This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 23, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Bina Puri Holdings Bhd has won an arbitration case against the Pakistan National Highway Authority (NHA) in a dispute concerning an RM864 million highway concession agreement’s termination.

Bina Puri said its subsidiary, Bina Puri Pakistan Private Ltd, commenced the arbitral proceedings against the NHA in April 2013, claiming unlawful termination of the agreement.

The High Court of Sindh had referred the dispute to two arbitrators and subsequently the umpire in September 2018 upon differences of opinion between the arbitrators, Bina Puri said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Last month, the umpire decided to allow Bina Puri Pakistan’s claim for a declaration that the termination notice by the NHA is an unlawful repudiation and a breach of the concession agreement.

The agreement, dated Jan 16, 2012, was to convert the 136km Karachi-Hyderabad superhighway from the existing four-lane into a six-lane motorway on a built-operate-transfer model, at a contract value of 24.93 billion Pakistani rupees (RM864 million).

Bina Puri said its Pakistani unit will be entitled to the actual pre-development and development costs to be determined by the joint auditor.

Bina Puri’s share price gained two sen or 10.26% to 21.5 sen yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM81.97 million.