PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court dismissed businessman Tan Sri Halim Saad’s application to obtain leave to appeal a Court of Appeal’s decision that rejected his bid to reinstate a lawsuit against the Malaysian government and two former ministers.
The suit arose from alleged losses Halim claimed to have suffered following the government’s 2001 acquisition of shares in Renong Bhd and United Engineers Malaysia Bhd (UEM).
A Federal Court three-man bench, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Hashim Hamzah, ruled that Halim had failed to fulfil the threshold requirement set out under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
He said the four questions posed by Halim did not raise novel issues nor involved questions of importance that warranted further argument, Bernama reported.
The panel ordered Halim to pay RM60,000 in legal costs to the respondents.
Halim filed the suit against the Malaysian government, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister II Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, seeking, among other reliefs, compensation for the forced takeover by the government between July and October 2001 and a declaration that he is a Renong shareholder.
Halim, who is the former executive chairman and director of Renong, claimed that he had intended to make a general offer to privatise UEM as a subsidiary of Renong, with the implementation enabling him to gain full control and ownership of UEM.
He claimed that he was instructed by Dr Mahathir and Nor Mohamed not to proceed with the general offer because the government wanted to take over all the shares in UEM through a designated entity, namely Khazanah Nasional Bhd or a party to be nominated by Khazanah.
Halim alleged that he was also instructed to leave UEM and Renong as a shareholder and director, including the subsidiaries of the two companies, thus obliging him to hand over control of Renong and UEM to the government and further dispose of his Renong shares at a loss.
He also claimed that Khazanah had acquired all of UEM’s shares through its subsidiary, Danasaham Sdn Bhd, thereby gaining control over UEM, which at the time owned 32.6% of Renong shares.
