By KINIBIZ
1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has been granted approval in its bid to secure a six-month extension to submit its audited financial accounts to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM), after missing its submission deadline for the financial year ended March 31, 2015 on Sept 30.
Two of the subsidiaries under the strategic investment fund, Edra Global Energy and 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd are also reported to be seeking for a one-month extension to file their respective annual audited accounts, 1MDB’s president and executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy was quoted as telling The Edge Financial Daily.
Arul Kanda had attributed the cause of delay to the company not being in control of key documents, as the relevant documents were claimed to have been seized in a raid of its Kuala Lumpur offices by police on July 8.
The raid had come amid a probe by the police and a special task force formed to investigate the Wall Street Journal’s allegation of US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank account.
The special task force comprising Bank Negara Malaysia, the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have since been disbanded about a month later on August 5. Former Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, who was heading the investigations, has also seen himself replaced by his successor, Mohamed Apandi Ali at the height of the controversy.
Claiming that its auditor, Deloitte required original sets of documents to finalise the accounts of 1MDB, which were no longer in possession after the raids, Arul Kanda was quoted as saying that the delay in submission cannot be helped.
For its financial year ended March 31, 2014, 1MDB bled losses after tax of RM665.36 million, on the back of RM4.26 bil in revenue. Had it not been for a revaluation gain of RM896.8 mil on its property assets, the losses were expected to be worse.
Its long term borrowings has also increased by 27% in FY2014 to RM33.5 bil from the previous year. About 60% of the additional debt of RM7.2 bil had come in the form of various medium-term notes, Islamic bonds, and term loans.
As at end-March last year, 1MDB is reported to have cash and bank balances of RM3.8 bil, down 42% from RM6.7 bil a year ago.
Currently the subject of multiple investigations amid allegations of financial mismanagement and graft, 1MDB is seeking to pare down its debts which is reported to have ballooned to some RM41.9 billion since its formation in 2009.
One of its main assets, Edra Energy Global is involved in the lucrative business of power generation. It was most recently reported that 1MDB has fixed a deadline in November for four companies to submit their bids for several of its power assets in Egypt, Bangladesh and Malaysia, in an attempt to dispose more than US$2 billion worth of assets and cut debts.
It also has two tracts of land slated for property development, the Tun Razak Exchange in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and Bandar Malaysia, a mixed development on the site of the former Sungai Besi air base. In August, 1MDB has also sold a 1.2-acre tract of land at TRX to Affin Holdings Bhd for RM255 mil or RM4,699 per square feet.
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