JUDGMENT

Abdul Wahab Said J:

The plaintiff sought a declaration that the Term Loan Facility of 26 December 1996 and the Security Documents are void and illegal. The plaintiff also sought to restrain the defendants from exercising any rights thereunder, including the appointment of a Receiver and Manager pursuant to the Debenture dated 20 February 1997. The defendants appealed against the decision of the SAR on 17 April 2000, dismissing the 1st and 2nd defendant's application to strike out the plaintiff's amended statement of claim with costs.

Factual Matrix

The 1st defendant is a licenced offshore bank in Labuan, wholly owned by Citibank N.A., U.S.A. The 2nd defendant is incorporated in Malaysia and a wholly owned subsidiary of Citibank N.A. In September 1993, the Kuala Lumpur Branch of Citibank N.A. agreed to arrange USD15 million to be secured by a Standby Letter of Credit given by the Hong Kong Branch of Citibank N.A.

The 'in principle' approval of Bank Negara Malaysia (controller of Foreign Exchange) was obtained on 23 November 1993 for an offshore loan from a financial institution based in Labuan. Public Bank (L) Ltd. made the USD15 million term loan available to the plaintiff. Eve