BIZ BUZZ: Rising son

Everyone knows that real estate giant Megaworld Corp. was built—and perhaps, more importantly, brought back from the brink in the early 2000s—by property magnate Andrew Tan.

Since then, the company has gone on from strength to strength and diversified to fast food and distilled beverages, hospitality and tourism and infrastructure.

But as its success gave its founder more time to enjoy the finer things in life at a more relaxed pace, it has also given his son, Kevin Tan, a solid platform from which to grow the empire further.

Biz Buzz learned the younger Tan, who is now the group’s CEO (the elder is the chair), has begun to take a more prominent role in the firm. In fact, Kevin is now in charge of the day-to-day operations of the family’s Alliance Global holding firm, and its flagship company Megaworld, where he sits as the chief strategy officer.

And just as his father’s credentials were cemented in the wake of the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, Kevin also has a chance to build his during the greatest business upheaval the world has seen since the end of World War II.

Far from just sitting around and waiting for the pandemic to end, Biz Buzz hears that Kevin is laying the groundwork for the group’s growth over the next few years, and for the various business units to be fast off the starting blocks as soon as the COVID-19 crisis abates.

Proof of this is the P27-billion real estate investment trust, the Philippines’ biggest to date, that Megaworld will launch as soon as they get all the required regulatory approvals.

But more than just building on his father’s legacy, Kevin is also building businesses of his own. One such under taking is electronic commerce platform Pick.

A.Roo, which will mark its first year in operation next month.

According to Kevin, this app-based shopping platform was two years in the making and a result of his fruitless search for tech companies to acquire shares in.

“After searching for companies to invest in, I decided to just form a team and create our own app,” he said .

He said his goal was to make Pick.A.Roo the largest on-demand app with the most complete product list.

And the best part about the service? “We can deliver anything from our app within one hour,” he said. Truly jaw dropping, given how long other online shopping platforms take to deliver items nowadays.

Pick.A.Roo now has over 300,000 users, 80 percent of whom make credit card transactions on the app. There are currently over a thousand brands to shop from, with more added on a weekly basis. They have also expanded around Luzon, specifically Cavite, Batangas and Pampanga. They also have plans to launch in Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod and Davao.

That’s just the kind of entrepreneurial mind the Megaworld empire needs going forward.

—Daxim L. Lucas

MVP@75

In celebration of the milestone 75th birthday of business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan a.k.a MVP last July 14, a digital concert featuring key pop artists was held in his honor. The event was likewise meant to highlight various sustainability-themed advocacies supported by the group.

With succession at PLDT (which MVP transformed from a monopoly into a real corporate giant) completed with the appointment of Alfredo Panlilio as president and CEO, is he retiring anytime soon?

Not by a long shot, from what we hear. In fact, MVP may soon be taking a more active role at Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which has interests in key local tollroad, water, electricity, power generation, railway and hospital businesses, and likewise an emerging portfolio elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Himself a COVID-19 survivor, MVP is expected to have more fruitful years ahead of contributing to the economy and the nation.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla INQ

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