Business is now where the action is: Rosmah's Deepak returns to Envair with RM1.5bil deal

When it comes big bucks, First Lady of Malaysia Rosmah Mansor - known for her business savvy - is never shy to jostle for first spot in the queue and woe betide anyone who doesn't make way for her. Given such perseverance, it is no surprise that her protege Deepak Jaikishan is back with a bigger and more sensational RM1.5bil oil and gas deal to shock the share market - especially the penny stocks - to life again.

Deepak plans to inject this contract into Envair Holdings Bhd, an ailing firm in need of new businesses. That Envair, a small-time air and water filter maker, can transform itself into a player in Malaysia's competitive but highly lucrative O&G sector is mind-boggling.

The Malaysian O&G sector is basically dominated by national oil firm Petronas and its units. Riding on its coat-tails are service providers such as Scomi and Kencana-Crest-Sapura, which derive their revenue from Petronas-related contracts. Not surprisingly both firms are controlled by the sons of former premiers Abdullah Badawi and Mahathir Mohamad respectively.

Business sector is where the action is, as regime change looms

But business in Malaysia has always been intertwined with politics. And now with the country on the brink of an expected regime change, the business sector has become a hotbed of highly questionable deals, many of which are blatantly shady. Recent deals like the 60-year-toll concession for the West Coast Expressway, the Kidex Highway, 1MDB's RM8.5bil acquisition of tycoon Ananda Krishnan's stale power assets are among major deals that have raised eyebrows.

"This is the last chance for the Umno-BN politicians to get their deals through. It is not so much to finance the 13th general election because billions have already been raised. This is for their personal kitty and whether these deals can stick depend on whether BN retains power," an analyst at a large brokerage who asked for anonymity told Malaysia Chronicle.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat coalition is rated to have a more than even chance of trouncing the Umno-BN led by Rosmah's husband, Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Indeed, there have been frenzied attempts, including Najib's latest U-turn in agreeing on a historic debate with Anwar, to deflect attention from the business sector, where a slew of deals are being pushed through, nearly at the rate of one per week.

Major U-Turn

In the latest Envair on-off rescue, Business Times reported Deepak as having bought about 12.4 per cent of the firm's shares via an off market deal over the past two weeks. He has also assumed the post of managing director of the company. Deepak also said that he and parties aligned to him intend to take up an entire 30 per cent placement put on the block by Envair's old directors.

This ia a major turnaround as Deepak had in December sold off all his Envair shares and donated the profits to charity amid speculation that Mahathir - who is also the Petronas adviser- had objected to the Najibs moving into the O&G sector, where his son Mokhzani wields influence and had previously also encountered accusations of conflict of interest.

Deepak and his allies are expected to inject an oil and gas project worth as much as US$500 million (RM1.51 billion) into Envair. The project is believed to be located in eastern Europe, and the Envair board expected to announce a name change for the company to Raya Energy Bhd soon.

Controversial connections

Famous for his denial of being Rosmah 'toy boy', Deepak first made the headlines when he was accused of having bribed private investigator P Balasubramaniam into reneging on an explosive statutory declaration implicating both Najib and Rosmah in the 2006 Altantuya Shaaribuu murder case.

Deppak is the scion of a middle-class business family with a carpet retailing shop in Kuala Lumpur. That he can catapult himself into such big-time business and in a sector seemingly reserved for prime ministers and their sons certainly lends credence to the speculation surrounding the Najibs and Altantuya, who incidentally was also murdered by two former bodyguards of the first couple.

Both men are still on death and their appeal pending since April 2009, when they were sentenced to hang although one of them had claimed he was paid to kill Altantuya. The Malaysian court had refused to allow defense lawyers to investigate into this claim, prompting US embassy officials (as revealed in WikiLeaks) to question the quality of the justice dealt to the two men in the court's perceived bid to cover up for those pulling the strings from behind.

Too many coincidences or not, but there are many more trails that connect Altanutya to the Najibs. She was the mistress of the PM's close friend Razak Baginda and claims to have helped Baginda seal the Malaysian government's purchase of 2 Scorpene submarines ordered by Najib when he was defense minister in 2002. Four years later, she came to Malaysia to collect her portion of the RM570million illegal kickback allegedly paid by French arms maker DCN to Najib for agreeing to buy the subs from them. But she ended up killed, and till now the Immigration authorities cannot explain why they have no record of her entry into the country amid accusations that they were ordered by someone very high up to erase her 'existence' in Malaysia.

'Pied Piper' for the retailers

Against such a controversial background, Deepak will have to work extra hard to prove his business integrity and reliability to established and serious investors. To the retail crowd, who see him as Rosmah's proxy, his larger-than-life persona, due to the Altantuya connection, actually makes him Pied Piper of sorts. But win or lose, at the end of the day, Envair's profitability will hinge on the oil contracts it receives, most of which can reasonably be expected to come from Petronas.

It must be stated that Deepak has previously refuted that his Envair dealings were connected to the Najibs. "I want to make it clear. I stand on my own two feet. Please keep me out from your vicious cycle," Deepak told Malaysia Chronicle in December.

Meanwhile, in a filing to Bursa Malaysia last week, Envair had announced it was proposing a private placement of up to 35.57 million new shares, representing 30 per cent of its issued and paid-up capital. The exercise is part of the firm’s plan to venture into the distribution and trading of oil and gas products. The shares will be placed out to Deepak, Envair directors Mohd Anuar Mohd Hanadzlah and Mohd Shukri Abdullah, as well as an independent

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