MOTORING tycoon Peter Kwee has been making the headlines this week. Here are four things to know about him:
He made his money from car distributorships
He hit the big-time when he became a distributor of Renault and Volkswagen vehicles through his company Group Exklusiv in the early 2000s.
Kwee was born in 1947 in the hill resort town of Bandung in Indonesia, to a couple from China’s Fujian province. At 18, he started a trading business in flour and plastics, importing 50 to 100 truckloads of flour and 200 to 300 tonnes of plastic on each shipment.
Kwee, his wife Catherine Lee, son Kevin and daughter Karen arrived in Singapore in 1978.
Property and leisure were next
Incorporated in 2000, Group Exklusiv expanded into developing properties.
The leisure business soon made up a big part of the group’s property segment. It started with the acquisition of a major stake in a resort in Perth, followed by Meadow Springs Golf and Country Club, also in Perth.
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Closer to home, Kwee acquired Laguna National Golf and Country Club in 2001 from NatSteel for S$131 million. A year later, he bought The Pines Club, formerly known as Pinetree Town and Country Club, for more than S$100 million.
Legal woes with The Pines Club
When the club, then located at Stevens Road, closed for renovations in 2013, the Pines management said that it would build new facilities.
But Exklusive Resorts sold the land to property developer Oxley, who built two hotels where the club once stood.
In October 2017, the club’s management wrote to members to inform them that it had failed to secure a club lease at its Stevens Road site. It also offered members the use of the facilities at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club, as well as its Dusit Thani Laguna Singapore resort.
About 1,300 members were affected. In 2020, some 145 members of the club sued Kwee and his company Exklusive Resorts for three courses of action. They were tort of deceit, tort of negligence and breach of contract.
The court allowed only the breach-of-contract claim, dismissing the other three, and awarded 170 members a nominal sum of S$1,500 each.
The long-drawn out Laguna club saga
Kwee’s Laguna National Golf and Country Club was also in a legal tangle.
Incorporated in 1991, Laguna was Singapore’s first proprietary golf club; it was initially owned by a consortium, including NatSteel and Resorts International, a subsidiary of DBS Land.
Laguna Golf Resort Holding, a unit of Kwee’s Group Exklusiv, took over Laguna National Golf and Country Club in 2001.
The first batch of club members each bought a S$120,000 unsecured note to fund the development of the club. These notes were due to mature on Jun 11, 2021.
The members also paid membership fees ranging from S$40,000 for restricted individual members to S$180,000 for open corporate members.
A day before the unsecured notes were to be redeemed, Kwee notified the club’s trustees, British and Malayan Trustees, that the club was unable to fulfil the redemption due to its financial situation.
In February 2023, the High Court granted an application by pioneer club member Lim How Teck to wind up the club.
Around 580 holders of unsecured notes, including Lim, were owed an estimated S$187.4 million stemming from the default over the bonds.
The latest development is that liquidators of the insolvent club now intend to pursue claims against Kwee, and potentially other members of his family, to repay the company’s creditors.
Laguna National Golf and Country Club has total liabilities of about S$187.7 million; the bonds account for the bulk of the amount of S$187.4 million. (Laguna National Golf and Country Club used to own the club of the same name. The club has since been renamed Laguna National Golf Resort Club.)
Claiming ownership of Bukit Timah and other properties
Kwee and his daughter Karen are embroiled in a lawsuit involving a Bukit Timah property which was previously held in her name.
Businessman Low Kai Yang claimed that the property was used to secure an S$800,000 loan he agreed to lend to her, and that Karen had agreed to grant him an option to purchase the property if he lent her the sum; he said he understood that he would be able to exercise the option if the loan was not repaid.
In September 2020, she signed the option to purchase; Low subsequently handed over two cheques amounting to S$800,000, issued in her name.
He lodged a caveat on the King’s Drive property in October 2020.
On Sep 17, 2021, he exercised the option, a day before it was due to expire. But this was rejected by Karen. Low then took court action in 2022 to claim that the agreement between them was valid and binding.
Subsequently, Peter Kwee submitted an affidavit to the court, claiming that he was the true owner of the property.
Karen Kwee was declared bankrupt in October 2022, although the reason for the bankruptcy was not disclosed.
The latest development is the move by her father to lay claim over the ownership of five properties held in Karen’s name. The civil trial started on Feb 5, 2025.
The five properties in the dispute comprise two landed properties in Bukit Timah (including the King’s Drive one), and three overseas properties in Australia and Canada.
The older Kwee is claiming that they were held in trust for him, and that he is the true beneficial owner. If successful, the sale proceeds from these properties from Karen’s bankruptcy estate cannot go to her creditors.
