Philippine tycoon loses US$16 billion as property fortune wilts in three days

[MANILA] One of the frothiest stocks in the Philippines has plunged in recent days, erasing more than US$16 billion of its founder’s fortune and raising new questions about its remarkable ascent and sudden nosedive.

Property developer Golden MV Holdings began falling on Nov 13 after regulators lifted a six-month trading suspension on the stock, continuing through Tuesday (Nov 18) morning. So far it is down 76 per cent, its worst streak as a public company.

It has also knocked Golden MV founder Manuel Villar off the perch as the richest man in the Philippines. He is now worth US$5.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, eclipsed by business tycoon Enrique Razon.

Golden MV told regulators both on Friday and Monday that it did not know why the stock dropped, filings show. A company representative did not respond to a request for comment.

“When a stock returns from trading halt – especially one linked to a high-profile tycoon like Manny Villar – investors typically reassess” its price relative to the company’s fundamentals, said Toby Allan Arce, an analyst at Globalinks Securities & Stocks “The market appears to have concluded that the company’s pre-suspension valuation was far too rich.”

Regulators suspended the stock in May after the company failed to file financial results because of a disagreement with its auditor.

The sticking point was the valuation of land that Golden MV acquired from its founder for US$93 million and subsequently revalued to US$23.3 billion.

That transaction followed a run-up in Golden MV’s stock price that pushed the company’s price-to-earnings ratio above 1,000 and perplexed Manila’s financial community. Villar and parties related to him control 89 per cent of the company’s shares.

In its 2024 annual report filed last week, Golden MV noted that it had agreed to value the land using a method suggested by its external auditors, which yielded a value closer to what the company paid for it.

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Golden MV develops and manages cemeteries, memorial parks and low-cost housing. It is developing a project called Villar City, which it says is a plan to transform a cluster of cities in southern Manila into the capital’s “new centre of gravity.” The land acquired last year is meant to be part of that development. BLOOMBERG