By Khairie Hisyam
Liew Kee Sin
Shareholders of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment project are concerned over project chairman Liew Kee Sin’s personal deal with Ballymore Group worth nearly RM12 billion.
Sources familiar with the matter said shareholders of the project are looking into his position as chairman given the apparent conflict of interest. “The (Ballymore) deal would have implications on his position,” said one source on condition of anonymity.
Liew’s tenure as chairman at Battersea is slated to end this September and he had previously remarked that whether his contract would be extended is up to shareholders to decide. The redevelopment project is a 40:40:20 joint venture between property developer SP Setia, conglomerate Sime Darby and pension fund Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
Earlier today Reuters reported that Liew’s Britain-based private vehicle Eco World Investment Co Ltd had inked a joint venture with Ballymore to develop three residential projects in London to the tune of £2.2 billion (RM11.8 billion).
The development would be undertaken by a joint venture company, Eco World Ballymore Holding Co Limited, that would be 75% controlled by Eco World Investment.
The joint venture brings together Ballymore’s development expertise and Eco World Investment’s global marketing know-how for such properties, said Liew as quoted by Reuters.
Conflict in legacy position
Conflict of interest issues arise as Liew is also chairman of the Battersea project, a redevelopment of a long-neglected London icon that traces its history to a coal-fired power station built in the 1930s.
With a timeline of 15 years, the project is estimated to have a total gross development value (GDV) of £8 billion (RM42 billion), though the value may go up to as much as £10 billion (RM52.5 billion).
Notably, Liew’s position at Battersea is a legacy of his 18 years helming SP Setia as president and chief executive officer since 1996 up to end-April last year, when he left to retire.
Liew’s departure came two years after a takeover by SP Setia’s major shareholder Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) of the developer in late 2011, which was initially opposed by the SP Setia board. However, Liew later became a joint offeror to the takeover which saw PNB become a majority shareholder in 2012.
Part of the takeover was an agreement that Liew would stay no more than three years, which capped his time at SP Setia until end-April 2015 at the latest. This meant Liew’s departure at end-April was one year early.
Despite his departure, however, Liew remained chairman of Battersea and SP Setia’s Qinzhou project in China to ensure continuity, said SP Setia chairman Zaki Azmi previously.
Emergence in Eco World
However, less than a week after his last day at SP Setia, Liew emerged as a non-executive director in fast-emerging developer Eco World Development Group Berhad, at which his son Liew Tian Xiong is an executive director.
Eco World’s emergence had previously caused a stir in the market given apparent links to SP Setia with former SP Setia bigwigs spearheading its rise including Liew’s son. The link notably includes the mass transfer of about 280 staff from SP Setia to Eco World, whose workforce numbered about 350 at the time, according to a May 2014 estimate by RHB Research.
Notably, Eco World became listed through a reverse take-over of Focal Aims Holdings Berhad worth RM230.7 million, an exercise in which Tian Xiong was a joint offeror alongside the private vehicle Eco World.
Tian Xiong subsequently emerged with a 35% stake and his part in the takeover was financed by Liew and wife, according to Bursa Malaysia filings, despite Liew’s position as head of another listed property developer at the time.
In October last year, Liew announced that he is proposing a blank-cheque listing focusing on the property sector called Eco World International Berhad. Should the special purpose acquisition company (Spac) listing materialise, it is eyeing some RM1.9 billion in proceeds, nearly double the total proceeds of all four previous Spac listings in Malaysia which had all been in the oil and gas sector.
Offering stake to Spac
News reports today quoted Liew as saying that he is prepared to offer the Spac the first right of refusal to acquire the 75% stake in the Eco World-Ballymore joint venture.
As for SP Setia, this week saw a new board member in PNB Merdeka Warisan chief executive officer Ab Aziz Tengku Mahmud as PNB’s presence on the board grows.
Notably, reports have emerged this week that SP Setia’s top brass had initiated a high-level proposal for conglomerate Sime Darby, in which PNB is also a major shareholder, to take over SP Setia in a merger, a possibility KiniBiz had previously examined here.
The Ballymore deal had also swiveled the spotlight on Voon Tin Yow, Liew’s long-time right-hand man at SP Setia who took over as acting president and chief executive officer following Liew’s exit, as co-owner of Eco World Investment alongside Liew.
Voon’s tenure at the helm of SP Setia ended last December and he was replaced by SP Setia director Khor Chap Jen as the developer’s second acting president and CEO in nine months.
‘Voon’s plans unknown’
Voon Tin Yow
In a September 2014 interview with business radio station BFM, Liew was vague on Voon’s future direction after leaving SP Setia, claiming that Voon had not informed him of his plans after SP Setia.
However, Liew noted that a man with Voon’s experience and knowledge is a “wanted man” by all other developers.
“Sure, we were together for 22 years — we built an empire, we built Setia, we built our families, our kids know each other so well,” said Liew when pressed whether it would be surprising if Voon ends up knocking on his door. “We’ve been together for such a long, long time.”
However, Liew said at the time that should Voon indeed knocks on his door, he would first need to ask Voon why he left SP Setia.
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