This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 29, 2025 - January 4, 2026
Legal battles involving C-suite executives and competitors stood out
Khairil Faizal Othman
CEO of LSH Service Master Sdn Bhd & managing director of Service Master (M) Sdn Bhd
Datuk Abdul Hamid Shaikh Abdul Razak Shaikh
Managing director of Menara Kuala Lumpur Sdn Bhd & director of Hydroshoppe Sdn Bhd
The dispute over the Kuala Lumpur Tower concession has put two men in the spotlight: Khairil Faizal Othman, CEO of LSH Service Master Sdn Bhd (LSHSM), and Datuk Abdul Hamid Shaikh Abdul Razak Shaikh, managing director of Menara Kuala Lumpur Sdn Bhd (MKLSB) and director of Hydroshoppe Sdn Bhd. Their opposing positions defined one of the year’s most closely watched tussles over a national landmark.
For Khairil, the story is supposed to be straightforward. After a competitive tender in February last year, LSHSM — 70%-owned by Lim Seong Hai Capital Bhd (KL:LSH) and 30% by Service Master (M) Sdn Bhd — was awarded a 20-year concession to operate KL Tower from April 1 this year.
The Ministry of Communications reaffirmed on March 31 that the process followed an open request for proposal (RFP) and that the iconic tower remains government-owned.
Khairil’s task was simply to execute the takeover at the stroke of midnight. Instead, the premises were inaccessible, with outgoing operator MKLSB resisting the handover to LSHSM.
At least two eviction notices were served on MKLSB, which claimed that the attempts were unlawful.
On the other side is Abdul Hamid Shaikh, who maintained that MKLSB and its parent Hydroshoppe had been wrongfully terminated.
On March 27, his camp filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against LSHSM, LSH BEST Builders Sdn Bhd, Service Master (M) Sdn Bhd, the government, the Ministry of Communications and Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil, seeking to nullify the concession and reinstate MKLSB as operator.
Abdul Hamid Shaikh’s position is anchored on a turbulent history. Hydroshoppe acquired MKLSB from Telekom Malaysia Bhd (KL:TM) in October 2022 for RM3.8 million, a year after TM opted not to renew its KL Tower concession.
But by November 2022, MKLSB’s concession was terminated — a move Hydroshoppe insists was unjust, coming amid a power transition with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim taking office as prime minister and Fahmi becoming the communications minister.
Complicating the narrative, Abdul Hamid Shaikh himself was charged in April 2023 for allegedly offering RM500,000 annually for 15 years to former communications and multimedia minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa through an intermediary to accelerate Hydroshoppe’s takeover. He pleaded not guilty.
Still, MKLSB continued running KL Tower through multiple short-term extensions, including a final nine-month one until March 31.
In Hydroshoppe and MKLSB’s lawsuit filed on March 27, they claim that LSH and its units had induced the breach of a contract that the plaintiffs had agreed to with the government in an Aug 1, 2022, meeting.
Khairil, in response, reportedly said LSHSM stands firm that such allegations are “without merit” and “a mockery of the RFP process”.
But in a defiant move, Abdul Hamid Shaikh invited former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to open a 28-year-old time capsule at KL Tower on April 13 — despite the handover deadline having long passed.
A few days later, the Ministry of Communications says MKLSB’s occupation of KL Tower after March 31 is “unlawful”.
On April 26, KL Tower finally reopened to the public, under LSHSM, after a week of restoration works by the new concession holder.
In July, the High Court allowed LSHSM and its related companies to strike out the claims filed by Hydroshoppe and MKLSB’s against them.
With the claims struck out, the ruling effectively removed LSHSM and its related companies from the main lawsuit, save for their counterclaims against Hydroshoppe and MKLSB.
Hydroshoppe and MKLSB are understood to be appealing against the decision.
In early September, a three-member Court of Appeal bench dismissed a motion by Hydroshoppe and MKLSB for the court to grant leave to commence contempt proceedings against Communications Minister Fahmi, LSHSM’s Khairil and others.
Prior to this, Hydroshoppe and MKLSB also failed to obtain an ad interim injunction from the KL High Court and Court of Appeal, as well as an interim injunction at KL High Court to halt the handover of the tower.
The main lawsuit filed by Abdul Hamid Shaikh’s camp in March this year remains ongoing with trial dates fixed from June 28, 2027 to July 2, 2027. LSHSM and its related companies will be excluded from the main lawsuit aside from their counterclaims, if the striking out decision is upheld at the Court of Appeal.
For now, although the legal battle between the former operator against the government and the current operator continues, the dust has largely settled, as KL Tower has fully resumed its operations under LSHSM. — By Liew Jia Teng
Khalijah Ismail
Former group chief financial officer of Malayan Banking Bhd
In a move no one saw coming, Malayan Banking Bhd (KL:MAYBANK) announced on Feb 17 the immediate departure of its group chief financial officer (CFO), Khalijah Ismail, following an internal inquiry.
Khalijah, a 33-year Maybank veteran who had served as CFO since October 2021, issued a statement the same day saying she had, in fact, been terminated and would take legal action to protect her reputation.
The announcement unsettled investors and fuelled intense speculation. To quell fears, Maybank held an online analyst briefing the next day, though it offered only limited information. The bank cited “non-compliance with internal requirements and processes” but stressed there was no falsification of accounts and no financial loss associated with the incident.
Investors appeared reassured by the fact that there would be no financial implications. Maybank’s share price, which had initially fallen as low as 1.9% to RM10.36 on the first day, gained some ground thereafter.
In April, The Edge shed more light on the matter, having sighted the bank’s show cause letter to Khalijah and her response to it. The letter revealed that her removal was centred on an attempt to scam the bank of US$985,426 (RM4.77 million), and that Khalijah had been the target of the scammers.
The fund transfer request, flagged and stopped by a correspondent bank, triggered questions about whether proper verification and risk-reporting steps had been followed before the cancellation. In her response to the show cause letter, Khalijah categorically denied all allegations, insisting she had acted decisively and swiftly to protect the bank’s interests.
Although the funds were ultimately se-cured and no loss was recorded, the incident highlighted that even top bank officials can be targeted by increasingly sophisticated scams. It was also a wake-up call for all fi- nancial institution executives to exercise heightened vigilance.— By Adeline Paul Raj
Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.
P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.