Shares in two firms fall in Battersea shocker

Anwar says project would be probed on any elements of wrongdoing

PETALING JAYA: Confidence in two listed property developers was shaken after a statement by PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to investigate the United Kingdom’s Battersea Power Station project took investors by surprise.

Shares in property developers that are involved in the Battersea project slumped yesterday, with SP Setia Bhd falling 7.81% or 25 sen to RM2.95 and Sime Darby Property Bhd declining 6.2% or eight sen to RM1.21.

Anwar said in an interview with UK-based The Guardian that the Pakatan Harapan government would have to relook and renegotiate the Battersea deal if there were any elements of wrongdoing because it involved Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).

He also said in the interview that the previous Barisan Nasional government had used the savings of ordinary people to cover up the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

“Because they were made using state funds, we have to be convinced that this was the right investment decision and that there was no political influence or direction,” he was reported as saying.

“It’s clearly a political decision to invest. If there is something wrong, then we would want to renegotiate. We are looking at umpteen deals extending to hundreds of billions of ringgit – that is tens of billions of dollars,” he added.

The Battersea Power Station project was launched some five years back in Malaysia and the UK in January 2013.

The project is now onto its second phase, with the latest being PNB and the EPF having entered into a heads of terms to buy commercial assets currently being developed within phase two of the project in London for £1.6bil (RM8.8bil).

The agreement was announced in the press in January this year.

PNB and the EPF had then entered into a heads of terms with Battersea Phase 2 Holding Company Ltd, which is a unit of Battersea Project Holding Company Ltd.

SP Setia and Sime Darby Property own a 40% stake each in Battersea Project Holding Company.

— Reuters London project: Trains passing near construction work taking place around Battersea Power Station in London. The project was launched about five years back.