Reply from the Deputy CEO / CIO of EPF

I received a reply through my facebook from the Deputy CEO of EPF,  Dato' Shahril Ridzuan - here are his reply with regards to my articles on his share trades and ownership in MRCB and being offered IPO shares through his directorship in FGVH.

Dato' Shahril Ridzuan:

I noticed your postings on FGVH and MRCB with interest. I just wanted to clarify that at EPF, we have clear policies prohibiting our staff from trading on the markets due to potential conflicts of interest. These policies do allow our staff to sell securities that they owned prior to joining EPF.

In relation to FGVH, I had already declined my IPO entitlement and had in fact asked them to allot it to the settlers instead. I believe the prospectus has to legally state that I am entitled to subscribe if I want to.

In the case of MRCB, all my shares in the company are from the company ESOS and rights issue. As you know, I was the MD there for several years and a large chunk of my entitlement vested after I had joined EPF. I have never acquired shares from the open market. Subsequent sales have been to settle my financing under the ESOS scheme and also to reduce my holdings in MRCB to reduce its weightage in my own personal finances.

I hope that clarifies the points raised. Appreciate if you could also let your readers know. I tried to leave a comment on your blog but it didn't seem to work...

Also, this is a personal reply since the references in your postings seemed to be about myself (rather than EPF) and I want to assure you that I have, and will continue to, always act professionally in the interests of EPF.

My comment:

I would like to thank him for his quick reply and in my opinion he is definitely doing the right thing by rejecting shares in FGVH. Kudos to him for offering his portion to the settlers as the 800 shares per settler's family is a little pathetic, don't you think. However, seriously come to think of it, imagine - there may be a mess if too many shares are allocated to 112,000 households. The selling can be uncontrollable. Maybank for example has 60,187 shareholders as at 8 Feb 2012.

I would like to apologize if my postings harm him in any manner as it was never my intention to do so but rather as an observer who would like to protect his live long savings as well. I wish him the best.