Pua schools Umno Youth chief on TRX valuation

DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua has told Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki to differentiate between the land value and total development value of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX). 

He said this as Asyraf, on Tuesday, had questioned Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng for not selling all assets belonging to sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in a bid to settle its debt problem.

The Umno man had claimed the land value at TRX, Kuala Lumpur’s new financial district developed by 1MDB, was now worth RM40 billion.

“This is the quality of the present Umno leaders, who do not understand mathematics and economics as well as financial terms," Pua (photo), who is also Damansara MP, said in a statement today.

They misuse figures and terms to deceive and mislead the people.” 

The RM40 billion value that was always associated with the TRX project referred to the Gross Development Value (GDV), or the total development value.

“GDV is a figure that covers all costs required to develop a project. This is different from the value of assets or the profits that can be derived from the project,” said Pua. 

According to an assessment made by C.H. Williams Talhar & Wong on July 29, 2015, TRX's land assets are worth only RM2.8 billion.  

That amount, added Pua, was before the RM800 million loan related to the project. It also did not take into account the RM2.8 billion in grants provided by the government to save the TRX project, which was nearly abandoned under the previous BN government.

Therefore, any sale of TRX land assets will not solve the 1MDB’s RM50 billion debt scandal, which was a result of mismanagement and abuse of power by Umno and BN, said Pua.

The assessment does not include TRX's land assets sold to 1MDB by the government at a modest price of RM230 million or just RM75 per sq ft.

“This means, the TRX asset is a government-provided asset to 1MDB, rather than a profit derived by 1MDB through its own efforts,” said Pua. 

Therefore, if the TRX land asset can be sold for RM40 billion as demanded by Asyraf, it constitutes a land sale owned by the government and Malaysians to pay off the 1MDB debt, “ he said. -- Bernama