Henry Sy

Henry H. Sy and Tan O Sia - Adrian Sy & Encarnacion Sy (Garcia) Mausoleum, Manila Chinese Cemetery Henry Tan Sy Sr. (; ; October 15, 1924 – January 19, 2019) was a Filipino businessman.

Born in Fujian, he moved with his family to the Philippines at age 12. His family would later return to China, with Henry staying behind to establish ShoeMart, a small Manila shoe store, in 1958. Over the decades he developed ShoeMart into SM Investments, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, including 49 SM malls in the Philippines and China, 62 department stores, 56 supermarkets and over 200 grocery stores. SM also owns Banco de Oro, the largest bank in the Philippines, as well as real estate holdings.

Early life and education Henry Sy, also known as Sy Chi Sieng in Philippine Hokkien (Shī Zhìchéng in Mandarin), then still under the Republic of China (ROC), on October 15, 1924. At age 12, he and his family moved to the Philippines during the Commonwealth Era under American colonial period, where his father set up a shop that sold various household items. At his father's store, Sy helped his father sell rice, sardines and other items. Following World War II, the store was obliterated along with the rest of Manila. in Tondo, Manila and earned his Associate of Arts degree in commercial studies at Far Eastern University in 1950. At school, he learned English and Filipino (Tagalog).

Career In his twenties, Sy became a store manager working for an American business involved in the local shoe industry in the Philippines; he opened his first sole-proprietorship store in Quiapo, Manila in 1948. (US$=2PHP), roughly equivalent to PHP 385.17 million in 2024(US$=~56.91PHP ) when adjusted for inflation [of the US Dollar] ) prior to establishing Shoemart He later encountered difficulties in sourcing shoes locally and decided to import shoes from outside the country. In the early 1990s, SM started opening more shopping malls with the setting up of two malls in Metro Manila and a solitary mall in Cebu City. SM Prime Holdings was incorporated in 1994 and went public. He established business presence in mainland China when the SM Group opened its first shopping mall in his native Xiamen. Other malls were later set up in other parts of Southern China. He sold that stake in October 2007 for $680 million.

Sy's holding company, SM Investments (also known as SM Group), has been frequently named as one of the best managed companies in the Philippines.

He was the Philippines' richest man, gaining $5 billion in 2010, after the 2008 financial crisis. The huge gain was due to his holding company, SM Investments, which possessed interests in BDO, inter alia. Teresita and Henry Jr. are vice chairpersons of SM Investments, under chairman Jose Sio, a longtime lieutenant of Henry Sr. Harley is executive director of SM.

Death and legacy

Sy died in his sleep on January 19, 2019, aged 94. He was discovered on the morning of that day, in his home in Forbes Park, Makati. The interment took place at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig, on January 24.

The Henry Sy Sr. Hall inside the University of Santo Tomas campus was inaugurated on September 28, 2024, by the SM Foundation to commemorate Sy Sr.’s centennial.