by Ganesh Sahathevan
The Edge noted in 2019 that MyEG is an UMNO company:
Another notable politically-linked name is MyEG Services Bhd, which is 30.88% owned by Datuk Dr Norraesah Mohamad, its group executive chairman. Previously a senator, Norraesah is an Umno supreme council member.
Year to date, MyEG’s share price has inched up 2.6% but the government e-services provider is 60.6% down compared with a year ago.
Recently, Datuk Raja Munir Shah Raja Mustapha resigned as an executive director for medical reasons. In 2017, the former deputy head of Tanjung Umno division sold his 29.7% stake in MyEG to Norraesah.
Political risk is one of the key downsides for MyEG, according to analysts. Thus, investors will be keeping a close watch on whether the new government will renew the company’s concession when it is up for renewal in May 2020.
“Based on the latest announcement, Datuk Raja Munir Shah Raja Mustapa, a major shareholder who is also former Penang Umno information chief and Tanjung Umno deputy division chief, owns 374,135,796 units of shares or 31.1% of the company [MyEG].“The 19% increase in MyEG share prices in the last few days has given Raja Munir an RM137 million profit on paper,” Semambu assemblyman Lee Chean Chung of PKR had said in a statement .
It is time for PKR to do so again, even if the shareholders are now linked to PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim.
TO BE READ WITH
Saturday, March 23, 2024
MyEG money go round that has miraculously favoured Anwar Ibrahim adviser Farhash Salvador and the Sultan Of Kelantan requires an explanation, from Anwar Ibrahim, the minister responsible for the finance sector
by Ganesh Sahathevan
The Start reported:
In fact, MyEG Services’ moneylending arm – MyEG Finance Technologies Sdn Bhd – loaned RM100mil to Rosetta Partners (owned by the SultanOf Kelantan and Anwar Ibarhim's man Farhash Wafa Salvador) in March 2018.
A CCM filing on March 16 (2024) showed that Rosetta Partners was acquired by Mfivesouthsea Sdn Bhd, a RM2 company jointly owned by Farhash (50%) and Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan (50%).
The purchase gave Farhash and his business partner, Sultan Muhammad V, immediate entry into Cuscapi and Excel Force, both of which are listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.
Rosetta Partners was wholly owned by Datuk Jayakumar Panneer Selvam, a close associate of (Wong Thean Soon or T.S. Wong who controlled MyEG)
The loan, which remains outstanding, was provided with 12 million Cuscapi shares as collateral, according to the company-charge filing with CCM.
The extract below from a MyEg Bursamalaysia desmonstrates the money-go-round between
MyEg Finance and other companies in the MyEg Group.
The MyEG money go round that has miraculously favoured Anwar Ibrahim adviser Farhash Salvador and the Sultan Of Kelantan requires an explanation, from Anwar Ibrahim, the minister responsible for the finance sector. There are few if any Malaysian companies (outisde gaming and infrastructure) that have that kind of cash to throw around.
A new star on the horizon
By GANESHWARAN KANACORPORATE NEWS
Saturday, 23 Mar 2024
Increasing prominence: A file photo of Farhash. The businessman has significant stakes in multiple companies vying to modernise government services through IT.
DATUK Farhash Wafa Salvador, a loyalist of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, is the latest rising star of corporate Malaysia.
However, scrutiny of the former Perak PKR chief’s recent rise to prominence outside of politics reveals links to two well-known names in business circles, notably Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Wong Thean Soon or T.S. Wong.
In particular, Farhash’s links to Wong of MyEG Services Bhd can be traced to at least three listed companies – Excel Force MSC Bhd
, Heitech Padu Bhd and Cuscapi Bhd – where he is a major shareholder.Interestingly, the 42-year-old Farhash became a key shareholder in the three companies all within a week.
Such a meteoric rise has raised many questions, one of which is why Farhash chose to be involved in companies linked to billionaire entrepreneur Wong.
Therefore, the sight of Wong and Farhash – Anwar’s former political secretary – being key shareholders of the same companies has turned heads among analysts and investors.
In addition, Farhash’s stake in Excel Force, HeiTech and Cuscapi also puts his true net worth under the microscope.
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This, of course, does not include his ownership in other listed companies like Theta Edge Bhd
and other unlisted entities.A Pakatan Harapan source tells StarBizWeek that Farhash is indeed wealthy given his prior entrepreneurial background.
According to publicly available profiles of Farhash, he is said to have over more than a decade’s worth of experience in business, consultancy and advisory.
Multiple biographies about the businessman on multiple websites state: “On the business front, his illustrious career spans a broad range of sectors which include construction, technology, hotels, and food and beverage. Mr Farhash is a multi-talented innovator with five award-winning patents held across the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and China.”
Farhash did not respond to efforts by StarBizWeek to contact him.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Wong did not directly respond to questions about Farhash’s emergence in companies linked to him.
However, he noted that he is not in an executive position in the companies apart from MyEG. Wong also says that there are no merger and acquisition plans in the pipeline among the companies at the moment.
“Any collaboration between the companies is to be decided by the respective management teams.
“Nonetheless, there are obvious synergies between these businesses as they are all involved in information technology (IT) and in the process of transitioning to the next-gen Web3 architecture,” he says.
How it began
Farhash owns a stake of 15.91% in HeiTech, 1.43% in Cuscapi and 0.95% in Excel Force via his private vehicle Rosetta Partners Sdn Bhd. He has another 0.89% stake in Excel Force directly under his name.
StarBizWeek combed through a number of filings with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) and found that Farhash became the director of Rosetta Partners last week on March 11.
A day later on March 12, Rosetta Partners mopped up a 15.91% stake in HeiTech, a company said to be in the running to develop the National Integrated Immigration System project, which is understood to be worth over RM1bil.
This made Rosetta the single-largest shareholder of the company, with a stake of just 0.02 percentage points more than MyEG Capital Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Wong’s MyEG Services.
Interestingly enough, MyEG Capital also emerged in HeiTech this month on March 7, the same day HeiTech announced it had secured a 12-month contract extension worth RM13.1mil to provide maintenance services to the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs).
HeiTech aside, Rosetta Partners has already had stakes in Cuscapi and Excel Force for the past several years.
At that time, Rosetta Partners was wholly owned by Datuk Jayakumar Panneer Selvam, a close associate of Wong.
Some 15 years back, Jayakumar served as the managing director of MyEG Integrated Networks Sdn Bhd, which is the 40%-owned unit of MyEG Services.
Currently, Jayakumar is the chairman of Cuscapi, having been in the position since June 2018.
A CCM filing on March 16 showed that Rosetta Partners was acquired by Mfivesouthsea Sdn Bhd, a RM2 company jointly owned by Farhash (50%) and Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan (50%).
The purchase gave Farhash and his business partner, Sultan Muhammad V, immediate entry into Cuscapi and Excel Force, both of which are listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.
It is not uncommon for Malaysia’s sultans to own key shareholdings in Malaysian listed companies.
For example, Sultan of Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah has a stake of 9.91% each in Citaglobal Bhd
and Microlink Solutions Bhd.Meanwhile, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia has a 17.34% equity interest in Redtone Digital Bhd
and a 12.35% stake in Berjaya Assets Bhd.His Majesty also owns almost a quarter of Berjaya Group’s telecommunication arm UMobile, which has become Malaysia’s third-largest mobile network operator after the Celcom-Digi merger.
As for Rosetta Partners, the company was sold to Mfivesouthsea by a company called HDA Tech Sdn Bhd.
HDA Tech is wholly owned by Farhash.
Based on a CCM filing, the date of change in shareholding was March 16.
Oddly enough, HDA Tech had only bought Rosetta Partners several days earlier from Jayakumar. The date of change in shareholding for this transaction was March 11.
Rosetta Partners’ link to Wong goes beyond his personal ties with Jayakumar.
In fact, MyEG Services’ moneylending arm – MyEG Finance Technologies Sdn Bhd – loaned RM100mil to Rosetta Partners in March 2018.
The loan, which remains outstanding, was provided with 12 million Cuscapi shares as collateral, according to the company-charge filing with CCM.
The Vincent Tan link
Meanwhile, two companies related to Tan have appointed Farhash to their board of directors.
They are Berjaya Construction Bhd, the construction arm of Berjaya Land Bhd
, and 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd.In the case of 7-Eleven, Farhash also replaced Tan’s son Datuk Seri Robin Tan Yeong Ching as chairman on Jan 3, 2023.
Interestingly, the appointment was made eight days after Farhash was named the chairman of stockbroking firm Apex Equity Holdings Bhd
.Apex Equity is 15.78% owned by Fun Sheung Development Ltd, which is believed to be the private vehicle of the late Lim Siew Kim, daughter of the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong of Genting Group.
Overall, following Farhash’s rapid rise in corporate Malaysia, notably after the 2022 general election, all the companies related to him will be on the radar of investors, especially with regard to government contracts.
The recent transactions indicate that Farhash has a liking for companies involved in technology.
Excel Force is an established provider of software systems for broking companies and it was previously rumoured to be eyeing a contract to develop an alternative trading system in Malaysia.
The proposal was the brainchild of the Datuk Seri Najib Razak administration.
Cuscapi is a provider of point-of-sale systems and also owns the Electronic Dealer Management System (EDMS), a web-based application which connects vehicle assemblers, distributors, and dealers with government agencies such as Customs and Road Transport Department.
HeiTech is also an IT player and has secured multiple government contracts in the past servicing the Health Ministry, the Road Transport Department and the Immigration Department, to name a few.
According to The Straits Times, Farhash and his partner also own a stake of 4.97% in Theta Edge. This information was revealed by Farhash himself, adding that the stake was acquired on March 13.
Theta Edge is also said to be among the top contenders for the Immigration Department’s National Integrated Immigration System project, which is also being eyed by HeiTech.
Going forward, as the government puts more emphasis on digitalising its services, IT-related companies will be leading beneficiaries of contract awards.
In the case of MyEG, which is also involved in Web3 infrastructure via Zetrix, Wong says its role in providing government-related services will remain relevant for the foreseeable future, although the nature of the services themselves may evolve.
“Our focus for Zetrix is not just Malaysia but the international market.”
Nevertheless, one should note that the government is also trying to develop IT services in-house without heavy reliance on external parties.
For example, the National Central Database System (Padu) is fully constructed and managed by civil servants.
Similarly, the Road Transport Department’s MyJPJ mobile application is also believed to have beem designed with in-house expertise. The app allows, among other things, the renewal of driving licences, a service that was previously only offered digitally by MyEG Services.
Beyond the public sector, the rapid digitalisation in private-sector services also opens huge opportunities for IT-related companies, including those that Farhash has stakes in.
Perhaps Farhash is more keen on such opportunities unlike what is speculated in the media and looks to ride on Wong’s years of experience in the digital space.
Wong tells StarBizWeek that his companies are first-movers in the transition from Web2 to Web3.
The transition from Web2 to Web3 is similar to the transition from 3G to 5G, where the user experiences is similar but the back engine is running on a new architecture that enables data to become digitised assets with unique ownership.
“The transition to Web3 is happening really fast right now and most government services in countries like China are now all on Web3.
“It is a matter of time before other governments similarly adopt it because the benefits are too significant to be ignored,” says Wong.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Is HeiTech Padu's Hilmey being pushed , mugged or made an offer he could not refuse to hand over control of Hei Tech Padu to Anwar Ibrahim's Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Hilmey was so pround that PNB agreed when he asked if he could be "given the opportuntiy to biy PNB IT via a MBO:
Hilmey was riding the buoyant wave of success at PNB when he opted to leave his secure, high-profile job to lead a management buyout of a then obscure outfit called PNB Information Techno-logies (PNB IT), the IT arm of the PNB.
This unit was formed in 1990 to spearhead PNB's computerisation programme. With millions of small unitholders scattered around the country, PNB had to devise a way to make transactions easy for them.
The unit became a big success, growing into a company which computerised various government departments, from Pos Malaysia to the Immigration Department, the National Registration Department and Road Transport Department.
In line with the government's move to encourage more bumiputra technopreneurs, PNB decided to spin off the IT unit so as to ensure that PNB remained true to its core activity of unit trust fund management.
Hilmey offered to vacate his CEO post at PNB and head the management buyout (MBO) team.
PNB IT then was committed to computerising various government departments and Hilmey wants to "make sure the job gets done."
Using a shelf company Padujade Corporation Sdn Bhd, Hilmey and the management team, bought up a 65% stake in PNB IT, leaving PNB with the remaining 35%.
He declines to reveal the exact amount he paid for the MBO but admits that he holds a controlling share. The shareholding structure as at March 31, 2000 showed that Hilmey holds 48% of HeiTech Padu via Padujade, PNB holds 35%, the management team holds 16.18% and Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Bhd (PUNB) holds 0.82%.
PUNB financed the MBO which Hilmey proudly claims was repaid within two years and on May 31, 1999, PNB IT was renamed HeiTech Padu Sdn Bhd. It has since be renamed HeiTech Padu Bhd and will issue its propectus today, for a listing on the KLSE possibily next month
(HeiTech Padu comes into its own. By Mary Anne Tan. The Sun Daily9 October 2000)
Given the above, it is not unreasonable to ask if Hilmey is being pushed if not mugged by Anwar Ibrahim's man Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak. who has taken control of the company, with financing from sources unknown. Hilmey's 17.89% stake in the company exceeds Farhash's 15.91%, but Hilmey does not have ANwar on his side.
SEE STORY BELOW
New substantial shareholder emerges in HeiTech Padu
FMT Reporters-14 Mar 2024, 10:52 PM
Technology services provider HeiTech Padu is reportedly among three companies shortlisted by the government to develop a RM1 billion immigration IT system.
PETALING JAYA: Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak has emerged as a substantial shareholder of Heitech Padu Bhd after acquiring an indirect interest of 15.9% (16.1 million shares) in the technology services provider.
Farhash is the chairman and director of several companies, including 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd and Apex Equity Holdings Bhd.
In a Bursa filing today, HeiTech Padu disclosed that Farhash had deemed interest in the company via a private vehicle, Rosetta Partners Sdn Bhd. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
On Monday, MyEG Services Bhd’s unit MyEG Capital Sdn Bhd announced that it had acquired 14.57 million shares, or a 14.4% equity interest, in HeiTech Padu for RM31.24 million.
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In a separate Bursa filing on the same day, HeiTech Padu announced it had secured a contract extension worth RM13.11 million for the provision of maintenance services to the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs).
HeiTech Padu said the 12-month contract extension runs from Feb 18, 2024 to Feb 17, 2025.
HeiTech Padu first secured the contract in March 2021 on a three-year basis. It was worth RM33.92 million and was to end on Feb 17, 2024.
The extension comes amid the government’s selection process for the development of the national integrated immigration system (NIISe) to replace MyIMMs.
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The Edge recently reported that HeiTech Padu is among three companies shortlisted by the government to develop the NIISe project, which is understood to be worth over RM1 billion.
In May last year, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the 20-year-old MyIMMs was outdated and no longer capable of meeting future immigration needs.
In a written parliamentary reply, he said NIISe, which is expected to be operational in August 2025, will enhance the quality of delivering immigration services.
NIISe seeks to incorporate biometric technology to enable the adoption of e-Gates at immigration checkpoints.
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