PETALING JAYA: A subsidiary company of Khazanah Nasional was wound up by the High Court today over an unpaid debt of almost RM95 million three years ago for supplies to a hotel it owns in Johor.
The subsidiary, TAR PH Sdn Bhd, had been held to have wrongfully terminated an agreement over supplies for the air-cooling systems to Puteri Harbour Hotel in Iskandar Puteri.
TAR PH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Themed Attractions Resorts & Hotels Sdn Bhd, Khazanah’s hospitality and attraction destinations arm.
At the High Court in Shah Alam today, Judicial Commissioner Raja Rozela Raja Toran issued the winding-up order on a petition presented by the creditor, Jana DCS Sdn Bhd, in August last year.
Raja Rozela also ordered that the official receiver be appointed the liquidator of TAR PH. Costs of RM10,000 were awarded to Jana DCS, to be paid out of the assets of the wound-up company.
The winding-up petition was brought after TAR PH failed to pay a statutory demand served on the company in July last year, after the company had been held to have wrongfully terminated a 2012 agreement on supplies to serve the hotel’s air-cooling systems.
In seeking to prevent the winding-up, TAR PH contended that the existence of an appeal to the Court of Appeal from the High Court’s refusal to set aside the arbitration award constituted a bona fide dispute of the debt owed.
It said the appeal is fixed for hearing on March 25. “We submit that an application to set aside the arbitration award may constitute a bona fide dispute of the debt,” its solicitors said in written submissions filed previously.
They also contended that winding-up was a “drastic measure of last resort” which should only take place after a petitioner has exhausted all other avenues of recovery.
However, Jana DCS contended that the pending appeal was irrelevant to the winding-up proceedings, and also contended that a creditor was not under any legal obligation to exhaust alternative remedies before presenting a winding-up petition.
Jana DCS was represented by Liew Teck Huat, Ong Kang Nyong and Anisya Kaur, while K Gobinath and Kee Jing Min appeared for TAR PH.
TAR PH owns the JEN Johor Puteri Harbour Hotel, a four-star hotel which had been run by the Shangri-La group until it ceased operations on May 9 last year.
The petition said TAR PH’s financial statements revealed assets worth RM66.48 million against liabilities of RM183.76 million, inclusive of the debt owed to Jana DCS.
