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The billionaire owner of London’s St Katharine Docks is locked in a power struggle with his son over control of the family property empire.
Kwek Leng Beng, the 83-year-old executive chairman of Singaporean property giant City Developments Limited (CDL), is waging a Succession-style battle to oust his son, Sherman Kwek, as chief executive of the business.
The tycoon sought to oust his son earlier this month but was overruled by what he claimed was a “reconstituted” board. The mogul has accused the younger Mr Kwek and two other directors of bypassing proper process to “push through” board changes.
The elder Mr Kwek has now launched legal action, filing court papers to address what he called “serious lapses of corporate governance”. The tycoon would not confirm where the legal action had been launched.
CDL’s executive chairman said he sought to oust his son after an alleged “long series of missteps”, including “poor investment decisions in the UK property market” that resulted in “significant financial losses, contributing to a 94pc profit decline in [H1] 2023”.
The family’s properties include the former home of the London Stock Exchange at 125 Old Broad Street, a tower that was bombed by the Provisional IRA in 1990 before it was redeveloped.
It also owns the luxury Millennium Hotel in Knightsbridge, which has a secret tunnel to Harrods, and the historic St Katharine Docks marina estate by the River Thames, which it bought from Blackstone for £395m in 2023.
CDL owns several residential and student housing properties across cities in Britain. Last year it bought a 209-home development called The Yardhouse in White City, west London.
The younger Mr Kwek, 49, said his father’s actions were “extreme” and said the legal action had not been approved by the majority of the board. He is contesting the case.
The boardroom battle echoes the family feud depicted in the hit HBO series Succession in which media tycoon Logan Roy tussles with his three sons and daughter over who will take over the family business.
The TV show was inspired by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who has recently engaged in a real-life battle against three of his children over who will control News Corp and Fox News when he dies.
Mr Murdoch has sought to hand sole control to his eldest son Lachlan, effectively sidelining his other children. However, efforts to restructure the family trust were blocked by a US court ruling in December.
Kwek Leng Beng inherited CDL from his own father, Kwek Hong Png, who was thought to have been one of the world’s richest men before his retirement in 1984. The business was acquired by the Kwek family in 1971 and built into a global property empire.