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CITY Developments Ltd (CDL) chairman Kwek Leng Beng has alleged that his son’s denial of an attempted coup “misses the point”, in yet another twist to the father-son tussle rocking the company.

“Protecting good governance, including the office of the executive chairman, and not me as an individual, is critical. Stripping away any meaningful authority of the executive chairman is a coup,” Kwek Leng Beng said in a statement late on Friday (Feb 28).

The elder Kwek also claimed that the statement by his son Sherman Kwek – who is CDL group chief executive – regarding the remarks of the court in their ongoing dispute are “misleading”.

On Thursday, Sherman Kwek released a statement claiming that his father’s group had failed in their court application to reverse certain resolutions. This contradicted Kwek Leng Beng’s Feb 26 assertion that “the serious lapses of corporate governance” had been halted with the court action.

Responding to his son’s statement, Kwek Leng Beng said: “The bottom line is that following the court hearing, the two additional independent directors cannot act and the changes to the board committees and the management of the relevant CDL subsidiaries are frozen, pending any further court order.”

Sherman Kwek had also highlighted that some directors were served the court papers only two-and-a-half hours before the court hearing.

In his Friday statement, Kwek Leng Beng said that the urgency of the application stemmed from “serious concerns” about Sherman and his group “attempting to undermine and disrupt the governance structure of CDL”.

The saga erupted on Feb 26, after Kwek Leng Beng said that he had filed court papers on Tuesday to deal with an “attempted coup” – by his son, board members Philip Lee and Wong Ai Ai, as well as a group of directors acting with them.

The elder Kwek questioned the appointment of two new directors – Jennifer Duong Young and Wong Su Yen – that he alleged was done without due diligence and proper vetting.

According to Kwek Leng Beng, his son’s group had bypassed the nomination committee, contrary to corporate governance principles and the Singapore Exchange’s listing rules.

Repeating these allegations in his Friday statement, Kwek Leng Beng said: “This is why we had to make the court application. It was necessary to protect the interests of CDL and its shareholders during this period of significant turmoil.”

He added: “It is now a matter before the court and I will let the court decide. Justice always prevails.”

In a separate statement, Philip Yeo, a non-independent non-executive director of CDL, repeated Kwek Leng Beng’s assertions on the alleged corporate governance lapses by the majority directors.

“This is an attempt to distract everyone from the matter at hand,” he said, adding that Sherman Kwek should focus on making back the S$1.9 billion of shareholders’ losses through Sincere Properties, as well as other losses from UK property investments.

“Instead, he seems more concerned about grievances, mobilising a group of independent directors to remove an adviser to the CDL hospitality business, which has actually seen profit improvements for the past few years since Covid,” said Yeo.

The director added that CDL’s key figures – Kwek Leng Beng, his late father Kwek Hong Png and late brother Kwek Leng Joo – “executed so well to build a multi-billion-dollar Singaporean company that competes on a global scale”.

“The CDL CEO must learn from them,” said Yeo.

No mention of Dr Wu

Both Kwek Leng Beng and Yeo’s statements did not explicitly mention Dr Catherine Wu, an adviser to CDL’s hospitality arm Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C), whom Sherman Kwek had alleged was the primary cause of the dispute.

The younger Kwek’s Thursday statement had said that Dr Wu, who has a “long relationship” with his father, “has been interfering in matters going well beyond her scope, and she wields and exercises enormous influence”.

The CEO had added that “efforts that were made to manage the situation were done sensitively, but to no avail”.

“This led us, with the benefit of legal advice, to propose a resolution to terminate the advisory agreement Dr Wu has with the board of M&C,” he had claimed.

Sherman Kwek and the six directors in his group have appointed a legal team led by Julian Tay of Lee & Lee. The six directors are Lee, Wong Ai Ai, Daniel Desbaillets, Carolina Chan, Wong Su Yen and Young.

CDL, Kwek Leng Beng, and three other directors – Yeo, Ong and Chong – are represented by Senior Counsel Lok Vi Ming of his own firm LVM Law Chambers.

CDL shares have been under a trading halt since Feb 26.