Former RMAF chief Appointed BHIC Chairman

A file picture of TS Roslan Saad when he was the RMAF chief.

SHAH ALAML Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd (BHIC) has appointed former RMAF chief TS Roslan Saad,68, as its independent non-executive chairman. The company which lost some RM14 million when it divested its stake in Contraves Advanced Devices Sdn Bhd earlier this week made the announcement on December 26.

The Edge reported that

It is understood that Roslan’s appointment to the helm of the defence contractor’s board fills a seat which has been vacant since his predecessor, former navy chief Tan Sri Ramlan Mohamed Ali, resigned from the post back in June 2021

A RMAF EC725 helicopter undergoing maintenance at BHICAS hangar in Subang. BHICAS.

In the announcement made to Bursa Malaysia, BHIC noted that Roslan’s long service culminated with him being appointed as chief of air force from 2014 to 2016.

It is interesting to note that the last time Malaysian Defence met Roslan, it was at this year’s edition of DSA. His business card stated that he was the BHIC Aeroservices Sdn Bhd (BHICAS) chairman. The release did not mention his position at BHICAS, which is a subsidiary of BHIC. Checks on BHICAS website showed that Roslan is still listed as the chairman of the company

This is the first time, a former RMAF chief was appointed as chairman of BHIC. All this while, it has been headed by a former RMN chief, the last was Ramlan. With BHIC selling its stake in Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd to the MOF-owned Ocean Sunshine Sdn Bhd, the appointment of a former airman make one wonder whether BHIC is pivoting to aerospace ventures which it has a good track record. One of BHIC’s subsidiary is still the ISS provider for the RMN Scorpene submarines.

RMAF EC-725 fleet is maintained by BHIC Aeroservices Sdn Bhd, BHICAS is a joint venture between BHIC’s subsidiary BHIC Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd, Prestige Pillar Sdn Bhd and Airbus Helicopters Malaysia Sdn Bhd. Malaysian Defence picture.

BHICAS is currently the maintenance provider to RMAF’s fleet of EC725 helicopters as well as Airbus rotorcraft of the RMN (Fennec), police (Ecureils) and MMEA (Dauphins). Rumours was abound several years ago that Boustead was interested in taking over Airod with several other local industry players. It never came to pass though.

Malaysian Defence has speculated that a Boustead firm was the other local firm which had bid for the Hercules upgrade programme. BHICAS will not be involved as it is a JV firm with Airbus with another local company. That said in the past, Airbus and BHIC, has stated their intention to pursue fixed wing aircraft maintenance.

Your guess is as good as mine.

— Malaysian Defence

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8 Comments

  1. Well with the last divestment of naval related asset, its logical move to get a TUDM man as head now they can focus solely on the aviation defence side of the business. But with Weststar in the game as well, how long will the old guard crony fare against PMX favourite of today? Its not inconceivable there will be a move to switch existing activities with BHIC to Weststar if given the opportunity.

  2. Not exactly really. While they would want someone who still got ties (& influence?) on the inside, this is par for the course in any defence industry in any country. If the company is private owned its hardly political appointees.

  3. The only thing BHIC can do is eurocopter maintenance, which is for TUDM already signed off until 2029 at least for just RM378 million.

    https://www.malaysiandefence.com/bhicas-to-continue-maintenance-of-ec725s/

    EC725, which is a much larger and more complex helicopter compared to the AW149 has a maintenance cost (that is from the boustead already marked up contract) of only RM6.3 million per helicopter per year.

    That is magnitudes lower and cheaper maintenance cost than what is included in the RM16.5 billion 28 heli lease of weststar.
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZIqh2RbkAAkPik.jpg

    The leasing list
    – 12x AW149
    – 3x AW189
    – 6x AW139
    – 7x Bell 429
    28 helicopters in total.

    If you take that RM6.3 million per year per helicopter maintenance cost, times it by 28 helicopters and 15 years, it just comes out to RM2.646 billion. Yet the maintenance cost of smaller helicopters like the Bell 429 in the contract does not even come close to RM6.3 million per year. As a modern helicopter, the Bell 429 200 hour and 400 hour inspections are fully visual only (no need to dismantle anything).
    https://www.flightglobal.com/flight-test-bell-429-no-detail-too-small/91979.article

    So why is the total cost of the leasing is RM16.5 billion when the maintenance for 15 years should be at most RM2.646 billion???? Where is the savings compared to just buy the helicopter and put out maintenance contract as per usual????

  4. Hulubalang-So why is the total cost of the leasing is RM16.5 billion when the maintenance for 15 years should be at most RM2.646 billion…

    As what i have said earlier we already paid for a full price of the helos plus marked up maintenance included pelincir. Which is why there is an option to buy at the end of term for RM1 lol

  5. “Which is why there is an option to buy at the end of term for RM1 lol”
    The deal was to buy them at RM 15mil after 15 years not RM 1 lar. After paying the crony overprices we still have to pay him even more money if we want to own them. Orz.

  6. Pelincir/profit/incentive of RM1 billion for RM6 billion cost project i can fathom.

    But RM10.5 billion pelincir for RM6 billion cost project????

    Where is the tatakelola in this? More like tatakelaut and tatakelakar.

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