KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — The White Paper on Felda to be tabled in Parliament next week will focus on how the agency incurred tremendous debt and losses after being publicly listed in 2012.
The Straits Times reported the White Paper will touch on Felda’s RM10 billion initial public offering (IPO) and how the RM6 billion it raised ended up being wasted away. It is expected to be tabled before the upcoming Parliamentary meeting concludes in April 11.
Based on financial statements, Felda has accrued up to RM10 billion in losses with RM12 billion of debt by the end of 2017, in the time since the IPO.
The accounts indicate Felda borrowed RM3.4 billion to finance replanting, and invested nearly RM1 billion in estate management outfit Felda Technoplant.
Sources told The Straits Times, the paper will also look at several deals currently being investigated for abuse of power and breach of fiduciary duty, the most serious of which is the decision to purchase a 37 per cent stake in Indonesian planter Eagle High for RM2.3 billion.
Former Felda chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad, who quit on May 14 last year, was also reported to have said that less than a quarter of the RM6 billion raised for the IPO ended up being used for capital expenditure, with virtually none used for replanting.
Of the figure, RM1.7 billion was handed out to settlers as windfall payment, RM884 million used to cover management expenses, and RM550 million provided to the Sabah and Pahang state governments.
It is expected that Felda’s problems and that of its wholly-owned listed vehicle Felda Global Ventures (FGV) will be blamed on the former Barisan Nasional government under Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
This could be part of efforts by the Pakatan Harapan government to halt the fast-eroding support for it among the Malays, who are beginning to doubt its ability to protect their interests.
