A family feud could tear apart one Singapore-listed company’s 108% gain of last year

[SINGAPORE] The Chinese New Year celebrations next month is shaping up to be an awkward affair for Nam Lee Pressed Metal Industries’ Yong family.

The family business was started in the 1950s by the late patriarch Yong Kwong Fae, fabricating galvanised metal household products such as buckets and bath tubs. The Nam Lee as we know it today was incorporated in 1975 by three of his sons – Yong Koon Chin, Yong Kin Sen and Yong Poon Miew – and listed on the Singapore Exchange in 1999.

The brothers, now in their 80s, have passed the mantle to their respective children: Joanna Yong, 55, is the daughter of Yong Koon Chin; Eric Yong, 52, is the son of Yong Kin Sen; and Adrian Yong, 51, is the son of Yong Poon Miew.

The three elder Yongs remain substantial shareholders of Nam Lee, with stakes of above 19 per cent each in the listed company.

In 2025, the steel and aluminium products manufacturer, which is also a supplier approved by the Housing & Development Board, experienced its best year – by far – since its listing.

Nam Lee’s share price surged 108.1 per cent last year, trouncing the 22.7 per cent gain of the blue-chip Straits Times Index (STI) over the same period.

With dividends reinvested, Nam Lee registered a total return of 120.9 per cent, compared with the STI’s 28.8 per cent. This was fuelled by Singapore’s construction boom, and a government-led equities market push that has benefited the small and mid-cap counters.

In comparison, Nam Lee’s share price had fallen 34.9 per cent since its public listing in October 1999 up to the end of 2024. It had generated an annualised total return of 3.8 per cent over the period.

The company’s shareholders would be keen for it to ride on the momentum of its 2025 boom. But a family feud that is turning into a corporate governance nightmare could see it all unravelling.

Red flag

At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Jan 9, shareholders of Nam Lee voted to remove Joanna Yong as a director of the company. Following the vote, she ceased to be Nam Lee’s chairman and executive director.

Curiously, the EGM was requisitioned in November by none other than Joanna Yong’s uncles: Yong Kin Sen and Yong Poon Miew.

The notice of requisition for the EGM came just three weeks after Nam Lee on Oct 31 disclosed that managing director Eric Yong – the son of Yong Kin Sen – was interviewed by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB). This was the result of a whistleblowing report filed with the CPIB, which contained certain allegations made against him.

Nam Lee said that the allegations covered at the CPIB interview appear to be the same issues and allegations previously raised in an earlier whistleblowing report received by the company’s audit committee (AC) in the financial year ended September 2024.

In its annual report for FY2024, Nam Lee noted that the whistleblowing report “merited investigation”. The complaints were referred to internal auditors for independent investigation.

The internal auditors discovered some “procedural lapses and control gaps in operational matters” in the course of their investigations, but concluded that there was no indication of a need for more comprehensive or further investigation.

The procedural lapses and control gaps were reported to the AC and in turn highlighted to the management, and plans were put in place for the required remedial actions to improve and strengthen internal controls.

To some shareholders, the timing of the two events – the CPIB probe into Eric Yong, and the call to remove then chairman Joanna Yong – might have suggested that they were linked. However, queries from shareholders on whether the requisitioning shareholders’ efforts to remove Joanna Yong was in any way related to the whistle-blowing allegations that led to Eric Yong being interviewed by the CPIB drew a blank.

In response to multiple queries ahead of its EGM, Nam Lee repeated ad nauseam that it did not have knowledge of the actual rationale behind the requisitioning shareholders’ actions, and that the requisitioning shareholders had not provided any rationale for the proposed resolution to remove Joanna Yong as a director of the company.

For investors, this is a red flag.

To be sure, the CPIB has since reportedly advised Eric Yong that no further action will be taken against him. But the public perception that the chairman of a public-listed company was removed due to a whistleblowing report against its managing director is unfortunate.

Under the company’s whistleblowing policy, it has pledged to “treat all information received confidentially and protect the identity of all whistle-blowers”, as well as ensure that whistle-blowers will be “treated fairly, and protected against detrimental or unfair treatment”.

For the record, there was little Joanna Yong could have done to survive the vote to oust her.

Shareholders holding a total of 152.5 million shares voted at the EGM; some 67.6 per cent, or 103 million of the total valid votes cast, were in favour of her removal.

With no parties required to abstain from voting, it is fair to assume that the shares of requisitioning shareholders Yong Kin Sen and Yong Poon Miew were part of this tally. The duo alone held some 95.6 million shares.

Nam Lee has since announced that it will convene its annual general meeting for FY2025 on Jan 29.

So far, the share price hasn’t been affected, but investors cannot ignore the risk that all the good work achieved last year will be undone if the uncertainty at the board level continues.

Investors should take the opportunity to press for answers and seek clarity on what transpired in this episode.

Nam Lee should also address the questions and explain how it plans to resolve the situation. It is the only way to repair its reputation, and rebuild trust in the decades-old family business.