Felcra next?

AFTER Felda, another government-linked company (GLC), Felcra Bhd, will soon undergo a series of forensic investigations on its past investments.

Recall, the Federal Land Consolidated and Rehabilitation Authority was corporatised to become Felcra Bhd in 1997 to enable the group to explore new business opportunities, away from its dependency on plantations and agriculture-related crops.

Back then, the previous government had big plans for Felcra, including a proposed listing of a newco, Felcra Holdings Bhd. This was to replicate the initial public offering of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. Similarly, under the Felda settlers’ schemes, over 90,000 participants of the Felcra schemes will stand to reap the benefits from the potential listing of Felcra Holdings.

To pave the way for a listing, Felcra’s previous management then undertook a massive internal retructuring and consolidation of its 13 subsidiaries to be placed under the newco. Once listed, Felcra Holdings was envisaged to transform into a diversified GLC that would be able to generate a revenue of RM2bil per annum with profit as much as RM300mil per year.

However, despite the meticulous preparation, the listing of Felcra Holdings failed to take off in 2014-2015 for unknown reasons. While its listing status is still up in the air, this has not stopped Felcra’s previous management from making investments into new businesses, including real estate, livestock, cash crops and education, among others.

However, the nature of these past investments has been put to question of late, given recent reports claiming graft and abuse of power in some of the deals. Hence, many opine that the newly appointed Felcra chairman - Datuk Mohamad Nageeb Ahmad Abdul Wahab - who succeeds Datuk Bung Moktar Radin, will be put to test to head the forensic investigations into the group’s past deals. Armed with 39 years of experience in the agriculture, rubber and palm oil industry, Nageeb is currently the president of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, which represents 118 local plantation companies.