Owner of London hotel bought by Felda 'removed from list of BVI-registered firms'

Asila Jalil Asila Jalil Updated 6 years ago · Published on 19 Oct 2017 8:39PM · 1 Comments

Rafizi Ramli says Felda has no choice but to trace and disclose the owner of FIC London Hotel (Pte) Ltd if it were to have any chance of recovering ownership of Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel in London. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Kamal Ariffin, October 19, 2017.

THE owner of a London property bought by the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) has been removed from the list of companies registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), said PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

He said his research revealed that FIC London Hotel (Pte) Ltd, the official owner of Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel, had been struck off the list on May 3 last year due to the non-payment of annual fees.

He said the ownership of two properties paid by Felda remained unknown.

“I have carried out official searches with the UK’s HM Land Registry, which prove that the official titles of ownership for (at least) two expensive properties paid for by Felda were registered in the name of BVI-registered companies, whose ownership remains unknown until today,” he said during a press conference at the Invoke headquarters today.

The two properties are Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel, which was bought for £60 million (RM330 million) in 2014, and Felda House, which was constructed for approximately RM380 million in 2015 and owned by FIC Global Limited, registered in BVI.

The Pandan MP said he had yet to get a response from Felda chairman Shahrir Samad, Prime Minister Najib Razak and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission regarding the exposes.

“I was expecting a simple denial that I have gotten it wrong as it is better that I am proven wrong than the possibility that at least RM1 billion in public funds had been diverted suspiciously.

“I hereby request a full explanation from Najib and Shahrir on the status of Felda’s investment in Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel in London.

“Now that FIC London Hotel (Pte) Ltd has been struck off and the company officially holds the title to the RM330 million hotel bought by Felda, how does Felda plan to recover ownership of the hotel?

“Felda has no choice but to trace and disclose the owner of FIC London Hotel (Pte) Ltd if Felda were to have any chance of recovering ownership of the hotel.

“Who is behind FIC London Hotel (Pte) Ltd? Is Felda going to make a public statement soon to respond to the series of exposes I have been making since last week?”

On Sunday, Rafizi had asked that Felda reveal the owners of the London property.

According to Felda’s latest financial statements, the hotel is managed by Grand Plaza Kensington Ltd but owned by FIC London Hotel Pte Ltd.

Both companies are based in the UK and owned by Felda subsidiary Felda Investment Corporation Sdn Bhd.

In July, MACC chief Dzulkifli Ahmad had directed that the purchase be investigated, and documents were seized in connection with the buy. – October 19, 2017.

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Comments

  • First, these supposedly Felda owned properties in London were found to be not owned by companies registered in London as claimed by Felda’s latest audited financial statements. But, instead, these companies were found to be registered in British Virgin Islands (based on land title search), whose ownership remains a mystery.
    Now, the latest, Rafizi has found out that one of the BVI-registered owners, FIC London Hotel Pte Ltd, which owns the Grand Plaza Kensington Hotel, was actually struck off from BVI’s registry of companies in May 2016, per its government gazette dated 19th May 2016.
    So, what happens to the ownership of these London properties now? Still with the de-registered BVI companies, whose owners have never been revealed? Or some other new owners?
    Surely the chairman of Felda, Sharir, and PM Najib can’t continue to keep their golden silence when such massive assets of Felda seem to be hanging in the air?

    Posted 6 years ago by Kim quek · Reply