KUALA LUMPUR: Economists and Transparency International Malaysia (T1-M) praised the decision to rename Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) to Lumut Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (Lunas).
They also called for a new board of directors and management team with appropriate credentials, free from political influence.
Malaysian University of Science and Technology's economic professor, Geoffrey Williams said the change in the name reflects the reality that the company has a change of ownership and that things will be different from now onwards.
"It is a good move that will instil confidence with the seriousness in tackling issues affecting the company and that changes are happening quickly," he told the New Straits Times.
However, Geoffrey cautioned that the renaming alone will not be enough unless there is a new management and strategy approach.
"The change in ownership and in the name must be accompanied by a complete change in management to make clear that this is a corporate restructuring and transformation exercise not just a cosmetic rebranding exercise," he said.
Geoffrey said there must be a full review and restatement of corporate aims and governance with new vision, mission, values and destination statements as a commitment to a new strategic management approach.
"This must be followed by a completely new corporate strategy incorporating strong environmental, social and governance (ESG,) elements to put in place a responsible management at the core of the new company.
"This must all be credible, accountable and transparent and involve new people as directors, senior managers, executive managers and independent advisers," he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said this move aims to give a fresh image to the management and the company as one of the entities under the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc).
Anwar said the rebranding follows the change in shareholding from existing shareholders, namely Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), Boustead Holdings Berhad (BHB) and Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd (BHIC), to MoF Inc.
[https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/03/1031547/boustead-naval-shipya...
Putra Business School economic analyst Associate Prof Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff said the new name and the fact that the company will be a government-owned entity will help improve its image and reputation.
The move he said would help the company establish better relationships with its stakeholders including suppliers and financial institutions, among others.
Razman said to ensure that its image continues to be enhanced, the government must ensure that the board of directors and management team must be those with strong corporate governance.
"But more importantly, to ensure that its image continues to be enhanced, the appointment of its board of directors and management team be professionals, not politicians and there must be a strong corporate governance framework within the company," he told the New Straits Times. Sharing the same sentiment as Geoffrey and Razman was Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president, Dr Muhammad Mohan.
Muhammad said renaming an entity when its image is tarnished is purely a rebranding exercise to rebuild the image of a company and it is not new nor is it wrong.
"It is done so that people do not recall what happened in the past and allow the company to rebuild itself with a new image," he said.
However, he believed that what is more important is to ensure that another fiasco like the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal does not recur.