Legal battle emerges for control of Tipsy Collective hospitality group

Co-founder claims several stakeholders trying to seize control of board

- Joyce Lim

A legal battle has erupted for the control of home-grown hospitality group Tipsy Collective, a year after the firm's co-founder and former group chief executive Derek Ong died.

The group's other co-founder and executive chairman David Gan Jia Liang, 32, has applied for an interim court injunction against several Indonesian stakeholders, who he claims in court documents are attempting to seize control of the board.

Mr Gan, represented by lawyers from Selvam, is suing eight parties -including Indonesian investors and their companies, and Tipsy Collective. In his court submissions, he said the shareholders tried to remove him as a director of the company through a memo, which was dated May 1, 2024.

Founded in 2019 by Mr Gan and Mr Ong, Tipsy Collective runs 10 restaurants and bars here, four of which are located in the heartland. In January 2024, the company opened its first overseas outlet, Tipsy Flamingo in Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Ong's sudden death in August 2023 came just a week before the scheduled opening of Tipsy Unicorn a 19,000 sq ft beach club on Sentosa's Siloso Beach. It was touted as the hospitality group's most ambitious project yet.

The current lawsuit, filed on Aug 5, comes nearly a year after Mr Ong's death.

The eight defendants include Indonesian investors Reino Ramaputrabarack and Santosa Kadiman, and the firms they respectively run - Steady Property Trading and Novus International Enterprises. Both firms hold shares in Tipsy Collective.

Tipsy Collective is named a nominal defendant as the company would be bound by any judgment.

The other defendants are White Rock Asia Resources, as well as Singaporeans Tora Widjaja and Rudy Widjaja, his father.