Govt considers amending law to reveal 'ultimate' holders of nominee shares

 

PARLIAMENT | The government is considering amending the law to require nominee shareholders to reveal their “ultimate shareholder”, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Economic Affairs Mustapa Mohamed said.

This is so that the government can know who actually holds nominee shares, which makes up 12 percent of all corporate equity shares currently, he said.

“The government is thinking of amending the Companies Act and the MACC Act to ensure that shareholders are required to declare the ultimate shareholder so that the government knows who are actually holding these nominee shares.

“Right now, nominee shares are quite high at 12 percent,” Mustapa said during his winding-up speech for Budget 2022 in the Dewan Rakyat today.

One of the reasons for small bumiputera equity percentage

Nominee shareholders refer to a company member holding shares on behalf of the actual owner.

He said the rather high figure of nominee shares is one of the reasons for the small percentage of bumiputera equity, which stands at 17.2 percent right now.

The other reason, he said, is due to the sale of bumiputera assets to non-bumiputeras.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim

Previously, in his debate on Budget 2022 in the Dewan Rakyat, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (Harapan-Port Dickson) said nominee shareholding had been abused by the politically connected to surreptitiously own shares.

“Nominee (shareholding) is how big and very rich political leaders shield their names by appointing nominees.

“Is it proper to allow those with interest or decision-makers in the government, GLCs or GLICs to appoint a nominee so that their names and family members’ names do not appear? This needs further clarification,” Anwar said.

Under the 12th Malaysian Plan, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced a new safety net framework to ensure bumiputera shares or companies could only be sold to bumiputera equities.

Mustapa had clarified since then that this proposal only applies to a limited number of bumiputera mandated agencies such as Lembaga Tabung Haji, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) and Permodalan Nasional Berhad, among others. - Mkini