By Malaysiakini
Ananda Krishnan
1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has dismissed billionaire Ananda Krishnan’s supposed RM2 billion aid to the company to help pay off its overdue debt as mere “speculation”.
“To be honest, Ananda himself had never said anything about this. This is a speculation started by third parties,” said the company’s group chief executive officer Arul Kanda in an interview published in Mingguan Malaysia today.
He added that if Ananda was involved in settling such a large sum of debt to CIMB and Maybank on behalf of 1MDB, there would have been an announcement.
“Just think about it. RM2 billion is a large amount and it is supposed to involve CIMB and Maybank, but why did they not make any official announcement about this?” he was quoted as saying.
Jho Low
On Friday, 1MDB finally managed to settle its RM2 billion debt after three extensions.
It has been widely reported that Ananda was being roped in to help settle the debt after 1MDB failed to meet the initial deadlines.
‘No connection to Jho Low’
In the interview, Arul also denied that controversial billionaire Jho Low had any connections to 1MDB.
He also dismissed statements linking him to the Low family, stating that he had only come across the businessman in Kuala Lumpur like he did with many others in the business world.
Arul said he did contemplate legal action to counter such allegations but stressed he would prefer to focus on steering 1MDB back on track.
Arul Kanda
He added that 1MDB will be considering “tough decisions” to help the troubled company recover.
“Among them include disposing of assets, cancelling projects, speeding up projects or putting more equity into certain projects to ensure it can move faster,” he was quoted as saying.
However, Arul declined to go into specifics, including confirming or denying reports whether 1MDB will withdraw from the construction of Project 3B, a coal-fired power plant in Negri Sembilan.
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