Kuala Lumpur — The chairman of Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGV) resigned on Monday amid a leadership tussle and graft probe at the world’s biggest crude palm oil producer. Shares in the Malaysia state-linked company rose. Isa Samad stepped down "to focus on his personal undertakings", according to a stock exchange filing on Monday. Sulaiman Mahbob, a board member at FGV, was appointed acting chairman with immediate effect. He was no longer a government-appointed director amid an effort to "uphold the integrity" of ongoing investigations, the government said. The resignation comes after FGV’s board of directors this month instructed four senior managers, including CEO Zakaria Arshad, to take a leave of absence pending investigations involving transactions at a subsidiary. Isa is not one of the four officials. Zakaria, who denies wrongdoing, has urged Malaysia’s anti-graft agency to probe alleged improprieties at FGV and said he often disagreed with Isa on how the company was mana...
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