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Arul blames opposition again for 1MDB's poor image
Published:  Jan 15, 2016 10:00 AM
Updated: 9:50 AM

1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy continues to blame the opposition for negative market sentiments on the state fund, which he said has impacted the value of its assets.

"It's a factual matter. If you have a sales process going on and you are bogged down by negativity, it impacts market sentiment.

"All negative noises have reduced the pool of investors and naturally, that has impacted the prices that can be achieved," Arul Kanda said in a report by Singapore’s Channel News Asia (CNA) last night.

On Wednesday Arul blamed 1MDB’s woes on the opposition, telling the New Straits Times that 1MDB could have potentially got more for its assets disposals to cover its burgeoning debt, had the opposition not scared investors away.

"Arguably, we could have got better value for Edra Energy, Bandar Malaysia and the land in TRX and I would say yes, we would not have this problem if it had not been for the opposition which politicised this issue," Arul Kanda is quoted as saying.

The embattled 1MDB chief continued to attack the opposition, telling CNA that the opposition has "lost their arguments" and “have no more bullets left”.

"They are scraping the bottom of the barrel to justify their existence," he told the Singapore news channel.

'No cover up'

Arul Kanda claimed 1MDB is slowly regaining confidence from investors, despite the opposition's attacks.

This, he explained, was evident from the benchmark land sales in Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), the sale of Edra Global Energy Bhd as well as the 60 percent stake sale of Bandar Malaysia.

The RM2.5 billion surplus from the sale of Edra's power assets would be used to repay the Finance Ministry, he added, along with paying off 1MDB's short-term debts and service interest payments.

Arul Kanda also denied that he was involved in any cover-up of 1MDB's debts.

"There is no possibility of any cover-up. There is no concealing," he said.

1MDB has been investigated by several different agencies and even by a special task force since last year.

It is also being investigated internationally, allegedly even by the US Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

However, Arul Kanda said, he has not heard from any foreign investigators and denied that the US, UK, Switzerland and Hong Kong were also investigating the state fund.

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