This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 30, 2023 - February 5, 2023

A few of us from The Edge are setting up a meeting with Tan Sri Idris Jusoh, chairman of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), after Chap Goh Mei.

The plan is to revive and unlock value in one of Felda’s hidden gems — its football team, Felda United Football Club.

Felda United was scrapped in 2020 due to financial constraints on the part of its parent but, if all goes well, in 10 years you can expect a large initial public offering of Felda United Bhd, or FUB for short.

We believe Felda can pledge some of its 81.78%, or 2.98 billion shares, in FGV Holdings Bhd and kick-start the whole process in terms of funding. And unlike Felda’s other ventures, this one could pay off big time.

I mean, if Manchester United plc can have a market capitalisation of US$3.73 billion on the New York Stock Exchange, maybe Felda United can likewise have a market value of RM3.73 billion on Bursa Malaysia. In fact, we envision it being a component stock of the benchmark FBM KLCI.

What we need to do is convince a couple of retired international-standard footballers, or naturalise a few players who will form the core team, and build everything else around them.

We are also looking at constructing a new stadium, perhaps in Kuala Lumpur, with a capacity of 30,000 to 40,000. As for the existing stadium, Stadium Tun Abdul Razak in Jengka, Pahang, well, we can use it as a retreat of some sort or a test case for our stadium maintenance business.

As for land for the stadium, we are talking about Felda here, so getting land in the city centre shouldn’t be a problem. The reason for building it in the city is so that Felda employees, the children of settlers who are in KL and other football fans will not have to travel so far — such as to Bukit Jalil or Shah Alam — to catch good games.

From what we understand, Felda has some pockets of land in the Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra (formerly Jalan Semarak and before that Jalan Henry Gurney) area that could be utilised. That should be central enough as there is also an efficient public transport system.

The construction of the stadium can be undertaken by Felda’s 67.13%-owned unit Encorp Bhd, which in turn wholly owns Encorp Construction & Infrastructure Sdn Bhd. This could be what businessmen term a left hand-right hand deal, correct?

Once the stadium is completed, the grass, maintenance and other requirements such as fertiliser should be a cinch. To put things in perspective, FGV Holdings’ annual report for FY2021 states proudly that via its FGV Fertilizer Sdn Bhd, it is “Malaysia’s leading fertiliser manufacturer with 700,000 tonnes annual production capacity”, so perhaps some of its products could be used at the stadium.

If Felda United flourishes and maintains its home ground well, it could set up a football stadium maintenance arm, which could be a good source of income.

Felda should also try to buy a block in sports apparel company Cheetah Holdings Bhd. This would be to secure supply of the team’s jerseys, and also for sponsorship purposes, which could add to revenue, over and above gate collections.

Koperasi Permodalan Felda was a substantial shareholder of Cheetah for more than a year until October 2012. Why they sold out should be looked into. Anyway, with Cheetah trading at about 10 sen, a 10% block would set Felda back by only RM5 million, including a slight premium to the market price.

And just imagine, if the whole plan does work out, the food and drinks sold in the stadium — hotdogs, fried chicken, burgers — can all be under Felda as well.

Last August, FGV Holdings via its unit FGV Integrated Farming Sdn Bhd inked an agreement with Qatar’s Baladna Food Industries WLL and Touch Group Holdings Sdn Bhd to develop dairy farms in Chuping, Perlis, which should take care of the sale of milk and other related products, such as yoghurt.

In September 2020, the then minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said Felda Wilayah Sahabat in Lahad Datu, Sabah, had great potential to be developed for livestock activities such as beef cattle breeding, and had requested Felda and Sabah Development Corridor to look into the initiative.

With cattle comes beef, which can be turned into patties for burgers. And if you can do beef, chicken should be doable as well. That’s the burgers and hotdogs covered.

And guess what oil can be used to cook the burgers? Of course it would be Saji, the brand produced by FGV Holdings that has a 42% market share in Malaysia. Saji can even be roped in as a sponsor.

And the plan involves eventually establishing the Plantations Cup, similar to the World Cup, but for plantation companies and held once every four years as well.

Our Felda United Football Club will be the core of the Malaysian national team, and will go on to make us proud and dominate world football.

But first, let’s see if Idris answers our WhatsApp messages.

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