125 Felda settlers seek court’s help to bar bank

Settlers from two more schemes in Negeri Sembilan and Pahang have made a U-turn on their decision to support the Felda Global Ventures listing.

SEREMBAN: One hundred and twenty five settlers from Felda Raja Alias (Negeri Sembilan) and Felda Gugusan Bera (Pahang) filed an injunction at the Seremban High Court yesterday, asking the court to prohibit CIMB and AmIslamic Bank from processing ‘their’ applications for bank loans to finance their share in the public listing of Felda Global Ventures Holding (FGVH).

All the 126 settlers had signed the loan documents in April but today claimed they didn’t understand the terms and conditions stipulated in the ‘Application for the IPO Share Financing’ as it was mainly written in English.

According to their lawyer Mohd Harris Abdullah, initially the settlers were also not aware and did not understand what they risked by signing the documents as in most cases neither the respective bank manager nor a bank representative attended the briefing to explain the matter to the settlers.

“Instead these settlers were briefed by the respective Felda managers whose command of English is poor.

“The settlers really did not understand what are the risks and how the whole process is working prior to the public listing.

“For an example if the share price dropped on the second month of the public listing, the settlers are debted to the respective bank which provided the loans to them to buy the shares.

“When this happens then the settlers have to pay whatever difference sums they are supposed to pay to the respective bank. Assuming the settlers have to pay RM20,000 to the bank and they don’t have sufficient cash, what will happen then? Probably the settlers have no choice but to pawn their land (grant)”, explained Mohd Harris.

Mohd Haris also alleged that there was an element of fraud when the settlers were told that they will receive “durian runtuh” (windfall) when they signed the forms.

“The settlers were also given empty forms without any names to be signed.

“Then there is another form which says that the settlers must be held liable for any losses and damages. The settlers now regret the decision and decided not to pursue the application for the IPO share financing”, Mohd Harris said.

Meanwhile the Seremban High Court has advised Mohd Harris to also file the injunction at the Kuantan High Court because majority of the settlers are from Pahang.

Mohd Harris said the settlers will be filing the injunction in Kuantan as soon as possible.

The settlers were accompanied by National Felda Settlers Children’s Association (Anak) president Mazlan Aliman, Negeri Sembilan PAS commissioner Mohd Taufek Abdul Ghani and Rasah PKR deputy chief R Tangam.