New Utusan company will absorb some staff, says Dr Mahathir

Noel Achariam Noel Achariam Updated 4 years ago · Published on 10 Oct 2019 12:20PM · 4 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says some Utusan employees who lost their jobs when the company folded yesterday will be taken in by the new firm that is taking over the publication. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Seth Akmal, October 10, 2019.

SOME of the Kumpulan Utusan Melayu Bhd staff who lost their jobs when the company folded yesterday will be absorbed into the new company that is taking over the publication, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“Utusan will be closed, but as far as the workers are concerned, some of them will be taken to work with the new Utusan,” the prime minister said after attending the International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia today.

Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo publisher Utusan Melayu Bhd, a newspaper company that dates back to the late 1930s, had shut down and terminated about 800 of its employees.

The decision was made after Utusan could no longer bear the burden of debt accumulated over the years, estimated at between RM240 million and RM340 million.

Utusan Malaysia will “live on” under another company linked to tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, The Edge reported today.

However, re-employing existing staff will be up to the new shareholder, the business paper quoted Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd executive chairman Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir as saying.

The country’s oldest Malay-language newspaper will be relaunched under Syed Mokhtar’s company, Aurora Mulia Sdn Bhd, which has ownership of the printing licences, said Aziz.

“Utusan will live on. We are liquidating the holding company but the ownership of the printing licences [has] been acquired by Aurora Mulia and it will relaunch publications in the near future.” – October 10, 2019.

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Comments

  • On what basis is Mahathir making this statement? As the controlling shareholder? Surely as the Prime Minister, he has no business deciding whether the employees of an insolvent private company will be reemployed in the new entity unless of course Mahathir is the new owner.

    Posted 4 years ago by Panchen Low · Reply

  • Back to being another political paper??

    Posted 4 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • Sin Chew daily with daily circulation of 500,000 only has 124 employees. Utusan Malaysia with daily circulation of 150,000 has 800 employees? What business is Utusan doing? Business one third of Sin Chew but employee 5 times of Sin Chew. Plan to fail.

    Posted 4 years ago by James Wong · Reply

    • May be they need a Harvard university graduate to advise them how to manage

      Posted 4 years ago by Abdul Rashid Shaary · Reply