The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating the alleged sale of
suspicious shares for the management of Kuala Lumpur Tower involving Telekom Malaysia Bhd.
The commission will investigate whether corruption was involved in the sale of all of Telekom Malaysia's shares in its subsidiary to Hydroshoppe Sdn. Bhd. in October, it said in a statement Thursday evening.
This comes after a Twitter user "FreeMalaysian" claimed Sunday that KL Tower has 66 million ringgit ($15 million) a year in revenue and MYR25 million in net profit but Telekom is selling it to a little-known company at a low price.
Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Digital said Tuesday that it was examining the management transfer. "I am taking serious view of social media posts and questions raised by the media over the acquisition of Kuala Lumpur Tower," Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said in a statement.
Telekom Malaysia responded to the concerns in a filing on Thursday afternoon saying that the decision to cede control of the maintenance contract was made to focus on its core business, noting that it had disclosed the change in shareholding in its third-quarter earnings report on Nov. 22.
According to Telekom, the company disposed its 100% interest in Kuala Lumpur Tower on Oct. 31 for MYR3.8 million
The Kuala Lumpur Tower is owned by the Malaysian government, while operations and maintenance of the tower were granted to Telekom in 1996, the company said.
Telekom Malaysia shares are unchanged at MYR5.30.
