Cases of mess handling: He acquired Allied Commercial Bank on the verge of bankruptcy in 1977 and made 2.6 million dollars of profit in a half year. He took over Philippine Airlines in 1995 and broke even in six years.
Lucio C. Tan is a famous Chinese entrepreneur in the Philippines and reputed as "a legend in Philippine business circles". Since the late 1960s, he has invested in tobacco, brewery, banking, aviation and other industries of the Philippines and achieved prideful results. By the end of the 20th century, he had built up a colossal business kingdom.
Lucio C. Tan was appointed Vice Chairman of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) in 1980s and elected Chairman of the 23rd FFCCCII on March 16, 1999, enjoying high reputation in Chinese community.
In 1934, Lucio C. Tan was born in Houzhai Village, Qingyangju, Qingyang Town, Jinjiang County, Fujian. At 4, he went to the Philippines, which was called "Luzon" together with his parents for living. They settled down in Camarines Sur. The World War II broke out. Japanese army occupied the Philippines. His family had to run around here and there and experienced countless hardship. A few years later, his father suffered serious illness. His family had to return to their hometown and treat his father's disease. When Lucio C. Tan went to the Philippines again, he was 11 years old. Although the little kid was clever and eager to go to school as other children, the poor economic situation of his family made his dream come to naught.
In order to earn some money to sustain the family, he had to work in Bataan Tobacco Factory as child labor. However, the harsh condition didn't wear down his will to fight. On the contrary, it aroused his determination and confidence in challenging himself and changing his fate. He worked hard to earn money in the day and studied at night. Under the encouragement and urge of his mother, he finished all curricula of the secondary school with a strong will power and was admitted to the Department of Chemistry of Far Eastern University with flying colors. Through the work-study program, he accomplished the college course.
After graduation, Lucio C. Tan worked in a company as a laboratory assistant. Due to his diligence, he was promoted t business manager soon. But, Lucio C. Tan with great ambition and foresight didn't stop there. He was waiting for an opportunity and bode his time. He hoped he could fly high like an eagle one day.
In the early 1960s, the Philippines exercised extremely strict control on import. It was a prime time to develop small industrial products and labor-intensive products in the Philippines. Lucio C. Tan with a sharp business sense knew it was a rare and transient opportunity for doing business. Therefore, he was determined to open a tobacco factory and gradually realize his business ambition.
Lucio C. Tan moved heaven and earth to raise some money and opened Fortune Tobacco Factory. In the beginning, the workshop was shabby and had only two second-hand cigarette making machines. The main product was "Refreshing" brand cigarette with a peppermint flavor. Due to lack of fund and popularity of the product, the market was very bad and the factory struggled on the verge of bankruptcy, but the emulative character of Lucio C. Tan decided he would find hope from a hopeless situation.
Victory belongs to those who strive without stop. At the end of 1970s, Fortune Tobacco Factory became the largest tobacco factory in the Philippines and its products occupied 70~80% of the Philippine market and were sold to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. 1979 was the prime time of Fortune Cigarette. At the 13th World Cigarette Quality Evaluation held in the year, the cigarette produced by Fortune Tobacco Factory won three gold medals and a silver medal. Hence, Fortune Cigarette entered international market and secured a place in Europe, America, Japan and the Middle East. For this reason, Lucio C. Tan became a real "tobacco tycoon" in Southeast Asia.
Lucio C. Tan's pursuit to business has no bounds. In the early 1970s, Lucio C. Tan who had accumulated some wealth was certain about the broad development space of the business relating to people's livelihood, so he began to step into foreign trade and real estate sectors. He opened coconut oil factory, soap factory, asbestos factory, electronic factory, oil refinery, breeding plant and other enterprises, beginning to build up its business kingdom. In the late 1970s, Lucio C. Tan shifted his attention to banking sector, established Philippine "Allied Commercial Bank" and assumed the presidency of the bank. By now, "Allied Commercial Bank"has nearly 100 branches in the Philippines, becoming one of the top 3 Chinese-funded banks in the Philippines.
In 1987, when China and Britain negotiated about the return of Hong Kong, Hong Kong stock market dropped sharply. Many entrepreneurs in Hong Kong lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong and withdrew money. As a result, Hong Kong stock market was in a tide of panic sale. It coincided with the auction of Eton Garden. Many insiders took a wait-and-see attitude and dare not bid for it. However, Lucio C. Tan thought it was a rare opportunity and resolutely bid for it with success at a price of 500 million HK dollars. It confirmed his words: "I dare to touch tiger's buttock nobody dares to touch. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well." The facts prove his decision is farsighted. By 1994, the price of Eton Garden had climbed to ten billion HK dollars. People in the business circles had to admire his farsight and sagacity.
Once again, Lucio C. Tan "touched tiger's buttock"taking over Philippines Airlines. In 1995, he purchased 50.5% of the stock of Philippine Airlines, becoming a controlling private shareholder. Philippine Airlines was managed in a total mess and was in red every year. The takeover might cause huge loss to him. Many friends advised Lucio C. Tan to sell out this "hot potato",but he said: "Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme. When one is cornered, he will fight back and show surprising force." Lucio C. Tan injected 4 billion dollars to Philippine Airlines, renewed 40 airplanes successively and opened some new routes. Meanwhile, he also made bold reform in management, reduced the staff and raised employee's quality. Today, Philippine Airlines has entered a brand new stage and become another incredible myth created by Lucio C. Tan.
If the seed of struggle is sowed in the fertile land of pursuit, certainly plentiful fruit will be harvested. By relying on his diligence and business stratagems born of Chinese culture, Lucio C. Tan has won a string of successes in business circles in the past decades. Up till present, his business in the Philippines has covered more than 40 industries and about 100 companies, in many fields, such as: agriculture, aviation, banking, securities, tobacco, beverage, food, brewery, chemical, architecture, hospitality, real estate and tourism. Lucio C. Tan becomes one of the largest employers in the Philippines and provides employment for more than 50,000 people. Nearly one million farmers make living on Lucio C. Tan's Group of Companies. Countless people benefit from him indirectly.
Lucio C. Tan not only has set up a business kingdom in the Philippines. He also hunts for business opportunities all over the world. His business covers real estate, banking, securities, hospitality and trade in Hong Kong, banking, real estate and brewery in Mainland China, banking, real estate and food in the United States and Guam, real estate in Canada, and real estate, iron & steel, banking, automobile agency, transport and animal husbandry in Papua New Guinea. The total assets amount to nearly ten billion dollars.
In 1984, Japanese Asahi Shimbun rated Lucio C. Tan as one of "prominent economic" figures in the world.
After success in business, Lucio C. Tan has initiatively redounded upon the society and made outstanding contribution to economic prosperity of the residing country.
After he acquired the Philippine Airlines in heavy losses in 1995 and made it break even, Lucio C. Tan took over Philippine National Bank in 2000. The bank suffered a loss of nearly 200 million yuan in 1998 and 1999. Lucio C. Tan said: “I agreed to take over the bank totally for national interest.”
"Education is the foundation for a country and people."This is Lucio C. Tan's theory of national development.
In 1986, Lucio C. Tan founded "Tan Yan Kee Foundation" after his father's name. The charity programs of this foundation are mostly for promoting education, building school houses and bringing many drop-outs back to schools. In 1999, Lucio C. Tan sponsored the University of the East to set up a scholarship at the University of the East. The total amount of the scholarship from 1998 to 2002 is 2 million dollars. He also vigorously supports other organizations to hold charity activities for promoting education. For example, he promoted "Rural School House Program" in FFCCCII and made active donation to the construction of school houses; and from the early 1980s, he began to make donations to "International Cross-Ocean Book Donation Program."
Lucio C. Tan has also made great contribution to the improvement of people's life quality. In 1984, he set up "Asia Brewery Medicine Scholarship",for raising the medical level of the Philippines. He supports the establishment of private hospitals and often donates advanced equipment to public hospitals. Every year, he subsidizes young doctors to pursue advanced studies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Span, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. At present, nearly 100 excellent specialized doctors have accomplished studies and returned to the Philippines. They have become the hard core of the medical sector of the Philippines.
As early as 1981, he founded "Asia Brewery Company" and spent 1.1 billion yuan setting up 10 wholly owned or joint venture breweries in Xiamen, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Henan, Jiangxi, Shandong and Heilongjiang.
In 1990s, Lucio C. Tan invested 5 billion yuan in the name of "Hong Kong Eton Properties Group Ltd." to develop real estate in the urban areas of Xiamen, Shanghai Pudong, Beijing and Dalian. In 2000, he spent 900 million yuan building "Eton Place · Xiamen".
Lucio C. Tan follows his mother's teaching, donates money to numerous people, supports the needy and helps the poor. He has contributed money and goods to a wide range of welfare causes such as the Asian Games held in China, the relief to the fire disaster in the Great Xing'an Mountains, the fight against the flood in East China and the establishment of Samaritan Fund. His donations and charitable deeds in his hometown in the south of Fujian are countless. For example, he contributed the construction of the teaching buildings of Jinjiang Qingyang No. 2 Experimental School and Qingyang Zhonghe Primary School, subsidized the expenditure of a few primary schools in Qingyang, and contributed for the construction of Quanzhou No. 2 Hospital "Patriotic Building",Jinjiang Municipal Hospital "Patriotic Building", Jinjiang "Tan Yan Kee Library", Jinjiang Overseas Chinese Federation Building and Qingyang Town Overseas Chinese Federation Building……It is no exaggeration to say Lucio C. Tan has made huge contribution to the material and ethical progress of the hometown of overseas Chinese.
As a celebrated entrepreneur in the Philippines, Lucio C. Tan manages billions of dollars of assets and operates about 100 companies. In the same time, he also likes studying traditional Chinese culture and spares no effort in promoting mandarin education and carrying forward Chinese culture among the next generations of Chinese people in the Philippines.
He think: "Chinese culture is the fruit of more than 5000 years'cultivation and the precious wealth of world cultural treasury. It is originated from China and belongs to the whole world.” He tries to absorb the essence from Chinese culture and considers Chinese culture as a norm of behavior and morality. He not only sent his sons to China to learn Chinese culture and history but also organized the second and third generations of Chinese in the Philippines to return to their hometowns and learn Chinese language and history.
Lucio C. Tan has developed a habit of learning and memorizing Chinese poems and classical ancient books since childhood, such as: Three Character Primer, 300 Tang Poems, Ultimate Collection of Ancient Essays and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Particularly, he can recite all content of Master Sun's Art of War and the Analects of Confucius. This laid a solid foundation for him to become a successful Confucian entrepreneur.
There are many successful Chinese merchants in the Philippines, but few of them have profound insight in culture as Lucio C. Tan does. He can recite about 100 classical essays in the Ultimate Collection of Ancient Essays and many poems of Chairman Mao's Poetry. Lucio C. Tan said he admires the boldness and magnificent artistic conception of Chairman Mao's poems. Twenty-Four Histories, Book of Changes and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are also his favorite books.
Many people want to know the secret of his success from scratch, but nobody gets the gist. Some people even guess he acquires the ability to predict the future from the Book of Change.
Many people who have seen Lucio C. Tan are surprised at his plain and ordinary appearance. He is a gray-haired Chinese old man who wears plain clothes and whose body is not strong and two eyes are not bright, but it is him who flies over Manila every day and command a business kingdom.
Many people admire him. If he wants to smoke, he may smoke the cigarette made by his Fortune Tobacco Factory; if he wants to drink, he may drink the beer made by his Asia Brewery and the beer and wine made by his Danhuai Distillery; if he wants to play, he may go to his first-rate "Century Park Hotel";if he is bored of the life at home and wants to travel abroad, he may board any plane of Philippine Airlines because he has purchased a majority of the stock of this airlines; if the money is too much to spend up, he may deposit it to his Allied Commercial Bank, one of the largest banks in the Philippines.
However, Lucio C. Tan doesn't like smoking, drinking and play. Except work, seemingly he likes nothing. He is very rich, but he is still very busy every day. He amazes many people.
Perhaps he can make flexible use of ancient books on the art of war. In the past more than 30 years, Lucio C. Tan became "tobacco and wine tycoon", "bank tycoon" and "aviation tycoon" in the Philippines and seized every opportunity created by major domestic and foreign political and economic changes. His successful takeover and breakeven of the former state-owned Philippine National Bank and Philippine Airlines become two textbook cases of capital expansion, thus wining respect of Philippine Government.
Lucio C. Tan's Group of Companies has more than 300 enterprises with total aggregate market value of 20 billion dollars. In this year's Forbes magazine, Lucio C. Tan ascended the list of Forbes 500 by 2.3 billion dollars of personal assets. Recently, American San Francisco also established "Lucio C. Tan's Day" through legislation.
Definitely the next goal of Lucio C. Tan will be a "real estate tycoon" though he never announced it at any press conference. In addition to the Philippines, the real estate projects he developed in 5 cities of Mainland China in more than 10 years have taken shape. He thinks Chinese real estate sector has a bright prospect and he may take greater steps.
As a respectful leader of Philippine Chinese community, Lucio C. Tan has a great sense of responsibility for the country and the people, but his love for the Philippines is not heard in voice, but is seen in action rebounding upon this island country where he made success. He said with deep emotion Philippine people are kind-hearted, but due to historical reason, the society and economy of the country are backward and it also faces the control and intervention of foreign forces. He said he supports FFCCCII, the largest chamber of commerce in Philippine Chinese community to invest in and build schools in the country and help the development of basic education. In case of the attack of typhoons and other natural disasters, the members of FFCCCII will make generous donations, too. He often borrows his private helicopter to Philippine army for disaster relief.
The successor of the family business is a sensitive topic, but Lucio C. Tan never avoids it. He said it is not easy for a successful company in the world to last the prosperity for 50 years. It will face troubles in the second generation, to say nothing the third generation. He think business is war without bullets, and victory and defeat are both common. One can know how to do a thing only after he personally experiences it, whereas the successors in the next generation mostly haven't experienced the hardship of the early generation. Besides, one should learn to grasp opportunities. No method can put wealth in "a safe".
Lucio C. Tan said he appreciates the wealth management method of American Rockefeller family for its later generations. He has begun to set strict conditions for fund withdrawal of family beneficiaries by using the form of trust fund. Only in this way, the later generation may cherish the wealth. It is not late that they get the deserved status after they have experienced due tempering. He also said in half joking Wu Qi in the Warring States Period ever suggested King of State Chun not allocating a half of the budget of the state to his family members, but he ended up with being killed. In fact, Wu Qi's suggestion is applicable to today's family enterprises. Lucio C. Tan looks at the issue of successor cultivation beyond the narrow range of his own clan and pays his attention to the whole Chinese community in the Philippines. He hopes he can find a successor from the Chinese community, who shouldn’t forget the root of Chinese culture during fusion with local society. Currently, most of the Chinese people in the new generation in the Philippines know little mandarin. Lucio C. Tan promotes mandarin education in the Philippines and spends money time and time again in carrying out "Salvation Campaign" and "Root Campaign". In July 2002, he opened a mandarin library in the Philippines. This two-story library consists of a book stack, a reference area, a children's reading area, a magazine and newspaper area and a reading room. It is the largest mandarin library in the Philippines, providing a good condition for the learning and research of traditional Chinese culture.
Lucio C. Tan expects his children all love Chinese culture like him. Therefore, in his family, there is an unwritten rule. All children should receive formative education in a mandarin school and speak mandarin at home.
When looking back at his life, the 73-year-old Lucio C. Tan thinks what he has done very right is "Golden Mean" and what he has done wrongly is "too impatient". Perhaps at this age and in the current position, he may use his life experience to prove Laozi's saying of "True goodness is like water".
He ever said he bought the Century Park Hotel not for making money but for providing a place where his friends may chat and have meals. Today, this hotel has become a hotel where Chinese state leaders stay when they visit the Philippines. When Philippine Airlines was in a financial strain, the then Philippine president Estrada hoped Lucio C. Tan might "lend a hand". Without hesitation, Lucio C. Tan sold out some of his real estate properties in Hong Kong and kept Asia's oldest airline company moving on by losing 25 million pesos a day (equivalent to 625,000 dollars).The media called him a "hero". Due to his painstaking effort, Philippine state leaders may continue to visit other countries by a plane of Philippine Airlines. However, many people asked with surprise: "Is he a businessman?"
Numerous people admire his business miracle and are envious of the wealth he owns today, but how to explain the things happening on him? Perhaps it is "Tao" as said by Laozi - "Tao has of all things the most honored place."