Malaysia’s Armed Forces Fund Board and its flagship company Boustead Holdings will undergo “comprehensive and inclusive restructuring” under a new plan called Project Earth, according to Mohamed Khaled, the defence minister.
He made the announcement 14 months after halting an earlier attempt to restructure the fund, known by its local acronym LTAT.
“The objective is to enhance operational efficiency and productivity while ensuring LTAT’s subsidiaries remain competitive in their respective industries,” he said of the new plan, in a written parliamentary reply to a lawmaker’s question on the status of the fund’s restructuring efforts.
Mohamed Khaled suspended LTAT’s first bid at restructuring when he became defence minister in December 2023. The fund’s leadership team has since changed.
LTAT owns almost all of the shares in Boustead, which operates a range of businesses including real estate, plantations, and oil and gas.
Last November, Mas Ermieyati, chairperson of parliament’s public accounts committee, warned that overreliance on Boustead is “unhealthy” for LTAT.
She said the fund could lose 5 billion ringgit (US$1.18 billion) if it didn’t cut its stake in Boustead, and called for urgent action from all stakeholders, especially the defence ministry and LTAT.
LTAT had 13.5 billion ringgit of assets under management as of end-2024.
