By Alex Y. Vergara
Business magnate, industrialist and philanthropist Henry Sy Sr., chairman emeritus of SM Investments Corporation and a man whose dream when he was just starting out in business was to provide every Filipino with a good, dependable pair of shoes, passed on this morning, January 19. He was 94.
At the time of his death, Henry was listed by Forbes Magazine as the richest man in the Philippines and 52nd in the world with a net worth of $15.3 billion. The “World’s Billionaires List” even ranked Henry and his family’s net worth higher at $20 billion, making him the only Filipino to make it into the Top 100 listing of global billionaires.
Henry formally stepped down as SM Investments Corporation’s chairman in 2017, leaving the day-to-day management of his many companies to his trusted officers, executives and board of directors, including children Teresita Sy-Coson, Henry Sy Jr., and Harley Sy.
Considered as one of the country’s largest holding companies, SM Investments Corporation is heavily invested in retail, property, banking and equity investments.
Grouped under its property division, SM Prime, for instance, holds the distinction of being the Philippines’ largest mall developer, both in terms of gross area and geographical reach, with a considerable presence as well in China.
Apart from malls, its property arm also has interest in residences, office buildings, resorts, hotels and convention centers. Meanwhile, SM’s retail operations are considered the country’s largest and most diversified with its food—SM Markets, WalterMart and Alfamart, non-food and specialty retail stores.
SM Investments Corporation also claims to have the “largest footprint in the Philippines” through BDO Unibank, Inc. and China Banking Corporation.
In terms of equity investments, SM is into integrated resorts through Belle Corporation and copper mining through Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation, to name just but two.
Born in Xiamen, China in 1924, Henry, according to an online account, followed his father to the Philippines in order to escape poverty. He had to overcome countless obstacles and setbacks early on, including learning the local culture and language, sending himself to school and a series of failed business ventures.
When their small grocery store burned down during World War II, Henry’s father was forced to go back to China, but he stayed and plodded on in the Philippines, buoyed perhaps by the feeling that something big awaited him here.
He may have been celebrated later in life as the Philippines’ wealthiest man, but to his children, executives, employees and trusted aides, Henry will always be known as “Tatang,” a hardworking and entrepreneurial visionary who started out from humble beginnings with a single shoe store in the late ’50s along Carriedo Street in Quiapo, Manila he himself dubbed as Shoe Mart.
“From the dream of selling a good pair of shoes to every Filipino, SM founder Henry Sy Sr. has laid the groundwork and piloted the development and evolution of SM Investments into one of the country’s largest holding companies today,” said SM Investments Corporation’s website.
