Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Debt-laden state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has pledged to give its cooperation to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has begun a probe into 1MDB’s operations, declaring that it has nothing to hide.

1MDB chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said he had not seen any letter from the PAC requesting that he or other senior management present themselves for an inquiry by the parliamentary bi-partisan committee.

“If invited, I will attend,” he said, adding that he had not checked with 1MDB management if the PAC had sent a letter to him.

“I think they (the rest of the management) have to attend as well,” he told reporters after the launch of MyTown shopping centre in Jalan Cochrane here, a new development scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2016. Boustead is partnering Ikano Pte Ltd to open the 1.1 million sq ft mall which will also house Malaysia’s second Ikea store.

Lodin reiterated that 1MDB has nothing to hide. “As far as I am concerned [there is nothing to hide].”

However, Lodin declined to comment on questions raised on 1MDB’s RM3.6 billion loan payment due to a consortium of six international banks led by Deutsche Bank in September and the strategic investment fund’s money that is kept in BSI Bank in Singapore.

“I think you have to address that to Arul (1MDB chief executive officer [CEO] Arul Kanda Kandasamy),” he said.

He was asked about new claims yesterday by PKR that 1MDB had four months left before a deadline to service RM3.6 billion in loans from the six international banks.

The Malaysian Insider reported on Monday that the PAC would commence its investigation into 1MDB on May 19, without waiting for the outcome of the Auditor-General’s probe into the fund’s accounts.

The PAC on Monday also said it would call the Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah to give his statement, as well as the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) director-general Datuk Seri Dr Rahmat Bivi Abdullah.

“The PAC, in the following week, will also call Arul and his predecessor Datuk Shahrul Ibrahim Halmi, who served the company from March 2009 until March 2013,” PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said in a statement.

According to The Malaysian Insider, citing sources, Lodin and former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh will also be summoned, as well as Lembaga Tabung Haji’s group managing director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, who has been a member of 1MDB’s board since the company’s inception in 2009.

There are also plans to call Bank Negara Malaysia and the company’s auditors KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

Meanwhile, Lodin said Boustead Holdings Bhd is not looking at investing in 1MDB’s assets.

“We are not looking at anything [now],” said Lodin, who is also the deputy chairman and group managing director of Boustead, in which Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) holds a controlling stake of 57.92%.

However, Lodin, who is also the CEO of LTAT, did not rule out such possibilities in the future.

“If there is an opportunity, we are always looking for opportunity that we can make some good returns … we will consider. We are looking at the viability of it (the opportunity)” he said.

Lodin was also asked if Affin Holdings Bhd, of which he is deputy chairman, was planning to buy land at 1MDB’s Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project. However, he declined to answer, saying “please direct the question to the right person.”

Boustead divisional director of property division Datuk Ghazali Mohd Ali told The Edge Financial Daily on the sidelines of the event that Boustead is not going to invest in the TRX project here as the group has “enough land bank”.

“I’m going to say no, we have enough land bank in this area (Cochrane) to develop on our own,” Ghazali added.

The TRX project hogged the limelight when 1MDB sold one parcel of 1.56 acres (0.63ha) of land in TRX to Tabung Haji for RM188.5 million cash last week. Tabung Haji is reported to have decided to sell off the piece of land to Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) for between RM1 billion and RM1.2 billion for both the land and a 40-storey tower on the site. (See also story on pg 4.)

The land deal between 1MDB and Tabung Haji has raised the question of conflict of interest considering Ismee is also a director of 1MDB. Tan Sri Ahmad Samad Alias is a member of Tabung Haji’s investment panel and 1MDB’s advisory board. Also, Tabung Haji’s deputy group managing director and deputy CEO Datuk Johan Abdullah is also chairman of Edra Global Energy Bhd, a unit of 1MDB.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 13, 2015.

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