English-language daily The Star reported that the Central Bank cannot act on 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) request seeking an extension to its RM2 billion loan. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 28, 2015.Bank Negara Malaysia cannot act on 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) request seeking an extension to its RM2 billion loan, as that is a decision for the state investment firm's lenders, The Star reported today.The English-language daily reported central bank governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz as saying that only the company's lenders, consisting of commercial banks could decide on the matter.“In the case of any extension being provided, that is not by Bank Negara; it is from the lenders who are the commercial banks. They made those decisions," she was quoted saying.Concerns have mounted over the strategic investor's financial health following a report by financial news website Bloomberg that 1MDB planned to obtain a third extension to its RM2 billion loan by another month, to give it more time to sell a stake in its energy unit.Quoting sources, business daily The Edge Financial Daily on January 6 said the company had missed its December 31, 2014, deadline for settlement of the loan, and had received an extension up to January 30 to settle the outstanding payment.The RM2 billion was part of a RM5.5 billion debt taken through its subsidiary Powertek Investment Holdings Sdn Bhd in May 2014 to refinance a RM6.17 billion bridging loan taken in 2012 to partially finance the purchase of power assets.Maybank has 58.99% of the RM2 billion loan while RHB has 32.41%. The other lenders are Alliance Investment Bank Bhd (4.06%), Malaysia Building Society Bhd (3.24%) and Hwang DBS Investment Bhd (1.29%).Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua today urged Putrajaya to conduct a special audit on 1MDB's finances, saying the company was "holding Malaysian banks hostage" by seeking the one-month extension."This news is shocking as 1MDB has already missed two repayment deadlines for a RM2 billion debt in November and December 2014. Even this RM2 billion loan itself is part of a rescheduled and restructured debt it couldn’t pay in November 2013," he said in a statement this morning.But, Zeti said the central bank would not allow any "systemic" effect from any individual company to have an impact on the country's economy.“We will never comment on an individual entity, but we have arrangements to deal with it so that no individual entity will have a systemic implication on the overall financial system of our economy," she was quoted as saying by The Star.But, she refused to comment on 1MDB's RM3.9 billion funds from the Cayman Islands, which the company had said it was bringing back.“We do not comment on individuals," she was further quoted as saying.PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said Bank Negara must prove that 1MDB funds in the Cayman Islands have been repatriated by disclosing the local bank holding the funds and whether the firm has enough to pay off its RM2 billion debt.He said Bank Negara had authority under the Anti-Money Laundering Act to disclose these matters. – January 28, 2015.
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