CDL no longer Singapore’s largest listed developer as shares close down 2.3% after trading resumption
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
CDL’s share fall on March 3 means the company has lost its position as Singapore’s largest listed developer to UOL.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – City Developments Limited (CDL) lost its place as Singapore’s largest listed developer to UOL after trading in the company’s shares resumed on March 3, amid a boardroom battle for control of the property giant. The company had called for a Feb 26 trading halt to be lifted before the stock market opened, with its shares last traded on Feb 25 at $5.12.
The stock plunged 6.5 per cent to $4.79, a 16-year low, immediately after trading began on March 3, but recovered a third of its losses to close down 2.3 per cent at $5. A total of 14 million shares changed hands. The share fall brings CDL’s market capitalisation to $4.47 billion, down from $4.57 billion when trading was halted on Feb 26 – below that of its closest rival UOL.
UOL, controlled by the family of the late banking billionaire Wee Cho Yaw, now has a market value of $4.66 billion after its shares rose 2 per cent to $5.51.
On Feb 26, CDL executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng announced that he had sued his son and group chief executive officer Sherman Kwek
Mr Sherman Kwek, in turn, denied any attempt at a coup and named his father’s long-time adviser, Dr Catherine Wu,
In a statement filed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on March 3, CDL noted that it will not be commenting on the validity of recent allegations made, as many of them are the subject of ongoing court proceedings. CDL added that business operations remain fully functional and unaffected.
“It is business as usual. Mr Sherman Kwek remains the group CEO until such time as there is a board resolution to change company leadership,” said the statement.
In a separate SGX filing on March 3, CDL announced that Mr Kwek Leng Beng and three board directors on Feb 25 filed an originating application before the High Court of Singapore against Mr Sherman Kwek, four directors and two newly appointed directors.
CDL has been named as an applicant in the application.
The application has sought certain orders from the High Court. These include:
The two new directors be restrained from exercising the powers of a director of the company;
Mr Sherman Kwek, the four directors on his side, and the two new directors be restrained from acting on directors’ resolutions undertaken on Feb 21, as these involved approving changes to the board’s key committees;
Mr Sherman Kwek and the four directors on his side take necessary steps to reverse the Feb 21 directors’ resolutions.
The hearing for the interim injunction application took place on Feb 26, during which the High Court noted disputes over the validity of the board resolution authorising the company as an applicant. As a result, the hearing proceeded without the company as an applicant in the case.
The court did not issue a substantive order but directed the involved parties to refrain from taking actions related to CDL subsidiaries Singapura Developments and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels that could prejudice their positions in the case.
This was based on undertakings by the respondents to take no action regarding the Feb 21 resolutions and by the new directors to abstain from exercising their director powers until further court orders.
The High Court also ordered both parties to schedule an early date for the hearing of the full application.
