Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Consortium should be forthcoming with the facts and figures in TRX City dispute instead of being cryptic and wishy-washy in statements

The conflicting statements issued by TRX City, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance, and the consortium led by Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) have become a complete farce.

In December 2015, 1MDB had announced that it has sold 60 per cent of its Bandar Malaysia interest to the consortium's vehicle, IWH CREC Sdn Bhd (ICSB) for RM7.41 billion.

TRX City Sdn Bhd, which owns Bandar Malaysia and has been taken over by the Ministry of Finance, claimed the agreement had lapsed because the consortium failed to make the necessary payments despite repeated extensions.

In disputing TRX, ICSB said it has made all necessary payments thus far, as outlined in the share sale agreement (SSA), and is also capable of meeting future payments.

"To date, ICSB has fulfilled all the required payment obligations under the SSA on its part towards TRX. ICSB has sufficient financial resources and capabilities to ensure the smooth and successful execution and implementation of the development of Bandar Malaysia," it said in a statement yesterday.

So who is telling the truth?  To quote the cryptic ICSB, whose “factual matrix does not fully and accurately reflect the circumstances and conduct of the parties in the matter”?

Thankfully, the matter should be easily clarified resolved. TRX claimed money isn't paid, while ICSB claimed it has, despite providing no evidence of payment.

Therefore, to put the matter to rest, instead of a verbal spat, all ICSB has to do is to provide specific details of (i) what they have paid, (ii) when they made the payments and (iii) what were the agreed payment terms.

Otherwise, there will be no credibility to the counter-claims made by ICSB.  On the other hand, if ICSB is able to provide proof of payment in accordance with the agreed terms of the Bandar Malaysia sale, proving unreasonable termination by TRX, I will certainly be demanding a response by TRX.

However, if ICSB fails to substantiate its claims, then Malaysians can see clearly that ICSB is only trying to desperately salvage the broken deal and its heavily damaged reputation, which have caused heavy losses to the share price of all companies related to IWH.