Philip Yeo to step down from CDL board

City Developments Ltd (CDL) announced the retirement of Philip Yeo, who notably backed executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng’s bitter boardroom battle against his son, chief executive officer Sherman Kwek, in early 2025.

Having served the board for 16 years since May 2009, Yeo “has given notice of his retirement as a non-independent non-executive director of CDL”, said the property group in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Jul 15).

His departure comes three months after CDL’s annual general meeting (AGM), when he vocally rallied shareholders against “bullying” by majority directors.

At the AGM, Yeo openly urged shareholders to reject the re-election of four directors, comprising of two new appointees Jennifer Young and Wong Su Yen, and two independents Daniel Desbaillets and Wong Ai Ai. His objections centred on governance lapses, notably that Young and Wong Su Yen’s appointments on Feb 7 bypassed the nominating committee – a key point in the elder Kwek’s original lawsuit against CEO Sherman Kwek, which erupted on Feb 26.

Yeo’s critique during the AGM, including his remark that directors should be appointed “unanimously, not by majority bullying”, drew loud applause from attending shareholders, underscoring lingering divisions despite the family’s subsequent public truce.

The family feud started to subside after a major turning point on Mar 4, when the property giant announced the “irrevocable resignation” of Catherine Wu as an unpaid independent adviser to CDL’s hotel arm, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. Wu’s long relationship with Kwek Leng Beng had caused the rift within the CDL group.

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Kwek Leng Beng issued a statement on Mar 12 saying that he would drop the lawsuit against Sherman Kwek, and all the board members had agreed to put aside their differences for the greater good of CDL and its stakeholders.

Nonetheless, the majority of the shareholders in the April AGM were in favour of the re-election of Young and Wong Su Yen, the two new independent directors. Resolutions were also passed at the AGM for the re-election of three retiring independent directors – Colin Ong, Desbaillets and Wong Ai Ai. Desbaillets and Wong Ai Ai were on the side that opposed CDL executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng, while Ong and Yeo were elder Kwek’s allies.

Yeo was the former executive chairman and subsequently executive co-chairman of Economic Development Board between 1986 and 2006. He was also formerly a special adviser for economic development in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2007 to 2011. After exiting CDL’s board, Yeo will remain on the board of 20 other companies, including IndoFood Agri Resources, QAF and Sunway.

Shares of CDL closed on Tuesday down 0.2 per cent or S$0.01 at S$5.57, before the announcement.