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COURT HEARING
In his statement, Mr Sherman Kwek also touched on the court hearing that took place on Wednesday afternoon, describing it as an attempt to “ambush” the majority directors.
“It has not been disclosed that the minority directors, comprising the chairman, Mr Kwek Leng Beng, Mr Philip Yeo, Mr Colin Ong and Mr Chong Yoon Chou, served five of us court papers just after noon on Feb 26, 2025 for a hearing that was held only two and a half hours later,” he said.
“Without giving us the opportunity to respond in time to give the court the full picture, the minority directors tried to get the court to grant interim injunctions to restrain the majority directors on the board of CDL, comprising six independent directors and myself, from implementing a number of resolutions, to restrain two independent directors from exercising powers as directors and to reverse a number of resolutions that had been passed by the majority directors on the board of CDL.”
Mr Kwek added that the suggestion in his father’s second press statement that the minority directors succeeded in their application and that lapses of corporate governance at CDL and its subsidiaries have been halted is “most unfortunate”.
“What in fact happened was that because the majority directors did not have the opportunity to present our case, we voluntarily offered undertakings, as defendants often do in such urgent applications, to preserve the status quo until a full hearing where we would have that opportunity.”
This undertaking was that they would cease any further action for the time being.
“This explains why the court made it a point to say it was not making any substantive orders on the minority directors’ application, a point which is not found in the chairman’s second statement,” Mr Sherman Kwek said.
“The chairman also did not mention that all the directors, including the chairman and the minority directors, were directed by the court to refrain until the dispute is resolved from doing anything in relation to CDL’s subsidiaries, Singapura Developments (Private) Limited and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Limited, that would prejudice the other party’s position in the dispute.”
Mr Sherman Kwek also said that there was no mention by his father of the fact that the lawyers for the minority directors were questioned by the court about whether they had been validly appointed by CDL.
This resulted in the lawyers saying that they would “leave out CDL” for the hearing, he said, adding that his group was the one who asked for the full hearing to be held early. The court agreed to this.
“Therefore, despite the attempt to ambush us, the minority directors did not succeed in persuading the court to hear and decide the merits, and in fact ended up on the receiving end of directions themselves and unable to use CDL’s name at the hearing.”
