A furious Mahathir wants Geely out of Proton
The Third Force
In 2013, Dato’ Mokhzani Mahathir appeared as a substantial shareholder in Yinson Holdings Berhad, an oil and gas service provider domiciled in Malaysia that’s among the world’s leading Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO & FSO) service providers.
The 18.5% stake that Mokhzani owns was acquired through a private vehicle of his, Kenchana Capital Sdn Bhd.
The acquisition resulted in the collapse of Mokhzani’s partnership with Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin in SapuraKencana (SK) Petroleum Berhad, an integrated oil and gas service and solutions provider that went on to purchase a 49% stake in Seadrill Ltd, a Bermuda based deepwater drilling company that possessed technology Mokhzani needed.
The collapse of the partnership forced Mokhzani to seek the assistance of Tan Sr Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, whose Melati Pertiwi Sdn Bhd currently possesses deepwater technology that Syed parked under MMC Oil and Gas Engineering Sdn Bhd, another one of his concerns.
MMC Oil and Gas is fully owned by Melati Pertiwi.
Dato’ Gooi Hoe Soon, board member of Yinson Holdings, was appointed Avenue Assets Berhad Group Non-Executive Chairman in 2004.
Avenue Assets is an investment holding company that is jointly owned by Tongkah Holdings Berhad and Pantai Holdings Berhad, two other entities Mokhzani has substantial stakes in.
Gooi happens also to be on the Directorial boards several public listed companies in Malaysia, including Proton Holdings Bhd (Proton), a onetime subsidiary of the Syed Bukhari controlled DRB-Hicom Berhad.
Following the signing of a Definitive Agreement with China’s Zejiang Geely Holding Group Limited on 23 June 2017, the Chinese carmaker acquired 49.9% equity in Proton and triggered a major shakeup in the Board of Directors.
Geely retained Gooi at Syed Bukhari’s behest.
Negotiations are now ongoing between Yinson, DRB-Hicom, Melati Pertiwi and one or two board members from Gamuda Berhad, Avenue Assets and Some Darby properties each to effect a multi-channeled cross-holding structure that involves subsidiaries of these companies.
The share swap arrangement is said to involve energy and infrastructure related projects and was contingent upon the success of Daim Zainuddin’s negotiations with Chinee premier Li Keqiang.
But the negotiations have since fallen apart.
