By Chan Quan Min
State-owned investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has missed its own seven-month deadline to lodge its audited annual report with the authorities, a search with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) showed.
According to the CCM’s Idaman information system as of 3:00pm today, 1MDB’s last available annual report was accurate to March 2013.
The latest annual report, for the financial year ended March 2014, should have been submitted at the end of September, six months after books close, according to company law. However, CCM’s information system did not display a report for the financial year ended March 2014.
Companies have been known to extend the deadline by an additional month or more, although it is generally not encouraged.
1MDB is one of those companies. The investment fund was a year late in submitting the last available annual report accurate to March 2013 after it went through a change of auditors.
In an email last month, 1MDB claimed to have until end-October to submit its annual report.
“We wish to highlight that 1MDB did not miss the deadline to submit its audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2014 with the CCM,” the fund’s corporate communications vice-president wrote in an email to KiniBiz dated October 1.
“It has until end-October to lodge its accounts,” she said.
Directors of registered companies are required to file an audited financial statement on an annual basis not more than six months after the close of the financial year, according to Section 169 of the Companies Act 1965. However, there is some scope for extensions of the deadline.
1MDB’s last available annual report for the financial year ended March 2013 revealed that the fund would have posted losses if not for RM2.7 billion in land revaluation gains.
It also revealed that the strategic investment fund is sitting on a cash-pile of RM23.6 billion against even larger borrowings of RM36.3 billion from various loans and government-guaranteed bond issues.
By allegedly mispricing bonds to provide very attractive yield, 1MDB could have lost out on some RM4 billion, according to calculations by KiniBiz.
To date, the strategic investment fund has made three major purchases of power-generation facilities. The flagship development of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) has commenced preliminary ground work, while Bandar Malaysia, projected to cost more than Putrajaya, is still in the planning stages.
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