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.

Pre Crafted Designer Homes Make Living In Works Of Art A Reality

by Bianca Salonga, Forbes

Three bedroom pre-crafted home by Tom Dixon
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED

Robbie Antonio, founder and CEO of Revolution Precrafted, speaks the language of art and design. As a real estate mogul, he has spearheaded projects all over the country in collaboration with design greats like Philippe Starck, Versace, Missoni and Armani, just to name a few.

His home, which also happens to be the first to be build by Priztker prized architect Koolhaas in the Philippines, served as a take off point for the founding of his passion project Revolution Precrafted. Like any other work of art, his residence is referred to as Stealth. The dark structure resembling boxes stacked one over the other houses an impressive collection of commissioned artworks ranging from Damien Hirst to Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. Curiosity about his home inspired him to come up with a new proposition to building homes–one that would disrupt the industry. “I thought, what if I did this for a lot of people? Why not channel this curiosity for people to obtain but in a more expeditious way?”

Interiors of a Tom Dixon designed pre crafted home
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED

The idea was ambitious to say the least: collaborate with the world’s greatest architects, designers and style icons to design homes. Getting these design icons on-board was just the tip of the iceberg. Finding the technology to make this possible and affordable to a larger market was another story. It was at this juncture that that concept of producing prefabrication homes came into play. “The technology was a means to an end,” the art enthusiast said.

A one bedroom pavilion by Kravitz Design
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
A modular glass house by Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED

It was in 2015 when Revolution Precrafted was launched and the company has since then enlisted the world’s top design names and collectives to create prefabricated homes. One of the challenges, Robbie admits, is finding middle ground where function and aesthetic meet. It is one thing to create a home that is beautiful and another to produce and sell one that is practical, functional and reasonably priced. “Fabrication of mockups is the longest and hardest. There are technicalities and a lot of adjustments.” One model can take up to six months to create to make consideration and compromises for a comfortably, liveable home.

Eden by Marcel Wanders
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
An artistic render of a pre crafted home by Ronald Ventura
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
Exteriors of a home designed by Daphne Guinness
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
Interiors of a Daphne Guinness designed home
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
A fashionphile’s dream bedroom turned into reality by Daphne Guinness
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
Daphne Guinness breathes her own brand of style into the design of her homes for Revolution… [+] 
PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED

The homes and pavilions now included in the collection of Revolution Prefabricated is a clear indication of how Robbie has turned vision into reality. He offers insight on this new approach to building homes. “It’s also creating desire. When someone desires something so much, there is no price limit. You will go for it. What is art? It is a piece of canvas that one is willing to pay a fortune for. It’s the same concept. I want to create a desire so palatable that you need to have it.”

A pre-crafted home by award winning architect Ed Calma
 PHOTOS COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
Minimalist design by Ed Calma for the living space
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
A fully functional kitchen for an Ed Calma designed home
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED
Sweet dreams inside in the private chambers designed by Ed Calma
 PHOTO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED