Philippines’ richest man faces scrutiny over empty land’s 25,000% gain in value

Site, which was transferred within corporate group, sees 99% write-down months later

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Nothing about the largely empty stretch of land on the outskirts of Manila hints at how it generated a vast overnight fortune. Or a staggering write-down.

But that was what unfolded after Mr Manvel! Villar, the richest man in the Philippines, transferred the land from one part of his corporate group to another and announced its value had shot up 25,000 per cent to US$23.3 billion (S$30.2 billion), from US$93 million.

The mind-boggling gain, disclosed in March by Mr Villar’s publicly traded Golden MV Holdings, perplexed Manila’s financial community. Auditors baulked, regula-

tors halted the stock and opened an investigation, and Golden MV eventually agreed to write down the value by 99 per cent.

Five months on, the stock is still not trading. Regulators say Golden MV must first submit audited financial results that include the Jand. The company has said the audit is under way and that it did not break any rules, but it has left investors guessing about the maths.

The episode has triggered fresh scrutiny of the business empire that propelled Mr Villar from the slums to the country’s elite, with a fortune valued by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at US$22.9 billion.

Golden MV, which develops cemeteries, memorial parks and low-cost housing and has less than US$100 million in annual revenue, trades at more than 1,000 times its earnings on the Philippine Stock Exchange. Mr Villar and parties related to him control 89 per cent of the float.