(July 10): Still reeling from a leadership crisis, Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGV) may see more changes to its board with three directors — Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun Narrashid, Omar Salim and, possibly, Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim — making way for representatives from the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), sources say.
FELDA, which has a 33.67% stake in FGV, is understood to have asked for three board seats in a letter to the company in end-May.
“While FELDA may have asked for three board seats, FGV may offer [only] two. From what we hear, two of the individuals who may be dropped from the board are Noor Ehsanuddin and Omar. It is still not sure if FGV will retain Mohd Zafer,” the sources say.
While the persons replacing them are not known, three individuals — two management representatives and a member of FELDA’s board of directors — are reported to be favoured for the positions.
Noor Ehsanuddin was appointed an independent non-executive director of FGV on July 16, 2013. He is also the Member of Parliament for Kota Tinggi, among others.
Omar was appointed to the FGV board as a non-independent non-executive director on Sept 27, 2010. He was previously with the Prime Minister’s Office as well as an assistant director in the Public Service Department and a director of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit. Currently, he heads a unit in Unit Kawal Selia FELDA in the Prime Minister’s Department.
Mohd Zafer was appointed an independent non-executive director on Jan 20, 2015. He was previously the president and managing director of Bank Pembangunan Malaysia and chief finance officer at Maybank Investment Bank and Bank Muamalat Malaysia.
If these three are asked to make way for FELDA representatives, it will further shake up FGV.
On June 19, Mohd Isa Abdul Samad stepped down as FGV non-executive chairman and was replaced by Sulaiman Mahbob, who is acting chairman.
Meanwhile, Isa was appointed acting chairman of the Land Public Transport Commission.
Earlier last month, FGV president and CEO Zakaria Arshad, chief financial officer Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha and two other officers — Kamarzaman Abd Karim and Ahmad Salman Omar — were told to take leave to enable investigations into delayed payments by Afghan outfit Safitex to FGV.
Zakaria, who was appointed to the top job at FGV in April last year, has denied any wrongdoing.
FGV’s external auditor, PwC and the agribusiness group’s internal auditors are said to have discovered irregularities in transactions involving Safitex. Now the alleged irregularities are being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
FGV has had issues since its listing in 2012. Its shares closed at RM1.69 on July 5, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM6.2 billion. Back in 2012, its market capitalisation was RM19.40 billion, which means more than RM13 billion in market capitalisation has been wiped out in a span of five years.
When FGV’s stock was first floated, its cash pile was a hefty RM5.09 billion, but it was in a net debt position of almost RM2 billion as at Dec 31, 2016.
For the first three months of its FY2017, the company made a paltry RM2.47 million in net profit on revenue of RM4.32 billion.
