Another New RM500m loan fund for selected Bumi firms

Another new RM500 million loan facilities that offers up to 100 per cent financing has been created for Bumiputera companies identified as having high potential, said Putrajaya’s Teraju unit today.

The loan facility will be offered by SME Bank to qualified firms identified by the Bumiputera development agency under its Teras programme partly, with the aim of encouraging more businesses run by members of the community to apply.

The profit rate for working capital loans is five per cent; this will be tied to the base lending rate for asset loans.

Prompt repayment will earn a rebate of one per cent on loans for working capital.

“The loan scheme is customized for Teras companies,” said Teraju CEO Husni Salleh.

He said that many banks were asking for as much as one-to-one financing, whereby a loan would have to be backed by an equivalent in fixed deposits.

Teraju granted RM50 million in risk capital to SME Bank to help mitigate the perils of setting up the new loan facility. The amount was sourced from Teraju’s development budget.

There are currently 130 Teras companies and Teraju aims to increase the number to 1,100 in three years. Teras companies are chosen based on their financial standing and growth potential.

Teraju also said that the existing RM2 billion facilitation funds has been made more flexible as a percentage of it has been carved out for smaller projects.

The minimum threshold previously for projects to apply for the facilitation fund was RM20 million but, based on feedback from the various implementing agencies in the country’s economic corridors, some RM600 million has been reserved for projects with a minimum size of RM5 million.

Teraju also announced a new programme to increase the number of Bumiputera accountants by placing degree holders from any discipline with CGPA of at least 3.0 to one of five participating major accounting firms for exposure and potential employment.