KUALA LUMPUR (May 7): SRC International Sdn Bhd director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and 1Malaysia Development Bhd executive director of finance Terence Geh were reluctant to discuss SRC's investment overseas during face-to-face discussions with Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) officers, the High Court was told today.

The topic arose when defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh cross-examined the 30th prosecution witness Amirul Imran Ahmat (pictured), who was the civil servant retirement fund's former assistant vice-president (Fixed Income Department), about whether Nik Faisal and Geh appeared confident and optimistic while presenting SRC's investment plan to KWAP.

On the contrary, the witness told the court that whenever Nik Faisal and Geh met with KWAP officials, they tried not to discuss SRC's investment extensively, which was funded by RM4 billion financing facilities from KWAP.

Amirul also said on paper, SRC's investment presentation seemed "superficially" good.

Nonetheless, the witness said the documents shared by SRC for its loan application from KWAP were incomplete, and what was available could not justify the financing they requested.

Harvinderjit also asked Amirul whether the interest or profit rate fixed for both of the RM2 billion financing KWAP provided to SRC was higher or lower than the market prevailing rate at the time of approval.

Amirul said the rates were above market rate for financing facilities that were guaranteed by the government.

For the first RM2 billion financing, KWAP charged SRC 4.65% per annum for the first three years, equivalent to Malaysia Government Securities (MGS) plus 100 basis points (bps), and MGS plus 70 bps per annum for the remaining period of the 10-year loan.

For the second RM2 billion financing, although SRC tried to negotiate a term of MGS plus 85 bps per annum for the first three years, and MGS plus 65 bps per annum for the remaining seven-year period, KWAP had decided to stick to the rate determined in the first financing.

Amirul told Harvinderjit that the government guarantee from Putrajaya was the only selling point in SRC's loan application to KWAP.

Harvinderjit also asked whether the witness agreed that based on the evidence presented, while the Ministry of Finance Inc concurred that SRC should obtain a further RM2 billion financing from KWAP, it did not direct KWAP to provide the financing to SRC.

Amirul agreed to the statement.

Harvinderjit also asked Amirul whether the latter witnessed Najib signing and endorsing the letter requesting further financing from KWAP.

Amirul agreed that he did not witness Najib signing and endorsing the letter, but he recognised the signature on the letter as Najib's.