How did Manny Villar reclaim the title of richest Filipino?

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Profits of Manny Villar's memorial business Golden MV Holdings skyrocketed to nearly P1 trillion in 2024 due to fair value gains

Among the 15 Filipino billionaires who made it to Forbes’ list of the world’s richest in 2025, it was real estate magnate Manny Villar who reclaimed the top spot once again.

Villar overtook ports tycoon Enrique Razon after Forbes estimated that the former Senate president’s net worth jumped from just $11 billion (around P628.83 billion)* in 2024 to $17.2 billion (P983.26 billion) as of April. [READ: 15 Filipinos included in Forbes’ 2025 list of world’s richest]

How did Villar’s net worth jump by so much?

According to Forbes, much of Villar’s net worth is tied to his stake in Golden MV Holdings, a real estate firm that’s known for developing memorial parks around the country. You might be familiar with some of its properties under the Golden Haven name, but it’s also in the residential development business.

Golden MV currently has 30 developments nationwide and eight columbaria containing a combined 33,172 vaults.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on March 28, Golden MV revealed that its profits skyrocketed to nearly P1 trillion in 2024 from just P1.4 billion in 2023.

The company attributed the huge jump to fair value gains, reflecting the higher valuation of its properties in the Villar City estate in Cavite and in Metro Manila.

In other words, these are merely profits on paper since Golden MV made money from the properties without having to sell them.

In 2024, Golden MV acquired nearly 400 hectares of land within Villar City by buying three other Villar-owned firms: Althorp Land Holdings Incorporated for P49.9 million, Chalgrove Properties Incorporated for P5.12 billion, and Los Valores Corporation for P24 million. It said the acquisition would allow these companies to focus on Villar City’s development.

“These properties were recorded in the books as investment properties and accounted for using the fair value method,” the company said in its annual financial report.

Fair value gains such as Golden MV’s are considered nonrecurring or one-off gains, since the company did not make these profits from its usual business operations.

But without these one-offs, how much did Golden MV really make in 2024? We need to take a look at the company’s operating profit, or the money it made from its core business operations.

Golden MV Holdings (as of December 31, 2024)
Revenues	P3.5 billion (Down 25% from 2023)
Cost and expenses	P2.36 billion (Down 23.5% from 2023)
Operating profit	P1.22 billion (Down 29% from 2023)
+ Fair value gains	P1.33 trillion
Net profit	P999.7 billion (Up 68,000%)

Excluding the fair value gains, Golden MV’s operating profit actually dropped by 29% to just P1.22 billion from P1.71 billion in 2024 due to lower sales of its residential units.

Real estate sales brought in only P3.31 billion last year, bringing revenues of Villar’s memorial business to just P3.5 billion in 2024.

Deferred taxes from the fair value gains also caused Golden MV’s total liabilities to soar to P355 billion from just P14 billion the year before.

Realizing paper gains

The 396-hectare property that brought in these massive gains for Golden MV is located in the 3,500-hectare Villar City estate, which the former Senate president hopes to develop into Metro Manila’s next “megapolis.”

As of 2024, 900 hectares are currently considered “active” and are being developed by another real estate firm of the Villars, Vista Land and Lifescapes.

In January, Villar also partnered with US-based Curley-Wagner Golf Design to develop the first tournament golf course in the former senator’s self-named city.

Apart from Golden MV Holdings and Vista Life and Landscapes, the Villars also own mall operator Vistamalls, home improvement chain AllHome, supermarket chain AllDay, and two real estate investment trusts.

The former Senate president is married to incumbent Senator Cynthia Villar and is father to Senator Mark Villar. His daughter, Camille, is seeking a Senate seat in the 2025 midterm elections.

*$US1 = P57

– Rappler.com