NextFin News - A decade-long battle over the $3 billion estate of Evergreen Group founder Chang Yung-fa has taken a sharp legal turn as the billionaire’s own charitable foundation filed a formal claim for a significant portion of the inheritance. The move, according to Bloomberg, reopens a bitter family feud that many in Taiwan’s corporate circles believed had reached its final chapter following a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the validity of Chang’s handwritten will.
The dispute centers on the 2014 will of the shipping magnate, who died in 2016 at the age of 88. In the document, Chang designated his youngest son, Chang Kuo-wei—the founder of StarLux Airlines and the only child of his second wife—as the sole beneficiary of his vast personal fortune and the intended successor to the group’s chairmanship. This directive sparked immediate resistance from the three sons of Chang’s first wife, leading to years of litigation over the patriarch’s mental capacity and the technical legality of the sealed document.
The entry of the Chang Yung-fa Foundation into the fray introduces a new layer of complexity to the distribution of assets. The foundation’s legal representatives argue that the late founder’s long-standing public commitments to philanthropy should supersede or at least temper the "winner-takes-all" nature of the private will. While the Taiwan Supreme Court recently affirmed the will’s validity, local law provides for "reserved portions" of an estate that must be distributed among all legal heirs, regardless of a testator’s specific instructions. The foundation is now asserting that it, too, holds a rightful stake based on prior corporate pledges and the founder’s stated intent to return his wealth to society.
Chang Kuo-wei, who was famously ousted from the Evergreen chairmanship in a boardroom coup shortly after his father’s death, has since built StarLux into a formidable regional competitor. His legal team has maintained that the founder’s intent was crystal clear and that the will was a deliberate effort to ensure the conglomerate’s future remained under a single, chosen leader. However, the foundation’s claim threatens to dilute the liquidity available to the StarLux chairman at a time when the aviation industry continues to face high capital expenditure requirements and volatile fuel costs.
The legal maneuverings have broader implications for the Evergreen Group, a sprawling empire that includes Evergreen Marine Corp., one of the world’s largest container shipping lines, and EVA Airways. While the court has ruled that the title of "Group President" designated in the will does not exist under Taiwan’s current Company Law, the financial control afforded by the inheritance remains the ultimate prize. The foundation’s claim could potentially tie up assets in probate for several more years, preventing a clean break between the warring factions of the Chang family.
Skeptics of the foundation’s move suggest it may be a proxy battle orchestrated by the elder brothers to further obstruct their younger sibling’s access to the capital. Conversely, proponents of the claim argue that a $3 billion windfall for a single individual contradicts the late Chang’s public persona as a dedicated philanthropist. As the Taiwan courts prepare to weigh the foundation’s standing, the case serves as a stark reminder of the risks inherent in the succession models of Asia’s largest family-run conglomerates, where personal grievances often collide with multi-billion dollar corporate interests.
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