A United States-based church is suing the management of a top Hong Kong school it co-founded in 1966 for allegedly breaching an operational agreement, accusing the institution of serving only the “rich and privileged few” and amassing excessive financial reserves.

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), which is the registered owner of the Hong Kong International School’s (HKIS) campus in Repulse Bay, told the institution to rectify its numerous breaches or face eviction from the property and another campus.

But the school’s operator, Hong Kong International School Association Limited (HKISAL), has rejected the allegations, dismissing them as “unfounded and disingenuous”.

On Wednesday, the church said that if the school management, which it accused of accumulating reserves of more than HK$2.8 billion (US$359 million), failed to comply with its demands, it would create a new private primary institution.

It said it would welcome the current students and staff to join the new institution it would set up. To be called the Hong Kong Pacific School, it would charge lower fees with no debentures required for priority admission.

Christian Preus, chairman of the synod’s board of directors, said in an exclusive interview with the Post on Wednesday: “[The litigation] is an absolute last resort. We do not want to do this.

“At the same time, this is our school. We did found it. It’s drifted so far apart that it’s not fulfilling the promises we made when we started the school; we can’t just walk away from that and abandon our promises.”