PKNS withdraws injunction against MRCB

KUALA LUMPUR: PKNS Holdings Sdn Bhd has withdrawn its injunction application against Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) with “no order as to costs”.

However, it is going ahead with its injunction application against Nusa Gapurna Development Sdn Bhd (NGD).

“The High Court judge has fixed the matter for decision on Aug 1, 2013 at 4pm. The High Court did not grant any ad-interim injunction,” MRCB said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

The legal tangle is the result of a dispute between the Selangor state entity and NGD over the sale of NGD’s 70% stake in the PJ Sentral development to MRCB.

Last month, MRCB shareholders approved the acquisition of development land along with other assets belonging to NGD in a RM729 million deal. NGD’s 70% stake in PJ Sentral was a part of the approved transaction.

However, a day before the MRCB AGM, PKNS filed suit seeking to buy the 70% stake in PJ Sentral from NGD, claiming it had the first right of refusal to buy the stake.

NGD, on its part, claimed that it had the right to “drag along” PKNS to any venture so long as the state entity did not get a worse deal than the privately owned developer.  

PKNS general manager Noor Hisham Ghouth told The Edge Financial Daily two weeks ago that the lawsuit filed against MRCB and NGD to stop the sale of the latter’s 70% stake in PJ Sentral, was to exercise PKNS’ pre-emptive rights.

NGD had served PKNS with a “drag-along” notice on April 23 to compel PKNS to cooperate in the sale of its remaining 30% stake, valued at RM83.5 million, to MRCB.

However, two weeks ago, PKNS issued a statement saying that it was not selling its stake to MRCB.

MRCB’s offer price for the PJ Sentral asset was RM199 million.

PJ Sentral sits on 12 acres (4.85 ha) of prime land in Petaling Jaya and is estimated to have a gross development value of RM3 billion. It is a commercial development that has received approval for office buildings and a hotel. The project was privatised when Selangor was ruled by the Barisan Nasional.

Under the initial terms, NGD was to build an office block for PKNS and pay some cash in return for taking over the land.

However, after Pakatan Rakyat took over Selangor, PKNS had renegotiated the terms of the privatisation several times which resulted in it having a 30% stake in the PJ Sentral development.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 23, 2013.