Singapore’s Investo Ltd. investment director to takeover as CEO of Malaysia’s state-owned Permodalan Nasional Bhd

Investment director at Singapore’s Invesco Ltd, Jalil Rasheed, is poised to take over as Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia’s biggest state-owned fund, Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), according to reports.

Current CEO Abdul Rahman Ahmad who joined PNB in 2016 will reportedly be leaving the fund soon, according to Bloomberg who quoted a ‘person with knowledge of the matter’.

Malaysia’s New Straits Times (NST) reported that Mr Rasheed could be taking over as early as 1 October, when the current CEO’s three-year contract expires. The NST source also reportedly told them that the decision to hire Mr Rasheed was approved by group chairman of PNB Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz and the board.

In their report, Bloomberg noted that the move signals that Malaysia is not quite done reshuffling the leadership of its government-linked companies following the ousting of former PM Najib Razak and his Barisan Nasional coalition which ruled for 61 years since independence.

These changes include the departure of Abdul Wahid Omar as PNB chairman in June 2018 and the appointment of new executives at CIMB Group Holdings Bhd in November 2018 and at Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd in July 2019.

Based on his Linkedin Profile, Mr Rasheed has been with Invesco for over six years. He is the Regional Head of the company’s South East Asian business and fund manager for the Asian Equities team where he manages a range of regional funds. He is also a board member of Invesco Singapore.

Prior to his stint at Invesco, Mr Rasheed was attached to Aberdeen Standard Investments in Malaysia for over nine years, serving as CEO for close to three years, Heat of Equities before that for two years, and investment manager before that for five years.

According to Bloomberg, PNB has total assets of RM301.4 billion (S$99.49 billion) as of May 2019. The fund was set up by the Malaysian government in the late 1970s under the New Economic Policy (NEP), a program to help address the economic imbalance of Malaysian society at the time.