Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar denied that the Johor Forest City would open our country's second casino, directly pointing out that it was a lie. "It's not true, it's not correct, the casino license… that's a lie."
As Anwar spoke, he made an X gesture with both hands at the same time and strongly denied this news to the reporters.
When he attended the Eid al-Fitr luncheon hosted by the Ministry of Communications today and was pressed by reporters to ask about the relevant reports, he made the above brief response. Bloomberg quoted sources familiar with the matter this morning, saying that Anwar had a lunch with two Malaysian business tycoons last week, namely Tan Sri Chee Yuen, the founder of Berjaya Corporation, and Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, the chairman of Genting. The king of the country, Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum, also sent a representative to attend.
The report said that they discussed building our country's second casino in Forest City. One of the informed sources said that members of the royal family or their agents might be invited to take shares in the casino.
However, a spokesman for Berjaya Corporation said the company was not aware of the matter. The palace, Country Garden, and Genting have not responded to the matter yet.
Forest City is a large high-rise residential project built by Chinese developer Country Garden in the reclamation area of Johor South at a cost of 100 billion US dollars. Due to the obstruction of the Malaysian politics, the regulation of the Chinese government on the overseas property purchases by citizens and the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many obstacles, so the opening of the casino is considered to bring a turn for Forest City.
According to the documents provided by the company, the king of the country, Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum, holds more than 20% equity in the associated company of Country Garden.
In addition, according to Bloomberg, Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum directly holds shares in Success Assets. And Tunku Tun Aminah of Johor is the chairperson of the railway business subsidiary of Berjaya Corporation and Success Land.