KUALA LUMPUR (March 2): MBSB Bank Bhd has filed a lawsuit against business tycoon Tan Sri Halim Saad over unpaid mortgage of more than RM106.8 million for Kolej Yayasan Saad in Melaka.
MBSB, who is the plaintiff, filed both a writ and a statement of claim through law firm Messrs Hisham, Sobri & Kadir in the High Court on Feb 9, which were sighted by theedgemarkets.com.
Under the writ, MBSB is seeking from Halim, who has been named the defendant in the suit, six endorsements of claim.
They are:
- The outstanding and payable total sale price under the Bai ’Al-Inah facility of RM106.36 million as at Dec 31, 2021;
- Outstanding Ta’widh under the Bai ’Al-Inah facility of RM437,147 as of Dec 31, 2021;
- Ta’widh under the Bai ’Al-Inah facility at the prevailing Islamic interbank money market rate per annum on the amount of RM106.36 million calculated from Jan 1, 2022 until the date of full and final settlement;
- Late payment charge at the rate of 5% per annum on the amount of RM106.36 million calculated from the date of judgement until the date of full settlement of the judgement debt pursuant to Order 42, Rule 12A of the Rules of Court 2012;
- Cost of this action on the basis of the solicitor and client; and
- other orders and/or further relief deemed expedient by the court.
In addition, theedgemarkets.com was made to understand that there was a case management on Monday (Feb 28), with the next case management scheduled for March 8 — both in front of deputy High Court registrar Mohd Zamir Suhaimee.
According to the statement of claim, Halim is a guarantor for the financial facilities provided by Malaysia Building Society Bhd (now known as MBSB Bank Bhd) to KYS College Sdn Bhd.
KYS, which has a registered address in Kuala Lumpur and a business address in Melaka, conducts business related to the operations of educational institutions, the management of educational programmes as well as the management of movable and immovable property of the company.
The college located on a 131-acre land in Ayer Keroh was officiated in January 1995 by then deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and was founded by Halim to pay tribute to his late father and contribute back to society.
Based on the original offer letter, the plaintiff through an offer letter dated Feb 27, 2012 had agreed to provide to KYS the Bai 'Al-Inah financial facility of RM77 million following KYS' request to obtain financial facilities from the plaintiff.
The Bai 'Al-Inah facility consists of Bai ’Al-Inah 1 (BIN 1) for financial facilities amounting to RM54 million for the purpose of redeeming property financing financial facilities-i from Bank Rakyat, as well as Bai ’Al-Inah 2 (BIN 2) for financial facilities amounting to RM23 million for the purpose of development costs and administrative costs of Kolej Yayasan Saad, Ayer Keroh, Melaka.
On May 15, 2012, the plaintiff and KYS entered into a financial facility agreement following KYS’ acceptance and agreement of the original letter of offer.
The facility agreement provides inter alia that the total purchase price of the Bai ’Al-Inah facility is RM77 million, and the total sale price of the assets to be paid under the Bai ’Al-Inah facility to the plaintiff is RM173.15 million.
In addition, YKS covenants and undertakes to pay to the plaintiff the amount of the sale price payable under the Bai ’Al-Inah facility in accordance with the payment terms pursuant to clause 10 of the facility agreement, as well as to pay late payment compensation (Ta’widh) for the amount owed and payable pursuant to Clause 21.30 of the facility agreement.
“In the event of any breach of terms and conditions by KYS including and not limited to failure to pay the amount due under the facility agreement, the plaintiff reserves the right to terminate the facility agreement and claim all amounts due and payable by KYS under the facility agreement and security documents.
“All terms and conditions in the facility agreement have been agreed and signed by KYS without any conditions,” it said.
On June 22, 2015, the plaintiff issued an additional offer letter to amend the terms of the original offer letter at the request of KYS, with the contents of the supplementary offer letter having been agreed and signed by KYS without any conditions.
“The defendant is also aware of the supplementary offer letter and has executed a memorandum of acknowledgement dated June 30, 2015 on the supplementary offer letter,” it added.
Following that, MBSB claimed that KYS and the defendant had breached the original offer letter, supplementary offer letter, facility agreement and the securities documents by refusing, neglecting, being negligent and/or failing to repay the amount due and payable to the plaintiff.
“Through a letter dated July 19, 2017, KYS has made an acknowledgement of KYS' failure to make monthly payments for the Bai 'Al-Inah facility,” it said.
Subsequently, the plaintiff filed four notices of claim dated Oct 17, 2017, Feb 23, 2018, July 21, 2020 and Oct 27, 2021 to KYS and the defendant to settle the monthly amount outstanding under the facility agreement and security documents.
However, MBSB said KYS and the defendant had repeatedly refused, neglected and/or failed to make any payment for the outstanding monthly amount within the allotted period.