Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 1, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: TH Plantations Bhd, in which Lembaga Tabung Haji holds a 73.84% stake, yesterday dismissed its long-serving chief financial officer (CFO) Mohamed Azman Shah Ishak.

“A letter to that effect has been sent to the CFO,” TH Plantations said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

The loss-making plantation group said the dismissal was made after due deliberation, upon evaluating the 53-year-old’s reply to a show-cause letter from the management.

It said in the interim, responsibilities and functions of the CFO will be carried out by Marliyana Omar and Hamidah Hassan, assistant general manager and senior manager of the group’s finance department respectively.

Mohamed Azman, an accountant by training, was appointed TH Plantations CFO in January 2010.

His removal from office followed a nearly two-month-long suspension since he was served with the show-cause letter on Aug 9, after a new management that came in to turn around the company undertook a forensic audit exercise.

The group has yet to reveal the findings of the forensic audit.

While the focus of the forensic audit remains unclear, it is worth noting that in 2018, TH Plantations unit Bumi Suria Ventures Sdn Bhd (BSV) suffered a massive impairment of RM244.07 million that saw its book value reduce by two-thirds.

The group acquired BSV for RM212.5 million, and its subsidiary Maju Warisanmas Sdn Bhd for RM42.08 million, in 2012.

TH Plantations incurred a net loss of RM594.61 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2018 (FY18), versus a net profit of RM22.41 million for FY17. Revenue declined 24.5% to RM519.32 million from RM687.98 million.

For the six months ended June 30, 2019, the group posted a net loss of RM27.24 million, compared to a net profit of RM3.43 million for the same period last year. Half-year revenue dropped 14.78% to RM221.4 million, from RM259.79 million.

TH Plantations shares inched up half a sen to 30 sen yesterday, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM265.16 million.

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