News

1.         COMMENCEMENT OF MATERIAL LITIGATION

             QLR wishes to announce that on 1 December 2021, its subsidiaries, PMI and QLM, as well as Chia Seong Fatt (a director of QLR) in his capacity as a director of PMI and QLM,
             have commenced legal action in the High Court of the Republic of Singapore against the Defendants.

2.         BRIEF BACKGROUND OF THE PARTIES TO THE LAWSUIT

            QLM is the joint venture company between QL Oil Sdn. Bhd. (“QL Oil”), a wholly owned subsidiary of QLR, and Hang Ting Pte. Ltd. (“Hang Ting”) pursuant to the Master Joint 
            Venture Agreement dated 16 August 2006 (“MJVA”) executed between QLO, Hang Ting and PCP. PMI is the operating plantation company which is 95% held by QLM, whereas
            the remaining 5% shareholdings in PMI is held by PCP. QLO has an effective interest of 74.5% in PMI whereas Hang Ting and PCP collectively have an effective interest of
            25.5% in PMI. PCP and Hang Ting are affiliated companies owned by the family of Kris, and Juliet is the spouse of Kris.

3.         PARTICULARS OF THE LAWSUIT

            The grounds of complaints by the Plaintiffs are, amongst others, as follows:

           1.  in breach of the arbitration agreement contained in Clause 9 of the MJVA, PCP commenced and maintained the legal proceedings in Indonesia against the Plaintiffs in the Tarakan District Court under Case Number 31/Pdt.G/2021/PN.Tar (the "Indonesian Proceedings", the particulars of which are as per the Company’s announcement on 16 August 2021) against the Plaintiffs. The claims in the Indonesian Proceedings were disputes and differences which arise out of or in connection with the MJVA;

           2.  as a director of QLM, Juliet has breached her fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of QLM, inter alia, by causing PCP to commence and maintain the Indonesian Proceedings against, inter alia, QLM. Juliet has also acted in bad faith and against the interests of QLM by deliberately, willfully, recklessly and/or negligently failing, refusing and/or neglecting to do all that is necessary to approve QLM’s audited financial statements for FYE 31 March 2012 to FYE 31 March 2021;

           3.  the Defendants (or any two of them) wrongfully and with the intent to injure and/or cause loss to PMI, Chia and/or QLM by unlawful and/or lawful means, conspired and combined together to damage or destroy the financial and/or business interests of PMI, Chia and/or QLM.

           The Plaintiffs sought, amongst others, the following:

           a.  declaration that the 1st Defendant had breached its obligations under Clause 9 of the MJVA by commencing, continuing and/or maintaining the Indonesian Proceedings against the Plaintiffs;

           b.  an order restraining the 1st Defendant from continuing and/or maintaining the Indonesian Proceedings or commencing any further or other proceedings in Indonesia or elsewhere in respect of matters arising out of or in connection with the MJVA;

          c.  damages and/or equitable compensation to be assessed against the 2nd Defendant;

          d.  damages to be assessed against the Defendants;

          e.  interest;

          f.  costs; and

          g.  such further and/or other relief as the court deems fit.

4.         FINANCIAL IMPACT ON THE COMPANY

            Apart from the potential damages to be assessed and costs which may be awarded against the Defendants and the corresponding legal costs on the part of QLM and PMI, the legal action is not expected to have any other material financial impact on the Company for the financial year ending 31 March 2022.

           The legal action is not expected to have any business and operational impacts on the Company.

5.         STEPS TAKEN AND/OR PROPOSED TO BE TAKEN IN RESPECT OF THE SUIT

            The Company will make further announcement as and when there are material developments on the above matter.

This announcement is dated 1 December 2021.