Toyota’s Ty, Volkswagen’s Ayala among PH’s wealthiest

Fernando Zobel de Ayala (second from left) during the Volkswagen Philippine launch in 2013

Some of the country’s wealthiest families are involved in the automotive business, according to the Forbes 50 Richest List for the Philippines.

In pole position is George S. K. Ty, group chair of GT Capital Holdings. GT Capital owns 51 percent of market leader Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP).

TMP has earned a commanding 39.4 percent of new vehicle sales in 2014. It assembles the segment-leading Vios sedan and Innova MPV at its 82-hectare industrial complex in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

TMP sells 17 models and has 47 dealer outlets nationwide. Toyota hit the one-million-unit-sales milestone this year. It is also the distributor of Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus.

Even the behemoth TMP is but a small part of Ty’s conglomerate. GT Capital Holdings is also into banking, power generation and real estate. Ty has an estimated net worth of $4 billion. His ranking rose from No. 7 in 2014.

Biggest rivals

Toyota’s biggest rival globally is Volkswagen, and in the Philippines, another tycoon is representing VW. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, ranked eighth in the Forbes listing, is chair and CEO of Ayala Corp.

PGA Car’s Robert Coyuito Jr.

VW appointed Ayala Automotive Holdings as its distributor in the Philippines. Although still ranked as a small player in the Philippine automotive market, there is huge potential in the VW brand.

It will no doubt seek to reach leadership status as it has worldwide. Ayala Automotive also owns dealerships for Honda and Isuzu. Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his family’s estimated net worth is $3.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the Volkswagen Group’s premium brands are all under the distributorship of another person in the Forbes list. Robert Coyiuto Jr.’s PGA Cars handles Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley and Porsche in the Philippines.

Coyiuto is chair of Prudential Guarantee and Assurance, one of the country’s largest insurance companies. He also has a 30-percent stake in National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, which distributes electricity.

Strong charity and CSR

All three tycoons strongly support charity and corporate social responsibility projects. TMP provided housing through a Gawad Kalinga project in Sta. Rosa, with 80 houses turned over to beneficiaries.

GT Capital Group chair Dr. George S.K. Ty holds hands with Shoichiro Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corp. honorary chair, during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Toyota Motor Philippines School of Technology.

Toyota helps to maintain a forest in Los Baños, Laguna. It also set up the TMP School of Technology in 2013 to train automotive mechanics for employment in the Philippines and in other countries.

VW Philippines has been an advocate of child safety through its interactive exhibitions. The traveling exhibit has been at the Manila International Auto Show and at several shopping malls. The objective is to promote the use of child safety seats and to teach the importance of using seatbelts for all car occupants.

PGA Cars has set up the Porsche Training and Recruitment Center Asia, a school to further train graduates from the Don Bosco Automotive Mechanics program. The first such facility outside Germany, the center trains talented individuals first at the PGA Cars dealership, for later deployment to Porsche Centers in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Henry Sy of SM Group led the Forbes list for the eighth straight year, with a net worth of $14.4 billion.–With reports from Aida Sevilla-Mendoza, Tessa Salazar and Doris Dumlao-Abadilla