SHAH ALAM: Destini overcoming its destiny. Shortly after the May 9, 2018 general election which saw the Pakatan Harapan coalition taking over the government from the ruling Barisan Nasional, many pundits said companies which were beholden to the old regime had a bleak future. One of those companies was Destini Bhd, according to these people.

From the Edge

“Much of the [negative] sentiment stems from Destini [Bhd], its joint-venture partner,” a dealer at a local brokerage tells The Edge.Destini is 24.84% controlled by Datuk Rozabil Abdul Rahman, who is said to be well connected to the former ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. The company’s second largest shareholder (17.3%) is Minister of Finance Inc’s Aroma Teraju Sdn Bhd.
Former Perlis menteri besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim also has a 3.68% stake via Batu Bara Resources Corp Sdn Bhd and Yayasan Pok dan Kassim.
To recap, in January last year, THHE formed a joint venture with Destini — THHE Destini Sdn Bhd.
THHE holds a 49% stake in the JV, which had secured a RM738.90 million contract for the supply, delivery, testing and commissioning of three offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
Apparently, Tabung Haji chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim — who is also the member of parliament for Baling, Kedah — had played a key role in securing the contract.
A dealer familiar with the matter says, “With BN no longer in power, there are concerns over Destini’s prospects … hence the bleak sentiment [for THHE].”

Probably in response to the story, Rozabil came out and spoke to the media asking he and the company be given a fair and second look.

Fast Forward to 2019

Some 10 months later the negative sentiments surrounding Destini appears to be over and there is talk that Destini may well be on the way up. One of its subsidiary Destini Prima got a contract extension from the Home Ministry to maintain and overhaul safety equipment for the police’s Air Wing on Jan. 7.

Anyhow what this got to do with Malaysian Defence then? As mentioned above Destini and THHE got a JV to build three OPV for the MMEA. As you are aware Tabung Haji has hived off its non-performing equities and subsidiaries to a SPV owned by the Finance Ministry. One of the subsidiaries hived to the SPV is THHE, which is the JV partner for the OPV project with Destini.

The stern view of the MMEA OPV

It is likely that SPV will offer the THHE share of the partnership first to Destini first – if it want to sell off its 49 per cent stake of the OPV project, of course. This remains likely at the moment as I have not been able to get anyone to say it outright of course. Anyhow I hope this has no effect whatsoever on the OPV project. We already have enough trouble up north.

— Malaysian Defence

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