The temporary stay order was granted by judge Ahmad Murad Abdul Aziz pending the hearing of the companies’ permanent stay application next month.

“The court does not think that the creditors would be prejudiced much with this ad-interim stay order, which would last approximately three weeks,” said Murad.

On Jan 10, the High Court granted a petition by six financial institutions to wind up SDHB and its three units over debts totalling about RM5 billion. The winding-up order against the four companies was granted by Murad.

The petition was said to be filed by Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd, HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd, AmBank Islamic Bhd, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd, United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, and Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd.

Upon being wound up, the companies will be placed under a liquidator from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

Murad said he would hear the permanent stay application of the four companies on March 6, followed by a decision on March 9, according to a report in The Edge.

Besides SDHB, the other companies that applied for the ad-interim stay were Serba Dinamik International Ltd, Serba Dinamik Sdn Bhd and Serba Dinamik Group Bhd.

They sought the ad-interim stay before the hearing of the permanent stay of the winding-up order pending the four companies’ appeal to the Court of Appeal.

In their supporting affidavit, Serba Dinamik and the subsidiaries said the winding-up order should be deferred, pending the disposal of the appeal to the Court of Appeal and the appeal against their application to seek an adjournment of the winding-up hearing.

They said if a stay of the winding-up order is not granted, the four companies will suffer “irreparable damage”, which would see their contracts being terminated upon winding up, which they claimed is irrecoverable.

“The applicants’ appeal would be rendered academic, given that there is no business left for the applicants,” the affidavit said.