S P Setia mum on reports of new CEO

by **Cals** Thu 17 Oct 2013, 10:06

Business & Markets 2013

Written by Zatil Husna Wan Fauzi of theedgemalaysia.com

Thursday, 17 October 2013 09:44

KUALA LUMPUR: S P Setia Bhd declined to comment on reports that suggest the developer’s parent, Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), has found candidates to replace president and CEO Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin.

Although Liew has set in place a succession plan for the property developer, PNB, which has a 51.41% stake in S P Setia, is said to have its own nominees to take over the leadership of the country’s second largest developer by market capitalisation.

In August, Liew unveiled plans to pass the leadership baton to S P Setia’s current chief operating officer Datuk Voon Tin Yow. Current executive vice-president and chief financial officer Datuk Teow Leong Seng is slated to take over as deputy president.

However, a local daily reported earlier this week that PNB will nominate I&P Group Sdn Bhd CEO Datuk Jamaludin Osman or one of PNB’s senior executives to replace Liew, adding an interesting twist to the S P Setia succession story. Jamaludin has been CEO of I&P since Oct 1, 2004 and managing director from Jan 1, 2005.

S P Setia declined to comment when contacted by The Edge Financial Daily. PNB had not reverted to enquiries at press time.

Should PNB nominees take the helm at S P Setia, market watchers said, there could be a change of direction in the company, which saw the departure of a number of its key executives to lead property developer Eco World Development Sdn Bhd. These include S P Setia’s former chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid, chief operating officer Datuk S Rajoo, executive directors Datuk Eddy Leong Kok Wah and Datuk Chang Kim Wah, currently Eco World CEO. Liew’s son Liew Tian Xiong is also a director of Eco World, which is in the process of a reverse takeover of Focal Aims Holdings Bhd.

Given PNB’s plans for S P Setia, replacing Liew with the fund’s senior executives should not come as a big surprise.

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Liew unveiled succession plan in August.	Teow is slated to take over as deputy president.	Jamaludin is seen a PNB candidate to replace Liew.

It is understood that PNB is looking at ways to unlock the value of its property assets housed under I&P, by direct listing of the company or injecting its RM10 billion worth of assets into S P Setia.
PNB is inclined to inject the assets into S P Setia as a consolidation between the two companies which would enhance the value of I&P’s projects and see S P Setia emerge as a mega property company.

Currently, S P Setia is estimated to have projects worth RM70 billion in gross development value. Its market capitalisation of close to RM7.9 billion, combined with I&P’s assets, could create a company with a market capitalisation of RM18 billion.

I&P was formed from the merger of three property companies in the PNB stable, Island & Peninsular Bhd, Pelangi Bhd and Petaling Garden Bhd. The company’s assets are worth about RM10 billion.

Last year, PNB and Liew came together as parties acting in concert (PAC) to increase their holdings in S P Setia by 1.52 billion shares (79.95%).

PNB and Liew, who are the joint offerors, and PAC had increased their stake in the property developer from 47.6% in order to maintain the company’s listing status, with the required minimum public shareholding spread at 25%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 17, 2013.