PUTRAJAYA, March 13 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today defended the move to inject RM1.1 billion into Sapura Energy, saying this is to pay what is owed to mostly Bumiputera vendors rather than save the troubled oil-and-gas firm’s top executives.

The Malaysia Development Holding Sdn Bhd’s (MDH) infusion of funds into the publicly listed Sapura as led to perception of a government bailout of the firm, which Anwar previously rejected while in the Opposition.

Speaking at the Ministry of Finance’s monthly assembly here, Anwar said channelling money into Sapura Energy “was not an easy decision”, but was necessary to prevent a financial ripple effect in the oil and gas supply chain.

Anwar also noted that the infusion was MDH’s subscription of Sapura’s redeemable convertible loan stocks.

“Will this money be burnt just like that? No. This injection is meant as a capital loan for the new management, with the hope it would manage the company better and make profits so it could then repay this RM1.1 billion injection,” said Anwar, who is also the finance minister.

“When we criticised Sapura Energy years ago what did I say? I said don’t bail out because the same management is still there, their salaries are millions of ringgit. Then I asked where the forensic audit was. Now we brought in EY and put in a proper and transparent process,” he added.

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