Tycoon Halim Saad sues Dr Mahathir, Nor Mohamed Yakcop for compensation over Renong, UEM

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Tycoon Tan Sri Halim Saad has filed a civil lawsuit against former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, seeking compensation for the financial losses he suffered in relation to the government’s takeover of United Engineers Malaysia (UEM) Bhd and Renong Berhad.

In the civil lawsuit filed on August 2 at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Halim sued the two men as well as the Malaysian government.

In a public statement today, Halim claimed that the instructions given by Dr Mahathir and Nor Mohamed in the past in relation to Renong and UEM had resulted in his constitutional rights being breached.

“The collective and concerted actions of the defendants resulted in my loss of control of Renong which also meant the indirect loss of control of UEM and its highly valuable assets including but not limited to Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan (Plus), Elite Expressway, Laluan Kedua Malaysia (Linkedua), Intria Bina Sdn Bhd, Ho Hup Construction Sdn Bhd, Pharmaniaga Berhad and Kualiti Alam Sdn Bhd amongst others.

“I suffered financial losses as a direct result of the Defendants’ action which constituted a breach of my constitutional rights under the Federal Constitution,” he said in a brief statement today.

According to Halim, his lawsuit is based on the alleged breach of his rights under the Federal Constitution's Article 8(1), Article 13(1) and Article 13(2), allegedly as a result of instructions to him from Dr Mahathir and Nor Mohamed.

Article 8(1) states that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection of the law, while Article 13(1) states that no person shall be deprived of property unless it is in accordance with the law and Article 13(2) requires adequate compensation to be paid for the compulsory acquisition of property.

Halim claimed that then prime minister Dr Mahathir and Nor Mohamed who was the PM's special economic adviser had previously instructed him not to proceed with acquiring 32.69 per cent of Renong from UEM, also claiming that the duo later instructed him not to proceed with his plans with Renong to undertake a joint takeover of UEM.

Halim claimed he was instead required by the duo to support the government's plan — via Khazanah Nasional Berhad's wholly-owned subsidiary Danasaham Sdn Bhd — to undertake a takeover of UEM.

"The government's plan to take over UEM and to eventually privatise it would not have been possible without my support which I was obliged to provide," he said in his statement, concluding that the duo's actions allegedly resulted in financial losses to him and breach of his constitutional rights.

In the lawsuit filed on Halim’s behalf by the law firm Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, the businessman is seeking for several court orders, including for the government to pay him compensation in line with Article 13(2) in respect of his rights as Renong’s controlling shareholder and with the compensation amount to be assessed by the High Court and the money to be paid within 14 days of the amount being determined.

Alternatively, Halim wants the court to assess the amount of general damages to be paid to him as compensation. He also sought for exemplary damages and aggravated damages.

Halim also sought for a declaration that 16 per cent or that 372 million of Renong shares’ beneficial and legal owner is him and not Umno Baru.

He is also seeking for the court to declare that the government was obliged to provide adequate compensation to him over the depriving of his right as a controlling shareholder of Renong and the compulsory acquisition of his vested right to make a general offer on UEM, and that the government’s failure to provide adequate compensation was in breach of the Federal Constitution.

According to Halim’s statement of claim filed in court, he claimed he was the single largest individual shareholder with his 16 per cent shareholding in Renong and controlled the company, and indirectly further controlled 32.6 per cent of voting shares in Renong through UEM and Renong’s cross-holding (UEM held 32.6 per cent in Renong, Renong held 37.92 per cent in UEM).

In December 2000, UEM exercised a put option where Halim would acquire UEM’s 32.6 per cent shares in Renong for over RM3.1 billion, with Halim saying that he made the first batch of payment at RM100 million in February 2001.

Halim claimed that he had intended to make a general offer on UEM either through Renong or jointly with Renong, to privatise UEM by making it a subsidiary of Renong.

Halim said this would have enabled him to acquire control and full ownership of UEM through Renong, based on his 16 per cent shares in Renong. He said UEM was a highly valuable with high-performing assets collectively generating up to RM1 billion a year.

Halim claimed that Dr Mahathir — directly and via Nor Mohamed — directed him not to proceed with the general offer on UEM, as the government wanted to acquire all the shares in UEM through Khazanah or another entity it would nominate, and that he was directed to exit as shareholder and director of both UEM and Renong and their subsidiaries.

Halim claimed that this required him to give up his control over Renong and UEM to the government and to eventually dispose of his 16 per cent shares in Renong at a loss, adding that he complied with the instruction as Dr Mahathir was then prime minister and finance minister.

“In the upshot, Khazanah acquired all the shares in UEM through its subsidiary, Syarikat Danasaham Sdn Bhd, thereby gaining control of UEM which at the material time held 32.6 per cent in Renong. In this way, the government acquired UEM and indirectly and gained control and indirect ownership of the Renong group,” he claimed.

Following Renong and UEM coming under Khazanah’s control, Halim said he no longer had a controlling interest in Renong and indirectly UEM, and that there was no value in him maintaining his Renong shares which he eventually sold at a diminished value.

Halim claimed that the government did not pay compensation to him for the key aspects of the government’s acquisition exercise, namely the government’s compulsory acquisition between July to October 2001 of his vested rights as the 16 per cent controlling shareholder of Renong to make a general offer on all the UEM shares, and the deprivation of his rights as Renong’s controlling shareholder in the same period through Khazanah’s UEM takeover which resulted in his shares being devalued.

Halim said the RM165 million he received from Khazanah was not compensation for the acquisition of his vested right and deprivation of his rights as Renong’s controlling shareholder, but was only to cover his loss of capital in giving up control of Renong and UEM.

Halim claimed the RM165 million was for his RM100 million paid to UEM as part of the put option which both he and UEM were required by the government to let lapse, while the remaining RM65 million was for his losses due to foreclosure of assets he had pledged to financiers to finance the RM100 million and interest that had to be paid by him.

Malay Mail’s checks of online court listings show that Halim’s lawsuit came up for case management today at the High Court, and is scheduled for case management next on September 13.

When contacted, Dr Mahathir’s lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali told Malay Mail that his client had received the court papers for the lawsuit this afternoon: “Yes, Tun was served the writ and statement of claim this afternoon. He will respond accordingly in due course.”

In court papers, Halim argued that his lawsuit would not be prevented from continuing by either the Limitation Act 1953 or the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948, as he is seeking for declaratory reliefs and a remedy for the violation of his fundamental liberties under the Federal Constitution’s Article 13 and Article 8.

Halim had previously filed a separate lawsuit on April 17, 2013 filed against Nor Mohamed, the government and Khazanah, but said that his latest lawsuit filed last week is not based on the same issue involving contracts and is instead based on the different issue of alleged breach of constitutional rights.

As part of the 2013 lawsuit, Halim had claimed he had met with Dr Mahathir on April 23, 2010, where Dr Mahathir had allegedly said that Nor Mohamed had told him that Halim’s Renong shares were in fact purportedly owned by Umno and that there would therefore be no reason for the government to compensate Halim for the losses following Khazanah’s takeover.

In that 2013 lawsuit, Halim had also claimed that Dr Mahathir later arranged for him to meet with Nor Mohamed, where the latter allegedly told him that no further payments will be made to him.

The 2013 lawsuit by Halim was based on breach of an alleged agreement between Dr Mahathir and him in 2001. The High Court on October 31, 2013 allowed the applications by the three sued to have Halim’s lawsuit struck out by ruling that his claim was time-barred as at November 12, 2008, and the Court of Appeal in August 2014 dismissed his appeals to reinstate the lawsuit while the Federal Court in July 2015 also rejected his application for leave for his bid to revive the lawsuit.