Two out of three companies seeing change at the helm
OUT of the three listed companies that are substantially controlled by tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan, two are seeing changes at the helm.
In Maxis Bhd, Morten Lundal stepped down as chief executive officer (CEO) upon the expiry of his contract on March 31 this year.
Acting CEO Robert Nason is helming the company until a new successor is announced.
At Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, CEO Datuk Rohana Rozhan is scheduled to leave by end-January, but will remain on board as a non-executive director.
She announced that she was resigning to pursue other goals, after serving the company for eight years.
Astro chief content and consumer officer Henry Tan will succeed Rohana.
The company that is in the spotlight now is Bumi Armada Bhd, which saw a change at the helm two years ago.
On a year-to-date basis, Bumi Armada’s share price has dropped 79% to a low of 16 sen.
The oil and gas services provider posted net losses of RM502.82mil in the third quarter due to non-cash impairments totaling RM563.5mil.
This was the second round of impairment charges in financial year 2018.
Leon Andre Harland has been the CEO of Bumi Armada since May 2016, having taken over from Hassan Basma after his 10-year tenure which ended in January 2015.
Hassan Basmal left for personal reasons, and is believed to be still in the oil and gas industry but based in Singapore.
It is notable that Bumi Armada pared down its net loss of RM1.97bil in FY16 to a net profit of RM352.25mil in FY17.
In 2015 to 2016, Bumi Armada increased its capital expenditure as the company embarked on a strategy to focus on floating production, storage and offloading as opposed to offshore support vessels earlier.
An analyst says: “Compared with Hassan, Harland’s disclosures are not coming as fast as we would like to see. Nevertheless, the management has guided that part of its strategy is to dispose of some of its assets.
“With the two impairments made this year, any additional impairments will come as a surprise to us.”
At Maxis, Lundal is leaving the company after four years of service.
During Lundal’s tenure as CEO, he grew Maxis’ net profit from RM1.77bil in FY13 to RM2.19bil in FY17, being the latest full set of financial results available.
Lundal was with Digi from 2004 to 2008, during which he grew the telco’s subscriber share by five percentage points and revenue share by eight percentage points.
As for Tan who is taking over at the helm of Astro, he is a seasoned hand and knowledgeable about the business.