SHAHRIL Ridza Ridzuan will be the new Khazanah Nasional Berhad managing director after a sterling five-year run as the chief executive of Malaysia’s largest pension fund, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), said sources.

Putrajaya is expected to name Shahril this week to run the strategic investment fund which was led by Azman Mokhtar for the past 14 years until last Tuesday.

Azman and eight other members of the Khazanah board had earlier submitted undated resignation letters to its ultimate shareholder, the Ministry of Finance Inc (MoF Inc), on July 24.

“Shahril will get the Khazanah top job,” a source told The Malaysian Insight.

Another source also confirmed the decision, which will be announced as early as today.

The 48-year-old Shahril is an outside choice for the top job, which reports to the Khazanah board chaired by the sitting prime minister, now Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who only assumed the post after the board resignations was accepted.

Malaysian media had reported that possible replacements for Azman had included Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF) group managing director Charon Mokhzani and Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) chief executive Yusof Annuar Yaacob.

Two others, former Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad CEO Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim and Raja Shahreen Raja Othman, the Selangor’s Menteri Besar Inc (MBI) chief executive, were also speculated to be on the shortlist.

EPF under Shahril has seen solid returns with contributors enjoying rising dividends since he led the fund. The 6.9% dividend rate declared last year was the highest since 1996 when EPF paid a dividend of 7.7%.

He was previously deputy CEO (investment) of EPF from December 2009 until his appointment as CEO in April 2013.

Between 2009 and last year, the dividends declared by EPF have been trending upwards except for 2015 and 2016, the years when the local stock market fell.

Shahril, a lawyer by training, served as the group managing director of Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) from September 1, 2003 until December 1, 2009, when he joined EPF.

He served in Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad from 1998 to 1999 and was an independent non-executive director of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad from January 18, 2012 to December 26, 2013. He served as an executive director at SSR Associates Sdn Bhd from 1999 to August 2001.

Shahril’s role in Khazanah will see the sovereign wealth fund revert to its original aim of owning and guarding national assets on behalf of Malaysians, as was first mentioned by Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali, who is also a Khazanah board member.

Azmin and three others, Hassan Marican, former Bank Negara Malaysia deputy governor Dr Sukhdave Singh and former Securities Commission (SC) executive director Goh Ching Yin, were named to the Khazanah board last Friday.

They replaced Azman, Md Nor Md Yusof, Mohamed Azman Yahya, Mohammed Azlan Hashim, Raja Arshad Raja Uda, Andrew Sheng Len Tao, Nazir Abdul Razak, Nirmala Menon and Yeo Kar Peng.

By convention, the Khazanah board is chaired by the prime minister with the finance minister and the Treasury secretary-general as members. 

Former prime minister Najib Razak, former finance minister II Johari Abdul Ghani and the former Treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah resigned on May 31 after the Barisan Nasional (BN) government lost in the May 9 general election.

The Malaysian Insight reported on July 13 that Khazanah is to get a new boss in 14 years after Dr Mahathir’s remarks a week earlier clearly suggested the sovereign wealth fund was to get a new direction with fresh leadership at the helm.

The Khazanah website states that it holds and manages the commercial assets owned by the government and undertakes strategic investments on behalf of the nation and has interests in more than 100 companies in a number of sectors from power and aviation to healthcare and financial services.

As of December 2017, Khazanah has a realisable asset value of RM157.2 billion while its net worth adjusted reached a record high of RM115.6 billion. – August 2, 2018.