Tan grandson to prioritize Eton’s steady income flow

MANILA, Philippines — Tycoon Lucio Tan’s grandson Kyle Tan, who was recently appointed to lead Eton Properties’ operations in the Philippines, said his first order of business in the property company is to maintain a healthy income stream in a post-pandemic era.

Eton reported a net income of P550 million in 2021, 31 percent lower than the P802 million recorded a year ago, due to the decline in residential unit sales and lower leasing income.

The younger Tan has laid out plans to transition Eton into the post-pandemic era, including entering into more joint ventures and partnerships.

Eton would also step up digitalization efforts, he said.

“One of the key elements to future-proof the company is through diversification. We will venture into other businesses to tap other market segments with different client base,” Tan said.

He is targeting to complete Eton Properties’ ongoing projects, such as the 36-story Blakes Tower in Makati and Eton City Square in Laguna, to add revenue and boost the company’s portfolio.

By this quarter, the company will launch the Eton City Square , which will bring an additional 5,824 square meters of leasable area for the company.

“The immediate concern is finishing the pandemic environment with the proper systems and portfolio pipelines that will scale as the market bounces back. I would also like to collaborate more and enhance the synergies between Eton and other parties to further increase growth,” Tan said.

Apart from joint ventures and project completion, he aims to drive the company for digital innovations.

“I think that moving to a digital landscape could potentially add another dimension to Eton’s portfolio, such as client automation services, augmented reality, virtual reality, and other virtualizations,” Tan said.

As executive director, Tan is tasked to oversee property management, human resources, leasing management, marketing, public relations and corporate communications, and customer service at Eton Properties.

He is concurrently executive vice president of Tanduay Distillers Inc.

Before joining the Lucio Tan Group’s real estate arm, he worked as a software engineer at Microsoft.

A magna cum laude from the University of Southern California, with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and computer science, Kyle is the son of the late Lucio “Bong” Tan Jr.

Eton Properties is part of LT Group Inc. Its foreign counterpart, Eton Properties Ltd, is a real estate brand in Hong Kong and mainland China.

With an extensive land bank in strategic locations all over the country, Eton Properties specializes in office projects, commercial centers, and mixed-use township developments, as well as high-end and mid-income high-rise and horizontal residential developments.