WHAT a couple of days it has been for prominent businessman Lim Kang Hoo.

He and his team at Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Bhd (IWH) were all geared for an event at Bandar Malaysia yesterday evening, just another milestone for the personable tycoon in what had been a good couple of weeks.

The shares of his public-listed company had gone through the roof and Bloomberg had called the stock “the world’s best performing small-cap stock this year” after it shot up 270% to stratospheric heights over potential land acquisitions in Bandar Malaysia, the 486-acre prime property in Kuala Lumpur.

But by late Wednesday afternoon, they kept getting unhelpful and unfriendly signals from Putrajaya, which owned the prime property through TRX City Sdn Bhd (TRXCSB).

No, Prime Minister Najib Razak would not be attending a working visit to Bandar Malaysia at 5pm as scheduled. No, there is not likely to be any official presence from the Najib administration.

Calls were made to government officials and power brokers but no one had a clue that the cancellation of the event was a precursor to something much more serious – the cancellation of the 60% share stake between TRXCSB and the IWH-CREC Sdn Bhd joint-venture (ICSB).

‎It appears that only Najib, secretary-general of the Treasury Irwan Serigar and a handful of government officials were privy to the decision to end the contract.

Even Johari Ghani, the Finance Minister II was in the dark.

It is understood that Irwan had been troubled for some time over IWH-CREC’s inability to make its obligations and the number of extensions it sought. He had prepared a detailed report on the cash flow and the milestones missed since the deal with the consortium was struck in December 2015.

It is unclear why the problems at Bandar Malaysia were not brought to the PM and finance minister’s attention earlier, given the importance Najib has placed on this massive project and its crucial role in helping to settle the debts incurred at 1MDB.

But after getting the report from Irwan, Najib decided to pull the plug on the agreement between Putrajaya unit TRXCSB and ICSB.

When news of that decision reached Lim and his team, it was met with utter disbelief. Surely it was a joke. There was no inkling that there were any problems brewing with the civil servants at the Ministry of Finance.

After the shock came the barrage of questions from different stakeholders.

Who was behind this decision? Are you sure it was the PM because he is not so decisive and clinical? Who advised him to do this? Have other developers been lined up?

What does it mean for Bandar Malaysia? So how are the 1MDB debts going to be resolved now? Did the Chinese government scuttle the deal?

Some of these questions will be answ‎ered in the days to come, and many of the answers will not put either the Najib government or the consortium in good light.

But what is clear is that Najib could not afford a delay in this Bandar Malaysia project taking off, neither could he afford a shortfall of promised payments, given that a key goal of his administration is to clear the 1MDB debt situation before GE14.

Given the consortium’s difficulty in making its periodic payments, there was a concern also whether it had the financial muscle to develop the project, which will also house the hub for the high speed rail to Singapore, and later Bangkok.

It is understood that the PM made calls to stakeholders in Johor to explain the Finance Ministry’s decision to cancel the agreement with IWH-CREC. The state government of Johor owns 40% of Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH), a shareholder in IWC.

Having a much tougher time explaining things was Lim, the man famous for turning a swamp land in Johor into Danga Bay.

He had to field calls from CREC. The Johor government, embarrassed by the decision to cancel the contract with IWH-CREC, has also sought an explanation from Lim. 

The businessman, who has many friends in high places, has also had to field calls from politicians. There has been no shortage of advice, with some pushing him to take a confrontational approach towards Putrajaya while others are urging him to take a more cautious and conciliatory approach.

He is scheduled to meet the press today. Expect him to offer his glowing track record as a businessman to deflect any suggestion that his consortium was ill-equipped to handle this massive project.

Expect ‎him to offer a stout defence of CREC. And expect him to be genuinely surprised that the Finance Ministry/minister calls off the biggest deal of his life. – May 5, 2017.