Tan, 1st wife take control of HK property empire from Tan’s siblings
Taipan Lucio Tan and first wife Carmen have taken control of their Hong Kong property empire away from Tan’s siblings.
Last week, the 85-year-old billionaire was elected chairman of Dynamic Holdings, the Hong Kong-based developer that has long been presided by Tan’s younger brother, Harry, as chairman, and managed by brother Frank Chan as chief executive.
Mrs. Tan was elected director, along with daughter Vivienne, concurrently with her directorship in the taipan’s property firm Eton Philippines. Vivienne’s brother, Lucio “Bong” Tan Jr., has been for a number of years already a director of Dynamic Holdings, along with their half-brother, Michael, and brothers-in-law Joseph Chua and Ramon Pascual.
Along with his election, the taipan also promoted a long-time officer, a Hong Kong-based financial controller, as acting chief executive.
According to regulatory disclosures, the taipan and his wife control about 42 percent of Dynamic Holdings.
Another 42 percent was held until last month by Tan’s brotherin-law, former Allied Bank chairman Domingo Chua, who transferred the equivalent of a 39 percent stake to Zedra, a private wealth fund manager in Hong Kong, apparently in preparation for the taipan’s takeover. The balance of about three percent apparently represents Chua’s personal shareholdings.
Chua retired from Dynamic Holdings in 2013, giving up his board seat in favor of Michael Tan. Chua has since remained as an adviser.
Dynamic Holdings is one of the two property empires of Tan based in Hong Kong, the other being the bigger, but unlisted Eton Properties Group. Both companies developed and continuously manage residential towers, office condominiums, malls, and hotels in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Shenyang, and Dalian.
No fiesta between Pure Foods and NutriAsia
Joselito “Butch” Campos Jr. is still on the board of San Miguel Corp., but it looks like he and San Miguel president Ramon S. Ang may have to part ways soon.
Reason? Campos’s NutriAsia condiments empire has sued to stop San Miguel Pure Foods from further expanding the use of the “Fiesta” trademark, other than for Pure Foods current line of holiday hams.
NutriAsia claims that it exclusively owns the commercial rights to the name through its best-selling UFC Golden Fiesta cooking oil.
The litigation comes amid the San Miguel Pure Foods plan to venture into the condiments business, a market segment that NutriAsia has near-monopoly control with its Datu Puti, Silver Swan, Mang Tomas, and UFC brands.
In addition to San Miguel Pure Foods, NutriAsia is also suing coconut product exporter Axelum Resources for appropriating “Fiesta Tropicale’ for its own coconut oil line.
Heard through the grapevine
Metro Manila residents served by Manila Water may be suffering from rationing, but for shareholders of Manila Water the company’s financial spigot is flowing better than usual, thank you very much.
The Ayala-controlled utility has just increased the cash dividend for the first half of the year by 5.7 percent to P0.4551 a share.
Manila Water will release about P939 million to its shareholders on March 28 for the first tranche, with another round of financial windfall scheduled for distribution in October.
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com