Yanson Group of Bus Companies: A Family Business Torn Apart

Abstract

The Yanson family business is an 18,000-workforce bus company servicing 700,000 passengers daily in the southern parts of the Philippines. The family members expected that the family constitution and the shareholders agreement, both signed and executed while the founder was still alive, would shield them from lawsuits against one another. Yet, three years after his death, multiple lawsuits and counter lawsuits were filed by the matriarch, the anointed president, and one sister against the four siblings. At the crux of the matter was determining who held the legitimate set of board directors and corporate officers who would lead the company.