KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Venture Holdings Bhd (FGV) has appointed a legal firm in the UK to undertake forensic audit on possible wrongdoing in the RM1.1 billion acquisition of Asian Plantations Ltd.
FGV chairman Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid said the audit was looking into high price paid for Asian Plantations.
It also focuses on the large amount of non-plantable land and the former owners wrongfully developing about 700ha of land that Asian Plantations did not own.
“Since I joined the FGV board in September 2017, we have discussed and decided to appoint experts to investigate on discrepancies,” Azhar said after FGV shareholders’ meetings here today.
Also present were FGV group president and chief executive officer Datuk Zakaria Arshad, chief financial officer Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha and director Datuk Yahaya Abdul Jabar.
In 2014, FGV bought over the Singapore-incorporated Asian Plantations which was then listed on the UK’s Alternative Investment Market.
The £2.20 per share offer price was 5.4 per cent higher than the weighted average price of Asian Plantations for the one month prior to the offer. This translated into a premium of 294.7 per cent over the net asset value per share of Asian Plantations as at December 2013.
Asian Plantations had 24,622ha of oil palm plantations through its five wholly-owned estates — Incosetia Estate, Grand Performance Estate, Fortune Estate, Kronos Estate and BJ Corp Estate — all located around Miri and Bintulu in Sarawak.
Previous shareholders of Asian Plantations were Tan Sri Leonard Linggi Jugah, Dennis Nicholas Melka and Graeme Iain Brown.
A year ago, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) conducted an eight-hour operation at FGV headquarters to retrieve documents related to its probe into alleged improprieties.
On the progress of MACC’s investigation into FGV, Azhar said “Since then, the MACC has not visited FGV again. We are not privy to their investigation.
“We are carrying out our own forensic audit. If the audit outcome points to criminal elements, we would file a police report. As of now, we do not know because the audit is ongoing,” he said.
Azhar said shareholders had approved the name change of the company to FGV Holdings Bhd.
“We had to withdraw one resolution because there was no seconder on the re-election of a director, representing the Federal Land Development Authority interest in FGV board,” he said.
FGV also announced to the stock market that director Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun had retired effective today (Thursday).