General Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor said, "I did not retire, I resigned. Those are two different connotations." However, he declined to comment on the reason that prompted him to resign from the fund.

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 9): General Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor has come out to clarify that he resigned, and not retired, from his post as chairman of the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) as announced by the fund on Thursday (Feb 8).

The Edge reached out to Raja Mohamed Affandi following LTAT’s announcement of his departure, as he had served his role for just two years and six months.

“I did not retire, I resigned,” Raja Mohamed Affandi said, when contacted. “Those are two different connotations.”

However, he declined to comment on the reason that prompted him to resign from the fund.

Raja Mohamed Affandi was appointed as LTAT’s chairman on Aug 3, 2021, succeeding Tan Sri Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin, who completed his service across three years from August 2018.

The departure of Raja Mohamed Affandi, who turns 66 this June, follows the resignation of LTAT chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Nazim Abd Rahman just one week prior on Jan 31.

Ahmad Nazim served the fund for two years and seven months since his appointment to the CEO post on June 15, 2021.

The two resignations came a month after it was reported that the planned restructuring of the armed forces pension fund had been put on hold, following a change of the head of the Ministry of Defence, the ministry which oversees the fund.

Ahmad Nazim, in his resignation letter to Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin sighted by The Edge, pointed out that delaying any decision on restructuring of its flagship company Boustead Holdings Bhd beyond January “would shorten the runway for the execution, and present a significant risk to the balance sheet of LTAT, and impact our ability to meet the minimum dividend target for this year”.

“Given the lapse of time, I am afraid I could no longer pursue the mission and fulfil the mandate of my job," Ahmad Nazim said in the resignation letter, according to a report by The Edge Malaysia weekly.

Following the report, LTAT said discussions with relevant stakeholders on the restructuring of Boustead, which is laden with RM6.7 billion debts, are continuing.

It added that “at this juncture, no final decisions have been made” on Boustead’s restructuring, and that any decision will undergo various internal and external processes to ensure it is made in the best interest of its contributors.

To recap, during Ahmad Nazim’s tenure, he took Boustead private. Soon after, he proposed for LTAT and Boustead to dispose of 33% of Boustead Plantations Bhd for RM1.15 billion to Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, in a move that would help reduce Boustead's debts of RM6.76 billion as at end-March last year.

The deal was called off in October last year, and instead LTAT is forking out RM1.15 billion to acquire the remaining 32% not owned by the fund and Boustead.