Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (June 18): 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) said that the US$150 million (RM562 million) loan granted the Export-Import Bank of Malaysia (Exim Bank) were utilised to finance the general corporate purposes, future capital expenditure and equity infusion of the energy business within its group of companies.

In a statement today, 1MDB president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy said that the loan proceeds were utilised according to the terms of the loan agreement.

“Which is to ‘finance the general corporate purposes including but not limited to the working capital requirements, future capital expenditures and equity infusion of the energy business within the 1MDB Group of Companies’,” he said.

“It is a well-known fact that the 1MDB Group includes Edra Energy, a leading international independent power producer, with a portfolio of 13 power and desalination plants in five countries,” said Arul, who has been summoned to appear before the Public Accounts Committee for the probe into 1MDB.

Both Exim Bank and 1MDB are wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance.

Arul Kanda said that in response to media reports that Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong told the Parliament that 1MDB had used the loan from Exim Bank to buy land on Pulau Indah.

However, Datuk Ahmad Maslan, who is also the Deputy Finance Minister, denied that his colleague Chua had said 1MDB had utilised the particular loan for land purchase. Ahmad stressed that the loan was for maintenance and upgrading of the company's energy assets overseas.

In response to Chua’s earlier remark that Exim Bank’s loan was used for land buy, DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua commented that this was tantamount to an abuse of power as the bank is not mandated to provide loans for domestic property purchases.

 

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