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Zeti to Be Named Chairman of Malaysia’s $69 Billion Fund

Malaysia's $69 Billion State Fund Chairman Is Leaving

(Bloomberg) -- Zeti Akhtar Aziz will replace Abdul Wahid Omar as chairman of Malaysia’s biggest state-owned fund manager.

Permodalan Nasional Bhd. confirmed Zeti’s appointment effective July 1, the fund said in a statement. Bloomberg News reported the change in leadership earlier Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, who said the fund’s board was told at a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Zeti currently sits on a council that advises Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, after having served as central bank governor until 2016. She was Bank Negara Malaysia’s first female governor.

Mahathir will serve as chairman at Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputra, of which PNB is a unit, effectively immediately, with new trustees Zeti, former Attorney-General Ambrin Buang and Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali, who will also serve as alternate chairman of YPB, according to the statement from PNB.

Resignations

Zeti to Be Named Chairman of Malaysia’s $69 Billion Fund

Wahid joined directors at state-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. and Petroliam Nasional Bhd. who have stepped down, as well as central bank Governor Muhammad Ibrahim, who quit earlier this month after questions were raised about the institution’s role in a land deal related to state fund 1MDB.

PNB was set up by the government in 1978 to help boost the wealth of the country’s ethnic Malays, and remains heavily invested in Malaysia with assets totaling 279.23 billion ringgit ($69 billion) as of end 2017. Soon after taking the post in 2016, Wahid unveiled plans to boost the fund’s assets to 350 billion ringgit by 2022.

PNB holds stakes in some of the nation’s biggest companies, including Malayan Banking Bhd., Sime Darby Bhd. and UMW Holdings Bhd. Its domestic equity investments of 180 billion ringgit is equal to about 10 percent of the local stock exchange’s market capitalization, Wahid said in an interview last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elffie Chew in Kuala Lumpur at echew16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Yudith Ho, Linus Chua

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.