Ezra Co-Founders Resolve Divorce Fight Over S$208 Million Assets
2014-09-22 16:01:00.1 GMT
By Andrea Tan and Kyunghee Park
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Ezra Holdings Ltd.’s co-founders
agreed to resolve a six-year legal battle over S$208 million
($164 million) of marital assets that includes a stake in the
Singapore-based offshore marine company.
Former Ezra Chairman Lee Kian Soo, his ex-wife Goh Gaik
Choo and their elder son Lionel, managing director of Ezra, this
month dropped their challenges to a Jan. 29 Singapore High Court
ruling after agreeing to a confidential settlement.
Lee, 69, was ordered to pay Goh S$56 million, including a
possible transfer of as much as a 6.2 percent stake in Ezra,
according to the 155-page January decision. Goh, 62, who has
personal assets of S$27 million, failed in getting a S$40,000
monthly maintenance. Details of the settlement weren’t available
in court papers.
Goh’s lawyer Engelin Teh declined to comment as terms of
the settlement are confidential. Lee’s lawyer Cavinder Bull
declined to comment. Lionel wasn’t immediately available for
comment, according to an e-mailed statement from Ezra. Its Chief
Financial Officer Eugene Cheng said that the case is a private
matter between shareholders and the company’s operations aren’t
affected.
Lee in May argued that Goh, who left the family during the
2008 financial crisis, didn’t deserve 40 percent of their joint
wealth as ordered by then Judicial Commissioner Lionel Yee. The
ex-wife claimed her husband and son colluded to dissipate assets
after she filed for divorce, citing “significant differences”
including disregard for her Catholic faith and his suspected
infidelity.
Lee transferred the Ezra shares at 45 Singapore cents to
Lionel in 2009 and 2010, a substantial discount to the market
price, according to the ruling.
‘Odd’ Explanation
The share transfer “was likely to have been entered by the
husband and Lionel to enable the husband to significantly reduce
the value of his assets,” Yee said in his ruling. Lee’s
explanation that the 45 cents price was arrived at because he
was born in 1945 was “odd,” Yee said.
Lee said he made “full and frank disclosure” on his
assets and objected to demanding that his son transfer Ezra
shares back to him as this would hurt their ties, according to
court papers. If Lionel disposed of his Ezra shares this was
likely to shake investor confidence and risk bringing down the
stock price, he said.
Ezra shares were unchanged at S$1.01 at the close of
Singapore trading yesterday.
The share transfer to Lionel was to fulfill an earlier
pledge when the company reached S$100 million in profit, the
husband said in court papers. Ezra posted net income of $175
million for fiscal year 2008.
Annual Report
Lionel owned about 19 percent of Ezra, according to the
company’s annual report. Lee, who stepped down as chairman at
the end of 2012 and was paid about S$40,000 a month in 2009, had
a 1.5 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Goh earned about S$10,000 a month before she resigned in
December 2008.
Yee, who’s now solicitor-general, also ruled that the
transfer of a 67 percent stake in a privately-held family
investment company to Lionel wasn’t likely to be “genuine,”
according to court papers.
Separately, Yee ruled there was no evidence, contrary to
Goh’s claim, that Lee held S$30.5 million worth of shares in
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Ltd., China’s No. 2 private
shipyard.
Lee and Goh started Ezra in 1992 to manage and operate
offshore support vessels. The company posted a 19 percent
decline in net income to $53.6 million in the year ended August
2013. Sales rose 28 percent to $1.26 billion.
The former couple had assets in 29 bank accounts, nine
properties including on the resort island of Sentosa, stocks,
cars such as a Ferrari 360, BMW740Li and club memberships.
The case is Goh Gaik Choo v Lee Kian Soo, DT5683/2008.
Singapore High Court.
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To contact the reporters on this story:
Andrea Tan in Singapore at +65-6212-1325 or
[email protected];
Kyunghee Park in Singapore at +65-6212-1541 or
[email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Douglas Wong at +852-2977-6451 or
[email protected]
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