DATUK Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah is understood to have joined Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary on the “private side” of the tycoon’s business, industry sources say.

Certain quarters say Emir — formerly the CEO and group president of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) — has already started as an adviser. Others say his actual appointment will likely be in a higher position and has yet to be made official, with the groundwork still being laid.

It remains to be seen which private business he will surface in. Messages and calls to some of Syed Mokhtar’s key lieutenants were not answered, but The Edge was able to confirm Emir’s appointment. While Syed Mokhtar’s main men are keeping their cards close to their chest, more than two sources familiar with Emir and the Syed Mokhtar group of companies knew about the recent appointment.

“It’s not clear if he (Emir) has joined in an advisory capacity, but that’s what I’ve heard. However, it’s not at Tradewinds [Corp Bhd], MMC [Corp Bhd] or DRB-Hicom [Bhd] but at the private level … and from what I hear, his outfit is not fully set up yet,” says one of the sources. 

Tradewinds Corp controls  Tradewinds (M) Bhd and Tradewinds Plantation Bhd besides housing a host of other assets such as choice land banks and Central Sugars Refinery Sdn Bhd. Considering Emir’s FGV experience, many were speculating that he was likely to join Tradewinds Plantation, which has a total land bank of about 160,000ha with 87% being planted areas, but this is understood to be inaccurate.

Apart from the talk of Emir joining Syed Mokhtar, there are rumours that the latter is looking to wrest control of FGV. In July, a news report stated that Syed Mokhtar was in preliminary talks to buy into FGV, but this was denied by the company.

Talk of Syed Mokhtar looking to inject his plantation assets into FGV has been making its rounds since 2013 — barely a year after the company’s listing, and soon after the businessman privatised Tradewinds Corp, Tradewinds (M) and Tradewinds Plantation. Whether it can take place is another question altogether. As many as 54 constituencies in the country are dominated byFELDA (Federal Land Development Authority) settlers. Thus FGV, in which FELDA has a 20% stake, is a very important company to the government.

These 54 constituencies are Barisan Nasional strongholds, and make up about 24% of the 222 parliamentary seats.

There is also the fact that FGV’s share price has soared more than 60% since June this year to close at RM2.22 last Thursday. Furthermore, the company reported a good set of results for its second financial quarter ended June 30, 2016. Compared to the previous corresponding period, net profit was up 34.37% to RM62.21 million while revenue shot up 88.3% to RM4.14 billion.

It is noteworthy that prior to joining FGV, Emir had quite an illustrious career. He had been a “leading expert in economic and government administration reform in the Middle East and Asia for the past 20 years”, according to FGV’s announcement to Bursa Malaysia.

He was a senior adviser to the United Nations Development Programme on various projects in the Middle East and North Africa region from 1998 to 2004, and a coordinator for good governance for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for the Arab region from 2002 to 2004. He acted as an adviser to the minister of finance in the United Arab Emirates from 2002 to 2007, and as a strategic adviser to the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi from 2008 to 2010.

This could fit into Syed Mokhtar’s private business dealings, which are kept low key.

The publicly traded companies under his umbrella include his flagship MMC, in which he has 51.76% equity interest, and DRB-Hicom, in which he has 55.92% shareholding.

MMC has a 20% stake in Red Sea Gateway Terminal Co Ltd and 20% equity interest in Red Sea Ports Development Co Ltd, both of which are in Saudi Arabia and handle the operations and maintenance of container terminals. It also has a 50% holding in Jazan Economic City Land Co Ltd, which is involved in the development of a city in Saudi Arabia.

MMC’s 37.58%-owned unit, Malakoff Corp Bhd, had interests in power generation businesses in Saudi Arabia but is understood to have wound down these investments.

Emir is the latest in a string of new faces at Syed Mokhtar’s companies. Over the past few years, they have seen many changes in terms of high-level personnel.

At MMC, the big change happened in July 2013 when 51-year-old Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh took up the reins of the diversified company.

Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas, former president and CEO of state-owned oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, was appointed independent non-executive chairman of MMC in mid-July last year.

On May 1 this year, Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid, formerly the CEO of Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd and Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd, took the helm of power generation outfit Malakoff as its managing director. Azhar is an accountant and other than Malakoff, he is also the chairman of plantation and development company Tradewinds Corp.

Another new entrant to Syed Mokhtar’s empire is Datuk Seri Syed Faisal Albar Syed AR Albar, who is DRB-Hicom’s CEO. Syed Faisal took over from Tan Sri Mohd Khamil Jamil in early January this year.

An appointment at DRB-Hicom that generated interest was that of Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad as independent non-executive director. He was formerly the CEO of government-linked private equity firm Ekuiti Nasional Bhd.

Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd’s former CEO, Datuk Mohamed Razeek Md Hussain, joined DRB-Hicom as chief operating officer in September 2012.

Another appointment that was talked about by corporate players was that of Datuk Mohammad Zainal Shaari as managing director of Tradewinds (M). He was previously the chief operating officer of Khazanah Nasional Bhd and director of Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

A more recent appointment is Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Kenali as CEO of Proton Holdings Bhd in March this year. He was previously the chief financial officer of Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd.

Another recent appointee, Abdul Karim Md Lazim, who is CEO of Padiberas Nasional Bhd, was previously the head of automotive financial services and deputy head of retail financial services at CIMB, among others.

Others who have been appointed in the last three to four years include Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Yaacob, who is CEO of telecommunications company Altel Holdings Sdn Bhd. He was formerly a senior vice-president of Khazanah Nasional and CEO of Jaring.

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