The Admiralty Court in Kuala Lumpur has selected a nine-figure offer as the successful bid for the Equanimity superyacht that Jho Low allegedly bought with funds misappropriated from 1MDB.
(A nine-digit price tag ranges from RM100 million to just below the ten-digit RM1,000,000,000 or RM1 billion).
The legal team appointed to handle the transaction said today that this was after the completion of the court process for the auction.
“With the mandatory phase of the judicial sale process duly completed, with the widest outreach and publicity possible in the superyacht market, and to the trading and business community generally, the Sheriff will be seeking the necessary orders from the court to commence the second phase of this judicial sale, by private treaty, for closing of the sale no later than 31 March 2019.
“The nine-digit asking price will be available on application, once approval of the court is obtained and will commensurate with a four-and-half-year-old Oceanco-built luxury yacht, with the specifications of the Equanimity as she lies,” the team said in a statement.
The bidding process for the superyacht began on Oct 29 and ended on Nov 28.
Present in court were lawyers S Sitpah and Jeremy Joseph and senior federal counsel Alice Loke.
Sitpah told Malaysiakini that there are actual bids but they are not at liberty to reveal the number of bids or the countries of origin of the bidders.
“There are actual bidders,” she said to a question on the perception by some that no bids had been made.
Built by Oceanco, the vessel measuring 91.5 meters is said to have cost US$250 million (RM1 billion) and had a crew of 17.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were said to have been guests on board the luxury yacht.