KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — All nine board members of sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, including managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar have tendered their resignation, a Singapore daily reported today.
Citing unnamed government officials and financial executives, the Straits Times reported that the nine signed undated resignation letters after a meeting last Tuesday which have since been submitted to founder and Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to allow him to decide the fund’s leadership structure.
The reported mass resignations follow Dr Mahathir’s purported public criticism against Khazanah two weeks ago in which he said the fund had deviated from the original purpose of its creation — to support Bumiputera equity in Malaysia.
Khazanah’s website still lists the following as board members: Datuk Seri Nazir Razak who is chairman of Malaysia’s second-largest commercial bank, Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya, Datuk Mohammed Azlan Hashim, former Bank Negara Malaysia official Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao, Tan Sri Raja Arshad Raja Uda, Datuk Nirmala Menon, and Yeo Kar Peng.
According to the news report, the mass resignations at Khazanah will pave the way for more top level changes in government-linked companies.
Khazanah, formed by Dr Mahathir during his first tenure as prime minister, began operations in 1994 to manage the government’s commercial assets and investments.
Khazanah holds stakes in Tenaga Nasional, Telekom Malaysia, Axiata Group, CIMB Group, Malaysia Airports Holdings, IHH Healthcare and is the owner of Malaysia Airlines.
Straits Times reported speculation within the domestic financial industry that Khazanah’s new leadership will pursue changes to the sovereign fund’s investments.
It added that this could affect Khazanah’s foreign investments.
Khazanah and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek are in a joint venture over the development of six parcels of land in the island republic, including the high profile Marina One and Duo.
