Her garden leave is effective Oct 20 until Dec 15 or until further notice, the sugar refinery group said in a bourse filing today.

“Her temporary leave of absence is necessary to facilitate an ongoing investigation. MSM will continue its business operations as usual,” the filing said.

Garden leave typically refers to a designated duration where an employee is mandated to refrain from attending work, usually following their resignation, termination or for other reasons.

Mazatul, 50, was appointed as the group’s CFO on Dec 1, 2022. She was previously group CFO of Proton Holdings Bhd, prior to its merger with China’s Zhejiang Geely Group.

She is a former CFO of Nationwide Express Courier Services Bhd, and currently serves as an independent non-executive director of IJN Holdings Sdn Bhd.

MSM has been in the news lately. Yesterday, it dropped its lawsuit against Gas Malaysia Bhd’s subsidiary over a disputed sum of RM10.32 million pertaining to gas supply to its wholly owned unit MSM Sugar Refinery (Johor) Sdn Bhd.

MSM filed the lawsuit against Gas Malaysia Energy and Services Sdn Bhd after MSM Johor was forced to stop accepting gas supply from them, which followed a shutdown of its refinery operations due to boiler leakages in 2020 and 2021.

FGV Holdings Bhd is the majority shareholder of MSM with a 51% stake.

MSM shares ended two sen or 1.6% lower at RM1.24 with a market capitalisation of RM871.7 million.