Mara under scrutiny again

KUALA LUMPUR: Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) is under scrutiny yet again in relation to the purchase of properties in Australia, after it was revealed that another property bought by its investment arm Mara Incorporated Sdn Bhd (Mara Inc.) was also found to be questionable.
This property in question this time is the 333 Exhibition Street, a commercial building disclosure (CBD) in Melbourne, which was believed to have also been purchased millions of ringgit higher than its supposed market value.
This was the second such case reported of overpriced property purchased by Mara after theSun and The Age on June 23 disclosed the questionable deal of the Dudley International House in Melbourne.
The National Oversight & Whistleblowers (NOW) revealed that the 333 Exhibition Street property in Melbourne bought by the government agency in March 2013 was overpriced by A$9 million (RM27 million).
In disclosing this, the NOW director Rafizi Ramli said this was based on an inside Mara document, which was handed to Mara chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa on May 20, 2014, that he managed to obtain, and through the Quintessential Equity's (QE) website, the initial owner of the property.
Rafizi, who is also PKR secretary-general, explained that the Exhibition Street property was sold by QE to an unnamed company in October 2012 for AUD$22 million, but was later purchased by Mara Inc. in March for a much higher price at AUD$31 million.
"Just about after six months, Mara Inc. bought the property for AUD$9 million more, and this whole transaction was published in QE's website.
"This clearly proved that the purchase of 333 Exhibition St. involved the same method with that of the Dudley House purchase. If you think Dudley was overpriced, this property was even more," he told a press conference at NOW's office, here today.
"You have to question why the Mara Council approved the purchase if they were paying RM27 million more than the market value," he added.
Rafizi also questioned from which unnamed company did Mara Inc. buy the property from, explaining that the answer will highlight whether there was a criminal breach of trust.
He added that based on the inside document obtained by NOW, it proved that not only was the property overpriced, but the rental yield return was also low.
According to Rafizi, the document showed that the initial rental yield for the Exhibition Street property was 6.2% during the purchase transaction period in June 2012, when the average yield in Melbourne during that time was between 6.5% and 7%.
"Supposedly, when the returns are below the average yield for a similar asset in Melbourne, the proposed acquisition should have been stopped immediately by Mara Council.
"Why didn't Annuar check on the property returns performance, when it was obvious that as early as June 2013, when he took the office, the property's return was well below the average," he added.
theSun and The Age had reported on June 23 of a group of Malaysian officials spending funds from a government agency to purchase the Dudley House apartment block, valued at AUD$17.8 million (RM51.7 million), at an "inflated" price of AUD$22.5 million (RM65.4 milion). The Malaysians had allegedly demanded a AUD$4.75 million (RM13.8 million) bribe for the purchase.
Meanwhile, when contacted by theSun, Annuar declined to comment on the issue.