Fahmi scrutinising acquisition of firm managing KL Tower

 

Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil says his ministry is ready to give its full cooperation should the authorities conduct an investigation into the issue.

PETALING JAYA: Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil says he is scrutinising the acquisition of a Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) subsidiary that manages Kuala Lumpur Tower.

In a statement, Fahmi said he was taking a serious view of social media posts and questions raised by the media over the acquisition of TM’s subsidiary, Menara Kuala Lumpur Sdn Bhd (MKLSB), by a firm known as Hydroshoppe Sdn Bhd.

Fahmi said he had received a detailed briefing on the issue from his ministry’s officials on Dec 14 and will be briefed again by TM next Tuesday.

“The ministry is monitoring this issue closely and is ready to give its full cooperation should the authorities conduct an investigation,” he said in a statement.

Fahmi Fadzil.

Several social media users have highlighted TM’s move to transfer full ownership of MKLSB to Hydroshoppe in October.

A Twitter user with the handle @FreeMsian, who described KL Tower as a “cash cow”, said that the iconic structure that also serves as a tourist attraction generated RM66 million in revenue in 2019 and recorded a net profit of RM25 million then.

Questioning why there were no public announcements about the deal, the Twitter user asked why TM would sell off all of its 10 million shares in MKLSB.

The Twitter user also claimed that Hydroshoppe was about to be struck off by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) for not filing its records in a timely manner before it received “a new life from TM”.

Going on to question whether the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission would look into the acquisition, @FreeMsian also linked the deal with Annuar Musa — who was the communications and multimedia minister at the time.

In a Malaysiakini report, Annuar said he had nothing to do with the transfer of TM’s shares from MKLSB to Hydroshoppe.

Stating that TM is a public-listed company, Annuar said the deal to transfer shares did not need ministerial permission.

“TM was not under the communications minister … it is a public-listed company,” he said.

“(It has) nothing to do with the communications minister. Go ask TM … If the company was making RM25 million in profit, why didn’t they want to keep it and (instead) sold it off?” - FMT