Rm514m Suit Five Ex Directors File Counter Claim Against Fgv

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Following FGV Holdings Bhd filing a RM514 million breach of fiduciary duties suit against 14 of its former officers, five of them yesterday filed their defence and their counter-claim against the company and seeking the same amount of damages

The five are Ismee Ismail, Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, Sulaiman Mahbob, Nozirah Bahari and Fazlur Rahman KMM Ebrahim
They named FGV Holdings and its 10 present directors as defendants in their defence and counter-claim filed by Messrs Fahda Nur and Yusmadi
The 10 present directors named in the counter-claim are Azhar Abdul Hamid, Mohd Hassan Ahmad, Othman Omar, Mohamed Nazeeb P Alithambi, Salmiah Ahmad, Hoi Lai Peng, Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Nasadurai Kalanithi, Mohd Anwar Yahya and Mohamad Suffian Awang
In their defence, the five claimed the present FGV board had initiated the civil suit so as to cover up their weaknesses in managing the company that led to a drop in FGV shares and had alluded the losses were due to the Asian Plantation Ltd (APL) purchase
The five further claimed that the present board move was to discredit the previous board which they said had taken all efforts to expand the company and safeguard its potential future revenue
They further said the present FGV board had initiated the suit against them to cast the impression that they were corrupted
The five said FGV's legal action had caused tremendous stress and embarrassment, causing them to suffer loss and damage to their reputation
Ismee claimed since the case was filed, he has not been able to accept any offer of directorship, while Wan Abdul Aziz had to tender his resignation from Permodalan Nasional Bhd, RAM Holdings Bhd and RAM Ratings
Sulaiman, meanwhile, said he had to relinquish his post as Telekom Malaysia Bhd chairperson, while Nozirah claimed that she had to tender her resignation from RHB Islamic Bank Bhd, RHB Islamic International Asset Management, while her chairpersonship of Cradle Funds was not renewed
Fazlur Rahman said he had to tender his resignation from the Securities Commission, Bank Simpanan Nasional and Permodalan Felcra Bhd
The five claimed that during their tenure as directors of FGV, they had acted in good faith and with honesty, had exercised their power and discretion properly, exercised reasonable care, skill and diligence according to their knowledge and expertise while providing the relevant checks and balances focussing on shareholders' interests
Case managementIt was previously reported that FGV filed a RM514 million suit in November last year to recover losses it claimed were due to its 2014 acquisition of APL, a Singapore-based company with assets in Sarawak and listed on the London Stock Exchange
The company filed the suit accusing the defendants of failing to discharge their respective fiduciary duties, duties of fidelity and/or duties to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence with regards to the purchase
It was reported that FGV had acquired APL for a total cash consideration of £120 million, or about RM628 million at the time, at a 5.4 percent premium over APL's weighted average priceOn the APL purchase, the five former directors claimed the consideration to purchase was made after cost-benefit and project analyses were done, adding the purchase was for the long term survival of FGV so as to improve the quality and yield of its plantations
The suit came up for case management today before High Court judge Azimah Omar who fixed March 28 to hear the discovery application of some of the 14 defendants. - Mkini

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