SP Setia chief to sell stake to PNB

(From left) SP Setia deputy president and chief operating officer Datuk Voon Tin Yow, SP Setia president and chief operating officer Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin and SP Setia executive vice president Datuk Wong Tuck Wai during the press conference after the topping out ceremony of level 26 of Trigon, a luxury serviced apartment by SP Setia Bhd on Aug 26, 2013. Starpic by Kamarul Ariffin/26.08.2013

PETALING JAYA: SP Setia Bhd’s outgoing president and chief executive officer, Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, has exercised his option to sell the remaining 67.8 million shares, or a 2.76% stake, he held in the property development company to Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, SP Setia said it had received a notice from Liew about the exercising of the shares under the put option, dated Jan 20, 2012, requiring PNB to purchase from him 67.8 million shares or three seventh of the shares he held then.

The put option was under the management agreement with PNB to buy the shares at RM3.95 each.

SP Setia shares closed unchanged at RM2.95 yesterday.

Liew is leaving SP Setia at the end of next month. Current deputy president and chief operating officer Datuk Voon Tin Yow will assume the post of acting president and CEO from May 1, 2014, to April 20, 2015, upon Liew’s exit.

Liew did not reveal where he was going after his stint in SP Setia. He also refused to comment on the growing speculation that he would be joining Eco World Development Group Bhd – a relatively new property company helmed by former SP Setia lieutenants and in which his eldest son, Tian Xiong, owns majority shares.

Liew only reiterated that he would continue to oversee two crucial overseas projects of the group – the Battersea Power Station project in London, and the Qinzhou Industrial Park project in China.

He would remain as chairman of the Battersea Power Station project until September 2015, as well as managing director for Qinzhou Development (M) Consortium Sdn Bhd, a Sino-foreign joint-venture company to develop the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park.

SP Setia’s management had said that despite the departure of several key leaders, the company would continue to do well in the coming years backed by its strong financial position as well as ownership of a huge land bank for property development.