Asia’s richest: Sy, Ayala clans in top 50

MANILA, Philippines — Two families from the Philippines – the Sys and the Zobels – made it to this year’s Forbes’ Top 50 Asia’s Richest Families.

With a net worth of $20.1 billion, the family of Henry Sy is No. 9 on the list while the Zobel family of the Ayala conglomerate, the country’s oldest, is at No. 43 with a net worth of $6.13 billion.

India’s Ambani family topped the 2017 list for the first time with a net worth of $44.8 billion.

The Asia’s 50 Richest Families list, according to Forbes, is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and currency exchange rates at the close of markets last Nov. 3. Private companies were valued based on similar companies 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.

The collective wealth of the families on the list totaled a record $699 billion, up 35 percent from last year.

A total of 43 clans from the 2016 list saw their wealth increase over the past year mainly due to an overall 25 percent jump in Asia’s stock markets for the year that ended last Oct. 31, according to the MSCI AC Asia Index.

Forbes said Asia’s wealthiest business dynasties on the list have remained relevant and successful by producing new generations that push the company in often surprising directions.

In the case of the Sy family, Forbes particularly noted that some young scions are even charting their own paths away from the family business.

“One example is 29-year-old Howard Sy, a grandson of Henry Sy, the patriarch of the Philippines’ richest family. A former investment analyst, Sy started a 24-hour self-storage company called StorageMart a year ago, anticipating that the country’s condominium boom would create a demand for storage space. His company now operates two facilities in Metro Manila,” Forbes cited.

Among the 50 families, the Ambanis are this year’s biggest gainer in dollar and percentage terms. The family’s net worth went up by $19 billion as shares in Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance Industries soared in the past year due to better refining margins and the demand produced by its telecom arm, Reliance Jio.

Since its launch in 2016, Jio has notched up close to 140 million subscribers. Mukesh’s younger brother Anil runs Reliance Communications.

The Ambanis superseded the Lees of the Samsung empire to claim the number one spot, Forbes said.

The Lees, meanwhile, dropped to second spot but still saw their wealth soar by $11.2 billion to $40.8 billion this year despite some family misfortunes.

“The family derives nearly 45 percent of its fortune from Samsung Electronics. Chairman Lee Kun-hee remains in a coma at Samsung Hospital after a heart attack in 2014. His son, Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, is currently appealing a five-year prison sentence,” Forbes explained.

“Despite the family’s recent misfortunes, shares of the electronics giant are up 75 percent over the past year. The core Samsung group includes 62 companies, of which 16 are listed on the Korea Exchange,” it added.

Forbes Asia editor Tim Ferguson said, “The cascading wealth of Asia’s very richest active tycoons is reshaping the ranks of even this legacy-driven list.”

“Because of India’s size, the Ambanis can never be as dominant there as Samsung’s Lees have been in Korea. But with Mukesh’s next generation establishing a presence at the Reliance Jio telecom operation, this story could play out for years,” Ferguson said.

The third richest family in Asia is Hong Kong’s Kwok family with a net worth of $40.4 billion.

“They are Asia’s richest real estate family, controlling Sun Hung Kai Properties which achieved a record $6.7 billion in sales under contract for the year ended June 30, a 28-percent increase over the previous 12 months. The group has been expanding in China, where about 60 percent of its 120 million square feet in properties are located,” Forbes said.

The minimum net wealth to qualify for the list was $5 billion, up by $1.6 billion from a year ago.