UEM Sunrise CEO Anwar Syahrin resigns amidst merger talks

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Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib, MD and CEO of UEM Sunrise, recently resigned to pursue other opportunities. In a Bursa filing, the board said it will deliberate on the effective date of resignation of Anwar Syahrin. In the meantime, a transition plan will be executed for smooth handover of his responsibilities to ensure continued management of UEM Sunrise's business and operations.

Anwar Syahrin was appointed to the role in September 2014. Prior to that, he was the group CFO at MMC Corporation, a position he assumed from June 2008. He was also named group head, ports and logistics division in January 2014 at MMC. Anwar Syahrin was previously the CFO of the Port of Tanjung Pelepas from April 2006 to May 2008. He also previously co-owned and was the MD of Business Associates Consulting, a boutique strategy and management consulting firm based in Kuala Lumpur from 2003 to 2006.

His resignation comes after UEM Sunrise recently proposed a merger with Eco World Development on 2 October, with the latter becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of UEM Sunrise and delisting from Bursa Securities upon completion of the proposed merger. The move aims to bring together the strengths and capabilities of both companies.

Upon completion of the merger, the enlarged UEM Sunrise group will focus on property developments within Malaysia and the planned developments on lands owned by UEM Sunrise that is outside of Malaysia. The company explained that this will allow the enlarged group to stay focused on property developments within Malaysia.

The company said in a previous Bursa filing that given the subdued macro-economic conditions and market headwinds, it believes there is a pressing need for industry players to consolidate resources and capabilities to strengthen performance and sustainability.

"The merger of UEM Sunrise and ECO World will enhance the merged entity's scale, diversification and execution capabilities to create a robust business platform for future development. This will in turn lead to greater value creation for the current shareholders of UEM Sunrise and ECO World going forward," it said. Meanwhile, UEM Sunrise also witnessed the departure of Subimal Sen Gupta Sen as independent director on 7 October.

In March, UEM Sunrise unveiled a new tagline named "Find Your Happy", signifying belief, optimism and resilience, and is one which recognises and accepts the differences among everyone. It also wants to drive home the message that happiness is a journey, and as a state of mind, differs from one person to another.

CMO Kenny Wong told A+M previously that it underwent "a long period of soul-searching" since January 2019, which ended in an internal kickoff last month. The process included internal brainstorming, focus groups and speaking to consumers. Following this, UEM Sunrise moved from segmenting its customers according to only demographics, to including psychographics as well. Subsequently, the exercise was taken externally in the form of a quantitative survey with a renowned research agency. From there, UEM Sunrise had five distinct audience segments from which it developed distinct communications based on the theme "Find Your Happy" for each of them.

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