A white elephant was considered a sacred and tremendously valuable animal in Thailand (Siam), but being given one as a present by the King was the worst thing to happen to you. You could not use it for work as it would offend the King.  And you were obliged to keep it in your household and maintain it. This cost would slowly ruin even a rich family, leading to a slow but unavoidable disaster in the end.

But does it even happen nowadays?  Yes, it does. And here is the latest example from Malaysia.  There is a modern version of this scenario.  Barakah Offshore Petroleum acquired such an elephant in 2013 in the form of a pipe laying barge kota laksamana 101.  The cost of maintaining it led to a financial disaster. Barakah received notice of demand of its term loan facilities from a licensed bank on an event of default in payment of loan instalments on 17 May 2019. That led to PN17 status and the danger of delisting.

You would think that the company would get rid of the animal to solve problem.  Not at all.  They still pay for maintaining it while the barge remains idle.  Per latest Annual Report: ‘The Group had undertaken an impairment assessment on its barge and pipe laying equipment on board the barge as they had remained idle as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.’  Nothing prolongs the problem as much as assessing and talking about it rather than doing something. After 4 years since default in 2019 (!) they found an interested buyer considering it on an ‘as is and where is’ basis.   It is not very assuring.  Before you sell your car, you fix it, clean it, bring it to the market. Barakah just keeps it ‘as is.’ I do not think that the company seriously tries to sell this elephant.  Heaven forbids – putting it to work. They got attached to it.  After all, it is their elephant.

As for the 'as is' status, on company site they show model of the barge partially flooded. This probably reflects the status of the company.  It is sinking like the barge.  And nothing is being done to change the situation.  It seems that efforts of Barakah Management go into maintaining this sinking elephant, and that is the new normal for barakah.

BARAKAH OFFSHORE PETROLEUM BHD

KLSE (MYR): BARAKAH (7251)