THIRD-GENERATION CURSE

Sereno's husband, Taiwan boss stopped

from squeezing Filipino minority bloc

in Trans World Trading conglomerate

US-trained lawyer-cousin consolidates power,

marginalizes children of co-founding father,

whose bloc controls 30% of the family firm

Sereno calls in CMT lawyers to execute takeover,

minority shareholders run to The Firm for help;

guess who ended up in legal 'kangkungan'?

The lawyer-husband of ousted Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and his Taiwanese principals in a Makati-based trading conglomerate have been rolled back in their efforts to reduce the Filipino minority bloc's board representation and deny their appraisal rights.

As chief operating officer of Trans World Trading Company Inc., Mario Jose Sereno sided with his Taiwanese chairman, US trained-lawyer Eric Paul Hwang and his sister, Trans World president Melody Hwang in the ongoing third-generation purge of their Filipino cousins at the estimated P12-billion conglomerate.

                                          Mario Jose Sereno

                                     Melody Hwang

But the Makati Regional Trial Court, in a pre-Christmas decision, granted the mandamus petition filed by the besieged cousins led by Trans World director, Evelyn Uy-Sy, whose husband William belongs to another Chinese-Filipino trading empire, Sysu International.

According to court records, the clan feud erupted in 2018 after Melody was appointed president and her Uy cousins and those affiliated with them "either forcibly retired or summarily dismissed."

"These acts forced the minority shareholders to negotiate their shares to be bought back by Trans World which offered to buy back said shares...to the exclusion of the petitioners," said Judge Andres Bartolome Soriano, quoting the petition.

To make a long story short, the Makati judge ordered Trans World to receive the share certificates of the Uy-Sy bloc, effectively paving the way for their sell-out to their controlling cousins.

Trans World was also ordered to "determine the fair value of the petitioners' shares" -- one account placed the value at P4 billion -- "within 15 days and pay the petitioners the same within 15 days from such determination."

In case of a deadlock, the squabbling cousins will have to appoint an appraisal committee to determine the fair value and render the award, the court said.

The Makati RTC decision, meanwhile, put The Firm back in a celebratory mood, book-ending the impending liberation from the terrible three years of coronavirus pandemic with anticipated hefty bonuses.

On the other side of the fence, their breakaway colleagues with the Cruz Marcelo Tenefrancia have been forced back to their law books...we had better stop here.

 

Additional background:

Here's a link to the Philippines-Japan Society blog, discussing the history of Trans World Trading and why the group conferred the medal of merit to the Trans World co-founder. 

https://pjsmedalofmerit.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/joseph-k-h-uy/

And here's another link, this time from the Trans World website, detailing the official history of the conglomerate, absent any mention of the co-founder.

https://www.twtci.com/profile/