Azmin’s memory over Khazanah is selective, says Najib

(The Star) – Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has asked Datuk Seri Azmin Ali why he has “forgotten” to reveal the RM6bil in gains Khazanah made from their investment in Alibaba 2014 or the billions made from IHH.

The former prime minister also asked the Economic Affairs Minister why he did not highlight in parliament, the billions lost from investments in Silterra and Malaysian Airlines (MAS) during Tun Dr Mahathir’s administration previously.

He said that as a strategic investment company, Khazanah’s objectives are to generate income besides making investments all over the world, and this included going into the business of clothing, in reference to the online lingerie company that was highlighted by Azmin.

“Khazanah’s overseas investments will help Malaysia to be a global player and not just be a “Jaguh kampung” to benefit all Malaysians, and this sort of step has been done by Singapore, as a closest example,” Najib said in a Facebook post on Thursday (Aug 2).

Azmin had in parliament on Wednesday (July 1) claimed that Khazanah invested some RM80mil in a failed online lingerie business.

Former Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar had revealed that the investment was in the Indian company Zivame.

“At the moment, the investment in the company is still going on and it is the market leader in the segment in India, it’s business is still expanding,” said Najib.

Najib added that this with other small investments in 27 other technological companies all over the world was possible with the RM6bil gains made by investing in Alibaba in 2014.

“Khazanah’s “loss” in this investment cannot be determined yet. Online businesses will usually suffer losses at the start, but it could gain more in the future,” he said.

Najib said that losses in investments cannot be avoided unless Azmin could guarantee that Khazanah would never suffer any losses at all.

“As a fact, Khazanah has performed well by raising its assets from RM33bil to RM134.5bil when I was prime minister besides giving billions in dividends to the governments and through CSR.

“The gains made by Khazanah that are not mentioned will be used as a source to cover up the gaps following the abolition of the GST this year as mentioned by the Finance Minister recently,” he said.