Changes in the Securities Commission?

PETALING JAYA: The next institution where changes are speculated to take place is the Securities Commission (SC).

According to a local news report, the managing director and chief executive of SJ Securities Datuk Ahmad Azman Abdul Manaf is the leading candidate to replace Tan Sri Ranjit Ajay Singh as executive chairman.

Utusan Malaysia reported that Ahmad Azman, who has been heading SJ Securities since 1996 and currently is also the chairman of the association of stockbroking companies, of Malaysia is likely to fill this role.

Ranjit has been the chairman since 2012 and his term was renewed for another three years in April 2017.

It is learnt that no decision has been made on whether there would be changes in SC.

According to officials in the capital markets, Ahmad Azman is among the several candidates tipped to replace Ranjit. There are other names such as leading lawyer Datuk Syed Zaid Albar who has extensive experience in the banking, finance and capital markets.

“There were some names being speculated but nobody took it seriously because Ranjit was expected to be retained until 2020 when his term ends. However now since the government has made changes to several institutions, his term may end earlier. The are many examples where the heads of key institutions leave ahead of their terms,” said one official.

There have been a series of changes to key government institutions since the change of government on May 9. Almost all of the individuals left on their own accord ahead of the end of their terms.

It started with Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim tendering his letter on June 6 and he was replaced with Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunos two weeks later.

Permodalan Nasional Bhd chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar left on June 29 and he was replaced with Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

In July, the board of Khazanah Nasional tendered their resignation letters, paving the way for the government to replace a new team at the helm, headed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, who was due to retire next year, also resigned and have since been replaced by Datuk Shahril Mohd Ridza of the Employees Provident Fund.

There have also been several retirements in key government institutions. For instance, Petronas chairman Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hasan recently retired from his post together with another director in the national oil and gas company – Datuk Mohd Omar Mustapha, an aide to former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.