Maika issue: Subra gets to say his piece

By FMT Team

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC annual general assembly today witnessed a twist when former deputy president S Subramaniam was allowed to take the podium.

He was given the opportunity to explain the reason why Nesa Corporation, which he heads, obtained a court order to stop the sale of Oriental Capital Assurance Bhd (OCAB), which is under Maika Holdings stable of companies, in 2007.

Maika, the debt-ridden investment arm of MIC, was slapped with an injunction from the court after Nesa obtained a stay of execution against the sale of OCAB.

Subramaniam said the court order was obtained to ensure that the 66,000 stakeholders of Maika received the best value for the sale of their respective shares and for this, Nesa wanted the insurance firm's worth revalued before it was sold to an interested party.

He said another reason Nesa obtained a court order at that time was because it wanted Maika and the insurance company to be sold to an Indian buyer.

“Usaha Tegas offered RM149 million to acquire OCAB but we went to court to get a stay as we wanted it to be revalued first. The order was for the sale of OCAB and not Maika Holdings,” he added.

Subramaniam made a brief explanation after several delegates questioned why Nesa had imposed the injunction.

If the party had sold Maika for the abovesaid price shareholders would have obtained RM1.50 per share compared to 80 sen under the proposed buyout of G-Team Resources which is currently underway.

It is learnt that Subramaniam had made the request to explain his stand on the issue this morning to the assembly speaker GVadiveloo.

On another note, the former deputy president also slammed delegates who had called him various names including one who described him as a “traitor” to MIC and Indian Malaysians.

“I am a MIC delegate and I have the right to be here. There is no need to be disrespectful as we are all here to share our opinions,” he said.

Vell Paari explains

After Subramaniam ended his address, party president S Samy Vellu announced that since Subramaniam had said his piece, it was only right that Maika Holdings chief S Vell Paari explain the issue from Maika's viewpoint.

Vel Paari, son of the MIC supremo, said Maika did not agree to the sale at that time since the offer made by Usaha Tegas was conditional despite higher returns for the shareholders.

Among the conditions imposed, he said, was that Maika was not allowed to place an open tender for the sale of the company.

“Furthermore they wanted to revalue our assets first before giving us the confirmation. We were not agreeable to it as we would be making losses arising from the sale,” he added.

“At the same time we had another offer from Salcon which offered RM1.75. Subramaniam is aware of all these happenings,” he said.

Vel Paari added that he mentioned Salcon's offer to Usaha Tegas and urged them not to offer below RM1.75 per share.

“Unfortunately, Usaha Tegas informed us that it cannot offer anything above RM1.70 in our last discussion. Therefore we had no choice but to call off the deal,” he said.

PM's speech strikes a chord

In another development, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's opening speech at the assembly yesterday became the focal point of certain delegates.

Among others, Najib said MIC needs to reduce internal politicking as well as get rid of caste politics in the party.

Some delegates felt that Najib, who is also the Barisan Nasional chairman, should not have touched on MIC's leadership transition issue as well as the caste issue, but others thought otherwise.

“No other prime minister has come to the assembly and spoke about caste... but now things are different. We need to look into why he said this... the reasons behind his remarks,” said Shah Alam MIC division delegate S Suppiah.

“We cannot deny that during party elections, we have a list of preferred leaders wanting to contest based on their caste. Delegates of one caste would only vote a leader of their own caste. This is the truth.

“We cannot deny this. The sad part is that it took the prime minister to say this at the assembly. If we don't learn from this we would never learn,” he added.