-T5N-List-(Twitter)-(1).jpg)
By P Gunasegaram
The toxic culture of hiding enormous losses at the London Battersea development, owned by two prominent Malaysian property developers and directly or indirectly Malaysia’s two largest funds, has to go before the project can be meaningfully salvaged, its former CEO said.
Donagh O’ Sullivan, who headed Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) before being summarily dismissed said this in an e-mail interview with KINIBIZ earlier this month.
“Battersea Power Station still has 19 acres of undeveloped land in Zone 1, Central London. The existing culture that is necessary to continue the concealment of the enormous losses on the project is extremely toxic. The first step would be to acknowledge the truth in the accounts, stop concealing the huge losses, introduce transparency and accountability.
“There would need to be a clear-out of the existing controlling parties. Then there would need to be a recapitalisation of the project, aligned to a genuine robust business plan - to maximise the recovery of as much of the invested equity as possible. Because of past activity, for the sake of some return for the Malaysian public, the project requires significant and powerful intervention,” he said.
The Battersea problem, which we have highlighted many times, is not likely to go away. There is much to answer, starting with revealing the real situation at the troubled development spearheaded by government-linked companies and funds which was valued at RM50 billion in 2015 and it might be lot higher now.
KINIBIZ has highlighted the problem from way back in 2015.
Now, it has come to haunt Battersea again in a big way as its fired CEO revealed details about the prestige project in London and attempts to conceal the extent of losses. But the response has been anaemic.
KINIBIZ reached out to O’ Sullivan after the matter exploded into the open when he challenged his firing at a London tribunal. The Financial Times reported O’Sullivan, as saying the internal books assigned a value to the remaining undeveloped acreage that exceeded independent appraisals by several hundred million pounds.
He alleged that his dismissal was because he highlighted certain discrepancies in the accounts. He said in the interview with KINIBIZ: “I found serious gaps in the accounts at the beginning of November 2024. I reported the £318M (about RM1.7 billion) minimum discrepancy in a presentation to Azmir Merican (CEO, Sime Darby Property) and Choong Kai Wai (CEO of SP Setia at that time - he retired in October 2025) on 8th November 2024.”
Subsequently he brought this up at a board meeting: “Those present in the board meeting acknowledged that this had been going on and that it needed to be stopped and the accounts needed to be cleaned up - the only question from the meeting was “How big is the number?””
Malaysia’s two largest property companies, SP Setia and Sime Darby Property, each own 40 per cent of the development while the remaining 20 per cent is held by the Employees Provident Fund or EPF, the repository of Malaysian retirees’ savings of over RM1 trillion.
In a series of complex interlocking holdings which included Permodalan Nasional Bhd or PNB, which managed some RM350 billion in unit trust funds, they basically controlled and were solely responsible for Battersea.
BPSDC was the development company for the project which is owned by Battersea Project Holding Company Ltd (BPHC). But BPHC’s accounts are a blackbox since it is Jersey-registered and therefore its accounts are not publicly known, as I explained in this article titled Is Battersea a black hole sucking up billions or is it viable?
Will it turn from a blackbox, into a blackhole as well? The definitive answer has to come from its four major direct and indirect shareholders. The silence from EPF and PNB, who owe explanations to its millions of investors is deafening. Our two property giants remain mute.
The response O’ Sullivan got from the shareholders were tepid. He said: “Their response shocked me. It was clear that they were well aware of the detail and wanted me to stop talking about it. Over the next couple of weeks I became aware that they were not going to respond as I had expected - they wanted this buried. I then reported the matter officially to the newly appointed Chair (of Battersea’s holding company - Shahril Ridza Ridzuan), and showed him the evidence of the wrongdoing.
“Shahril agreed that it needed to be dealt with, and he raised the matter in a board meeting at Battersea Power Station on 16th December (2025). Those present in the board meeting acknowledged that this had been going on and that it needed to be stopped and the accounts needed to be cleaned up - the only question from the meeting was “How big is the number?””
How much money are we going to lose at Battersea before we get answeres?
Previous articles have reported impairments of around US$208 million (over RM800 million).
(Battersea Power Station Owner Takes $208 Million Impairment). This is also reflected in an article I wrote titled Sime Darby, SP Setia, EPF lose billions from Liew’s Battersea ‘legacy’. Are there skeletons waiting to tumble out when the cupboard doors are opened.
The interview with O’Sullivan is reproduced in full below to provide context.
Interview with Donagh O’ Sullivan:
- How were you approached to work for Battersea? What were your first impressions?
I was first approached in November 2023 by a recruitment agency in London, I went through several interviews, including a visit to Kuala Lumpur to meet the Board. I started the role in June 2024. I come from 20+ years experience of senior executive experience, on developments all across London and the UK Regions, delivering in excess of 20,000 apartments, 12 hotels and approximately 5 million sq ft of commercial. I had retired in March 2022 at the age of 54, but following a personal family tragedy I decided to return to work, if I found an exciting interesting opportunity - Battersea Power station ticked those boxes for me.
2. Why were you dismissed and how were you informed? What are your responses to the allegations made?
I found serious gaps in the accounts at the beginning of November 2024. I reported the £318M (about RM1.7 billion) (minimum) discrepancy in a presentation to Azmir Merican (CEO, Sime Darby Property) and Choong Kai Wai (CEO of SP Setia at that time - he retired in October 2025) on 8th November 2024.
I challenged that it was about my raising questions about the misreported numbers. They both feigned surprise and denied there was anything amiss in the accounts, despite the discussion not 24 hrs earlier in that same meeting room. Azmir Merican said they were looking at other sites in London and maybe we could work together again in the future, just not at Battersea Power Station.
I left site as instructed that day, subsequently they tried to get me to sign a 19 page Non-Disclosure Agreement and offered me money to do so - I refused. Over the next couple of days I took legal advice, and on 21st December I instructed the Battersea Power Station Legal Department to procure the services of an external law firm with expertise in forensic accounting, to come in to BPS on my return to the office on 30th December (after the Christmas Holidays), to carry out an investigation into the misreporting in the accounts, as discussed at the Board Meeting on 16th December.
On 24th December I received a letter from Choong Kai Wai suspending me from work and informing me that Azmir Merican would be investigating allegations against my ‘disciplinary behaviour’ at work!
This was the first mention of any allegations against me, it was a sham to try to force me to go away and shut up about the misreporting. Brown Rudnick, the lawyers working for Sime Darby Property and SP Setia instructed a Barrister to ‘investigate’ the disciplinary allegations. The Barrister met me once, he refused to show me any evidence of anything, prior to, or during that meeting.
The subsequent ‘Disciplinary Meeting’ was held with Zaini Yusoff (then the Deputy CEO of SP Setia, and now the CEO of SP Setia since taking over from Choong Kai Wai in October 2025). Zaini read a pre-prepared statement to me, he did not ask me one question during the Disciplinary Meeting.
He subsequently wrote to me to confirm that I was being dismissed. I submitted an Appeal, the ‘Disciplinary Appeal Meeting’ was held with Soam Heng Choon (a Director of Sime Darby Property). Soam read a pre-prepared statement to me, he again did not ask me one question during this meeting! Soam subsequently wrote to me confirming my dismissal. The whole process was a sham.
3. What alerted you to the overvaluation of properties? By how much was it over valued? Over what period of time? What was the reaction of the board when you told them? Did any of the board members think you had a case? Did they communicate with you?
I had started to develop a strategy for the recovery of equity to the shareholders. As most of the completed apartments had been sold (there were none under construction at the time; the commercial space in Phase 2 (the Power Station itself) had been sold (to PNB/EPF); and the new office building 50 Electric Boulevard had also been sold (again to a PNB company).
The primary source for any recovery was going to have to come from the future phases. When I looked at the future phases I could see they were being valued in the BPS books at £965M - this did not feel right to me, so I asked the Finance Team if there were independent valuations confirming this number. There were independent valuations by well recognised globally respected business; JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated is a leading global professional services firm specializing in real estate and investment management) had valued Phase 3C at £100M and Knight Frank had valued Phases 4, 5 & 6 at a total of £547M. Together coming to a number £318M short of the figure in the BPS books.
4. What has been your approach to overvaluation? Did you get board opposition? Why?
I was very troubled by the discovery, but I was more disturbed by the responses and actions from Azmir Merican and Choong Kai Wai. I have been very lucky to have enjoyed a long successful career working with professional colleagues, of course if I had known even a fraction of the truth about the shenanigans at Battersea Power Station, I would have never joined the project - but having found what I did, then I had no option but to follow my legal obligations as a Director of the business.
5. Was the £ 1.58 billion price tag for commercial development fair? What do you think about the rental guarantee given? Were there not too many cross holdings? How was the governance with respect to this?
This transaction precedes my joining BPS. The 5-year rental guarantee you reference started from October 2022. At this time, I cannot talk about the detail. It is extraordinary and incredible that such a deal was ever transacted on those terms, but one day undoubtedly those responsible will be held to account.
6. Wasn't this injection enough to keep Battersea going? Why was it necessary for shareholders to inject more money? Could they not have obtained bridging finance?
Again, unfortunately I am unable to share the detail.
P Gunasegaram (t.p.guna@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.