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Ekuinas to continue supporting Icon OffshoreEkuinas to continue supporting Icon Offshore

Malaysia's Ekuiti Nasional (Ekuinas) has quashed talk it is planning to exit oil and gas service provider Icon Offshore, local reports said.

Vincent Wee, Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

May 5, 2015

1 Min Read
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Ekuinas, which has a 42.3% stake in Icon, would continue with its support of the current management of Icon that plans to grow the business regionally regardless of the fact that two top executives have been detained to help with a corruption investigation.

“We believe in the long-term value of Icon. It doesn’t make sense for us to sell our investments at low prices because we are here to maximise our value,” Ekuinas ceo Abdul Rahman Ahmad was quoted as saying.

“We hope we can go through this tough period by maintaining our utilisation of (Icon) and push forward our strategy to build Icon to grow internationally,” he said.Subsequently, Icon has given a six-month leave of absence to the two key executives, who are siblings, to enable them to focus on assisting investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

On Ekuinas’ immediate plan for Icon, Abdul Rahman said the sovereign wealth fund would lend its support to the current management of Icon, which is now led by deputy ceo Hassan Ali.

“Our role is to assist Icon’s current management such as providing the necessary resources to ensure the company continues to grow, especially in this current challenging period for the O&G sector,” he said.

Before the MACC probe became public, Icon’s strategy was to grow in the region and was open for potential acquisitions. This was also in line with Ekuinas strategy of creating value from undervalued companies.

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About the Author

Vincent Wee

Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

Vincent Wee is Seatrade's Hong Kong correspondent covering Hong Kong and South China while also making use of his Malay language skills to cover the Malaysia and Indonesia markets. He has gained a keen insight and extensive knowledge of the offshore oil and gas markets gleaned while covering major rig builders and offshore supply vessel providers.

Vincent has been a journalist for over 15 years, spending the bulk of his career with Singapore's biggest business daily the Business Times, and covering shipping and logistics since 2007. Prior to that he spent several years working for Brunei's main English language daily as well as various other trade publications.

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