Laguna club owner ordered to pay $1.56m to NSL Resorts

PROMINENT car and property player Peter Kwee has been ordered to pay about $1.56 million to NSL Resorts International, in a High Court judgment handed down yesterday.

Mr Kwee last week agreed to settle a dispute with NSL over debts he inherited when he bought the club, but was taken to court when he failed to pay. — BT FILE PHOTO

The ruling followed a long-running dispute between Mr Kwee, 62, and NSL Resorts which centred on the Laguna National Golf and Country Club, which has more than 3,000 members.

He bought the Tampines club in 2001 by taking over a total of $10 million in debt owed in different amounts to five shareholders – NSL Resorts, CapitaLand Marketing & Property Services, SLI Holdings, LN Golf Holding and Taiyo.

He agreed to repay the debts when he signed the deal in August 2001, but was later taken to the High Court by his creditors when he defaulted on payments.

Six years later, they dropped their suits after Mr Kwee agreed to pay about $8.8 million in instalments of varying amounts to creditors.

But three creditors – NSL Resorts, JTC Corporation-linked SLI and LN Golf – went to court again after Mr Kwee withheld the last two instalments. He claimed he was entitled to do this to offset tax liabilities faced by Laguna before he took over.

According to court documents, he claimed he had been misled, and such a cost would have affected the value of his shares.

The pact on the debt repayment was not enforceable, he argued.

The high-profile businessman held back the last two payments, due in October and December last year and worth about $3.07 million, to cover
the cost of any tax he had to pay.

He claimed there was an implicit understanding between the parties that he would be entitled to delay payout to provide for the potential tax bill.

But the plaintiffs’ lawyers refuted the claims and pointed to the terms of the settlement pact, which they said had been carefully thought through by both sides.

Mr Kwee had offered to settle with NSL, a unit of NatSteel, last Tuesday. The offer was accepted on Thursday, but when no payment had been received by Friday, NSL decided to seek judgment against Mr Kwee.

It is not clear why he did not pay up.  Yesterday, Justice Lee Seiu Kin ordered him to pay NSL.

In July, the High Court had ordered him to pay $313,548 to SLI and $627,093 to LN Golf.

Source : Straits Times – 15 Sep 2009