1st CASUALTY - BUSINESSMEN CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH PAK LAH - Malaysiakini

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 - Units linked to listed developer Malton Berhad are believed to have taken over Equine Capital and its 25 per cent associate Abad Naluri which holds the exclusive development rights to 101ha of land in Penang that currently houses the island's Turf Club.

Late last week, Patrick Lim Soon Kit (pic) stepped down as Equine's chairman and executive director after months of speculation about his impending departure. Lim had been under pressure since Penang was taken over bythe Opposition in March this year and his plan to redevelop the turf club land into a RM20 billion Penang Global City Centre was cancelled by the new government.

Equine shares now trade at around 41 sen, sharply down from their highs of more than RM4 in mid-2007.

Businessmen familiar with the matter said that the Malton units were believed to have bought Lim's 29 per cent interest in Equine. Malton is a medium-sized developer owned by low-profile tycoon Lim Siew Choonand is best known for building Kuala Lumpur's The Pavilion, a wildly successful high-end retail complex that is one of the largest of its kind in the city.

The exit of Equine's Lim marks the first casualty among businessmen closely associated to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who has indicated that he will step down in March 2009.

Lim came from nowhere in 2003 - during the tenure of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad - to bag the prestigious Penang Turf Club project. He is also associated with the million-dollar Monsoon Cup regatta in Terengganu state in a deal clinched during Mr Abdullah's tenure.

Lim's Abad won an open tender to redevelop the turf club in 2003, but the project was only formally launched in August last year by Abdullah despite complaints that it hadn't yet received approvals from the Penangmunicipality.

Such outcomes have fuelled speculation about the businessman's connections, and Lim's exit illustrates the perils of being too closely identified with the Malaysian leader as anything he did was often misconstrued. Even Dr Mahathir singled Lim out for criticism, dubbing him 'Patrick Badawi' in an apparent reference to the businessman's links to Abdullah's family.

In any case, the entry of new investors into Equine would mean that Abad's objectives could still be realised. These include the construction of a new Turf Club on land that Abad owns in Batu Kawan on the mainland and near the site where the second bridge to the island will begin. Since the election, all work on the project seems to have been shelved.

Whatever the outcome, the Turf Club land remains very valuable as it was re-zoned for development in 2007 and there is nothing to stop its owners from submitting a fresh development proposal to an opposition stategovernment anxious to create jobs for the electorate. - Business Times Singapore