KUALA LUMPUR (April 28): Alam Maritim Resources Bhd (KL:ALAM) announced that a client has dropped its lawsuit challenging a RM52.79 million adjudication award previously granted to the oil and gas services company, as well as withdrawn its related arbitration.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Monday, Alam Maritim said the client, Vestigo Petroleum Sdn Bhd, had on April 17 filed a notice of discontinuance for the two civil lawsuits it filed to stay (halt) and set aside the adjudication award. Vestigo has also written to the Asian International Arbitration Centre to withdraw its notice of arbitration dated Dec 15, 2022.

At the same time, Alam Maritim said its wholly owned Alam Maritim (M) Sdn Bhd (AMSB) has withdrawn the civil suit it initiated to enforce the adjudication award against Vestigo.

All the lawsuits were withdrawn without options to refile.

The adjudication decision, issued in December 2022, had ordered Vestigo to pay AMSB US$11.94 million (RM52.13 million) along with RM679,722 for changed orders and approved outstanding invoices.

This award stemmed from unpaid work and services provided by AMSB to Vestigo under an engineering, procurement, installation, and pre-commissioning contract dated March 2019 for the Tembikai gas development project.

Following the adjudication decision, Vestigo initiated arbitration and filed civil suits to halt and overturn the award, all of which it has now withdrawn.

“With the filing of the aforesaid withdrawal and notice of discontinuance, the company is pleased to announce that there will no longer be any legal proceedings or material litigation pending between AMSB and Vestigo,” Alam Maritim said.

No reason was given for the withdrawal of legal actions between them.

In a separate filing, Alam Maritim also announced that it has been sued by Sage 3 Sdn Bhd for RM3.5 million regarding an alleged termination of advisory services.

Sage 3 is claiming the RM3.5 million as abortive fee, as it claimed that Alam Maritim had terminated advisory services provided by them.

“The company denies the claim in its entirety and has appointed legal counsel to represent it in the proceedings. The company has been advised that it has more than an even chance of success in defending the claim on the grounds that the plaintiff’s (Sage 3) claim is without merit, and that the plaintiff is not entitled to the abortive fee as claimed or at all,” the company added.

Shares in Alam Maritim closed down by half a sen or 16.67% at 2.5 sen, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM38.3 million.