Tycoon Kim Yew comes back to Country Heights with RM225k monthly package

by **Cals** Fri 07 Feb 2014, 08:38

Published: Friday February 7, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Friday February 7, 2014 MYT 8:26:35 AM
Tycoon Kim Yew comes back to Country Heights with RM225k monthly package
BY RISEN JAYASEELAN
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PETALING JAYA: Five years after letting go of the reins of Country Heights Holdings Bhd (CHHB), Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew is making a comeback to his old flagship company – as its adviser.
The company announced yesterday that Lee would now act as “group adviser” at a whopping fee of RM225,000 a month, over a two-year period beginning Jan 1.
This means that Lee would be earning a total of RM5.4mil over the period from his advisory fees.
The move is also coming at a time when the planned privatisation of CHHB by Lee has been called off, according to sources.
Earlier this month, Lee’s long-time Taiwanese partner Chunghwa Picture Tubes (M) Sdn Bhd sold the bulk of its shares. From a holding of close to 14%, the Taiwanese group now only owns a mere 5.17%.
One of Lee’s vehicles is likely to have acquired some of those shares, namely,Country Heights International Sdn Bhd, which bought 12.3 million shares out of the 24 million CHHB shares sold by Chunghwa.
It isn’t clear who mopped up the other shares disposed by the Taiwanese. Chunghwa’s exit was supposed to have triggered a privatisation plan by Lee, but sources said those plans were aborted and Lee is to make CHHB his comeback vehicle.
Commenting on the rationale for appointing Lee as group adviser, the company said: “The board believes his (Lee’s) entrepreneurial and ‘inventive intuition’ will be able to add value to the current management’s business plans and goals.”
Lee is to advise on “the group’s strategic business development, specifically on overseas expansion”, according to a Bursa Malaysia filing by CHHB.
The company also said the transaction did not need shareholders’ approval.
The 57-year-old Lee, who built his business as a property tycoon in the 1990s, saw his fortunes dive as CHHB’s high gearing caused it to crumble in the 1997/98 financial crisis.
At its peak, in 1997, CHHB had traded at a high of RM11.87 per share.
Its shares have never recovered since then, hardly breaching the RM2 level, and continues to trade at a significant discount to its net tangible asset values.
But since the last day of last year, CHHB shares have come alive, climbing 30% on Dec 31 on heavy volumes.
Yesterday, the stock closed at RM1.45, a 52-week high.
Lee’s move comes on the heels of CHHB’s plans to undertake an RM11bil Mines Wellness City project on its existing Mines development land. Notably, part of the land for the planned 48ha development is coming from Lee himself via joint ventures with CHHB.
Lee was CHHB’s group managing director from 1986 until 2007. In 2009, the reins of the company were handed down to his daughter Dianna Lee Cheng Wen, who was only 24 years old then. The elder Lee has remained as non-executive deputy chairman of CHHB until now.
The announcement pointed out that Lee’s advisory role would not affect his current position.
Lee made headlines early last year when he sought to terminate the Country Heights Grower Scheme that he had launched in 2007.
He had done so on the basis that the scheme was facing a default risk due to its inability to extract the expected yield after five years of operations. Lee had subsequently denied that he was going to personally gain from the termination of the scheme by selling the scheme’s plantation land at a higher price.
Speculation is rife that CHHB would be making a comeback into the local property scene. Couple that with the move by Lee to play this advisory role and CHHB is a property counter worth watching closely.