Lucio Tan, chairman of the expansive LT Group Inc., started from the lowest rung of the corporate ladder—as janitor of a tobacco company.
His conglomerate now includes Philippine Airlines (PAL), Philippine National Bank (PNB), Asia Brewery, Tanduay Distillers, Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp., Eton Properties Philippines Inc. and the Tan Yan Kee Foundation which was set up to honor his father’s legacy.
Born July 17, 1933 in Amoy, Fujian province, China, Tan turned into an entrepreneur in the Philippines with extensive exposures in the tobacco and beer industries.
Tan was the eldest of eight children. He studied chemical engineering at Far Eastern University in Manila. After working as janitor, he was eventually promoted as cook in the cigarette factory with the task of regulating the product mix.
In 1966, Tan put up his own tobacco company, Fortune Tobacco Corp.
Tan and the late Ferdinand Marcos reportedly forged an alliance in the early 1960s when the latter was still a senator, and their friendship bloomed with the time. When Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, Tan initiated the formation of what would become three of the country’s largest businesses. Fortune Tobacco emerged as an industry leader,
Tan acquired in 1977 the insolvent General Bank and Trust that was later renamed Allied Banking Corp. Three years later, he launched Asia Brewery when Marcos rescinded a measure prohibiting the establishment of new beer companies.
After the fall of the Marcos rule in 1986, then President Corazon Aqiino and Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos launched an investigation into Tan’s businesses (1992–98) and tried to prove that Tan’s companies had been secretly owned by Marcos with a view to sequestration on the ground that they were illegally acquired.
In 1992, Tan launched the winning bid that secured the purchase of the newly-privatized PAL. In 1995, he became chairman of the airline. As owner of PAL and head of Fortune Tobacco. Tan’ net worth ballooned to anywhere between $1 billion and $8 billion, making him the richest man in the country.
Tan quashed tax evasion charges when the Supreme Court ruled that the Bureau of Internal Revenue erred in presenting evidence on his tax breaks.
In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the decision that voided the state’s orders of sequestration on Tan’s assets.
