Saturday, July 16, 2016

'MOF Inc firms to be grouped into 3 categories'

By A Jalil Hamid and Sharen Kaur
Published in NST, July 15, 2016

PUTRAJAYA: A thorough review of all 45 Minister of Finance Inc (MoF Inc) companies is on the cards. Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said he had ordered a relook into the state of these companies by classifying them into three categories.

The 52-year-old chartered accountant by training and former corporate figure said the three categories were companies that were performing, those continuously losing money and those that MoF Inc needed to retain despite losing money.

“The learning that I have with my position here, I want to start looking into all 45 MOF Inc-owned companies. “We need to reanalyse them and segmentise them by sectors,” said Johari, who assumed office on June 28.

He said the companies were involved in property, plantation, financial services, manufacturing and many other industries.

“We need to group them so that we can look, in detail, whether there are duplication in terms of their roles,” he told the New Straits Times.



He said the first category would comprise companies that were making money and consistently declared dividends to the government.

 “We want to look at how we can enhance them and help them grow further. The second category is, companies that continuously lose money, increase their debts and don’t give benefits to the government. We will reanalyse them. If we can put them back on track, then we put them on track.
Otherwise, we will close them.”

Johari said the third category would comprise companies that MOF Inc needed to keep despite them making losses.

They included companies involved in infrastructure development, like MRT Corp Sdn Bhd and Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, he said.

“These are companies that have a heavy burden in interest payment, and revenue is not enough to pay.

“The government has to subsidise them because it is the government’s job to provide good infrastructure for the people. “Other companies are those involved in sewerage and water.

“These are companies that we have to look into and refine their operations so that there is no wastage and there is good management.

“Even though we subsidise them, these companies are able to deliver very efficient services to the people, and the people receive the benefits.”

Born and raised in Kampung Pandan, Kuala Lumpur, Johari, who is also Titiwangsa member of parliament, is no stranger to the business world.

He started his career as an auditor with Peat Marwick & Co (now known as KPMG) and has held key positions in local public-listed companies, including as chairman of UDA Holdings Bhd and group managing director of CI Holdings Bhd.

He said MoF Inc also owned a number of development financial institutions.

They include SME bank, Agro Bank, Exim Bank, Bank Pembangunan and Bank Simpanan Nasional.

“We want to know how they can work together in terms of cross-reference and cross-selling among themselves, so that if you have a customer in SME Bank who is not doing well, they cannot simply jump and apply for a loan at Agro Bank,” said Johari.

“These are basically all the things that we need to look at, so there should be the sharing of information.”

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