KINIBIZ After a second CEO resignation within nine months, property developer SP Setia Bhd has yet to have a permanent replacement for long-time boss Liew Kee Sin, who left in April this year.

Why is major shareholder Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) taking its time over such a crucial position for SP Setia?

In January, SP Setia will welcome its third chief executive officer (CEO) in just over eight months. But a permanent replacement for long-time chief Liew ( right ), who bowed out last April, after nearly 18 years with the company, is still nowhere in sight.

Current acting president and CEO Voon Tin Yow, who has been Liew’s right-hand man at SP Setia since the very beginning, is leaving in December, earlier than the expiry of his one-year appointment in April next year.

Stepping up would be current acting deputy president and chief operating officer Khor Chap Jen, though Khor will also assume the top post on an acting basis beginning January.

Analysts see Voon’s departure, as well as the lack of a permanent replacement, as alarming.

“Surprisingly, the group has not appointed a permanent CEO till now, which is disappointing,” Public Bank said in a research note last week.

The uncertainty appears to stem from PNB, the major shareholder and a government-linked bumiputera fund management company.

Holding nearly 64 percent of the SP Setia shares, any CEO appointment would have to come from PNB.

However PNB has strangely dawdled over the issue, despite having had years to find an appropriate - and more importantly, permanent - replacement for Liew.

For the full report go to KiniBiz .