The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last week opened investigations into Felda Investment Corporation’s (FIC) purported purchase of a four star hotel in Kensington, London, between 2013 and 2015 at a price far higher than its original value which caused FIC to lose millions of ringgit.
FIC director Nik Azman Mohamed Zain was questioned by the MACC yesterday.
And FIC Properties Sdn Bhd has not had a CEO since March this year. According to a report in The Edge, the earlier CEO left after being investigated for graft. As at end-December 2015, FIC Properties was not generating revenue.
Property developer Encorp Bhd, in which Felda holds a 70.82% stake, closed at 75.5 sen last Thursday. Felda had paid RM1.55 per share or RM306.11 million for the block in 2014, The Edge reported.
Encorp was profitable in FY2016, registering a net profit of RM28.53 million on the back of revenue of RM360.82 million. However, in FY2013, it registered a net profit of RM61.13 million on the back of revenue of RM538.71 million.
The shares of Iris Corp Bhd, which were at 26 sen and 28 sen apiece when Felda first bought it, for a total of more than RM130 million, is currently trading at 17.5 sen. Felda, which now owns 21.33% of Iris, had sold large blocks of the company’s shares at below cost, The Edge reported.
In its financial year ended March 31, 2017, Iris posted a net loss of RM318.95 million on the back of revenue of RM422.48 million.
And, it seems, nobody really knows what is going on at FGV, which has attracted so much negative news. Felda is its largest shareholder with a 33.67% stake.
FGV’s initial public offering in 2012 was done at RM4.55 a share. The stock closed at RM1.70 last Thursday.
The Edge quoted a plantation company official as saying: “The bad news just never ends and it’s the parent that is spreading it and suppressing FGV’s price.”
On July 5, Reuters reported that Felda’s plan to sell FGV’s equity to Indonesian billionaires Martua Sitorus and Peter Sondakh had been suspended following the boardroom tussle and corruption claims at FGV.
The tycoons were supposedly in advanced discussions with FGV and Felda to buy into the former.
The next day, Felda chairman Shahrir Abdul Samad was quoted as saying that Felda had no plans to sell FGV.
Just a day earlier, Shahrir had described the feud between FGV’s management and its board as a “crisis”.
The feud saw chairman Isa Samad leave the company and show-cause letters being issued to president and CEO Zakaria Arshad and others with regard to long outstanding debts owed by Afghan outfit, Safitex Trading LLC, to Delima Oil Products.
This led to the washing of FGV’s dirty linen in public, and much of what came out indicated bad governance.
Shahrir, according to The Edge report, has been bashing FGV since he was appointed Felda chairman in early January this year.
The report gave a couple of examples of what it described as blunders by Shahrir.
The Edge also recounted how Idris Jala of Pemandu fame was tasked with coming up with a solution for FGV, which was rather unusual as in such cases, most listed companies would discreetly hire an accounting firm to come up with a solution so as not to shake investor confidence.
Shockingly, it added, Jala had a report ready in just seven days on how to tackle the issues at FGV.
“If he (Jala) could have a thorough report ready in one week on a giant company like FGV, maybe he should run it,” one market watcher told The Edge.