PUTRAJAYA, May 17 — Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook today insisted he did not deceive Parliament in March when he said an Opposition lawmaker’s claim about the planned deal to privatise the Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) was just an “assumption”.

Loke said he merely responded to the information presented by Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal that MAHB was to be sold to Global Infrastructures Partners, a logistics investment fund owned by one of the world’s biggest asset managers, Blackrock, which he said was inaccurate.

“I stand by what I said... he said MAHB was going to be sold to GIP, which is not true, so, I did not mislead Parliament,” he told reporters here.

MAHB is the country’s biggest airport operator. Earlier this week, the listed company confirmed reports about Khazanah Nasional and the Employees Provident Fund’s plan to privatise it through a consortium that could involved GIP.

Blackrock is the biggest shareholder of Lockheed Martin, the American fighter planes manufacturer. The asset manager is now the target of boycott calls because of its ownership of arms companies that supply weapons to Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/05/17/anthony-loke-insists-was-truthful-after-mahb-confirms-blackrock-linked-firms-interest/134900