KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Mohd Izani Ghani will continue to helm Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) as managing director, announced Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
Izani, who is formerly a Khazanah investments executive director, was nominated by the Finance Ministry. He has prior board experience with MAHB, serving from 2011 to 2019. His appointment came as Mohamed Rastam Shahrom, who was both CFO and acting group CEO, stepped down.
Gateway Development Alliance Sdn Bhd (GDA), recently secured a 94.47% shareholding, making its takeover offer unconditional after eight months. The offer, launched in March 2024, was for RM11 per share, valuing MAHB at RM18.4 billion.
Post-privatisation, Khazanah’s stake will increase to 40%, EPF will hold 30%, and the remaining 30% will be split between Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Dissenting MAHB shareholders have until February 12 to accept the offer.
Khazanah’s managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir emphasised ensuring the right leadership is in place to achieve world-class operator status. He expressed confidence in Izani’s leadership and highlighted the earlier appointment of chairman Dr Nungsari Ahmad Radhi.
While acknowledging MAHB’s internal talent pool, Amirul Feisal stated it is premature to discuss specific leadership changes, The Edge reported.
“We already have somebody in the driver’s seat which is Datuk Izani (who took up the post as managing director in August 2024),” Amirul Feisal said, while also pointing to the appointment of MAHB’s current chairman Dr Nungsari Ahmad Radhi in May that same year.
“I think it is way, way too early to even look at that question (on the list of professionals that will be on board). I think we have a lot of good people within (MAH) itself. We have to look at them, we have to evaluate; we have to look at what we need to do also.
“One thing that we would want to do is this: we do have these objectives in mind… and to make sure we have the right people for the job,” he said, referring to the goals of elevating passenger experience, strengthening regional and international connectivity, and accelerating capital investments including to expand and optimise airport capacity including in Pulau Pinang, Perak’s capital city Ipoh and Sabah’s capital city Kota Kinabalu.
Amirul Feisal also said that MAHB “needs to play catch up” with regard to capital investments, having invested just RM1.3 billion in Malaysia’s airport infrastructure over the last five years, compared with Indonesia (RM8 billion) and Thailand (RM7 billion) in the same period. – February 6, 2025