Telekom Malaysia takes over TRI management after winning board fight

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Telekom Malaysia moved today to take over the management of mobile phone operator Technology Resources Industries (TRI) after winning a protracted boardroom fight.

In a statement to the stock exchange, TRI said it has appointed Telekom nominee Mohamad Munir Abdul Majid as company chairman to replace tycoon Tajudin Ramli.

Another Telekom candidate Lim Kheng Guan was also named as a member of the audit committee.

It said a board committee would be set up to "consider any proposal for a possible business combination" of its Celcom unit, the country's second biggest mobile phone operator, and Telekom's mobile arm TM Cellular.

The announcement came just a day after Mohamad Munir, Lim and two other Telekom nominees were appointed to the TRI board after Tajudin and three associates resigned as directors following a bitter power struggle.

Tajudin, a close associate of ex-finance minister Daim Zainuddin, lost control of the last bastions of his empire in April when bad-debt agency Pengurusan Danaharta foreclosed on his pledged stakes in TRI and aviation firm Naluri after he defaulted on loan payments.

But the tycoon had refused to go without a fight and last week created an uproar when he barred proxies of Telekom and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) from attending TRI's annual meeting on technical grounds.

EPF, a party seen as friendly to Telekom, is the third largest shareholder in TRI with an 11 percent stake after Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG with 16 percent.

Legal threat

Tajudin was re-elected TRI chairman at the meeting but Telekom lodged a complaint with the stock exchange and threatened legal action.

The corporate brouhaha led to government mediation headed by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's economic adviser Nor Mohamed Yakcop, resulting in a compromise reached over talks at the weekend.

TRI on Monday said Telekom, the single largest shareholder with a 31.25 percent stake, was committed to a general offer for the remaining TRI shares at a minimum of RM2.75 each. -AFP



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