IPOH, Sept 15 — Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) vice-president Datuk Hamidah Osman today revealed that the Perak Corporation Berhad (PCB), which holds about 60 per cent of Perak State Development Corporation’s (PKNP) assets, is in the midst of winding up its operations.

Hamidah said that PCB has been dragged to court several times after it defaulted on loans it took out from creditors and banks.

“PCB borrowed a total of RM520 million from banks to invest in Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) and an additional RM200 million were also borrowed to pay contractors.

“All of these loans went to be in default. Now the group’s total assets is RM742,273 million while its total liability is already above than that at RM751,361 million,” she told a press conference at the party’s office in Sunway City, Tambun here.

“The state government decided to keep this matter a secret and hide it from the public,” she added.

Hamidah also pointed out that back in 2012, when she was the state executive committee chairman, PCB had a cash balance of almost RM200 million and assets valued at RM1.2 billion, including 243 hectares of land in Meru Raya and another 243 hectares in other areas within the state.

“However, now the group only has a cash balance of RM27,806 and lost almost half of its asset value,” she said.

Hamidah said PCB only has until October 23 to settle its debt or risk going into receivership, with the High Court here granting 90 days from July 23 to arrange a comprise scheme with the creditors, which she claimed is impossible.

“If PCB goes into receivership then MAPS, Hotel Casaurina Meru, Lumut Port and lands owned by the groups will be auctioned.

“The state government must act immediately to save the assets, especially the Lumut Port. We don’t want our port to be owned by foreigners as it will bring security issues,” she said.

“We have also heard that there are already some discussions between state government and foreign investors on selling the Lumut Port,” she added.

Hamidah also said that the loans were borrowed during the administration of Barisan Nasional (BN).

She questioned why Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who previously led the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government when it took over from BN, decided to kept mum on this matter.

She also slammed PH coalition parties for not voicing out or highlighting the issue when they were in power.

“I urge the prime minster to intervene as we need support from the federal as the matter is already out of our hands. If we don’t act quickly the state and its people will lose its valuable assets,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Faizal said that PCB is currently under PN17 and the state government had carried out several transformations to revive it.

“We have several well-known cooperate leaders managing PCB at the moment and we already have plans to solve the problems in PCB.

“We don’t have any intention to sell our assets in the PCB. And I assure that we are not selling the Lumut Port. We will find ways to bring PCB out from PN17,” he said.

"The information shared by Hamidah during her press conference earlier on PCB is not accurate. I don’t know where she obtained the details about the state government planning to sell Lumut Port,” he added.