Court orders Serba Dinamik to be wound up - report

The Kuala Lumpur High Court greenlighted a petition by six financial institutions to wind up Serba Dinamik Holdings Sdn Bhd and its three related firms over the RM5 billion debts.

According to a report by The Edge, judicial commissioner Ahmad Murad Abdul Aziz allowed the winding-up petition by Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd, HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd, AmBank Islamic Bhd, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd, United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, and Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd.

Murad’s ruling today against the four companies in effect would result in a process in which the companies’ existence is brought to an end, with their assets collected and realised to pay off the debt of RM5 billion.

The court ruling targets Serba Dinamik Holdings as well as Serba Dinamik International Ltd (SDI), Serba Dinamik Sdn Bhd and Serba Dinamik Group Bhd, with the companies expected to be placed under Victor Saw, a liquidator from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Earlier today, Murad heard a bid by lawyer Ranjit Singh - the counsel for Efire Capital Holdings Limited which was an Abu Dhabi-based firm involved in a 50 percent joint venture with SDI - to postpone the winding-up proceedings hearing.

Ranjit orally submitted among others that Efire Capital should be allowed to intervene in the proceedings and be given one and a half months to dispose of assets to help settle some of the debts before actual winding up, which he contended would affect the JV.

However, the adjournment bid was objected to by the legal teams acting for the financial institutions, namely Jeyanthini Kannaperan for the syndicated lenders, Benjamin Dawson for HSBC Amanah and HSBC Bank, as well as Karen Tan for Hong Leong Islamic Bank.

Jeyanthini argued among others that Serba Dinamik and the three companies failed to make obligatory statutory payments, including staff-related ones involving the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Socso), and that RM1.7 billion in debt was owed to the petitioners.

In objecting to the adjournment application, Benjamin submitted that the Serba Dinamik case is the largest insolvency case in court as it involved RM5 billion.

“It owes RM1.7 billion to the syndicated lenders, it owes another US$500 million to the sukuk lenders, RM250 million to Hong Leong Islamic, and to my client another RM70 million.

“This is close to RM5 billion, and there is no proper restructuring plan. There is a propensity as in the past for the Serba Dinamik group of companies to come out with bare allegations, with no credible evidence to support,” he was quoted as saying.

Murad then denied the adjournment bid, despite Mak Lin Kum, who acted for Serba Dinamik and the three companies, seeking the brief adjournment to allow further asset sales.

Since last year, Serba Dinamik came to the limelight over its financial troubles and several court cases, including a criminal one that has since been dropped by Attorney-General Idrus Harun.

Serba Dinamik shares to be suspended from tomorrow onwards

'RM16m compound on Serba Dinamik adequate punishment'

LETTER | The foreign equity fix for Malaysia's corporate lapses

Serba Dinamik confirms receiving writ of summons from Malaysian Trustees