Succession-like feud engulfs Singapore’s richest family

A Succession-like feud has engulfed one of Singapore’s richest families as Kwek Leng Beng, the executive chairman of property firm City Developments Limited (CDL), accused his son Sherman, who is the firm’s chief executive, of plotting a boardroom takeover.

The elder Mr Kwek, who is 84 this year, along with CDL, filed court papers on Wednesday accusing his son, two other board members and a group of directors of trying to take control of the firm.

“This is necessary to deal with this attempted coup at the board level and restore corporate integrity,” he said.

CDL, which is Singapore’s biggest listed property developer, has halted trading in its shares on the financial hub’s stock exchange.

“We intend to change the chief executive officer at the appropriate time,” Kwek Leng Beng and CDL said in a statement.

If Sherman Kwek is removed as chief executive, the company plans to replace him on an interim basis with his cousin Kwek Eik Sheng.

The dispute centres on an email sent by CDL’s corporate secretary nominating two additional independent directors on the night of 28 January, the eve of the Lunar New Year – which marks the start of a major holiday in Singapore.

The row has attracted public attention in a part of the world in which battles over family businesses are not uncommon and have been known to end up in court.

After Wednesday’s court hearing, CDL said the two new directors had agreed to not exercise any powers until further notice.

The company later said Sherman Kwek would remain in the role until the issue was resolved.

Sherman Kwek said he and the majority of CDL’s board were disappointed by what he described as extreme actions taken by his father “regarding this disagreement around the size and make-up of the CDL board.”

Kwek Leng Beng, along with his father and brother, took control of then-loss-making CDL in 1971. He became the firm’s executive chairman after his father’s death in 1995.

It now has more than 160 hotel, residential and commercial properties around the world and forms part of a multi-billion dollar family empire.

In the HBO television series Succession, the fictional Roy family fight for control of the global media firm Waystar RoyCo.