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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 18): Tan Sri Azman Yahya stepped down as executive chairman of Symphony Life Bhd (SLB) on April 2 this year and it “was not long after that that trouble started brewing at the company,” The Edge Malaysia reported this week.
Non-executive director Chin Jit Pyng was made group chief executive on the same day that Azman stepped down.
The weekly reported that one of the issues “that divided” top management and the board was a March 2018 deal with real estate agency Heritage Shield Sdn Bhd to sell apartment units at the Union Suites development in Bandar Sunway. SLB signed a second bulk sales agreement on May 10 this year for the same development.
The two bulk sales agreements were overseen by group CEO Chin.
Some top SLB executives who were appointed after Muar Ban Lee Group Bhd (MBL) took control were not satisfied with the terms of the agreement, “which they felt did not favour SLB as the commission payable was as high as 35%”.
According to an announcement made on April 5, 2021, Azman sold a 7.9% stake to MBL. This was followed by the sale of another 10% on Aug 2, giving MBL stake of 17.9%.
“They [SLB executives] also alleged non-compliance with SLB’s procedure on the appointment of external sales agents and a possible conflict of interest,” reported the weekly.
Sources told The Edge “the matter was brought to the attention of the Audit Committee of SLB’s board, which on July 30 appointed BDO to carry out an assessment of what had taken place. The engagement of BDO was never publicly disclosed by SLB, whose annual audit is done by EY”.
Meanwhile, the opposing parties have lodged reports with various regulators, said the report.
SLB started life as Bolton Properties Ltd in 1964 before it was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (now Bursa Malaysia) in 1973, and rebranded as SLB in 2013.
It is one of the oldest property developers in Malaysia.
It has two ongoing projects -- Kejora Industrial Park phase 3 in Kedah, and Union Suites @ Bandar Sunway in Selangor. SLB also has 11 projects in the pipeline, including three each in Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, as well as one each in Sabah and Kelantan.
Among the 11 upcoming projects, “the one that has caught the most attention is the yet-to-be-named Lembah Ledang project” with an initial estimated GDV of RM5 billion and covering 19 acres in the Damansara Heights area next to Istana Negara.
The report stated that “once it is launched, SLB’s one-third share in the mega joint-venture will keep the group busy for at least another 10 years”.
Read the full report in this week’s The Edge Malaysia
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