KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 14): Samaiden Group Bhd's wholly owned subsidiary Samaiden Sdn Bhd (SSB) has received two notices of arbitration from Ditrolic Sdn Bhd concerning claims for two work packages worth a combined RM12.21 million.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, the Ace Market-listed company said SSB had been appointed as a subcontractor for the work packages, which were part of a 100 megawatt alternating current large scale solar photovoltaic plant project in Kerian, Perak.

SSB had issued four adjudication claims for the packages against Ditrolic. The adjudicator decided that Ditrolic was to pay RM2.68 million in respect of the first work package (WP3) and RM1.46 million for the second work package (WP4) to SSB.

The second adjudication for both work packages is currently ongoing.

"... the adjudicated sums have not been received by SSB from Ditrolic subsequent to the adjudication decision. SSB had subsequently issued the necessary notices pursuant to CIPAA [the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012] on Jan 5, 2023 for WP3, Jan 13, 2023 and Jan 16, 2023 for WP4, to both Ditrolic and the project owner, i.e. Kerian Solar Sdn Bhd for direct payment of both adjudicated sums to be made by the project owner to SSB within 14 days. However, to date, no payment has been received by SSB from either Ditrolic or the project owner," said Samaiden.

On Feb 8, SSB received notices of arbitration from Ditrolic concerning the disputes, with estimated claims of RM8.12 million and RM4.09 million for the work packages.

"In that regard, SSB was requested to propose its nominated arbitrator within 30 days from the notices of arbitration.

"It is advised by its solicitors that Samaiden has a good chance to resist the arbitrations commenced by Ditrolic. Having considered the claims put forth by Ditrolic and based on the advice of the solicitors, the board is of the view that there are good grounds to defend the claims and to further pursue a counterclaim against Ditrolic in the arbitration proceedings.

"Based on the above, the board is of the view that the arbitrations are not expected to have any material financial or operational impact on the company. Hence, the company does not expect to incur any losses arising from the commencement of the arbitration proceedings other than legal cost and the associated costs," it said.

At the time of writing, Samaiden traded unchanged at 86.5 sen, for a market capitalisation of RM331.07 million.