Innovators, Rebels, and Rogues Among The Youngest Forbes Billionaires

by Esquire Philippines

The release of the Forbes Philippines’ 50 Richest list always makes the headlines, even if there are few surprises. This year, for example, SM mogul Henry Sy tops the list for the tenth time in a row, followed—again—by John Gokongwei and Enrique Razon.

It’s a different story when you look at the younger billionaires on the list. This is where you find new names and a few interesting stories. With more or less self-made fortunes, the under-45 tycoons here have earned their places on the list through lots of hard work, some smarts, luck—and sometimes a little bit of cunning.

IMAGE Rennell Salumbre

EDGAR SIA, 40 (Double Dragon Properties), ranked #21 with US$840M

At 40, Injap Sia is both the youngest on the Forbes list and also the highest-ranking among the under-45 set. More importantly, his fortune is entirely self-made: the young entrepreneur was only 26 when he opened the first Mang Inasal store, which he sold to Jollibee Foods Corp. for a total of Php5 Billion. Though he no longer qualifies as a dollar billionaire as of this year (he was listed at #17 with US$1.2B in 2016), it’s still a big improvement from the #34 spot he held in 2015. The surge was attributed to the rapid growth and expansion of Double Dragon Properties, a real estate development company that he owns alongside partners like Jollibee founder Tony Tan Caktiong.

IMAGE Edric Chen

ROBBIE ANTONIO, 40 (Century Properties), ranked #28 with US$400M (together with his father, Jose Antonio)

After landing on the cover of our July 2017 issue, Robbie Antonio joins his father, Jose Antonio, on the Forbes list, coming in at #28. It’s the family-owned Century Properties that earns them their position on the list, but Robbie’s own startup, Revolution Precrafted Ltd., gets special mention. The maker of prefabricated luxury homes is currently valued at US$256M, after launching in 2015.

IMAGE Forbes

MICHAEL COSIQUIEN, 43, and EDGAR SAAVEDRA, 42 (Megawide Construction), ranked #29 with US$385M and #31 with US$375M, respectively

Michael Cosiquien and Edgar Saavedra were only in their early 20s, just out of college, when the pair founded their own company in 1997. It was tantamount to “on-the-job training for us,” Cosiquien told Inside Business with Coco Alcuaz in 2014. Both civil engineers, it took courage to have put up Megawide Construction then, since the economy was in the depths of the Asian financial crisis. It wasn’t until around 2007 that the company began to really take off, after having bagged major projects from SMDC. Today, Megawide has expanded from their core business, and now has interests in the Mactan Cebu International Airport and even in power generation—the company owns three solar power projects that together supply about 100 megawatts to the national power grid.

IMAGE Congressman Mikee Romero Facebook

MICHAEL ROMERO, 44 (GlobalPort 900), ranked #47 with US$135M

One of the most colorful characters on the list, Michael Romero has certainly had his ups and downs over the past year. Romero was elected to Congress as the 1-Pacman Party List representative in May 2016; months later, a court ordered his arrest over charges of embezzlement from the family-owned company Harbour Centre Port Terminal, Inc. Even before that, Forbes reports that Romero’s holding company, GlobalPort 900, “was delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange and trading suspended in May 2014 in what he described then as a temporary software mix-up.” Romero is currently in hiding, with his whereabouts unknown since the warrant for his arrest was issued in January 2017.

Building Boom Leads To Soaring Net Worths For Some In Philippines

by Grace Chung, Forbes

This story is part of Forbes’ reporting on the Philippines’ 50 Richest 2017. See full coverage here.

Filipino tycoons with interests in construction and property development saw their net worths increase this year. (Photo credit: NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images)

The fortunes of 17 tycoons rose this year and accounted for nearly half of the cumulative $74 billion total of the country’s 50 richest. The gainers hailed from a wide range of sectors, from finance and media to food & beverage and logistics. But most represented were those whose interests relied heavily in property development and construction.

Below we’ve spotlighted three gainers from those sectors, as well as a debut listee, who enjoyed a particularly robust year. 

The mega builders: Michael Cosiquien and Edgar Saavedra

The cofounders of the $342 million (2016 sales) infrastructure company Megawide saw their fortunes rise by more than 45%, buoyed by a 30% uptick in the stock. This makes Cosiquien and Saavedra the 29th and 31st richest people in the Philippines, respectively.

Megawide Construction cofounders
 FORBES

The 20-year-old company, which is handling construction of schools, the Mactan Cebu International Airport and the country’s first intermodal transportation hub, reported a rise in construction and airport revenues over the past year.

Megawide is the largest private airport operator in the Philippines. In 2014, it won a 25-year contract for Mactan Cebu in partnership with Indian infrastructure giant GMR. It’s building a second terminal there and readying a bid for its first overseas project, in western India.

The company also operates three solar power projects, supplying 100 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.

The dynamic duo: Jose and Robbie Antonio

Robbie and Jose Antonio
 COURTESY OF THE ANTONIO FAMILY

Robbie joins his father on the ranking this year at No. 28 thanks to his Revolution Prefabricated, a maker of factory-built luxury homes in Asia and the West that cost an average of $70,000 and $120,000, respectively.

In its first funding round in March the company raised $15.4 million from Silicon Valley VC firm 500 Startups and other angel investors, putting Revo’s valuation north of $250 million. To cater to the regional Southeast Asian market, Robbie says he’s working on affordable homes that would run $25,000 to $30,000 per unit.

The family’s flagship Century Properties, founded by Jose 30 years ago, is a developer of high-end real estate and has licensing deals with Forbes Media, Donald Trump, Giorgio Armani and Paris Hilton. It saw $130 million in revenue last year.

Last November, President Duterte named Jose as special envoy of trade to the U.S.

The newcomer: Eusebio Tanco

STI Education founder Eusebio Tanco
 INQUIRER

Shares in Eusebio Tanco’s key asset, STI Education Systems, soared 136% over the past year thanks to an expanding demand for courses in fields such as information and communication technology, and business and management. He lands on our list of the Philippines’ 50 Richest for the first time at No. 45.

The company, now with 77 schools spanning the Philippines, is breaking ground on a 10-acre property for a new campus in Davao, which is slated to open during the summer of 2018. Holding company Tanco Group also has interests in shipping, property, energy and financial services.

The debut listee studied economics at Ateneo de Manila University and got a master’s degree at London School of Economics. He started as a stockbroker.

With Sean Kilachand and Anu Raghunathan