1MDB's new boss sets record straight on key niggling issues

Singapore

MALAYSIA's state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has no plans to repatriate some US$1.103 billion redeemed from its investments in Cayman Islands-registered funds as it will be used to service interest payment on US dollar debts, said the firm's newly appointed boss Arul Kanda Kandasamy.

"There's a very sensible and simple reason for that," said Mr Arul, eager to counter certain perceptions in an interview with The Business Times at his eighth-floor office in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle.

"We are keeping the money in US dollars as we have US$6.5 billion in bonds out there, in which interest payments come up to nearly US$400 million a year."

The remark by the 38-year- old, whose smiling countenance belies the pressure he faces just one month in the hot seat as 1MDB president and executive director, flies in the face of expectations that the debt-saddled firm would bring back the money to Malaysia to address its…