Hatten Land unit to defend against contractor's RM100m claim

HATTEN Land on Thursday said its wholly-owned subsidiary Gold Mart has received a claim of RM100 million (S$32.8 million) from a contractor related to the Malaysian property developer's Harbour City project.

Gold Mart had received a notice of adjudication dated May 13 from lawyers representing the contractor - China Construction Yangtze River (M) Sdn Bhd.

The notice referred to a dispute over a construction and completion contract dated July 15, 2016, for the Harbour City project - which has a total contract value of RM818.2 million.

In a regulatory update, Hatten Land said the contractor's claim is without merit given the contractor is in substantive breach of the agreement. The company added that Gold Mart intends to defend the claim against it vigorously.

Gold Mart also intends to counter-claim against the contractor for an amount of at least RM100 million for various breaches of contract.

Both Hatten Land and Gold Mart are currently taking legal advice on the contractor's claim and Gold Mart's intended counter-claim.

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The contractor and Gold Mart also need to reach an agreement on the identity of the adjudicator within 10 working days from May 13.

If an agreement is not reached, the contractor will make a request to the director of the Asian International Arbitration Centre to appoint an adjudicator. The adjudicator will be in charge of presiding, judging and arbitrating over the dispute.

Due to the urgency of time, Hatten Land said it is currently unable to assess and disclose the financial impact of the proceeding for the current financial year ending June 30, 2020.

The board's position on the company being able to continue operating as a going concern remains unchanged, Hatten Land added.

Catalist-listed Hatten Land shares were trading flat at 7.4 Singapore cents as at 9.12am on Friday.