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Rafizi slams Felda chair’s ‘arrogance' over London hotel sale
Published:  Oct 10, 2017 4:07 PM
Updated: 10:45 AM

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli has offered a point-by-point rebuttal to Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) chairperson Shahrir Abdul Samad’s explanation about the state of affairs in the company.

In an interview last Sunday, Shahrir used an analogy of Ferrari to explain that the sale of Felda’s London hotel was neither a sign of the agency’s weak financial status nor a financial loss, even if brought about a “loss of face.”

Labelling the statements “arrogant” and “shocking,” Rafizi criticised him for trivialising Felda’s financial scandals.

“He (Shahrir) did not admit the billions that Felda has lost just like that...he made a joke of Felda’s financial scandals.

“When he likens selling assets like the London hotel to selling a seldom-used Ferrari, it’s like he has forgotten that the ‘Ferrari’ was bought using money entrusted by the rakyat to Felda,” he said in a statement today.

Training his guns on the finances of the London hotel – the Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments – Rafizi argued that even if Felda managed to sell it, they would suffer a RM45 million loss.

Bought in 2013 for RM538 million, the hotel has been experiencing losses every year from 2014, he claimed.

“The financial statement of FIC UK Properties Sdn Bhd (the Felda subsidiary set up to manage the hotel) shows that Felda suffered losses of RM9 million in 2014.

“It suffered even bigger losses the next year – RM16.7 million,” he said in his statement.

Rafizi also claimed that the Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments had been charging room rates that were below market average (GBP133 compared to GBP200), had a lower-than-average occupancy rate (83.5 percent compared to 85 percent) and collected less-than-average revenue from each room (GBP111 compared to GBP180).

He added that Felda owed RM136 million in interest for the RM6 billion loan it took from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to purchase the hotel.

“Taking into account all these losses from its operations and the interest (it needs to pay), (even if) Felda is able to sell the Grand Plaza for the market rate of RM680 million, it will suffer a loss of around RM38 million,” Rafizi said.

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