BUTTERWORTH: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim intervened in a share purchase deal of a state-owned company 10 years ago resulting in the state suffering a loss of RM9mil.

Former chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said Business Focus Sdn Bhd (BFSB) bought the shares of Penang Shipping Corporation, which was owned by the Penang Development Corporation, for RM29mil.

BFSB however could not pay up on time and Anwar, who was deputy prime minister and finance minister at that time, asked the state government to extend the payment period.

The company ultimately only paid up RM20mil.

"When the company first defaulted in 1998, we wanted to take action but Anwar intervened. He asked us to bagi (give) chance because of the economic crisis.

"He said the company would be getting contracts from the Government and more businesses, so they would be able to pay," Dr Koh told a press conference at a hotel in Seberang Jaya yesterday.

Dr Koh was responding to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's call for him to explain the RM9mil loss incurred by PDC following the sale of shares in PSC in 1992.

"When instructions came from higher up, we renegotiated based on trust because Anwar, as DPM and finance minister, would have had a bigger picture of the company's potential," Dr Koh said.

He said BFSB was supposed to have paid up within two years but defaulted in 1998. The company defaulted again in 2003, the state "came down hard" on the company.

"When we took legal action to wind up the company, we had only collected RM20mil,"he said.

Dr Koh said BFSB's chairman then was Amin Shah, the elder brother of Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah.

"I want to clarify that at that time, Arif Shah was not a director or shareholder in the company. There may be an attempt to tie this up with him and that is not fair," he said, adding that Lim was revealing "half facts".

Lim, in an immediate response, said: "The final amount of RM9mil was not paid after 2000 when Anwar was no longer deputy prime minister and finance minister but when he was in prison. They failed to collect the final sum, so what are they complaining about."