PETALING JAYA: Entrepreneur couple apologises and steps down from their position at FashionValet over the recent public fund’s investment debacle.
FashionValet co-founders Datin Vivy Yusof and her husband Datuk Fadzaruddin Shah Anuar said they took full responsibility for the failure of the investment by Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB).
“We want to state from the outset that we take full responsibility for the failure of the investment.
“As the two people who were responsible for managing the company, the buck stops with us – and the fact is that we failed our investors. “We are disappointed in ourselves and regretful that it has come to this. We are truly sorry,” they said in a joint statement on Instagram on Friday (Nov 1).
Vivy acted as the company’s chief executive officer while Fadzaruddin is FashionValet’s executive director.
On Tuesday (Oct 29), the Finance Ministry said that Khazanah and PNB had sold their collective stakes in Malaysia’s first fashion e-commerce platform, Fashion Valet Sdn Bhd (FashionValet), for RM3.1mil.
This sale marks a significant loss compared to their initial RM47mil investment.
Vivy and Fadzaruddin said that they invested heavily in their technology stack while growing the team too quickly as well as adding too many retail stores.
They said that they scaled up the company in anticipation of growth, only to fail when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
“As much as we tried to cut costs to conserve cash, (including shutting down our e-commerce platform), the situation had become dire.
“There are so many things we wish we had done differently, so many other factors we wished we had considered before embarking on our expansion plans,” the statement read.
Vivy and Fadzaruddin also apologise for how the controversy has affected both PNB and Khazanah.
"They (PNB and Khazanah) have always acted professionally and in the best interests of their organisations.
"We hope this disappointment does not become a deterrent and that they will continue to support other local entrepreneurs.”
On Thursday (Oct 31), Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil urged involved parties to address public concerns promptly because it involves public money.
Stressing on the importance of transparency, he highlighted the growing discussions on social media regarding the sale, particularly given the public interest surrounding the use of public funds.
