Wednesday 24 June 2015

Hot, Squirming Grill



Ever listened to BFM’s Business Grill? It’s often done live and sometime you can hear the “grilled” squirming in discomfort.

This morning it was FGV’s group president and CEO Dr Mohammed Emir Mavani Abdullah “appearing” and my God, it was a good grilling.

Of course, it was on no other but FGV’s proposed purchase of plantation assets from Peter Sondakh’s Rajawali Group in Indonesia.


Among the questions asked by (I think it was) Huang were:

Why FGV paid an over the top 23% downpayment:
FGV wanted to show its seriousness.

Is FGV overpaying?
Landbank

Is FGV overpaying again having done so in earlier M&A?
Landbank

Rajawali’s landbank is 1/3 planted, while the rest is unplanted nor without permit?
Landbank

Why did EPF sell of its shares to become a minority? Does it not believe in the vision / strategy of FGV?
FGV is a long term investment

I am paraphrasing, of course, and it would be better to wait for the podcast to come out.

The way Emir was answering the questions asked were not exactly suited to the Breakfast grill style.

He was going in a roundabout way of getting to his point of contention and the host had to interject quite frequently in order to get to the crux of his answer.

It sure made him looked “grilled”, really.

Why should we care if FGV is overpaying in its venture?

We should.

There’s just way too much hanky panky going on in this country where our “guardians” are concerned…
 

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