PNB won’t use money from investors or Govt

By The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) will not use funds from unit trust investors or the Government to develop the Warisan Merdeka project which will incorporate a 100-storey building.

Its chief executive officer and president Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said PNB, was also a big holding company with interests in several listed companies like Sime Darby, UMW and Island & Peninsular, besides being a unit trust manager for various government funds.

“We have more than enough money to finance the entire RM5bil project on our own if need be,” he told a special briefing for media editors here yesterday.

It was the first response from PNB following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s Budget announcement on Friday of the Warisan Merdeka project which sparked off a debate on its necessity.

The integrated development project will be located within the enclave of Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara and comprise three phases to be fully completed by 2020.

Hamad Kama Piah explained that PNB had purchased the 13ha plot from Danaharta Nasional Bhd for RM320mil in 2000 and the mixed development project was approved by the PNB board four years later.

He said PNB had studied market trends before deciding to embark on the project, adding that construction of the 100-storey tower would begin sometime next year.