KUALA LUMPUR: Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) group managing director Datuk Richard Curtis said in a radio interview on Wednesday that the company’s success is not related to its association with former Sarawak chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

He said that the Taib family link, does not help in the company’s aspect of doing business because there are other companies involved in the same business as CMS in the state. 

“The Taib family is the single largest shareholder [under 50%] in the group. It doesn’t actually help to do business. There are many, many companies in Sarawak, and we are just one of the big companies in the state,” he said in the interview on Malaysia’s business station BFM89.9.

“You associate us with the former chief minister simply because of the shareholdings. But if you go and look around and look at the amount of business done in the state ... you’ll find many, many large companies all of whom have prospered.

Curtis said the matter should not be viewed through shareholdings.

 “We have got to where we are because we are professional, competent, and we deliver. That is the key thing. It is not from a position of privilege,” he said.

It was reported in January that Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund had alleged the company of monopoly in the cement and steel production in the state. 

On a report linking the company with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Utama Banking Group Bhd (UBG) — previously owned by CMS and businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, Curtis declined comment.

“We have since exited that on a very amicable basis. The story on that is in the public domain so I can’t really comment on that ... We have no more involvement with those parties.” he said.

DAP publicity chief Tony Pua was reported to have asked Bank Negara Malaysia to investigate Jho Low and his associates for suspected money laundering in the acquisition of UBG Bhd via PetroSaudi International (Seychelles) Ltd using funds from 1MDB. He said that the complicated money trail involving 1MDB clearly showed that it was meant as a cover-up and to legitimise the acquisition of assets using illegitimately acquired funds. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 13, 2015.