FGV chairperson to take 50 pct pay cut

A total of 99.96 percent of shareholders have given the green light to six board fee resolutions at FGV Holdings Bhd's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) today, said group CEO Haris Fadzilah Hassan.

He said after FGV's annual general meeting (AGM) in June 2019, during which the resolutions on board remuneration were rejected, some discussions took place with the major shareholders to understand their concerns.

The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) which owns a 33.7 percent stake in FGV, Koperasi Permodalan Felda Malaysia Bhd (5.0 percent), and the Armed Forces Fund Board (1.25 percent) had rejected three resolutions pertaining to directors’ fees during the last AGM.

Hence, Haris Fadzilah (photo, above) said the new resolutions were made following the results of the discussions and also in line with other government-linked companies' (GLCs) practices.

He said the main adjustment was made on the chairperson’s annual fees, which was decreased by 50 percent from RM600,000 to RM300,000.

Meanwhile, the directors’ fees remained at RM120,000 per annum.

"The notice of the resolutions was given early this month to all shareholders... we had also informed the special shareholder of the proposed fees.

"As the group CEO of FGV and head of the management team, I would like to thank all our board members that have continued to work tirelessly over the last several months, the commitment to FGV by our management and shareholders are very much appreciated," he told a media briefing after the EGM.

He said the board had also been driving the transformation programmes at FGV, which have already shown results.

"We have reported the progress made thus far at our last quarterly briefing and in the chairperson’s second letter to the shareholders.

"I will, at this time, stressed that this board has been tasked with fixing the historical problems at FGV," he noted.

He said the board has been dealing with twin challenges - poor operational performance that leads to poor financial results and legacy investment, some of which were over-valued and under-performing.

"We, at FGV, are in the process of resolving all these issues. Once we have corrected all the historical issues, we will start seeing the results from the growth strategy that the board has put in place," he added.

Haris Fadzilah said FGV will be announcing its third-quarter financial results tomorrow.

The six resolutions approved today are - the payment of directors’ fees for the non-executive chairperson and non-executive directors in respect of the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018, as well as the payment of directors’ fees for the non-executive chairperson from Jan 1, 2019 until 2020 AGM at the rate of RM300,000 per annum to be paid on a monthly basis.

The other resolutions are the payment of directors’ fees for the non-executive directors from Jan 1, 2019 until 2020 AGM, the payment of benefits payable to the non-executive chairperson based on the remuneration structure from June 26, 2019 until 2020 AGM and the payment of benefits payable to the non-executive directors from June 26, 2019 until AGM 2020.

- Bernama