KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 8): Tropicana Corp Bhd is seeking to repossess the premises it had leased to Lasallian Asia Partnership for International Schools Pte Ltd (LAPIS) to operate the St Joseph's Institution International School Malaysia, to recover nine months' worth of rental arrears that now amounted to more than RM10 million.

In a statement, Tropicana said its subsidiary Tropicana Education Management Sdn Bhd leased the premises to LAPIS to operate the school, but "after years of continuous follow-ups and countless notices and reminders, substantial amounts of rental continue to be in arrears, with no indication from the operator on any payment plans".

Tropicana group chief executive officer Lee Han Ming said the group’s vision is to build a strong and sustainable learning centre and that the group hopes both parties could settle the matter amicably.

“It is our long-standing commitment to build a quality neighbourhood where our community can live, learn, work, play and prosper. Unfortunately, even after countless attempts and repeated reminders, we are disappointed with how LAPIS has handled this matter.

“As a corporation, we take things seriously and we owe it to our shareholders to collect rental investment income. Our team as well as our lawyers have tried reaching out to them for many months to resolve this but to no avail. It is disheartening that we have to repossess the premises,” he said.

Tropicana shares slipped one sen or 0.98% to close at RM1.01, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM1.49 billion.