LT Group Appoints Billionaire Lucio Tan’s Grandson To Vice Chairman As Conglomerate Gears Up For Recovery

Billionaire Lucio Tan’s 29-year-old grandson—Lucio Tan III—has been appointed vice chairman and chief operating officer of LT Group as Tan reorganizes his investment holding company in anticipation of a post-pandemic earnings recovery.

The younger Tan—who earned a degree in computer engineering from Stanford University in 2015—has been taking on more responsibilities at one of the Philippines’ biggest conglomerates since his father Lucio “Bong” Tan Jr. died in 2019. He is currently the president of rum maker Tanduay Distillers, one of the few LT Group units that has done well during the pandemic, and is also a director of Tan-controlled Philippine Airlines, which exited from bankruptcy in December after a debt restructuring and a fresh capital injection from his grandfather.

While LT Group’s earnings declined in the past two years as the Covid-19 pandemic upended the global economy, the company sees a brighter outlook ahead. “Overall, we expect 2022 to be a better year than 2021 as the economy opens up and as more and more people get vaccinated,” LT Group president Michael Tan, a son of Lucio Tan, said in a statement. “Barring any upsurge of Covid-19 cases, the opening of the economy may translate into better purchasing power of consumers that will improve and may benefit our different businesses.”

LT Group said it will increase capital expenditures this year to 12 billion pesos ($229.3 million) from 9 billion pesos last year to fund the real estate developments of Eton Properties, including a business park it is jointly developing with Ayala Land, as well as Philippine National Bank’s information technology projects.

Besides airline, banking and property, LT Group’s business empire also includes Asia Brewery and tobacco unit PMFTC, which contributes bulk of the company’s income. With a net worth of $1.9 billion, Tan was ranked No. 12 on the list of the Philippines’ 50 Richest that was published in September last year.