Success Story of Lucio Tan

Success Story of Lucio Tan

Here's another rags to riches entrepreneur story as we witness the success story of Dr. Lucio Tan.

Lucio Tan was born on July 17, 1934 in China’s Fujian province. His family moved to Philippines, in Naga, where he was a child. He worked his way through college studying Chemistry in Far Eastern University but quit before graduating, set up a business that deals with scrap in the late 1950s and and later on found a job in a tobacco factory where he was tasked to buy leaf tobacco in the Ilocos provinces.

Because of this experience, Lucio Tan started his own cigarette company named Fortune Tobacco in 1966. It was also during this time when his close friend Ferdinand Marcos was newly elected as President. The tobacco business was a success and it expanded introducing a budget brand ‘Hope’ in 1975. By year 1980, Fortune Tobacco was the Philippines’ largest cigarette manufacturer.
In 1977, Lucio Tan acquired from the Philippine Government the then bankrupt bank General Bank and Trust Co. (Genbank) for only P500,000 which was described by many as a sweetheart deal. It was later renamed to Allied Bank.

In 1982, Lucio Tan established and put up Asia Brewery where he used to his benefit, the Marcos ruling that lifted the ban on the establishment of new beer companies. Back then, it was the only brewery allowed to compete with the market leader San Miguel Corp.

In 1993, Lucio Tan secured control of the country’s airline carrier Philippine Air Lines (PAL).
While a lot of articles say that Lucio Tan benefited a lot from tax concessions and privileges that the Marcos Regime gave to him in exchange for a rumored 60% on all his shareholdings, on December 7, 2007, the Philippine Supreme Court affirmed the decision dismissing the state’s sequestration of Lucio Tan’s companies. The court’s decision says that “there can be no question that indeed, petitioner’s orders of sequestration are void and have no legal effect.”

In 1995, he founded yet another company in the aviation industry. The Macro Asia Corporation was envisioned to be the leading provider of aviation and logistics services. This vision has become a reality as Macro Asia Corporation is now the provider of technical ground handling, engineering and maintenance services, and catering services to majority of the international airlines.

In 2000, Tan has become the majority stockholder of Philippine National Bank. The merger of PNB and Allied Bank is expected to be completed before the end of this year.

HIS COMPANIES DEAL WITH LIQUOR, TOBACCO, AVIATION, BANKING AND REAL ESTATE. THSE ARE;
* Asia Brewery, the 2nd largest brewer in the Philippines.
* Tanduay Holdings, one of the world's largest rum makers.
* Fortune Tobacco, the largest tobacco company in the country.
* Philippine Airlines, the Philippines' Number 1 Airline and Aviation Company and Asia's FIRST Airline
* University of the East one of the most financially stable universities in the Philippines in terms of assets.
* Philippine National Bank, the 5th largest bank in the country.
* Allied Bank, the Philippines' 8th largest lender (Merged with Philippine National Bank).
* Eton Properties Philippines, the global real estate brand of the Lucio Tan Group.

To date, Lucio Tan's Group of Companies provides jobs to 50,000 people. To these employees, Lucio Tan is simply Kapitan. A nickname that is very much appropriate to him as he was able to navigate his vast businesses through rough seas and tough times.

Today, Lucio Tan is still one of the richest person in the Philippines ranking him as second to Henry Sy last year 2008 with a total asset of %1.5 Billion. His Lucio Tan Group of Companies now owns several industries that includes liquor (Tanduay Holdings, Inc. and Asia Brewery), tobacco (Fortune Tobacco), aviation (Philippine Airlines), banking (Allied Bank and Philippine National Bank), real estate (Eton Properties Philippines), and education (Univerity of the East).