P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
2 May 2017

A QUESTION OF BUSINESS Desperation causes stupidity to rise to the fore.

Take 1MDB and the way it spins its so-called settlement with Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), the parent company of Aabar Investments PJS. There was a dispute and it was settled, but there was no renegotiation. 1MDB capitulated to all IPIC demands.

But this has been spun to give the false impression that all matters have been settled between the two. Ministers rushed to make statements about how the eventual settlement will be in favour of 1MDB and how it indicates that no money went into Najib Abdul Razak’s accounts. Read the rest of this entry »

Wed May 3, 2017
Reuters

A $1.7 billion property deal that was expected to ease the debt burden of Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fell through on Wednesday, complicating Prime Minister Najib Razak’s efforts to move on from a financial scandal surrounding the fund.

TRX City Sdn Berhad, a former 1MDB division now owned by the Malaysian finance ministry, said the deal had lapsed to sell 60 percent of Bandar Malaysia, a major property development project on the site of the former Sungai Besi air force base in Kuala Lumpur, because the buyers “failed to meet the payment obligations”.

In December 2015 Iskandar Waterfront Holdings, owned by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kang Hoo, and China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) had said they would buy a 60 percent stake in Bandar Malaysia from 1MDB for 7.41 billion ringgit ($1.7 billion). Read the rest of this entry »