.

Sy started working at his family’s convenience store at a young age. He later put up a small shoe store in Manila and built it into SM Prime, the coun­try’s largest mall developer.

“Sy’s children are all in­volved in management. Grand­children are taking active roles,” Forbes added.

Forbes said seven siblings control more than one-third of Ayala Corp., one of the Philip­pines’s oldest businesses, run by the family’s seventh generation.

“It started off as a small dis­tillery in Manila and is now a holding company for publicly traded Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Tele­com and Manila Water,” it said.

“Jaime II is chairman and CEO; brother Fernando is pres­ident and COO. The family also hold stakes in San Miguel, the largest publicly listed food, bev­erage and packaging company in Southeast Asia. Iñigo Zobel, Jai­me’s cousin, sits on San Miguel’s board,” Forbes said.

It said the Aboitiz family controls the Cebu-based public­ly listed Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), with interests in power, banking, food, land development and biofuel.

In 2015, the firm acquired a majority stake in operations of Lafarge in the Philippines. The company was founded by Paulino Aboitiz, son of a Spanish farmer who migrated to the Philippines in the late 1800s.

It began as an abaca-trading and general-merchandise business.

“Today 19 members of the fam­ily, mostly fourth- and fifth-genera­tion, are involved in day-to-day op­erations,” Forbes said.

Indian families stood out on the list, with 17 out of the top 50 families hailing from India. While the top 50 families are rooted in Asia, their conglomerates have worldwide footprints.

Collectively, the top 50 families in Asia are worth $519 billion, ac­cording to Forbes.

Among the top five families on this year’s list, business interests span technology, livestock produc­ers, real estate and oil and gas.

Thailand’s Chearavanont fam­ily is on second spot, with a net worth of $27.7 billion. The family owns Charoen Pokphand Group, one of the world’s largest producers of animal feed and livestock.

Brothers Chia Ek Chor and Choncharoen Chiaravanont started the business in 1921, selling im­ported seeds from China to Thai farmers. Today, the group is led by Chia Ek Chor’s son Dhanin, who shares the family wealth with his three brothers and other relatives. His son Suphachai runs telecom arm True, Thailand’s third largest telecom operator.

The Ambani family (No. 3, $25.8 billion) saw its wealth rise from $21.5 billion last year. Oil and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani sparked a price war in India’s tele­com market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio in September.

In the same month, his brother Anil announced the merger of Re­liance Communications’s telecom business with rival Aircel, which awaits approval.

Their father, Dhirubhai Am­bani, started the business by trad­ing spices and yarn, and built Re­liance into one of India’s biggest private-sector businesses. After his death in 2002, brothers Mukesh and Anil divided the empire. Mukesh’s twins work at telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Retail, while Anil’s son works at Reliance Capital.

The Kwok family (No. 4, $25.2 billion) from Hong Kong is Asia’s richest real-estate family whose combined wealth is up from $19.5 billion last year.

The family controls Sun Hung Kai Properties, whose assets include Hong Kong’s tallest building. Hong Kong’s Lee family (No. 5, $24.7 bil­lion) of Henderson Development, founded by patriarch and Chair­man Lee Shau Kee, saw their com­bined wealth rise from $24.1 billion last year.

Lee’s youngest son, Martin, oversees the family’s real-estate gi­ant Henderson Land.

The Bangur family (No. 32, $5.75 billion), led by patriarch Benu Gopal Bangur, is featured in the cover story of this issue of Forbes Asia. The family’s shares in Shree Cement, India’s fastest-growing cement producer, soared nearly 35 percent, buoyed by rising sales and falling coal prices.

Now run by Benu Gopal’s son, Hari Mohan, and grandson, Prashant, the firm’s revenues ex­ceed $1 billion, with a market capi­talization of $8.7 billion.

Three out of four newcom­ers this year hail from India. Each climbed to the ranks from a dif­ferent industry. They include the Singh family (No. 43, $4.26 bil­lion), whose wealth was built on real estate from its Bombay Stock Exchange-listed DLF; the Dhingra family (No. 48, $3.6 billion), who own India’s second largest paint maker Kolkata-based Berger Paints; and the Piramal family (No. 50, $3.4 billion), whose business interests range from real estate to healthcare.

Also new on the list this year is the Koo family (No. 47) from Tai­wan, with a combined wealth of $3.7 billion.

“Sources of Asian wealth are broadening. You can see that among the rich families here, and even within many of the families – no particular sectors of the econo­my dominate. For those aiming to be among Asia’s richest, it’s a very wide world,” Tim Ferguson, editor of Forbes Asia, said.

The minimum net wealth to qualify for the list is $3.4 billion, up from $2.9 billion a year ago.

The top 10 richest families in Asia are:

1. Lee from South Korea; $29.6 billion
2. Chearavanont from Thai­land; $27.7 billion
3. Ambani from India; $25.8 billion
4. Kwok from Hong Kong; $25.2 billion
5. Lee from Hong Kong; $24.7 billion
6. Hartono from Indonesia; $18.6 billion
7. Kwek/Quek from Singapore, Malaysia; $18.5 billion
8. Cheng from Hong Kong; $17.3 billion
9. Tsai (Financial) from Taiwan; $15.3 billion
10. Hinduja from India, UK; $14.9 billion

Asia’s Richest Families list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Octo­ber 28, 2016.

Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded. To qualify, a fami­ly’s wealth must be rooted in Asia and participation in building that fortune has to extend at least three generations. LUIS LEONCIO