KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 23): PKR's Rafizi Ramli today alleged that Lembaga Tabung Haji's aggressive move to invest in a bread-making company in 2007 has landed the fund with losses of nearly RM100 million.

Rafizi, the party secretary-general, said Tabung Haji’s active buying of Silverbird Group Berhad's (now known as Hi-5 Conglomerate Berhad) shares was prevalent between September and October 2007, which saw the soaring of the bread-making company's shares from 39 sen (early Sept 2007) to RM1.08 on Oct 16, 2007.

"Tabung Haji later emerged as the largest shareholder at the end of financial year that ended October 31, 2007," he said, adding that the pilgrims’ fund invested about RM98 million for 90.483 million shares, or 28.81% in the company.

Rafizi questioned if due diligence was done, because when Tabung Haji exited the investment in 2014, the share prices had dropped to between a RM0.07 and RM0.08 per share.

At the moment, he said Hi-5 Conglomerate Berhad's share is priced at RM0.04 per share.

"The company ran into trouble (after 2007) and Tabung Haji lost the investment, but held on (the investment) until the middle of 2014 before selling it off,"

"This in a way gives you an idea that if Tabung Haji had done its due diligence, it would have been more careful because the due diligence will have highlighted the possibility of this. Clearly this was not done."

He said the de-listing of Silverbird from Bursa Malaysia in 2011 was due to several incidents, including the Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) charge against its top management.

"Firstly, three senior management were dragged to court for allegedly embezzling RM167 million of the company's money,"

"Then in 2015, the company was dragged to court by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for alleged embezzlement with regards to a Koperasi Permodalan Felda (KPF) Malaysia contract.

"They were also involved as the logistics provider for Felda's programme, through another subsidiary company," he said.

Rafizi questioned why Tabung Haji had decided to go aggressive with the investment in 2007.

He also wanted to know how did such investment mistake occurred and if anyone was held responsible for it.