Petroships Investment Pte Ltd v Wealthplus Pte Ltd and others and another matter

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Sundaresh Menon CJ
• Judgment Date: 21 March 2016
• Neutral Citation: [2016] SGCA 17
• Plaintiff Counsel: Tan Kok Peng, Ho Mingjie Kevin, Grace Loke and Xiao Hongyu (Braddell Brothers LLP)
• Docket Number: Civil Appeal No 113 of 2014 and Summons No 293 of 2015
• Date: 21 March 2016
• Hearing Date: 25 November 2015
• Subject Matter: Companies,Members,Derivative action
• Year: 2016
• Citation: [2016] SGCA 17
• Defendant Counsel: Mulani Prakash P and Carmen Chen (M & A Law Corporation,Rethnam Chandra Mohan, Khelvin Xu Cunhan and Tan Ruo Yu (Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP)
• Court: Court of Appeal (Singapore)
• Published date: 25 March 2016

Andrew Phang Boon Leong JA (delivering the grounds of decision of the court): Introduction

Case law is the lifeblood of the common law system in general and the Singapore legal system in particular. This is not surprising as case law is, in fact, a foundational building block in the genius of the common law and equity as we know it. Case law is often also an integral part of the process of statutory interpretation. It is, however, important to note that case law is not important for its own sake. It must be relevant. On rare occasions, it is not. One such occasion would be when a legal rule or principle is being formulated for the very first time – and/or for which there is no (or at least no directly relevant) case law authority. At this juncture, the court must have recourse to general (or, more accurately, first) principles (which would entail an analysis which is guided, inter alia, by context, reason as well as common sense). As we shall see in a moment, this is precisely one such occasion. The judgment against which the present appeal has been brought (see Petroships Investment Pte Ltd v Wealthplus Pte Ltd and others [2015] SGHC 145 (“the GD”)) focused on whether or not the pre-requisites pursuant to s 216A of the Companies Act (Cap 50, 2006 Rev Ed) (“s 216A”) had been satisfied (in particular, whether the claim had been brought in good faith). However, in our view, the threshold issue was whether or not s 216A was even applicable in the first place – particularly given the fact that the company concerned was already in liquidation. In this last-mentioned regard, there was a dearth of directly relevant case law. Recourse had to be had to general principles. In this regard, it was clear, in our view, that s 216A was not applicable where the company concerned had gone into liquidation. Hence, it was unnecessary for us to inquire (as the court below did) into the application of s 216A since, ex hypothesi, this provision was not applicable in the first place. We now set out the detailed grounds for our decision.

Facts Project to exploit land use rights in China

The appellant was Petroships Investments Pte Ltd (“Petroships”), which was a minority shareholder in Wealthplus Pte Ltd (“Wealthplus”). Wealthplus was the first respondent. Its shareholders (and their shareholdings) were: Megacity Investment Pte Ltd (“Megacity”), the third respondent: 49%; Koh Brothers Building & Civil Engineering Contractor (Pte) Ltd (“KBBCE”): 41%; and Petroships: 10%.

The ultimate parent company of Megacity and KBBCE was Koh Brothers Group Limited (“Koh Bros Group”), which was the second respondent. Listed in 1994, Koh Bros Group describes itself as a well-established construction, property development and specialist engineering solutions provider. It offers construction services with various subsidiaries, joint ventures and associated companies in Asia, including China.

Early in 1998, Koh Bros Group founder, Koh Tiat Meng, invited Alan Chan, who controlled Petroships, to invest in a project to exploit certain land use rights in China. These rights, to develop five plots of land in Shantou, China, were initially held by KBBCE. Alan Chan agreed. Wealthplus was created as the investment vehicle for the project and held the land use rights through certain subsidiaries. Initially, Megacity and Petroships were the only two shareholders of Wealthplus. In 2011, Megacity transferred a portion of its 90% shareholding to KBBCE such that the former held 49% and the latter held 41% shareholding.

The terms of the joint investment between Petroships and Megacity were set out in a joint venture agreement dated 8 June 1998. It was stipulated that Wealthplus’ paid-up capital would be $1m, with Megacity contributing 90% and Petroships the remaining 10% (in proportion to their shareholdings at that particular point in time). Wealthplus would also reimburse KBBCE for the cost of the land use rights, up to the amount of $27.7m. The shareholders would finance the first tranche of the reimbursement with an $11m loan to Wealthplus. As the contributions to the loan were in accordance with the shareholders’ respective shareholdings, Petroships extended a loan of $1.1m to Wealthplus.

From July 1998 to September 2009, Wealthplus had three directors on its board. Petroships nominated Alan Chan. Megacity nominated Koh Teak Huat (Koh Tiat Meng’s brother) and Koh Keng Siang (Koh Tiat Meng’s son). Besides being Wealthplus directors, Koh Teak Huat and Koh Keng Siang were also directors in other companies within the Koh Bros Group.

Sale of land use rights

The project to exploit the land use rights in China did not come to pass. In August 2007, Wealthplus caused the rights to be sold with Petroships’ consent. Wealthplus’ subsidiaries collectively received $19.4m in sale proceeds. From 2008, Petroships started agitating for its share of the profits of the investment, the recovery of its capital and the repayment of its $1.1m loan to Wealthplus. Disagreements arose between Alan Chan on one side, and Koh Teak Huat and Koh Keng Siang on the other. This led Alan Chan to resign from his Wealthplus directorship in September 2009.

Series of suits

The disagreements spawned a series of successive suits that Petroships commenced against Megacity, Wealthplus and Koh Bros Group in different combinations. All were struck out. They are summarised as follows: On 27 March 2009, Petroships sued Megacity (Suit No 280 of 2009). It alleged that Megacity had failed to pay Petroships its share of the profits arising from the investment (amounting to $117,728), and that Megacity had failed to repay Petroships’ $1.1m loan. On 21 August 2009, the case was struck out on the basis that it disclosed no reasonable cause of action and/or was scandalous, frivolous or vexatious. On 12 January 2010, Petroships sued Megacity and Wealthplus (Suit No 23 of 2010). It alleged that Wealthplus had failed to repay Petroships’ $1.1m loan, that Megacity had failed to procure Wealthplus’ repayment of the loan, that Petroships, as a minority shareholder, had been oppressed by Wealthplus’ delay in repaying the loan, and that Megacity and Wealthplus had acted in an unfairly discriminatory way towards Petroships. Petroships sought an order for Megacity to procure Wealthplus to repay the $1.1m loan and, alternatively, an order for Wealthplus to be wound up and to be ordered to repay the loan. On 9 September 2010, the case was struck out for breach of a peremptory order – Petroships had failed to meet timelines for the filing of documents. On 12 October 2010, Petroships sued Megacity and Wealthplus again (Suit No 783 of 2010). The claim was identical to that in the preceding suit. On 11 May 2011, it was struck out for being scandalous, frivolous or vexatious and/or otherwise an abuse of the court process. On 25 November 2011, Petroships sued Koh Bros Group in Suit No 867 of 2011 (“Suit 867/2011”). It alleged that both parties had a contractual relationship. Petroships alleged that Koh Bros Group had wrongfully caused Wealthplus to enter into various transactions against its interest. Petroships also alleged that Koh Bros Group had failed to repay the $1.1m loan, failed to distribute to Petroships its share of the profits realised by Wealthplus, and was liable to account for Petroships’ share of Wealthplus’ profits.

Preceding the last-mentioned suit (ie, Suit 867/2011) was a letter dated 17 August 2011 to Koh Tiat Meng, in which Alan Chan (through his solicitors) questioned four transactions (“the four transactions”) that Wealthplus had entered into. Petroships claimed that these transactions did not seem to be in Wealthplus’ interests, viz: sums totalling $14.9m were transferred from Wealthplus to various companies within the Koh Bros Group which appeared unrelated to Wealthplus’ investment in China; a sum of $135,005 owed to Wealthplus in 2008 was written off and described only as bad debts; a sum of $651,658, being provision for impairment in 2009 for non-trade related debts; and a sum of $559,631, being director’s fees paid in 2008 and 2009.

Wealthplus’ solicitors replied to the aforementioned letter and stated that Wealthplus was the more appropriate party to address these queries. Wealthplus told Alan Chan that its directors would be pleased to answer his queries at its coming annual general meeting, which took place on 22 November 2011. At the meeting, the explanations offered were as follows: the transfer of various sums to companies within the Koh Bros Group was part of the reimbursement cost for the acquisition of the land in China as per the joint venture agreement dated 8 June 1998; the write-off of S$135,005 comprised mainly the outstanding balances due from Wealthplus’ three former subsidiaries in China (which had been disposed of in the 2007 financial year) to their immediate holding company, which could not be recovered; the provision for impairment of $651,658 included: an outstanding balance of $537,253 due from the three former subsidiaries (which were disposed of in the 2007 financial year) to related companies in China, the recovery of which was doubtful; and a prepayment of S$112,335 for an amount incurred by a director relating to the disposal of the land in China; and Wealthplus provided director’s remuneration to Koh Teak Huat, as he was the only director who actively managed Wealthplus’ business. He was paid director’s remuneration for contributions made in respect of the disposal of land in China. Koh Keng Siang and Alan Chan received no directors’ remuneration.

Dissatisfied with this response, Petroships commenced Suit 867/2011 three days after the 2011 AGM. On 26 March 2012, the suit was struck out for being frivolous and vexatious; the assistant registrar found that Petroships had failed to adduce any evidence of a contractual relationship with Koh Bros Group. On 10 May 2012, Petroships’ appeal to...