By Malaysiakini
Ahmad Maslan
State-owned investment arm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)’s controversial RM7.18 billion investment with a fund manager in Cayman Islands is being pulled back progressively with returns, said Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan today.
He said that 60% of the funds has been brought back and the remaining 40% will be brought back before the end of the year.
“The returns as of the end of 2013 for this investment was at about 6% to 7%,” he said.
The government also denied ever issuing a support letter to guarantee a RM9.6 billion borrowing by 1MDB on top of the RM5.8 billion that was explicitly guaranteed before.
“There are no support letters as alleged. We maintain that only RM5.8 billion is explicitly guaranteed. The rest of the debts are the responsibility of the company itself and not the government,” he said.
He also maintained that 1MDB did not make any third party payments or overpay Goldman Sachs for two fundraising exercises in 2012 and 2013, for which 1MDB paid Goldman Sachs around 10 percent in fees, way above the market rate.
“It has been made clear that there are no third party payments,” he said.
Responding to a raft of allegations against the state-owned arm, Ahmad Maslan also defended the purchase of 234 acres of land Penang by 1MDB to develop low cost housing, saying that the land was brought “according to market rates”.
Despite debts totalling RM32.65 billion, Ahmad Maslan said that 1MDB has assets totalling RM44 billion in comparison.
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