PETALING JAYA: FGV Holdings Bhd is suing 14 former directors including former group president and CEO Datuk Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah and former chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad (pix).
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, FGV said the suit is in relation to the company’s acquisition of 100% equity interest in Asian Plantation Limited (APL) via a voluntary conditional cash offer in 2014.
“The company brought this action for loss suffered from their failure to discharge their respective fiduciary duty, duty of fidelity and/or duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence,” it said.
FGV is seeking relief against the defendants for damages totalling RM514 million for loss from the acquisition of APL or alternatively, damages for loss from the acquisition to be assessed by the court.
It is also seeking relief for general damages; interest at the rate of 5% per annum on damages awarded starting from the date of the filing of the suit until the date of full and final settlement; costs; interest at the rate of 5% per annum on the amount of costs awarded for the same period; and any other reliefs that the court deems fit and proper.
FGV said it is now assessing the financial impact of the litigation on the company and assured that its existing operations will not be affected by the litigation.
Besides Mohd Emir and Mohd Isa, some of the other defendants include former senior vice president of business development of downstream cluster (at the material time) Farisan Mokhtar, former senior general manager of downstream cluster Rasydan Alias Mohamed as well as former CFO Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha, who recently resigned.
In a separate filing, FGV said the legal proceedings against its former board members follows the conclusion of a forensic investigation into the acquisition of APL, which is one of six forensic and internal investigations undertaken by the company.
Three other forensic investigations have been completed and the board of directors is currently reviewing the findings and legal advice. The three cases are the investment in FGV Cambridge Nanosystems Ltd, the acquisition of the Troika condominiums and the lease of company cars.
Meanwhile, forensic investigations into two other cases namely, the investment in FGV Green Energy Sdn Bhd and the acquisition of Yapidmas plantations in Sabah are in progress.
FGV is also in the midst of undertaking internal investigations into six other matters which fall into three categories namely, open credit lines, poor purchasing trading practices and poor palm oil sales that have resulted in bad debts of RM100 million; direct awards of procurement contracts in breach of best practice; and the critical shortage of workers between May 2016 and April 2018 which resulted in financial losses exceeding RM170 million.
FGV said it has taken and is in the process of taking appropriate action in relation to the investigations above.
FGV’s share price fell 1 sen to close at RM1.17 with 6.46 million shares done on Friday.
