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Malaysia palm oil giant chairman resigns amid leadership tension

Bloomberg Published on Mon, Jun 19, 2017 / 5:49 PM GMT+8

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(June 19): The chairman of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. resigned amid a leadership tussle and graft probe at the world’s biggest crude palm oil producer. Shares in the Malaysia state-linked company rose.

Isa Samad stepped down "to focus on his personal undertakings," according to a stock exchange filing on Monday. Sulaiman Mahbob, a board member at FGV, was appointed acting chairman with immediate effect. He was no longer a government-appointed director amid an effort to "uphold the integrity" of ongoing investigations, the government said in a statement.

The resignation comes after FGV’s board of directors this month instructed four senior managers, including Chief Executive Officer Zakaria Arshad, to take a leave of absence pending investigations involving transactions at a subsidiary. Isa is not one of the four officials.