ASTRO CEO ROHANA SHORTLISTED FOR TELEKOM CEO POST? ‘THERE ARE 5 CONTENDERS, 3 NOT FROM TM – ROHANA IS ONE OF THEM’

KUALA LUMPUR: Outgoing Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Rohana Rozhan is believed to be among the contenders for Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) group CEO position, a source familiar with the matter told NST Business recently.

The source said since the resignation of Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly in June, the position has remained vacant.

“There are five contenders and three are not from TM. One of them is Rohana,” said the source.

Rohana is stepping down as Astro group CEO effective January 31 next year but will remain a non-executive director.

Another contender is former TM chief strategy officer Dr Farid Mohamed Sani, said the source. Prior to joining TM, he was with Khazanah Nasional Bhd as an investments director specialising in the telecommunications sector.

The source said Datuk Bazlan Osman, who resigned from the acting group CEO position last Friday, has turned down the offer to become TM group CEO.

Bazlan has also resigned as executive director of the company effective February 28 next year.

TM also announced the appointment of Imri Mokhtar as acting group CEO effective last Friday.

Imri was previously TM chief operating officer and executive vice-president of unifi.

He was responsible for the end-to-end management of the converged portfolio comprising telephone, broadband, mobile, television, wifi and value-added services for TM’s home and small and medium enterprise customers.

Bazlan’s departure came amid a challenging time for the group.

TM now expects growth to be flat or negative one per cent from 3.5 to four per cent previously.

The group also revised its capital expenditure guidance this year to between 20 and 22 per cent of revenue.

TM recently announced new unifi plans which are the most aggressive in years.

They include affordable entry-level unifi package of 30 megabits per second targeted at the bottom 40 per cent of household income group, unifi “turbo” which offers more than double the broadband speed and package upgrade for pre-unifi (Streamyx) customers.

TM’s net profit dropped to RM259.09 million in the first six months ended June 30 from RM440.92 million a year ago, hurt by rising competition in the fixed broadband market.

NST