Five-year feud at family-owned Hong Kong developer appears to be at an end
Bitter five-year battle within the Kwok family appears to have come to an end with ousted SHKP chairman regaining his stake in the trust
In a banquet celebrating the 84th birthday of matriarch Kwong Siu-hing last month, guests and senior company executives had a surprise - Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, Kwong's eldest son and the ousted chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, sat next to her on stage to toast guests.
"He was the first among his brothers to greet his mother and wish her happy birthday during the banquet. Now looking back … it could be a hint that the family feud was about to be over," said one person who attended the party.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post yesterday, Kwok refused to say how the feud had been settled. "I am happy to see this outcome, which reaches a consensus among all parties," he said.
The curtains were brought down on the bitter five-year battle yesterday when the Kwok family announced that they had forged "an amicable agreement regarding the treatment of the family's interests", which control the HK$256 billion SHKP empire, Hong Kong's second-biggest property developer by market capitalisation.
Kwong, who controls the conglomerate, revealed that "Walter Kwok and his family have received the same entitlement to shares in SHKP as his brothers and their families", a company statement said.
A highlight of the dispute came in October 2010 when Kwong removed Kwok as a beneficiary of the family trust. Since then, he has fought to regain control of the company and his one-third stake in the lucrative trust.
At that time, Kwok expressed anger about being forced out of the property developer.