Shares in Boustead Holdings Bhd rose as much as 9.5 sen or 14.3% earlier this morning after news broke again that Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) had decided to take the company private. As at 12.10pm, Boustead had pared some of its gains and was up 7.52% or five sen at 71.5 sen, valuing the company at RM1.45 billion. Some 25.93 million shares were traded. While the counter was down 23% from 93 sen a year ago, it was still 104% higher from last year’s trough of 35 sen.
BOUSTEAD Holdings Bhd’s new group managing director Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, who stepped into his new role last Tuesday (Dec 1), has his work cut out for him, and that is to steer the diversified conglomerate back to profitability by 2023.
Shazalli is the third MD to helm the group in three years after Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin and Datuk Seri Amrin Awaluddin. In a statement issued on Nov 27, Boustead hailed Shazalli as a “turnaround specialist”. Still, most of Shazalli’s career has been in telecommunications, more recently as the MD and CEO of Telekom Malaysia Bhd.
He inherits an organisation that has significant legacy issues, which its chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin had previously identified as investments made in the past that do not have the right focus in making them profitable, mismatch of funding between long-term investment and short-term debts, and a convoluted organisational structure where there are cross-holdings in Boustead subsidiaries