KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): Property firm Lien Hoe Corp Bhd said it has withdrawn its Letter of Demand (LoD) to claim for some RM50.46 million in outstanding instalment payments and accrued interest from Gabungan AQRS Bhd.

In a bourse filing today, Lien Hoe said its wholly-owned unit Pro-Meridian Sdn Bhd withdrew the LoD after receiving payment from Gabungan AQRS’ unit, AQRS The Building Company Sdn Bhd (AQRS-TBC), though the exact sum was not revealed.

Lien Hoe issued the LoD on Sept 7 claiming for some RM50 million in outstanding payment and an accrued interest of RM456,954.

According to Lien Hoe then, AQRS-TBC had defaulted on the agreed schedule of payments pursuant to the further supplemental agreement dated July 22, 2016 and other agreements.

In response, Gabungan AQRS said a day later that Lien Hoe’s demand was “premature and misconceived”.

Describing the RM50 million claim as “entirely excessive in the circumstances”, Gabungan AQRS said it had attached the correct payment schedule owed to Lien Hoe, which “form(ed) the premise of the company's firm and unequivocal denial of the said demand”.

The promised payments stemmed from Lien Hoe and Gabungan AQRS's plan to jointly undertake the development of two 38-storey blocks of serviced apartments in Johor Baru, on Sept 30, 2011, worth RM450 million in gross sale value.

Under the agreement, AQRS-TBC was slated to pay Pro-Meridian a guaranteed share of revenue from the development, amounting to RM117 million cash.

The development was scheduled to be completed by the first half of 2015. On July 22, 2016, the two companies inked a further supplemental agreement to extend the completion date of the apartments.

The deal also rescheduled the balance payable by AQRS-TBC to Pro-Meridian — amounting to RM61.75 million — in 28 tranches between July 31, 2016 and Aug 28, 2019.

Gabungan AQRS and Lien Hoe are mid-sized property developers.

Listed since July 1970, Lien Hoe shares closed unchanged at 36.5 sen today, valuing the Johor-based developer at RM132.04 million.

As for Gabungan AQRS, its shares slid one sen or 0.61% to close at RM1.64, for a market capitalisation of RM705.13 million.