The world's largest listed palm oil producer, Sime Darby, said it has sacked its chief financial officer and a senior executive following investigations into futures trading losses.

razidan ghazali sime darbyGroup CFO Razidan Ghazalli (left) and biofuel vice president Muhammad Mohan Kittu Abdullah were fired after the completion of an inquiry into a subsidiary's RM120 million trading losses.

"The decision to terminate the services of the two staff members was taken by the board of directors after an extensive process of investigation and deliberation," a company spokesperson said late yesterday.

"While it is never a pleasant task to dismiss any personnel, the board felt that the move was necessary in the interest of accountability and to protect stakeholders of Sime Darby."

Razidan was the finance director of Golden Jomalina Food Industries and Muhammad Mohan was its general manager when it piled up losses in crude palm oil futures trading between October 2006 and August 2007, the spokesperson said.

The losses by Golden Jomalina, a subsidiary of Golden Hope Plantations, were discovered in August 2007, just months before its merger with Kumpulan Guthrie and Sime Darby to create the world's largest palm oil producer.

The spokesperson said that after a thorough review, the board "came to the determination that the persons concerned had failed to discharge their functions to the standard of care that were reasonably expected of them."

However, he did not give details of what functions had not been carried out.

The company has made "appropriate provisions" and the group's future profitability will not be affected, the spokesman said.

Sime Darby, which was listed on the Malaysian bourse last November, announced in February that its net profits rose 10.2 percent in the six months to December to RM1.4 billion.

The better results were due to high crude palm oil prices and the turnaround in its motor operations, it said, adding revenue rose 22 percent to RM16.28 billion.

-AFP