The Board of Directors of Guinness Anchor Berhad (“GAB” or “the Company”) hereby announce that on 3 September 2015, the Company received bills of demand dated 28 August 2015 from the Royal Malaysian Customs of Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (“Customs”) demanding payment of additional excise duties and sales tax, totaling RM56.3 million.

The amounts in demand were:

• RM34,166,098.81 claimed under the Excise Act 1976, for the period of 28 August 2012 to 31 October 2013.
• RM22,159,456.40 claimed under the Sales Tax Act 1972, for the period of 1 July 2012 to 31 October 2013.

As reported in the Company’s financial report previously, Customs had imposed a new method of valuation for excise duty which came into effect on 1 November 2013. The abovementioned bills of demand are based on historic claims for excise and sales tax for the aforesaid periods. The Company’s position is that all excise duties and sales tax for those periods had been paid by the Company based on valuations previously assessed and approved by Customs.

The Company maintains its previous position that the valuation method implemented on 1 November 2013 is not in line with internationally applied rules of valuation. The Company strongly believes that a retrospective application is unjustifiable.

The Company does not admit liability on the bills of demand made by Customs and will take appropriate measures to address this matter.

The Company will make the necessary announcement on any new development relating to the above matter from time to time.

This announcement is dated 7 September 2015.