2006
Oct: Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, then a mere 26-year-old, attempted to lobby support for Kuwait Finance House’s bid for RHB Bank Bhd, which was put up for sale by Utama Banking Group Bhd (UBG), but did not succeed. UBG was controlled by the family of then Sarawak chief minister Taib Mahmud.
2007
March: EPF offered to buy RHB Capital Bhd/RHB Bank from UBG for RM2.25 billion and completed the acquisition a few months later. UBG ended up with a hefty cash pile.
Aug: Swan Symphony Sdn Bhd (owned by Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Corp [ADKMIC]) bought a 49% stake in Putrajaya Perdana Bhd from E&O Bhd for RM199 million. Jho Low has a 10% stake in ADKMIC and Seychelles-incorporated bearer share companies own 42%.
Nov: Binary Bestari Sdn Bhd (also owned by ADKMIC) bought a 45.6% stake in Loh & Loh Corp Bhd from Vistal Achievement Sdn Bhd for RM111.5 million.
2008
Jan 31: UBG bought 49% in Putrajaya Perdana from Swan for RM332 million cash and 37.6% in Loh & Loh from Binary for RM124 million cash. UBG also sold 183 million of its own shares to Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd (which is owned by Jho Low) for RM456.6 million cash.
May 23: UBG subscribed for a 51% stake in Unity Capital International (Cayman) Ltd, an asset management company, under which UBG later placed RM350 million to manage. (In 2011, UBG wrote off RM280 million of the money placed with Unity.)
July 18: Majestic launched a general offer (GO) for UBG, which eventually failed. UBG also offered to buy the remaining shares in Putrajaya Perdana for RM343 million and remaining shares in Loh & Loh for RM205 million but failed.
Sept 19: Jho Low and his associate Tan Vern Tact join the board of UBG.
2009
Aug 27: Tarek Obaid introduced Jho Low to Patrick Mahony, head of M&A at PetroSaudi International Ltd (PSI). Tarek owns PSI with Prince Turki – the son of the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. PSI is not a government-owned entity.
Sept 7: Jho Low met Mahony in New York with Seet Li Lin and Tiffany Heah.
Sept 11: Mahony emailed a four-page note to Jho Low, Seet and Heah to summarise their discussions on how 1MDB and PetroSaudi can work together.
Sept 15: Seet sent a five-page note to Jho Low, Heah, Tarek and Mahony on the JV structure and timeline.
Sept 18: Jho Low introduced 1MDB CEO Shahrol Halmi to Tarek and Mahony. Told them JV must be signed by Sept 28.
Sept 18: PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) set up 1MDB PetroSaudi Ltd (BVI), which would be the JV company.
Sept 20: Shahrol asked Mahony for a list of assets valued at US$1.5 billion that PSI would be injecting into the JV and was told it was not ready.
Sept 22: Mahony received a draft of the JV agreement (commented by Jho Low) from Heah and forwarded it to PSI’s lawyers.
Sept 25: PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) signed an agreement to “lend” US$700 million to 1MDB PetroSaudi — three days before the JV was signed.
Sept 28: JV agreement signed between 1MDB and PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman).
Sept 29: PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) writes to 1MDB PetroSaudi demanding payment of the fake US$700 million loan.
Sept 29: 1MDB remitted cash via Deutsche Bank Malaysia in two tranches of US$300 million and US$700 million for the JV.
Oct 2: Deutsche Bank Malaysia informed 1MDB it must reveal the beneficial owner of account 11116073 at RBS Coutts Zurich before the US$700 million is allowed to be credited. Shahrol replied that the beneficial owner was Good Star Ltd (Seychelles) – a company controlled by Jho Low.
Dec 1: 1MDB executive director Casey Tang via email introduced Mahony to Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil who had just joined 1MDB as chief investment officer from UBG. Tang said Nik Faisal would liaise with Mahony on all matters related to budget and funds for 1MDB PetroSaudi . Mahony was CEO of 1MDB PetroSaudi.
Dec 17: Mahony sent an email to Nik Faisal saying that they were short of US$120 million to do certain things, including a plan to take over UBG and said Jho Low agreed that they must find ways to get more cash from 1MDB over and above the US$1.0 billion it had already invested.
2010
Jan 8: PetroSaudi International Ltd (Seychelles) (PSI Seychelles) announced that it would buy a stake in UBG from several shareholders, including Majestic Masterpiece and said it also intended to take over Loh & Loh and Putrajaya Perdana.
PSI Seychelles appeared to be part of PetroSaudi Group in name but was actually a bearer share company that was fronted by Tarek Obaid for Good Star Ltd (Seychelles), which was controlled by Jho Low. A bearer share company is one in which the owner is the person who is actually in physical possession of the share certificate.
March 31: 1MDB called off its JV with PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman), which became the 100% owner of 1MDB PetroSaudi — the JV company. Instead of getting its US$1.0 billion cash back, 1MDB agreed to lend the money to 1MDB PetroSaudi in the form of Murabahah notes.
July: 1MDB agreed to subscribe for an extra US$500 million Murabahah notes issued by 1MDB PetroSaudi.
SepT 6: 1MDB received Bank Negara Malaysia approval to remit US$500 million.
Sept 14: 1MDB, via AmBank, remitted US$500 million to 1MDB PetroSaudi’s account (7619400) at JP Morgan Suisse in Switzerland.
Sept 15: From the US$500 million, US$300 million was sent to the personal account (7573800) of Tarek Obaid, also at JP Morgan Suisse. From there, US$260 million was moved to Javace Sdn Bhd’s account (0012012032628) at the AmBank branch at Menara Dion in Kuala Lumpur. (Javace was the vehicle to be used by Jho Low to make a general offer for UBG shares.) Tarek also transferred US$100 million each to two other companies he owned – PetroSaudi International (Cayman) and PetroSaudi Holdings (Cayman) – while the remaining US$40 million remained in his personal account.
Sept 29: PSI Seychelles via Javace made GO offer for UBG for a total of RM1.4 billion or RM2.50 a share. Javace raised RM700 million via a syndicated term loan from AmBank(M) Bhd and OCBC Bank (M) Bhd while the rest came from the US$260 million that originated from 1MDB.
Dec 17: Javace completed the takeover of UBG. Taib Mahmud’s family received RM465 million for selling their stake.
Dec 21: Loh & Loh and Putrajaya Perdana delisted from Bursa Malaysia.
2011
Jan 17: UBG delisted from Bursa Malaysia.
2012
Sept 13: UBG sold Putrajaya Perdana to Cendana Destini Sdn Bhd and Loh & Loh to Selesa Produktif Sdn Bhd for RM240 million and RM260 million respectively.
2014
April 1: Putrajaya Perdana bought a 37.5% stake in Iskandar (Holdings) Co Ltd for RM240 million cash. Iskandar (Holdings) is a consortium of Middle Eastern investors plus Jho Low (via Butumba), who then sold his stake to Unity Capital, in which UBG placed RM350 million to be invested.
May/August: With all the assets sold and money distributed, Jho Low wound down UBG and Javace while 1MDB was stuck with the so-called Murabahah notes valued at US$2.2 billion. The notes were first parked in Cayman, then half of them were transferred to 1MDB’s account at Swiss private bank BSI in Singapore.
Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.
P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.