CURIOUS shareholders of Bintai Kinden Corp Bhd and three other public listed companies (PLCs) should question boards of those companies over the emergence of 23 year-old Noor Azri Azerai who was appointed directorship in the four PLCs within a span of five months between July and December last year.
Following his maiden appointment as executive director of Bintai Kinden in July 2021, the son of the famed flying ship” entrepreneur Datuk Seri Noor Azerai Ahmad was appointed as an independent non-executive director (INED) of NWP Holdings Bhd, Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd and Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Bhd (MGRC).
The Edge Weekly which broke Noor Azri’s “rise to fame” in its March 7 to March 13 issue, said “few in the corporate world know who Azri is or who he represents or the kind of expertise he brings to the group as a director” except that Bintai Kinden disclosed in a filing with Bursa Malaysia that Azri graduated with an honours degree in finance, investment and risk from The London Institute of Banking & Finance in 2021.
Editor’s Note: Noor Azri has since resigned from the board of timber manufacturer NWP Holdings Bhd on March 21 but was later appointed as an INED of Perak-based lingerie maker Caely Holdings Bhd on March 23.
Minority Shareholders Watch Group CEO Devanesan Evanson suggested that shareholders of the four PLCs question the said director, the companies’ nomination committee and the companies’ board as to what that director can bring to the board.
“In fact, regardless of age, what a newly appointed director brings to the board is a question that shareholders should ask at an annual general meeting (AGM) whenever they have doubts on a director’s potential contribution,” he wrote in a recent weekly column in the New Straits Times.
“And when a director holds executive director positions in more than one PLC, shareholders should find out at the AGM (annual general meeting) how that director is able to stay focused and discharge his duties and responsibilities diligently in the listed companies where he sits as an executive director. An executive director, by implication, is a full-time job.”
According to Devanesan, the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) advocates that board appointments should have due regard for diversity in skills, experience, age, cultural background and gender.
He pointed to Public Bank Bhd where “it is a near unanimous opinion that it is one of the better banks in town returning very good shareholder value.”
“Thus, age diversity is advocated though the range of ages is very much left to the shareholders to decide,” he opined.
“The age profile of its directors is interesting. There is one director who is over 90 years old. Three are in the 70 to 79 age bracket, four are in the 60 to 69 age bracket and the youngest is 55.
“In a strange way there is an element of diversity – the youngest is 55 and the oldest is over 90!
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Ask the shareholders and they will almost swear by their investment in the bank. Attending their physical AGM is a rousing experience as there is a standing ovation for the chairman.” – March 27, 2022
