Ganesh Sahathevan

The decision to appoint Quah Poh Keat as CEO should not be approved of by Bank Negara which has responsibility to depositors whose funds are the obvious, predominant source of  Public Bank's financing. To begin with Quah has had no experience running a bank. His only qualification seems to be the fact that he is Chinese, and was the managing partner at Public Bank's auditor KPMG. This alone should count against him, but the fact of his prior duties at KPMG raises questions about potential conflicts of interest. Indeed the conflict arose in 2008 when Quah was appointed a non-executive director and KPMG remained auditor. Then , come questions concerning past audits. While Public Bank has been awarded a number of awards for best annual report and so on in Malaysia by the Malaysian audit and accounting fraternity, the fact is the Big 4 in Malaysia have been known and proven to be rather slack in their work.For example,as  one study found : Audit quality can be defined as relating ...

Quah Poh Keat might have made a good accountant, given his experience in "audition" but CEO of a bank? Then again, Public Bank is no ordinary bank .  A 83 year old who saw it fit to be chairman of  Berjaya Toto and the bank, and who oversaw massive loans from that bank to Berjaya(more about that later) , remains to this day its chairman, while the CEO of the same age continues to run the bank out of his hospital bed. That said, when out of bed he continues to display the usual conservative style  that has marked his leadership, accentuated as always by his dancing girls. This is how the bank, using public funds, celebrated the his birthday in 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=INm7japeUDU&feature=youtu.be That same sense understated style  is seen again at an awards night for  salesmen and women from its mutual fund business:  Yang Berbahagia, Tan Sri Datuk Teh Hong Piow , the Chairman of Public Bank, Public Mutual, 3rd richest man in Malay...

For anyone not familiar with BHP Biliton, a company with a history of over 100 years , and a current market cap of AUD  175 Billion see http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BHP:AU Published: Wednesday October 9, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM Updated: Wednesday October 9, 2013 MYT 7:12:54 AM New shareholder fails to lift Blumont; Asiasons and LionGold also fall by risen jayaseelan AND tee lin say Email Facebook 0 SINGAPORE: The share prices of the three Singapore-listed companies with Malaysian major shareholders – Blumont Group Ltd, Asiasons Capital Ltd and LionGold Corp Ltd – continued to fall, even after the announcement that Alex Molyneux, the former chief executive officer of SouthGobi Resources Ltd, would acquire 135 million shares or a 5.2% stake in Blumont at 40 Singapore cents (RM1.02) per share, and become chairman of...

As reported: A) Ekuinas allocated RM400mil in the first tranche and the three fund managers raised RM143mil from private sources. ( http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/08/19/Ekuinas-steps-up-outsourcing-programme.aspx ) B) Asiasons Group , headed by chairman and co-founder Datuk  Mohammed Azlan Hashim , has been selected as the replacement manager of the earlier-launched Outsourced Programme Tranche I. ( http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2013/09/04/Ekuinas-sets-aside-RM360mil-for-Tranche-III.aspx ) C) SINGAPORE: The share price of Singapore-listed  Asiasons Capital Ltd  dropped as much as 90 percent to S$0.17 ($0.14) after a trading halt was lifted on Monday. The Singapore Exchange halted trading of shares in Asiasons,  LionGold Corp Ltd and  Blumont Group Ltd  on Friday. Blumont shares resumed trading, down 81 percent to S$0.167. - Reuters D) Shares in gold miner LionGold and its biggest shareholder, Asiasons, plummeted 42....