BIZ BUZZ: Lucio Tan Group’s D-day looms

Has it been a year already?

Taipan Lucio Tan’s LT Group Inc.’s annual meeting is coming up on May 3 and, unless plans miscarry, the event will likely see the realization of a family’s carefully planned succession moves.

We’re referring to Tan’s millennial grandson, Lucio Tan III, taking the reins of the empire as LT Group’s president after being named chief operating officer and vice chair a year ago.

The younger Tan will replace his uncle, Michael Tan, the company’s longtime president who helped grow LT Group into a P110-billion conglomerate.

The yearlong transition, of course, was meant to give Lucio III time to adjust to the role of a lifetime but also to calm and reassure investors worried about any abrupt changes following the decisions made by Tan’s first family.

Lucio III takes over a formidable and profitable conglomerate whose core interests span banking, cigarettes, liquor, sugar production and real estate.

Profits in the past year reached P25 billion, with Philippine National Bank still the largest earnings contributor.

This was despite the still unaddressed leadership vacuum caused by the exit of former CEO Wick Veloso, who joined the Marcos administration as head of the Government Service Insurance System.

It remains to be seen whether Lucio III can bring the group to its next stage of growth as his uncle once did.

-Miguel R. Camus

New Zuellig Foundation chief

Austere Panadero has been appointed the new president of Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF), five years after joining it as executive director.

In a statement, the ZFF board of trustees expressed confidence in Panadero’s ability to continue leading ZFF “with integrity, competence and agility toward its mission of achieving faster health outcomes.”

Before joining ZFF, Panadero worked with the government for over three decades, most of that time spent at the Department of the Interior and Local Government, where he served as undersecretary from 2007 until his retirement in 2018.

“His public service experience has been instrumental in building ZFF’s partnerships with local government units and development organizations,” the statement added.

Ernesto Garilao, meanwhile, will remain chair of ZFF, whose purpose is rooted in the Zuellig family’s longstanding business in health care.

The group, which is one of the largest health-care services groups not just in the Philippines but in Asia, traces its beginnings to 1901 when Frederick Zuellig ventured to Manila to scout for business opportunities.

Today, ZFF has sharpened its focus on the family’s philanthropic efforts to nation-building via community health care.

—Tina Arceo-Dumlao