The nephew of Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) founder Stanley Ho is asking the company’s controlling shareholders to resolve his claim for HKD2 billion ($255 million) in unpaid dividends from 2007 onwards.
Michael Hotung, son of Winnie Ho, who had purchased the STDM shares in 1962, has already filed a petition at the Hong Kong High Court for the payment of the dividends. Included as respondents in the lawsuit were Winnie’s siblings Stanley and Nanette Ho Yuen-hung.
In a letter obtained by the South China Morning Post, Hotung asked for his cousin Shun Tak Holdings Managing Director Pansy Ho Chiu-king and the Henry Fok Foundation, who combined hold 53.012% of STDM shares, to facilitate the issuance of dividends from Winnie Ho’s 6,263 shares that make up 7.347% of the company.
The letter read, “It is most unacceptable that shareholders of a company are being refused their rights as shareholders, including their rights to payment of their dividends that the company had issued.”
Aside from the dividend payments, Hotung requested that the shares of his mother, who died last June and had left Hotung as sole executor of her will, be registered under his name.
Just last week, Chiu-king and the Henry Fok Foundation entered into an alliance in the handling of STDM and its subsidiaries. The agreement coincided with a rise in the share price of SJM Holdings, STDM’s subsidiary for Macau casino operations, but Nikkei Asian Review also pointed out that there were significant implications on how Stanley Ho’s family’s related companies are run, and on existing business operations.
Sanford C. Bernstein’s Vitaly Umansky was quoted as saying, “the Byzantine corporate ownership and governance structure of SJM is not alleviated by this agreement,” and added that he would wait for “more clarity on the potential management change, and signs of operational turnaround” before updating his “underperform” rating on SJM.
Hotung, in his letter, said that he hoped that the new controlling shareholders would ensure “the implementation of best practices on corporate governance and legal regulatory compliance across the STDM Group,” as promised in Shun Tak’s statement announcing the alliance.
Neither Shun Tak nor the Henry Fok Foundation responded when sought for comment by SCMP.
Stanley and Winnie Ho had a falling out related to control over STDM, and were involved in legal disputes beginning in 2000. Stanley officially stepped down as SJM chairman only last June.
