Peak property portfolio key to HK$1.6 billion takeover tussle
Paladin shareholders caught in bitter squabble after brothers make HK$254.6 million offer for the company that is valued at HK$1.6 billion
Competing scions of a prominent Taiwanese family are fighting over a HK$2.4 billion property portfolio on the Peak in a bitter battle for control of assets that may leave minority shareholders in its listed vehicle the big losers.
Paladin - an investment holding firm run by Michael Chen Te-kuang, the son of former socialite Lilian Chen Oung Hsiao-mei - last month dismissed an unsolicited takeover offer worth HK$254.6 million by a British Virgin Islands-registered company, Gold Seal Holdings.
Andrew Oung, who according to a 2007 notice on Taiwan's Ministry of Justice website is wanted in connection with a bribery probe, has been joined in the fight by his brother James Oung Da-ming, a former Taiwanese legislator and convicted fraudster, and James' son, James Oung Shih-hua, a Paladin director.
The takeover bid by the Oungs - descendants of Taiwanese businessman Oung Ming-chang, the founder of Hualon Group, a textile, agribusiness and financial services conglomerate - is less than a sixth of the HK$1.6 billion net asset valuation placed on Paladin by Investec Capital Asia in a review commissioned by the firm shortly after the offer was made.
Gold Seal yesterday said it would extend the unconditional offer period for another month, after the take-up for the offer only attracted the holders of about 0.1 per cent of Paladin's shares.