The father-son dispute at Singapore-based real estate investment firm City Developments Limited is over.
On Feb. 26, the firm halted trading its shares when executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng accused his son, CEO Sherman Kwek, and others of an “attempted coup” to control CDL’s board. The company temporarily suspended trading of its shares on the Singapore Exchange "in view of the disagreement within the board in relation to the composition and constitution of the board and the board committees,” CDL said in a statement.
The squabble caused CDL’s shares to drop 7% before trading resumed on March 3, according to Singaporean newspaper The Independent.
The dispute is now settled, CDL reported on March 12. A company statement says Kwek Leng Beng and Sherman Kwek will remain in their current roles, and “all the current directors, including Jennifer Duong Young and Su Yen Wong, will remain on the CDL board. All the board members have agreed to put aside their differences for the greater good of CDL and its stakeholders.”
CDL's share value had risen 3% at press time since the company made that announcement.
In a statement, Kwek Leng Beng said he had “decided that the legal action that was launched in regard to the board resolutions … will be discontinued. … We will all continue to focus on strengthening CDL’s business, in accordance with good corporate governance, now and in the future, including completing the raft of landmark developments underway across Singapore and globally, furthering the expansion of various brands under Millennium & Copthorne, continuing our capital recycling initiative and above all maximizing shareholder value.”
One of CDL’s wholly owned subsidiaries is Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, which has 137 hotels in 22 countries in four continents, including 22 in Dubai and 18 in New Zealand.