KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is set to pick investors as partners in its Bandar Malaysia project in the city centre here, the firm’s chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy announced today amid continued criticism of the debt-ridden investment firm.
Arul Kanda said this selection process for 1MDB subsidiary Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd — known as Request for Proposal (RFP) — will be launched in the next two weeks, noting the keen interest shown in the project.
“Having generated considerable local and global interest, the objective of this RFP process is to select qualified equity investors to partner in the overall development,” he said in a statement today, also explaining that this follows 1MDB’s rationalisation plan that was shown to the Cabinet on May 29.
But potential investors will be required to promise not to disclose confidential information, Arul Kanda added.
He said prior to the official launch of the RFP process to be managed by CH Williams Talhar & Wong, qualified equity investors would have to enter into a confidentiality agreement with 1MDB in order to gain access to preliminary information.
According to Arul Kanda, the Bandar Malaysia project will involve a “new 495-acre mixed-use urban development” that is projected to be well-connected to Singapore and will serve as a “transport hub” via various train lines and highways.
“Strategically located within seven kilometres of Kuala Lumpur City Centre, the development will serve as Kuala Lumpur’s gateway for the high speed rail-line to Singapore and become a central transport hub in the city via MRT lines 2 and 3, KTM komuter, ERL, and future access to 12 major highways,” he said.
The Bandar Malaysia project site is located in Sungai Besi, where the Royal Malaysian Air Force and other military and police assets are based.
As part of the relocation of existing facilities on the Bandar Malaysia site, Arul Kanda said 1MDB is currently responsible for delivering eight new police and military bases that are under construction across Malaysia.
1MDB will be bearing RM1.6 billion in relocation costs out of the total RM2.7 billion construction contract, he said.
“We are pleased to update that construction of these new bases is on track for handover by 1 January 2017, due to the excellent progress by our contractor Perbadanan Perwira Hartanah Malaysia, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera,” he said.
In an advertisement last month, 1MDB said it plans to start construction work on the Bandar Malaysia project in 2017, when the new military and police facilities are completed on the 790 acres of land that was acquired for the relocation.
Earlier this month, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah claimed that 1MDB’s new development Bandar Malaysia could turn out to be as successful as Singapore’s Jurong development.
Husni invited Malaysians to take a long-term view and imagine the prospects of the Bandar Malaysia project in the future when it becomes part of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore bullet train route.
