KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah), the country's sovereign wealth fund said on Thursday that all members of its board of directors, including the managing director have offered to resign in order to "facilitate a smooth and orderly transition under the new government."
Khazanah, which controls an "realizable asset value" of 157.2 billion ringgit (38.7 billion U.S. dollars) as of Dec. 31, 2017, said in a statement that the current board "has been honored to serve, and feels it appropriate to offer the new government the discretion and reaffirm the prerogative to form the new board."
Khazanah is the strategic investment fund of the Malaysian government entrusted to hold and manage the commercial assets of the government and to undertake strategic investments. Its portfolio includes the country's second largest banking group CIMB, utility firm Tenaga Nasional, IHH Healthcare, Telekom Malaysia, national carrier Malaysia Airlines, and Malaysia Airports.
It is not yet clear whether the directors' resignation has been accepted, but Malaysia's Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng reportedly said that the en bloc resignations of Khazanah's entire board of directors is a "wise decision."
Malaysia's newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad earlier criticized that the fund had deviated from its initial objective of assisting Bumiputera (a Malay parlance which means a Malaysian of indigenous Malay origin).