LOSING BILLIONS OF pesos on the revaluation of his properties in southern Manila, business tycoon and real estate magnate Manuel ‘Manny’ Villar is no longer the country’s wealthiest man after 366 hectares of land held by the former senator’s company Villar Land Holdings Corporation was reappraised at well below its original purchase price.
The revalued property tagged as Villar City is part of an ambitious mixed-use estate whose facilities are planned to include two high-end casinos.
Based on a report by global information firm Bloomberg, with shares in Golden MV Holdings Incorporated plummeting by a staggering 87 percent, Villar witnessed more than US$18 billion of his fortune wiped out, sending the former senatorns net worth down to just US$4 billion. Philippines.
Accordingly, Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index now has Solaire Resort parent Bloomberry Resorts Corporation chairman and chief-executive-officer Enrique Razon Jr. at top spot as Philippines’ richest person.
Assessment by financial experts enthused that Villar’s unfortunate fall from the top was sparked by a dispute over the value of the land in question, purchased last year for ₱5.2 billion (US$88.1 million) from three companies he privately owned and subsequently revalued at over ₱1.3 trillion (US$22.0 billion).
Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines president and chief-operating-officer Jesus Mariano Ocampo described Villar’s dramatic fall in share price as a reflection of the “true numbers” of his company.
Trading Edge chief investment strategist Ron Acoba likewise stated that even Villar Land’s current valuation “appears difficult to justify” even as DragonFi Securities analyst Jarrod Tin added that the “massive discrepancy” between the company’s valuation and that of its auditor “implies that (Villar Land’s) shares remain significantly overvalued and may still need to correct toward more realistic valuations.”