KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 20): Sapura Holdings Sdn Bhd (SHSB) group chief executive officer Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin, via his lawyers, is seeking to introduce a fresh set of documents, which he claims will reveal the true motives of his brother, SHSB director Datuk Shahriman Shamsuddin, in petitioning to dissolve the family’s oil and gas flagship entity.

Shahril’s lawyer S Rabindra told the High Court on Wednesday that the documents were found in the email account of a defendant in a separate lawsuit involving Sapura Resources Bhd (SRB) (KL:SAPRES), where petitioner Shahriman is also a party.

“Those documents relate to matters pertaining to this petition, including in relation to events that form the basis of the petition, such as the request for documents, and what was the tactical thinking behind it, as well as a number of other documents, which we say will show what the petitioner’s (Shahriman’s) true intentions were,” Rabindra said.

He said the papers touched on the request for company documents, discussions around the appointment of audit firm Ernst and Young, and the separation scheme — all of which are central to Shahriman’s ongoing cross-examination by Rabindra.

“I cannot stress how important these documents are in relation to the petition itself.

“It was a very fortuitous and accidental discovery of documents that actually belonged to somebody else, but Shahriman was party to all the proceedings,” the lawyer added, noting that the material showed the winding-up plan by Shahriman had been in motion long before the petition was filed.

Shahriman’s lawyer, Gopal Sreenevasan, strenuously objected to the delay in proceedings, asking the court to allow the cross-examination of Shahriman to continue, and to deal with the application simultaneously. He stressed that this case has been ongoing for 14 days now.

But High Court judge Leong Wai Hong disagreed, ruling that the application had to be heard first. The matter will now return to court on Sept 26, where the judge will also hear another related bid to admit documents from the other SRB lawsuit.

That suit, filed in April, saw SRB accusing Shahriman — its former managing director — of breaching fiduciary, statutory, common law, equitable and contractual duties, and seeks RM3.22 million in damages. Former employees and consultants Syed Haroon Omar Alshatrie and Syed Muhammad Hasan Alsagoff, along with Explorer Group Sdn Bhd, had also been named defendants.

Brothers Shahril and Shahriman each hold 48% of SHSB, with businessman Datuk Rameli Musa controlling the remaining 4%. SHSB is the parent of more than 40 subsidiaries, with assets worth RM832 million, including the publicly-listed SRB.

In his petition, Shahriman alleged an irreparable breakdown in trust with Shahril, particularly over a venture known as Project Apex, and argued that SHSB should be wound up.

The respondents — Shahril and Rameli — are opposing the petition, insisting that SHSB was never conceived as a family vehicle, and that dissolving it would be neither just nor equitable.