Transparency and succession planning can leave a lot to be desired at many of Hong Kong’s family-controlled but publicly listed companies.
A vivid reminder came last week when Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong’s biggest real estate developer, unveiled a major change in its ownership structure. It removed Walter Kwok, eldest son of the controlling Kwok family, as a beneficiary from a controlling trust. The announcement came two years after a feud in the Kwok family was exposed. During that leadership battle, Thomas and Raymond, Walter’s younger brothers, took over running the developer founded by their deceased father.
The brothers ousted Walter as chairman, claiming he had bipolar affective disorder – a diagnosis Walter denied – and was unfit to run the company. Walter lost the ensuing dispute and his mother, who up to that point had no formal role in the company, took his place as chairman. He was made a non-executive director.