The reason why Mahathir wants Gani reinstated as AG

By MT Webmaster Last updated Feb 16, 2016

So now Dr Mahathir and Kadir Jasin need to prove that Dr Mahathir’s son was not implicated for tax evasion and the Attorney General did not bury this case. And they also have to prove that there is no investigation for insider trading.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

(Free Malaysia Today) – He (A Kadir Jasin) declined to comment when asked who he thought would be the best person to lead Umno after Najib.

According to Kadir, a leader has failed if the public has even the slightest doubt about his credibility.

Speaking of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein Onn and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, he said these former prime ministers resigned when they felt they had to. The demand for them to quit was much less intense than the pressure being applied on Najib, he added.

“They didn’t ruin Umno or the country merely to stay in power,” he said. “They had the wisdom to voluntarily step down when it was time for them to do so. On the other hand, Najib, in his determination to stay at the top, has ended up damaging the country and the party he represents.” (READ MORE HERE)

********************************************************

“A leader has failed if the public has even the slightest doubt about his credibility,” said Kadir Jasin. Well, this was the same thing that people were saying about his boss, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, back in 1987. And we are not talking about ‘the slightest doubt’. We are taking about a major doubt where more than 50% of the people wanted Dr Mahathir to go.

And can you remember what the old man replied?

Dr Mahathir said he would stay on as party president and Prime Minister even if he wins by just one vote. And then he won by 43 votes although his opponents took the case to court and alleged that Dr Mahathir actually lost because there were 78 illegal delegates who voted.

Kadir Jasin then mentioned Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and said, “They didn’t ruin Umno or the country merely to stay in power. They had the wisdom to voluntarily step down when it was time for them to do so.”

Yes, Kadir Jasin mentions the Tunku, Hussein and Abdullah but he does not mention Dr Mahathir. Why does Kadir mention the names of the other Prime Ministers but not Dr Mahathir’s name?

The answer is because although Dr Mahathir was told to resign and more than 50% of the people were against him, he refused to do so. And when the court wanted to declare Umno’s party elections null and void and wanted to order a re-election, Dr Mahathir removed the judges and closed down Umno. He then formed a new Umno and barred his opponents from joining the new party.

So you see, Kadir Jasin is not telling us the whole truth. He talks about the Tunku, Hussein and Abdullah but he does not talk about Dr Mahathir. And he does not talk about Dr Mahathir because then his statement that “they didn’t ruin Umno and had the wisdom to voluntarily step down” cannot be applied since Dr Mahathir did the exact opposite of that.

So, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and all those people aligned to him are liars. And Dr Mahathir plus all those people aligned to him only want to seek the truth.

This is what they would like us to believe. In that case tell us the truth then. Is Dr Mahathir’s son under investigation for insider trading? Do enlighten us on the truth and deny it if it is not true. We just want the truth the way you see the truth.

And what about the tax evasion case that Dr Mahathir’s son was implicated in during the time of Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi — and which the then Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail helped sweep under the carpet?

So now can you understand why Dr Mahathir wants Gani brought back as Attorney General? Gani already saved his son once on a tax evasion charge and he needs Gani to save him a second time on an insider trading charge. So there is more to the story about why Dr Mahathir is opposed to Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali then what we are being told.

The moral of this story is that those who live in glasshouses should not throw stones. And Dr Mahathir plus Kadir Jasin of all people should be the last people in Malaysia who should be throwing stones.

The issue here is simple. Najib has been asked to prove he did not steal 1MDB’s money. Even if the PAC or the Attorney General say he did not that is not good enough. We will not believe what the PAC or the Attorney General say. Najib has to prove his innocence. This is how the justice system in Malaysia works.

Even though they will not accept a simple denial from Najib, we, however, will be prepared to accept their simple denial. And if they refuse to deny this then we will have to assume that it is true. Silence, in this case, would be an admission.

********************************************************

What’s Mokhzani up to at Yinson?

Gunasegaram, 12 June 2013

KiniBiz introduces today, TigerTalk, an irregular column, slated to go regular, which will deal with issues in the corporate jungle and encompass other aspects of the business and economic melee. Our first talk stalks Mokhzani Mahathir and pounces on his questionable role in Yinson Holdings.

It’s a deal that just has to be scrutinised further and has the hallmarks of major corporate governance violations and conflicts of interest. It even raises questions as to whether insider trading was involved in the sharp rise of family-owned logistics and transport company Yinson Holdings’ shares ahead of a major acquisition and the emergence of a new major shareholder.

It involves Mokhzani Mahathir, son of former prime minister and current Petronas adviser Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also one of the major shareholders of SapuraKencana Petroleum together with Shahril Shamsuddin.

SapuraKencana was formed by the merger of Shahril’s SapuraCrest Petroleum and Mokhzani’s Kencana Petroleum to create Malaysia’s largest and one of the world’s largest providers of integrated oilfield services. Both are major shareholders of Sapura Crest with Shahril owning about 19% and Mokhzani about 16%.

Mokhzani invested in Yinson through his investment holding company Kencana Capital Sdn Bhd, a venture with Yeow Kheng Chew. Both are executive directors of SapuraKencana. Now Kencana Capital has a stake of over 14% in Yinson, a stake which it acquired almost simultaneously with Yinson’s huge acquisition of a Norwegian company for just over RM550 million. Together with a stake earlier of over 4%, the total interest in Yinson is more than 18%.

Yinson’s major shareholders are founder and managing director Lim Han Weng, his wife Bah Kim Lian and his brother Lim Han Joeh. Together, they controlled 56.2% of the company’s shareholdings as at May 30, before the latest deals. After the deals and their new share issues to Kencana Capital, their stakes go down to about 46%.

The interesting thing Tiger finds in this ramble into the jungles of Corporate Malaysia is the timing of the private placement exercise, the announcement of the acquisition, and the sharp run-up in Yinson’s price just ahead.

Is this mere coincidence?

The other is that Mokhzani is already a major shareholder in SapuraKencana. What is he doing being involved in the acquisition of oil and gas assets by another company and taking a stake in it? Do his fellow shareholders and board members know about it? Has he declared his interests?

But first the timing of the private placement exercise and the announcement of the acquisition.

May 22: Yinson announced the details for the private placement – at a price of RM2.82 a share (a discount of about 9% to the closing price on that day of RM3.10) for up to 10% of the share capital (it is allowed 15%). Note that it was for up to 10% of the share capital, not more.

To quote an extract from the announcement: “The Proposed Private Placement will enable the Company to raise funds for YHB’s (Yinson’s) business expansion. The Proposed Private Placement will also allow YHB to strengthen its financial position.” Note that there is no mention of an acquisition.

May 31: Kencana Capital, which has a paid-up capital of RM3 million, is identified as the party to which the private placement is made. There is a significant change, this time it is for up to 15% of the enlarged share capital. To quote verbatim an extract from the announcement: “To assist YHB (Yinson) with the Proposed Acquisition, KCSB (Kencana Capital) agrees to inject capital into YHB by subscribing in cash for such number of New Issue Shares.”

June 10: Ah, yes, now comes the acquisition – of Norway’s Fred Olson Production (FOP) for RM552 million. To quote verbatim from Yinson’s announcement: “It has been identified that the proceeds from the Proposed Share Issuance will now be utilised to part finance the Proposed Acquisition.” Even for Malaysia’s jungle, Tiger says, that’s very convenient – what a machete job. And isn’t it time the authorities took a look at what’s happening over here?

If Yinson even had an inkling that a major acquisition was on the cards, was it right for it to place out shares to Kencana Capital at a discount? Did Kencana and Mokhzani have anything to do with the acquisition as some analysts suspect? If so is this their payback? Why did the share price go sky high ahead of the announcement and just after the private placement?

Eventually, Kencana Capital got or will get 37.8 million Yinson shares for a total of about RM106 million or RM2.82 a share. The share price has already gone up to RM4.76. At that price, the stake is now worth RM180 million – that’s a gain of RM74 million or 70% in mere days! What a windfall for Kencana Capital and Mokhzani.

But somewhere in the interim, nifty Kencana Capital, already acquired 10 million additional shares for a 4.54% stake in the company before the private placement exercise and this together with the private placement gives the company a hefty 47.8 million shares or an 18.5% stake in Yinson. Even Tiger can’t calculate how much they made from the 10 million shares because we don’t know the original price at which it was acquired. But you can take it that it will be substantial.

Analysts said the deal catapults Yinson into the top ten floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) owners and nearly matches Asian FPSO leader BumiArmada Bhd. They estimated that Yinson has also bought FOP on the cheap.

If that is indeed the case, shouldn’t Mokhzani be getting this deal for SapuraKencana instead of Yinson or is he letting his links with the Lim family, major shareholders of Yinson, get in the way of good corporate governance and avoidance of conflicts.

But let’s prowl a bit deeper. FOP made losses of US$10 million in 2010 and US$28.9 million in 2011. It made a net after tax profit of US$1.85 million (RM5.7 million) for 2012. Clearly profit seems very volatile for a company whose FPSO’s are said to be already leased – in Nigeria and West Africa mind you where the corporate jungle is really a tangle.

The acquisition price of RM552 million puts an acquisition price-earnings ratio of almost 97 times which seems to be too high. Unless future earnings jump, this acquisition is not going to be worth it. And it needs to jump like a tiger – and there is no need to tell you that tigers are not common these days.

To sum it up, Tiger says that Mokhzani, Yinson and the Lim family are in a bit of tangle here and they need some nifty work to sort themselves out and emerge out of the shady corporate jungle into a clearing which sheds some light on what they are doing.

And it will be good if they stayed in the light from now on to avoid further suspicions on their sojourns into the corporate jungle.

Grrrrr!

http://cms-m.kinibiz.com/story/tigertalk/27933/what%E2%80%99s-mokhzani-up-to-at-yinson.html

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK