Acesian Partners: Garnishee order granted to creditor for subsidiary's bank account

ACESIAN Partners (APL) said on Tuesday that a creditor of its subsidiary has been granted a final garnishee order to claim the total amount in its subsidiary's bank account.

Unitex Engineering is owed over S$1.56 million, plus interest, by Active Building Technologies (ABT), which is fully owned by Acesian Star (ASPL). ASPL is, in turn, wholly owned by APL.

On Jan 9, Unitex was granted a final garnishee order for the amount in ABT's bank account with Maybank, which stood at S$43,369.74 as at Dec 17, 2017.

"The full sum, if enforced, may have a material impact on the financial position of the group for the financial year ending on Dec 31, 2017," APL added in a filing to the Singapore Exchange, referring to the S$1.56 million sum.

This comes after ASPL - which is under judicial management - was terminated by Takenaka Corporation in November 2016 from sub-contract works relating to the extension of Changi Airport's Terminal 1 (T1). Some 15 months after ABT commenced works, ASPL's contract was terminated for sub-contracting works out to ABT without Takenaka's written consent.

However, APL highlighted: "The company's position is that the termination of ASPL under the sub-contract was unjustified, as Takenaka was aware and had allowed ASPL to sub-contract the whole or part of the sub-contract works to ABT since the commencement of the works. Takenaka had not raised any objections to this arrangement, and had worked closely with ABT's personnel for 15 months before abruptly terminating the sub-contract with ASPL in November 2016."

It went on to note that Takenaka later went on to engage most of ABT's engineers and all of their subcontractors, included Unitex, to continue on the T1 project.