BARELY 48-hours of his assuming the role as Berjaya Corp Bhd’s (BCorp) new group CEO, former Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) Abdul Jalil Abdul Rasheed has probably landed his ‘first assignment’ albeit rather indirectly to say the least.
This would probably come in the form of an oversight task to ensure the very success of BCorp’s partnership with New World Capital Advisors Ltd (NWCA), a London-headquartered merchant banking and investment company to establish New World Capital Advisors Sdn Bhd.
This is even as NWCA Malaysia will be helmed by Lena Tan Wai Foon, a veteran deal maker and investor with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry in Asia, Europe and the US.
Most recently, Lena Tan – who bears no blood tie with BCorp’s founder and executive chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan – was the chairman of 7-Eleven Malaysia and Singer Malaysia.
She is currently a director at 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd, Razer Fintech Holdings, Berjaya Fintech, Berjaya Retail and Berjaya Credit.
NWCA is the advisory and merchant banking division of New World Group (NWG) which has over US$2.5 bil of group asset under management and acts as a fiduciary to institutional and sovereign capital across the asset management, technology and venture capital verticals.
In fact, NWCA is a recognised “export champion” by the UK Government’s Department for International Trade.
NWCA Malaysia will be focusing on providing advisory services including mergers and acquisitions, strategy and operations advice to diversified businesses, corporations, and institutional investors in Malaysia as well as neighbouring countries where they have a presence.
BCorp has subscribed for a 40% stake in NWCAfor US$240,000 (equivalent to about RM989,160) based on the founding share capital of US$500,000 or about RM2.06 mil.
In fact, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to even assume that the 39 year-old Jalil could provide valuable inputs or to form a formidable partnership with Lena Tan, 60, to steer NWCA to greater heights and along the aspirations of the BCorp’s patriarch Vincent Tan.
“I have gotten to know NWCA over the past four years and have enjoyed watching the firm grow from strength to strength,” Vincent Tan was quoted as saying in a media statement.
“NWCA’s financial expertise further compliments BCorp’s existing operations in a broad range of industries and we look forward to further collaboration with NWG’s portfolio companies.”
At 9.35am, BCorp was up 1 sen or 5% to 21 sen with 4.17 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM1.1 bil. – March 19, 2021
