KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar and eight other members of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund's board have submitted their resignations to the government, a development that is likely to presage more top-level changes at government-linked companies in the coming weeks, according to a report by the Singapore Straits Times.

Citing senior government officials and financial executives close to the situation, it said Azman and the Khazanah directors held a special board meeting late in the afternoon on Tuesday and decided to sign undated resignation letters that were subsequently submitted to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration.

“The officials said the meeting, which was chaired by Khazanah executive committee chairman Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof, reached the unanimous decision that Dr Mahathir's new Pakatan Harapan coalition government, which won the May 9 general election, should be allowed to determine the new leadership structure at the sovereign wealth fund.

“The move to submit the undated letters was intended to give Dr Mahathir the final say on who should remain or leave Khazanah, which is modelled after Singapore's Temasek Holdings, the financial executives and government officials close to the situation said,” said the report.

The Straits Times added that several Khazanah directors did not respond to requests for comment for this article, and Khazanah executives were not immediately available for comment.

According to the report today, the current board of Khazanah features several of Malaysia's most prominent corporate figures, and the process of finding replacements, if any, will be watched closely by local and foreign investors.

Apart from Azman and Md Nor, Khazanah's other di-rectors are former banker Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya; Datuk Mohammed Azlan Hashim; former central banker Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao, who previously served as the deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; Tan Sri Raja Arshad Raja Uda, former chairman and senior partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Malaysia; Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, chairman of financial group CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and brother of former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak; Datuk Nirmala Menon, a highly respected insurance sector executive; and banker Yeo Kar Peng.

Straits Times said speculation about a shake-up at Khazanah was triggered two weeks ago when Dr Mahathir publicly chastised the sovereign wealth fund, which he founded in 1994 during his first stint as prime minister.

It said Mahathir claimed that Khazanah had deviated from its original objectives and had become a convenient vehicle for the previous government to reward politicians and non-professionals with positions and lucrative compensation packages.