Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has finally filed its much-delayed accounts for financial year ended March 31, 2013 (FY13), which saw the government’s strategic investment unit’s net profit surging more than 17-fold while total debts soared by five times to RM42.28 billion.

The summary of financial information filed with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) yesterday showed that 1MDB posted a 1,640% increase in net profit for FY13 to RM778.24 million from RM44.72 million the previous year.

Revenue for FY13 also surged 309% to RM2.59 billion from RM633.17 million the previous year.

1MDB, which was set up in 2009 and chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, also had accumulated debts of RM42.28 billion as at March 31, 2013, up 405% from RM8.38 billion
a year ago, within five years.

Its total equity doubled to RM2.38 billion from RM1.16 billion. This took its gearing ratio (debt to equity) to 17.74 times as at March 31, 2013 from 7.24 times a year ago.

However, no reason was given for the financial results in the summary.

The summary also revealed that 1MDB had total assets of RM44.66 billion as at March 31, 2013, compared with RM9.53 billion the year before.

The return on equity stood at 32.65%, from just 3.86% in FY12.

1MDB had reportedly filed its accounts on April 9, just over a week past its extended deadline.

It was supposed to have filed its accounts with SSM on Sept 30 last year, but was given a six-month extension by the regulatory body. 1MDB had said it was granted an extension of time to finalise its FY13 accounts because it wanted to consolidate several new subsidiaries with large assets worldwide.

In February this year, it was reported that Deloitte had been appointed as auditors for 1MDB, taking over from KPMG.

The sovereign wealth fund has been dogged by negative publicity including its acquisition of power generation assets. Others have also questioned the large amount of debt papers issued, in excess of RM30 billion and some with extraordinarily high coupon rates.

Last month, 1MDB was awarded an RM11 billion contract to build a 2,000-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant known as Project 3B, despite its bid being higher than a consortium made up of YTL Power International Bhd and SIPP Energy Sdn Bhd.

More recently, it secured the contract to build a 50MW solar plant in Kedah through a direct tender from the government.

1MDB also owns 70 acres of prime land in Jalan Tun Razak here for its flagship Tun Razak Exchange and 495 acres of the current air force base in Sungai Besi to be developed into Bandar Malaysia.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 17, 2014.


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