1MDB bets on RM18 billion IPO to quell brickbats

1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) had originally planned to raise RM14.5 billion in a listing slated for November. – Reuters pic, October 10, 2014.1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the country’s controversial sovereign fund, is regrouping its power assets under a new company called Virtus Energy ahead of a listing early next year that bankers say could raise as much as RM18 billion.

In an exclusive report, The Edge Review said the jumbo listing, which would be Asia’s largest, was part of a major corporate restructuring that government officials hoped would head off a growing political storm over 1MDB’s secretive dealings and the heavy toll its borrowings are starting to take on several of the country’s top banks.

1MDB had originally planned to raise RM14.5 billion in a listing slated for November. But complications over the restructuring of bridging loans owed to two state-controlled banks delayed the share sale, bankers said.

That hurdle is now being removed with the raising of a funding facility of roughly US$1 billion (RM3.24 billion) that will settle loans owed to Malayan Banking and RHB Bank that were taken to acquire several power generation assets two years ago, bankers involved in the IPO said.

- TMI