KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — As speculation is rife that more heads of government-linked companies will roll or be removed, MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd Chairman Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid today claimed he is not a political appointee.
“As far as I am concerned, I exist to serve MSM in my capacity as chairman. The question of whether I am safe or not, really depends on MSM.
“If they feel like they no longer require me, then I should not stay. However, as long as they feel that I can add value, I will continue to stay,” he told a press conference after the company’s annual general meeting here today.
Azhar said he had always been fairly independent in whichever company he serves in order to remain objective in managing the organisation he leads.
When asked whether the government’s special committee tasked to disband monopolies across all industries had approached MSM, he said the committee approached MSM’s major shareholder, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV), which owns a 51 per cent stake in the company.
“FGV has had interactions with the committee and they basically wanted a briefing on MSM’s performance, what are we doing and where we are going,” he said.
Azhar said as far as Malaysia was concerned, there were two leading sugar-refining players, namely MSM and Tradewinds (M) Bhd, on top of increased competition from non-refiners that are importing sugar into the domestic market.
He emphasised that MSM had the capability to produce sugar for the domestic market whereby currently it supplies over 900,000 metric tonnes of sugar to both the wholesale retail market and industrial markets.
“So really, we do not need to import sugar into the domestic market especially with our new refinery in Tanjung Langsat, Johor coming up in July,” he added.
The Johor facility will be ready for production in July, with its production expected to gradually reach maximum capacity of one million metric tonnes in 24 months. — Bernama
