[ad_1]
Henry Sy, the richest man in the Philippines, has gone from the penniless Chinese immigrant to the leadership of a multi-billion dollar business empire. He died Saturday, announced his conglomerate.
The 94-year-old from the Chinese city of Xiamen, he made his fortune with a conglomerate of Philippine shopping centers that has created some of the world's largest shopping centers.
However, his holdings also included banks, hotels and buildings in the Philippines, as well as shopping centers in China.
He had a net worth of $ 19 billion Friday, according to Forbes.com.
Forbes said he was the 52nd richest person in the world last year, defeating audacious moguls like Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch and George Soros.
"Henry Sy … died peacefully Saturday morning in his sleep.There are no other details yet," said his SM group in a statement to AFP.
Sy established his first shoe store in downtown Manila in 1956, a business that later became a diverse empire.
He left his position as president of his holding in 2017, taking the title of "president emeritus" and leaving trusted allies and his children in charge of his empire.
It was a long journey for a man who came to the Philippines as a child to work in his immigrant father's variety shop.
"Our store was so small that there was no back or second floor, we slept on the counter late at night after the store closed," he told Philippine Star newspaper in 2006.
Supermalls shoe store
After the destruction of their store during the Second World War, Sy's father returned to China but Henry chose to stay in the Philippines.
He graduated from a business school in Manila and began selling shoes in a store that later became a chain called "ShoeMart".
In 1972, his stores specialized in the sale of all kinds of merchandise, prompting him to change his name to SM Department Store.
But it is in 1985 that Sy enters history by opening his first "Supermall" in Manila.
Extending over more than 424,000 square meters (4.6 million square feet), the center includes dozens of stores, numerous movie theaters, restaurants, banks and other attractions that make it a one-stop shop for millions of dollars. Filipinos.
It was only the beginning, as more and more gigantic shopping centers of Sy appeared across the country, some even containing ice rinks, a rarity in the tropical country.
Sy has helped create the culture of shopping malls in the Philippines, where warm temperatures and the regular threat of torrential downpours can make outdoor shopping uncomfortable.
The holding company of Sy, SM Investments Corp., opened its first shopping center in China in 2001 and has also developed there.
In 2018, SM reported having 70 shopping centers in the Philippines and seven in China, as well as six hotels and eight office buildings.
Sy's empire has been the subject of much criticism from groups of workers, who claim that it uses thousands of contract hires to avoid paying higher wages and salaries. benefits to which permanent workers are entitled.
SM officials insisted that they did not engage in so-called "contracting", but claimed to hire "seasonal workers" for peak periods such as Christmas, back to school, and even school holidays. weekends.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not changed by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
[ad_2]
Source link
