In an interview with Nanyang Siang Pau on Thursday, Tang said that he and Phang “set up an outsourcing company and she handles the operations in Penang”. She has a 30 percent share in the company, he said.

Tang is the majority shareholder of Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre, the company which bought the Taman Manggis land from the Penang state government.

Phang hit the headlines after she was revealed as the person who sold a double-storey bungalow to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng at RM2.8 million, said by the Barisan Nasional to be below the market price of RM4.5-RM6 million.

Questions were raised about a possible link to KLIDC, when opposition politicians revealed the business connections between Phang and Tang.

Last month Phang had made a statutory declaration in which she stated she was neither a director nor a shareholder of KLIDC.

She had also admitted to knowing Lim’s family since 2008 and said she was a close friend of Lim’s wife, Betty Chew.

KLIDC bought a plot of state land in Taman Manggis which had been previously allocated for the second phase of a public housing project, according to the Barisan Nasional. On Monday, documents were revealed showing an agreement to sell KLIDC to a third-party for RM70.6 million.

Tang told Nanyang Siang Pau that he did not know Lim personally and only met the DAP secretary-general after KLIDC successfully bid for the Taman Manggis land.

KLIDC had no other business dealings with the Penang government, he said.

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