TH Plantations sacks chief financial officer

PETALING JAYA: TH Plantations Bhd has sacked long-time chief financial officer (CFO) Mohamed Azman Shah Ishak, two months after he was suspended from his post over findings uncovered by a forensic audit.

“The company wishes to inform that it has evaluated the reply to the show-cause letter submitted by Azman,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

“After due deliberation, the company has decided to dismiss the CFO from office,” the company said.

Azman was suspended since Aug 9 and given a show-cause letter over findings arising from a forensic audit conducted by the new management. He has been with TH Plantation since 2002 when he started as general manager of finance. He was made the CFO of TH Plantations in 2010.

TH Plantations yesterday said that in the interim, the responsibility and functions of the CFO would be taken over by Marliyana Omar, assistant general manager, finance; and Hamidah Hassan, senior manager, finance.

TH Plantations has been in the red for four consecutive quarters. In its recent quarterly results ended June 31, the planter posted losses of Rm19.15mil from RM200,000 net profit a year earlier.

That takes its accumulated losses in the first half of 2019 to Rm27.24mil from Rm3.43mil in the same period a year earlier. Its revenue slipped 14.78% year-on-year to Rm221.4mil for the period.

Notably, the plantation outfit came into the spotlight after it posted a massive Rm578mil loss in the fourth quarter ended ended Dec 31, 2018 due to impairment charges and write-offs. TH Plantation said the impairments were inevitable and part of the group’s rationalisation plans.