BEFORE the death of Henry Sy Sr., the country’s acknowledged retail king, he made sure that the professionalism of the company he built from the ground up will come into fruition.
From the simple beginnings of “Shoe Mart,” Sy populated the country with his SM shopping malls and then expanded to other businesses to become one of the country’s large corporations owning many profitable businesses.
The SM group now owns BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender, and also China Bank, mining concerns, logistics firm, hotels and casino including half of City of Dreams Manila, the $1.5-billion integrated resort and casino in Entertainment City in Parañaque.
At first, Sy gave the management of his core businesses—shopping mall, property development and banks—to his children.
But recently, his children gave up top management positions to others, allowing a new breed of managers to join them, in part as a way to entice foreign investors to come in.
Although most of the members of the Sy family are still at the top of the company, the day-to-day operations are now being handled by other managers.
Teresita Sy-Coson, the eldest of Sy’s six children, is the vice chairman of SM Investments Corp. and chairman of BDO. The holding firm is being led by Frederic DyBuncio, SMIC’s president and CEO, while BDO is led by Nestor V. Tan.
“I’m sure Teresita is being consulted on the key decision aspects of the company,” a longtime SM employee said.
Hans Sy, who previously ran the property side, also gave up his management position from SM Prime to his protégé, Jeffrey C. Lim,
Henry Jr., known as Big Boy, stepped down last year as president and CEO of National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), to manage his own cement company. Big Boy owns a majority of NGCP.
Sy’s other children are Harley, Elizabeth and Herbert.
Even Sy Sr. himself gave up his chairman position in SM Investments Inc. to his friend and longtime chief finance officer, Jose T. Sio.
Sy died on Saturday. He was 94.
“Sad day for we lost the father of our local retail industry and our leaders in business. His pioneering ideas contributed greatly to our economic growth, especially the employment of many,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director at First Grade Finance Inc. said.
“Sy passed away peacefully in his sleep early Saturday morning,” the SM group said in a statement.
Wake is being held at Heritage Chapel in Taguig through Wednesday evening. Interment is on Thursday
Sy had been known to be ailing the past several years, and would occasionally appear in public, especially during his holding firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting, on a wheelchair.
His appearances had become very rare in recent years, reserved mainly for the advocacy closest to his heart—the graduation of the scholars of SM Foundation, many of whom themselves becoming inspiring rags-to-riches stories.
Besides scholarships, he made substantive donations to hospitals and built clinics.
Sy is survived by his wife Felicidad and six children.
Born on December 25, 1923, Sy is the founder and chairman of SM Prime Holdings Inc., the Philippine operator of the SM chain of malls in the country and in China.