Lawyer Ong Chee Kwan, representing 1MDB and its two subsidiary companies, who met High Court judicial commissioner Khatijah Idris today to seek approval for the terms and conditions of the sale, said the bidding process would go on for a month, ending on Nov 28.
“We will also publicise the sale in our local papers and international papers,” he said.
Another lawyer for 1MDB, Jeremy M Joseph, said those interested are required to pay a deposit of US$1 million (about RM4.2 million) for the bidding.
He said there would be a qualifying round for the bidding process in order to ensure only genuine buyers participate.
“We want to ensure only serious buyers come forward,” he said.
Ong said once a bid is accepted, a letter would be sent to the buyer.
“The buyer has to pay 10% of the price of sale within five banking days with the remaining 90% to be paid within a further 10 banking days.”
He said 1MDB and the government hoped they would no longer own the Equanimity by mid-December.
The High Court earlier gave the green light to 1MDB and government on the appointment of brokers and an appraiser to sell off the yacht, believed to have been bought at the price tag of RM1 billion by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho.
US investigators have accused Low of using money siphoned from 1MDB to purchase the yacht.
Equanimity has been parked at a terminal in Port Klang since the Indonesian government handed it over to Malaysia.
It was seized in February by the Indonesian government at the request of US authorities, as part of a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation related to 1MDB launched by the Department of Justice.
But an Indonesian court had ruled in April that the yacht was wrongfully impounded and should be released to its owners.