KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) group president/chief executive officer Datuk Zakaria Arshad, who is fighting against his leave of absence from the plantation company, has revealed that he did not agree to a number of investments that the company had planned for.
He told StarBiz on Tuesday that among the investments he did not agree with was the one with Felda Cambridge Nanosystems Ltd, a company producing nanocarbons.
Zakaria said the subsidiary has lost RM117mil in the past three to four years. "Now they (the FGV board) want to expand, they need another 100mil pounds. To me this is ridiculous, we're a plantations company," he said.
Zakaria added that he went to the board with a proposal to stop investing in the business and the board agreed. However, three weeks later after a meeting in London, they decided to continue the investment.
Besides this venture, Zakaria said he did not agree with the proposal to invest RM300mil for a 30% stake in a creamer factory located in Klang said to be linked to Can-One Bhd, a company mainly involved in can production.
"Why do I want to put RM300mil for a non-core business? They also overruled even though exco already said no-go but the investment was given the go-ahead," he said.
"There are other examples, direct negotiations, direct contracts... I’ve been entrusted with managing the company but when I want to enforce strictly, then this is what happens," Zakaria pointed out.
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