THESE feuds might seem soap opera-esque but they are real.

In the Lim family, two uncles had fallen out with their nephews and niece over the estate of their father and the trust that their grandfather, the late casino baron Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, had set up for them. The Lim family built and owns some of the world’s most profitable casinos.

The young faction comprised Joey Lim Keong Yew, Benjamin Lim Keong Hoe and Marie Lim Seok Leng, children of the late Datuk Lim Tee Keong, the eldest son of Goh Tong, who died in October 2007.

In the opposing faction were Goh Tong’s second son Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, who runs the group, and younger son, Datuk Lim Chee Wah.

Goh Tong and his late wife Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua had six children — daughters Siew Lay, Siew Lian and Siew Kim and sons Tee Keong, Kok Thay and Chee Wah.

The will of Tee Keong, who was a bankrupt when he died in April 2014, is at the centre of the family feud. The removal of both Benjamin and Marie from the beneficiary list of the Tee Keong family trust also added to the tension. The Edge understands that the trust was set up by Goh Tong in 1990.

When Kim Hua died in August 2017, ten years after Goh Tong’s death, another dispute arose in the Lim family. It emerged that she had conferred power of attorney on her sons, Kok Thay and Chee Wah, in September 2012, two years after she had suffered a stroke.

Joey and his two siblings, Benjamin and Marie, then filed a suit challenging the validity of the transfer of their father’s assets and seeking to rescind the power of attorney given to their uncles.

Nevertheless, after five years and multiple suits, the feud is finally set to end amicably, as the two factions agreed in July to a global settlement of all claims and counterclaims.

Over at Kian Joo, the feud is among the members of the second generation of the See family — the children of the company’s founder See Bon Tay.

There is a Chinese proverb that says when brothers are united, their strength would be as powerful as a sword that can slash solid metal. Essentially, it means that nothing is impossible when brothers unite to achieve a mission. Like it or not, the See family feud might have proved the proverb right.

Because the siblings could not be on the same page, they lost control of Kian Joo, which generates steady earnings and has never suffered from any severe financial woes.

The fight also ended this year but the solution is not one that the siblings had expected when the dispute started in 1995. Kian Joo has now been taken private by Can-One Bhd, which was a much-smaller rival when it stumbled onto the deal to buy a 32% stake in the leading aluminium can company. As they say, the rest is history.

The See brothers

Kian Joo Can Factory Bhd (KJCF) is an aluminium can maker founded by patriarch See Bon Tay in 1956. The late Bon Tay was the father of Datuk Anthony See Teow Guan, Datuk See Teow Chuan, See Teow Koon and See Tiau Kee.

There are many versions of what led to the fight between Teow Chuan and Anthony. What is clear is that around 1994, the See brothers — after much fighting — settled on a plan to liquidate Kian Joo Holdings Sdn Bhd and distribute its 34.64% stake in KJCF to 27 shareholders.

However, the mode of distribution became an issue. Anthony’s faction — which controlled 45% of Kian Joo Holdings — sought liquidation via the distribution of Kian Joo Holdings’s KJCF shares to family members, whereas Teow Chuan’s faction — which held 55% of Kian Joo — preferred a sale for cash, with the proceeds distributed to family members in proportion to their holding in the family vehicle, Kian Joo Holdings.

After much legal wrangling, the courts favoured Teow Chuan. However, Anthony’s camp applied to the courts to stop the disposal.

In a nutshell, KPMG Corporate Services Sdn Bhd stepped in to sell the block of shares eventually to Can-One Bhd, which is controlled by businessman Yeoh Jin Hoe.

In 2014, Anthony and Teow Chuan patched things up and joined forces but it was too late to prevent them from losing control of KJCF to Yeoh’s Can-One.

In early 2012, the See family still had three board seats in Kian Joo but after the takeover by Can-One, Teow Chuan retired in June. Teow Koon and Teow Guan failed to get re-elected to the board in 2014 and 2015 respectively. — By Liew Jia Teng

Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay

Genting Bhd chairman and chief executive

Genting Singapore executive chairman

The Genting group family patriarch Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong handed over the running of his business empire to his second son Kok Thay before he died in 2007.

Kok Thay inherited the controlling stake held by the Lim family in the flagship Genting Bhd, which in turn holds a majority stake in three listed casino operators, namely Genting Malaysia Bhd, Genting Singapore PLC and Genting Plantation Bhd. He is also the single largest shareholder in Genting Hong Kong Ltd.

Under his stewardship, the Genting group has expanded aggressively abroad to diversify earnings risks. However, the casino in Genting Highlands founded by his father remains the most profitable of all the casinos in the group.

Kok Thay, who was the highest-paid CEO on Bursa Malaysia in 2018, earning RM183 million, has shown a keenness to invest in facilities like theme parks and entertainment outlets unlike his father, who was cautious on investments. He also pays more generous dividends compared with the late Goh Tong.

Two unexpected events for the group were the purchase of controversial super yacht Equanimity by casino operator Genting Malaysia for US$126 million (RM514.39 million) from the government and Kok Thay’s self-imposed 20% pay cut after the government imposed heavy gaming taxes on the casino operator’s revenue.

Equanimity was one of the assets owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), to which Genting Bhd had sold its power generation business, Genting Sanyen Sdn Bhd, for RM2.75 billion (US$710 million).

The feud between him and the children of his late eldest brother Datuk Lim Tee Keong also cast the spotlight on the family.

The media-shy tycoon also met with criticism for carrying out related-party transactions (RPTs) within the Genting group in the past 10 years. He started the decade with an RPT for Genting Malaysia to buy out the loss-making gaming operations in the UK from its sister company Genting Singapore in 2010. The RPT was priced at £351.5 million (RM1.72 billion), valuing the British gaming business at a price-earnings ratio of 51 times. This was exactly 10 years after Genting Malaysia, then known as Resorts World Bhd, pumped RM1.824 billion fresh capital into its sister company Star Cruises Plc, now known as Genting Hong Kong Ltd, via the subscription of new shares in 2000. Note that Genting Malaysia sold the 16.8% stake to Kok Thay for RM1.7 billion in 2016.

While the UK business has yet to show its full earnings potential after so many years, Kok Thay made Genting Malaysia stomach another RPT, buying a 46% stake in Nasdaq-listed Empire Resorts Inc from his vehicle Kien Huat Realty III Ltd this year. The acquisition, which was priced at US$128.6 million (RM538.8 million), will be followed by a cash call to recapitalise Empire Resorts, which runs a casino on the outskirts of New York City. — By Kathy Fong

Yeoh Jin Hoe

Can-One Bhd non-independent non-executive director

The schoolteacher turned entrepreneur is seen as a persistent and patient man when it comes to business dealings.

He appears to be the main beneficiary of the See brothers’ fight at Kian Joo Can Factory Bhd as he took control of the company with the purchase of a 32.9% stake at an attractive price in January 2012. This was after rounds of legal tussles as some members of the family were blocking the deal.

It is an open secret that Yeoh has always aspired to form an integrated packaging firm by merging Can-One Bhd with Kian Joo and his wish finally came true this year.

To recap, Aspire Insight Sdn Bhd, a special purpose vehicle controlled by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Freddie Chee Khay Leong, had in November 2013 proposed to buy Kian Joo’s entire assets and liabilities for RM3.30 per share in a RM1.47 billion deal.

Aspire Insight is 40%-owned by the EPF and 60% by an entity led by Chee, who was the chief operating officer and executive director of Kian Joo at the time.

Back then, Anthony See considered the offer unattractive and alleged that Chee had worked with Yeoh for many years and that the two were related parties acting in concert.

Chee had been a long-time senior executive in Can-One and also served on its board. He resigned from all positions in Can-One a day before Aspire Insight made the offer.

Anthony See contended that Yeoh and Can-One should not be allowed to vote on the sale of Kian Joo’s assets and liabilities to Aspire Insight.

However, the controversial takeover bid was aborted in 2016 due to a disagreement over the price tag.

Fast forward to 2019, Can-One launched a voluntary general offer to take Kian Joo private for RM917.2 million or RM3.10 per share — seven years after the former had bought into the latter — despite concerns about its gearing level.

At one point, Yeoh was struggling to get to the 90% threshold to complete the privatisation exercise, as See Teow Chuan, the eldest son in the See family, and his associates had declined the offer.

But substantial shareholder Teow Chuan changed his mind at the eleventh hour. With that, Kian Joo is now part of Can-One and Yeoh has established a strong foothold in the can manufacturing business. Some perceive Yeoh as being a king of deals although the transactions were not multi-billion ringgit ones.

As the Can One-Kian Joo saga comes to an end, Yeoh’s priority is to de-gear his flagship company Can-One, which was geared up to fund the privatisation of Kian Joo. In 2019, Can-One disposed of the sweetened and evaporated creamer business that was housed under F&B Nutrition Sdn Bhd for between RM800 million and RM1 billion to Asia Dairy Creations Sdn Bhd, a special-purpose vehicle managed by Southern Capital Group Pte Ltd. This mega deal was seen as a move by Yeoh to reduce Can-One’s debt.

In August 2016, just months after he had disposed of his King Koil mattress licensing business, Yeoh bought 78.2 million shares or a 59.16% stake in Main Market-listed Aluminium Co of Malaysia Bhd (Alcom) at 61 sen per share or RM47.7 million through his private investment vehicle Towerpack Sdn Bhd.

But in less than a year, he had offloaded over half of his stake in Alcom at RM1.12 per share or RM44.44 million in aggregate, nearly double the price he had paid originally.

Yeoh remains a substantial shareholder of Alcom with a 28.76% stake. — By Liew Jia Teng