In a statement, it said many of the figures Pua had quoted were wrong, and that he had failed to provide a complete picture by leaving out several details.
“In his attempt to mislead the rakyat, he conveniently forgets to highlight that it is the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), of which he is a member, that recommended for the vast majority of 1MDB assets to be transferred from 1MDB to Minister of Finance Inc (MOF Inc),” it said.
Yesterday, Pua had slammed a blog post by Najib Razak in which the prime minister had said that 1MDB had not only “brought the country good” but was “on track to realise a profit”.
“1MDB is currently an empty shell, holding absolutely nothing but some RM40 billion of debts.
“How in the world is 1MDB ‘on track to realise a profit’? If this is not a brazen attempt by Najib to create ‘fake news’, what is?” the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said.
However, 1MDB said the transfer of assets like the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Bandar Malaysia, Pulau Indah land and Air Itam land would generate payments over time.
Those payments, along with the asset monetisation proceeds, would be used to meet the principal and interest on 1MDB’s remaining obligations.
These, for the most part, comprised long-term bond and sukuk debt of approximately RM32.5 billion at present exchange rates, not RM40 billion as claimed by Pua, it said.
It added that the PAC report on 1MDB dated April 7, 2016, provided details of the projected cash-flows relating to the 1MDB rationalisation programme, showing a surplus of approximately RM3 billion being generated over time.
It said the report had been presented to PAC, reiterating that Pua was a member of the committee.
“With appropriate stewardship and competent development of the real estate under MOF Inc and monetisation of other assets, it is highly likely that over time, there will be a surplus generated, whether at the 1MDB level or at the level of its 100% shareholder, MOF Inc.”
1MDB also accused Pua of purposely misleading the public by stating that its RM12.1 billion investments in the power sector had resulted in multi-billion losses when 1MDB disposed of its energy interest to China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN) for RM9.3 billion.
“Not only are the figures quoted by Pua completely wrong, he conveniently fails to mention that, while the gross purchase consideration was RM12.05 billion, the companies acquired had RM1.63 billion of cash on balance sheet, which resulted in a net purchase consideration of approximately RM10.42 billion.
“Furthermore, over the period of ownership, approximately RM2.18 billion was generated in dividends, which was largely used to pay interest on the acquisition debt.
“Accordingly, when the cash, dividends and other costs/impairments are taken into account, upon the sale to CGN at RM9.83 billion cash (not RM9.3 billion as wrongly claimed by Pua), 1MDB achieved near ‘break even’ on its energy investments,” it said.
It also hit out at Pua’s claim that 1MDB had not helped solve the problem of power purchase agreements (PPAs) that were overly generous to independent power producers (IPPs).
Pua had said that Malaysians had received no benefit from 1MDB’s acquisition of IPPs as the electricity tariff had only increased and not decreased.
However, 1MDB said Pua had confused the PPA tariff with the electricity tariff, maintaining that it had indeed helped reduce the former.
“As Pua well knows, the PPA tariff is only one component of the electricity tariff, with other components being fuel costs, transmission and distribution costs, etc.
“It is a fact that 1MDB generated competition during PPA bidding for new power plants and renewal of PPA contracts for existing power plants.”
According to the fund, PPA tariffs for new and existing plants were reduced by between 1 and 2 sen per KW/H as a result of 1MDB’s participation.
“Based on an 85% capacity factor, a 1-sen tariff per KW/H reduction on a 2,000 MW power plant over 20 years can result in up to RM3 billion of cost savings over the life of a PPA, for one power plant.
“The savings are multiplied significantly across other PPAs. This in turn lowers the overall PPA tariff cost to Tenaga Nasional Bhd, which is the sole buyer under all PPAs, and contributes towards the electricity tariff.”