08.06.2017 thu th Anniversary 10 CHINA 中國 WWW.MACAUDAILYTIMES.COM.MO Sy attempts to execute an orderly handover of his wealth to a new generation, which includes the Six Filipino billionaire heirs rise appointing of professional ma- nagers from outside the family. By involving all of his children with Duterte shift to China as managers and giving them an ownership stake, he’s been more proactive than some - even if he Blake Schmidt recent interview with CNBC or hasn’t publicly designated a suc- his laissez-faire approach to the cessor. EVEN decades ago in Ma- economy, even as he faces scru- That transition was pushed BLOOMBERG Snila, one of Henry Sy’s first tiny for thousands of drug war forward in April when Henry ste- bonanzas was buying cigaret- killings that watchdog Human pped down as chairman of SM tes off of American soldiers and Rights Watch has called a cala- Investments and gave up a cas- selling them in the city plaza at a mity. She declined to comment ting vote that gave him the power markup. on the family’s net worth, and the as a tiebreaker in cases of deadlo- Now, heirs of the retail and pro- family declined requests for addi- ck on the board. The company perty mogul behind Southeast tional comment sent through the replaced him with longtime chief Asia’s largest fortune may have holding company’s investor rela- financial officer Jose Sio, who found a jackpot of their own: tions department. holds an MBA from New York They’re building a supermall in Teresita and her brother Hans University, and named 57-year China that’s almost the size of the have been in delegations that -old DyBuncio, a former JPMor- Pentagon. went with Duterte to China for gan banker, to take over Harley’s The project signals increased talks with President Xi Jinping, role as president. exposure to the world’s biggest a sign that the descendants of “The family has learned to deal consumer market, in line with the conglomerate’s China-born with decisions very professio- the foreign policy shift towards founder are well-positioned to nally,” said Corazon Guidote, Beijing by President Rodrigo benefit from the detente, Reyes senior vice-president for investor Duterte. Investors have come said. Visits from Chinese tourists relations at SM Investments. She around to the tough-talking po- grew by more than one-third last said that while the clan is han- pulist since his election last May, year, a boon for the Sys’ tenant at ding management to professio- supporting a rally for Philippine the City of Dreams Manila casino nals, each of the siblings still gets equities and a surge for the stocks resort. a vote on strategic decisions. owned by Sy’s SM Investments Heir: Teresita Sy-Coson, vice chairperson of SM Investments Corp. Seven of the group’s more Even so, the odds may be Corp as the company undergoes than 60 malls are in China. The against a smooth transfer, which a generational shift. That’s made The heirs collectively have direct more than any in Southeast Asia, conglomerate is building a resi- remains a challenge for many of billionaires of his six children, ac- stakes of around 44 percent of according to the Bloomberg index. dential project in Chengdu, with the world’s richest families. Jose- cording to the Bloomberg Billio- SM, which has holdings in retail, The conglomerate is viewed by plans for Xiamen and Jinjiang, ph Fan, a professor at the Chine- naires Index. property development, banking investors as a proxy for the fast- the latter being the birthplace of se University of Hong Kong who “Henry Sy was one of the more and logistics. The siblings - Tere- growing Philippines economy, Henry Sy, who spearheaded the studied 214 family-run firms in forward-looking and canny ty- sita, Elizabeth, Henry Jr., Hans, according to Frederic DyBuncio, group’s push into China. A su- Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Sin- coons in the Philippines in that Herbert, and Harley - have a who assumed the presidency of permall in the works in Tianjin gapore, found that their stock he paid attention to succession combined net worth of USD10.7 SM Investments in April. Indeed, would have more than 500,000 prices dropped by almost 60 per- issues probably better than billion, according to the index. logistics company 2GO Group square meters of floor space, ri- cent on average in the eight years most,” said Alejandro Reyes, a Henry Sy, 92, is credited with the Inc., which counts Sy’s group valing that of the Pentagon. It surrounding a change of power at Manila-born visiting professor at remainder of the clan’s share of among its largest stakeholders, was designed like a blossoming the top. University of Hong Kong’s politi- the conglomerate, held directly, has tripled in the past year, whi- flower to symbolize growth and “We have to wait and see how cs department. “The Philippines with his wife and through family le property company SM Prime new opportunities, according to the relationships of his offspring is an oligarchy where you have a -owned holding companies. Holdings Inc., lender BDO Uni- the company’s website. Still, Chi- evolve,” Fan said in an e-mail limited number of families who The family’s $17.6 billion fortu- bank Inc. and holding company na only accounts for about 2 per- response to questions about Sy. benefit when the economy is ne amounts to more than 5 per- SM Investments are each up cent of the group’s total revenue. ”The real test of the family’s go- doing very well, and who control cent of the island nation’s annual more than 19 percent. The expansion in China brings vernance is typically when the an inordinate amount of the eco- GDP and has risen more than $3 Teresita Sy-Coson, the eldest the fortune back to the founder’s founder approaches the end sta- nomy.” billion since Duterte’s victory, of the heirs, lauded Duterte in a homeland, and comes as Henry ge of life.”Bloomberg Hong Kong steals Tokyo’s crown as priciest Asian city for expats ONG Kong overtook appreciated against most regional director for Asia per than a year ago, Quane HTokyo as the most major currencies, owing to with ECA, said in a state- said. For Luanda, goods’ expensive city in Asia-Pa- its peg to the U.S. dollar, ment yesterday. costs -- already high due to cific for expatriates, and is which has pushed up the While local prices have poor infrastructure -- have second globally, according price of goods and servi- risen in Singapore, the city risen as the Angolan kwan- to consultancy firm ECA ces relative to those in lo- state’s currency has weake- za becomes increasingly International. Thanks to cations whose currencies ned against counterparts overvalued. the pound, London is now have weakened against the over the past 12 months ECA conducts two sur- cheaper than Bangkok. greenback,” Lee Quane, a making relative costs chea- veys a year to help com- Hong Kong climbed to panies calculate cost-of-li- in the rankings amongst nefits packages continued its highest position ever on ving allowances for expat Asian locations in the past to decline last year in both the rankings. Tokyo main- MACAU 11 IN ASIA-PACIFIC RANKING employees. The surveys 12 months has been stron- Hong Kong and Singapore. tained its No. 7 spot glo- compare a basket of like- gly influenced by currency A package for a middle ma- bally while Singapore fell ACCORDING TO the Cost and Shenzhen (15), also beat- for-like goods and services movements, with Yan- nager in Hong Kong, inclu- to 24th place. London, at of Living survey, Macau ing out the South Korean city bought from more than gon falling in the regional ding salary, tax and bene- 132nd, is now cheaper than ranked as the 11th most ex- of Ulsan (12). According to the 460 locations worldwide, rankings on account of fits, has fallen 2 percent in Thailand’s capital, Rio de pensive city for expatriates authors of the survey, it is less according to the company. depreciation of its curren- U.S. dollar terms over the Janeiro and Buenos Aires. in the Asia-Pacific region, expensive for expats than Bei- The survey doesn’t include cy in the past year,” said past five years to around Luanda in oil-rich Angola moving up one place from jing (8), Busan (9) and Singa- rent, utilities, car purcha- Quane. USD265,500, while the the previous year. That puts pore (10). In the global index, climbed to the top spot. ses and school fees, which An ECA survey published typical package in Singa- the MSAR slightly ahead of Macau ranks as the 25th most “Over the past few years, are tracked separately. in May also found the pore dropped 6 percent to Guangzhou (13), Taipei (14) expensive city in 2017. the Hong Kong dollar has “Much of the movement value of expat pay and be- $235,500. Bloomberg.