Tycoon Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp. grew its first quarter net profit by 22 percent year-on-year to P7.4 billion on the back of the group’s banking business alongside the growth in mall and property units.
Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp. boosted its net profit last year by 16.3 percent to P24.7 billion on a double-digit rise in earnings across its banking, retailing, shopping mall and residential development businesses.
Eleven tycoons from the Philippines made it to Forbes Magazine’s 2013 roster of richest people on the planet, still led by Henry Sy and family whose group dominates local retailing, residential and mall development, and banking.
Optimism is soaring that the Philippines is finally becoming an Asian tiger economy, but critics caution a tiny elite that has long dominated is amassing most of the new wealth while the poor miss out.
Local stocks began 2013 trading with an all-time high finish on Wednesday, riding on the global euphoria arising from a fresh US budget deal that avoided the US’ fall into a much-feared fiscal cliff.
SM Investments Corp. has completed a $150-million equity sale to institutional investors via a top-up offering made last August.
Tycoon Henry Sy-led SM Investments Corp. has raised $500 million from the sale of overseas bonds at one of the lowest rates snagged by a Philippine corporate issuer for a seven-year tenor.
Tycoon Henry Sy-led SM Investments Corp. plans to return to the offshore bond market with the offering of seven- and 10-year US dollar bonds.
Giant mall operator SM Prime Holdings is so bullish about Mindanao consumers, whom it considers power buyers, that it plans to build five more malls on the island within the next four years.
Tycoon Henry Sy-led China Bank has executed a capital restructuring scheme meant to align itself with the rest of its banking peers.
Macau casino giant Melco Crown Entertainment has committed to invest up to $580 million in a Philippine entertainment complex as a strategic partner of tycoon Henry Sy, becoming the single largest investor in a “world-class” entertainment complex jumpstarted by Belle Corp.
The Philippines’ richest man is still Henry Sy, who controls the country’s largest retail group, which includes SM Prime, according to the Forbes Asia magazine.
