The New Straits Times quoted Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani as saying the companies would be classified into companies that were performing, those that were continuously losing money and those that MoF Inc needed to retain despite losing money.

“We need to group them so that we can look, in detail, whether there are duplications in terms of their roles,” he was quoted as saying. He added that these companies were involved in property, plantation, financial services, manufacturing and other industries.

According to Johari, who was appointed to the post on June 28, the first category comprises companies that are making money and consistently declare dividends to the Government. The Government will look at how to further improve these companies for continued growth.

The second category is of companies that “continuously lose money, increase their debts and don’t give benefits to the Government”.

Johari said MoF would try to put them back on track, failing which they would be closed down.

The third category comprises companies that MoF needs to retain despite making losses. He cited companies providing infrastructure development, such as MRT Corp Sdn Bhd and Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, as examples.

Johari said the MoF would continue to subsidise companies which fell into this category as they were “able to deliver very efficient services to the people”.

Johari, 52, who is a chartered accountant by training, replaced former Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah. He had also served a good number of years in senior roles in the corporate sector.

He said that the exercise could also see mergers and acquisitions, government guarantees being given out, and some companies being sold off.

Directors, chief executive officers and the management of companies involved in the exercise would also be given KPIs, Johari added.

In the exclusive interview, the Titiwangsa MP also spoke about 1MDB, which he said started with a very noble idea, but “unfortunately, along the way, things went wrong”.

He also admitted that 1MDB’s business model was wrong, and to begin with, had a weak management, and lacked corporate governance.

Hence, MoF intended to “run off” 1MDB, said Johari — which means all its assets will be taken out to team up with the private sector to develop Bandar Malaysia and TRX.

As for 1MDB’s debts, Johari “hoped” that the company’s assets could be maximised in value after the company was” run off” and that the value created could be used to pay off the debts.

“To what extent will we be able to cover all their debts? Only time will tell. We need to go through this process first,” he said.