PM fumes over bailout mockery, says RM1.1b for firm's vendors

Summary

• Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim emphasises that Putrajaya's RM1.1 billion funding to Sapura Energy is meant to help settle debts with vendors.

• Anwar laments how he will be criticised whether or not Putrajaya steps in to aid the company in the interest of bumiputera vendors.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has hit back at critics of the government's RM1.1 billion cash injection into debt-ridden Sapura Energy Bhd.

Stressing that the funding is to be exclusively used to repay vendors, Anwar lamented that he would have been lambasted whether Putrajaya had stepped in with its assistance or not.

"Out of the approximately 2,000 vendors, 80 percent of them are bumiputera who had contributed (to Sapura Energy). How can they (the vendors) be punished?" he questioned.

"If I don't help them, they (critics) will say Anwar is a traitor (who) no longer champions the fate of bumiputera, he's just a mouthpiece for DAP.

"When we help, they say we're just helping the company, (but) I'm not saving rich tauke (tycoons), (as) every sen of the funding will go to vendors who worked, but have not been paid," Anwar said during his monthly assembly with Finance Ministry staffers in Putrajaya today.

READ MORE: Sapura Energy top management to get the boot - Anwar

Anwar also accused his critics of spreading lies in the holy month of Ramadan, claiming that they lacked knowledge and refused to search for facts.

The prime minister, who is also the finance minister, admitted that while the government is aware of issues plaguing Sapura Energy, it considered against punishing the vendors as they were not in the wrong.

“The funds are not being injected into the company per se, but to the vendors,” he said.

Local operators at risk

Anwar added that there would be drawbacks if the government were to turn a blind eye to Sapura Energy’s plight as the company’s bankruptcy could mean turning to foreign players.

“If (Sapura Energy) were to close, there would be no (local) company to operate in the downstream sector - it would all be foreign companies,” he pointed out.

In a Bursa filing on Tuesday, Sapura Energy announced it had received an RM1.1 billion investment from Malaysia Development Holding Sdn Bhd (MDH) - a special purpose vehicle under the Minister of Finance (Incorporated).

Sapura Energy’s significant shareholder Permodalan Nasional Bhd also said the investment will be exclusively used to repay local vendors, without benefitting any existing shareholders or financial creditors.

In a post-cabinet meeting press conference yesterday, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil insisted the “strategic investment” differs from bailouts offered by previous administrations, particularly during former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first stint in government.

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