IN UNPRECEDENTED SHAME, NAJIB BEGS FOR MORE TIME TO COUGH UP JHO LOW’S WORTHLESS CAYMAN UNITS: IPIC AGREES TO GIVE 1MDB. GOVT OF MALAYSIA TILL AUG 31 TO PAY UP

Abu Dhabi has given 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) until August 31 to make a $603 million debt settlement payment that was due on Tuesday, an Abu Dhabi based source with knowledge of the matter said.

Under an agreement struck in April with the Abu Dhabi state fund International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) to settle arbitration proceedings, scandal-hit 1MDB fund agreed to pay $1.2 billion in two instalments to IPIC, with the first of about $600 million to be paid by July 31.

But 1MDB failed to honour its commitment, forcing Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund to give 1MDB a grace period of five days to make the payment. That deadline was to expire on Tuesday.

A regulatory disclosure from IPIC about the latest deadline extension is due later today, the source said, declining to be named as the matter is not yet public.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, into which IPIC was merged earlier this year, declined to comment.

Malaysia’s Treasury Secretary, General Mohammad Irwan Serigar Abdullah, was quoted in state news agency Bernama saying earlier in the day that 1MDB was in talks to get the deadline extended.

REUTERS