KUALA LUMPUR (July 20): Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd's wholly-owned unit Puncak Niaga Construction Sdn Bhd (PNCSB) has denied claims by former subcontractor Genbina Sdn Bhd over the termination of service, and in turn served three notices of arbitration to Genbina seeking the recovery of loss and damage suffered.

Recall that PNCSB had been served with two separate notices of arbitration from Genbina previously, in which it sought a payment of RM143.87 million, together with damages, interests, costs and other such relief as the arbitrator deemed fit, from PNCSB.

Genbina was awarded the contract to work on the sewerage pipe network project in the Bunus catchment area here on Feb 14, 2014, but was terminated by PNCSB last month due to "various breaches of contract under the LoA (Letter of Award) and slow progress at the work site despite several notices given".

In a bourse filing today, Puncak Niaga said PNCSB had issued three separate notices of arbitration dated July 18 to Genbina to refer the disputes or differences arising from the contract termination to arbitration.

In the notices, PNCSB said it is seeking to recover loss and damage suffered due to Genbina's breaches under the contract, as well as Genbina's failure to return machineries and equipment belonging to PNCSB.

PNCSB also said it has suffered loss and damage due to Genbina's failure to pay foreign workers' salaries and to bear all direct and incidental costs for their repatriation, among others.

Puncak Niaga rose 2 sen or 1.79% to close at RM1.14 for a market capitalisation of RM509.86 million.