Datuk Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir is said to be stepping down as the CEO of Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) after nearly nine years at the helm. Sources say current Ekuinas senior director of investment Aliff Omar Mohamad Omar will be taking over.
KUALA LUMPUR (March 26): Datuk Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir, who has been at the helm of Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) for nearly nine years, is stepping down as CEO, sources familiar with the matter tell The Edge.
Aliff Omar Mohamad Omar, the current senior director of investment, will take over the post, according to sources.
When contacted, both Syed Yasir and Aliff declined to comment.
Syed Yasir took office in March 2016. Prior to the appointment, he was leading Ekuinas’ investment team.
Another source says that the talk on Syed Arafat leaving Ekuinas has been in the market for some time, especially after the start of the consolidation of the country's bumiputera-focused investment institutions under Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputera (YPB), a parent company of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB).
The consolidation plan was first announced in 2023, during the Budget 2024 speech by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“There is also a discussion to put Ekuinas under PNB’s investment division,” a source says.
Ekuinas is a private equity firm established by the government back in September 2009, to promote bumiputera economic participation. Its first CEO was Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad, who is currently the CEO of PNB.
Aliff, 38, joined Ekuinas as a director of investment in 2017.
According to Ekuinas’ website, Aliff was a director of investment banking at UBS AG and has led a number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital market transactions in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
Before UBS AG, he was in the regional merger and acquisition team of CIMB Investment Bank and the investment banking division of Maybank Investment Bank.
According to Ekuinas’ 2023 annual report, it is managing a RM4.24 billion fund under management. To date, Ekuinas has direct and outsourced investments in 48 companies involved in its core target sectors, namely education, fast moving consumer goods, oil and gas, retail, healthcare, and services.