.jpg)
The recent revelations surrounding FashionValet’s saga should make every taxpayer’s blood boil.
Here we have Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) – the twin towers of Malaysian investment supposedly safeguarding public interest – pumping a whopping RM47 million into a fashion e-commerce venture that, let’s be honest, read like a financial trainwreck long before they threw in the cash.
Yet they still leapt in with reckless enthusiasm, only to see the venture lose its sheen faster than a knock-off handbag.
Between 2017 and 2022, FashionValet managed to rack up RM103.3 million in losses.
Yes, you read that right. And this isn’t some ambitious startup grappling with market volatility. This is a company that has been hemorrhaging cash for years, needing more patch-ups than a cheap pair of jeans.
In 2018 alone, the year our sovereign wealth funds decided to back FashionValet, it recorded a staggering RM20.18 million loss – a clear indicator that the venture was headed south.
But hey, who cares about red flags when you’re playing with other people’s money?
In a textbook display of fiscal irresponsibility, PNB and Khazanah funneled millions into this venture, only to watch as liabilities overtook assets by RM8.4 million.
FashionValet’s board of directors somehow maintained their faith in the company's ability to “generate net cash inflows” to meet obligations.
Were they looking at the same balance sheets we were? Faith might work wonders in religion, but in business, it’s usually a terrible strategy.
Despite claims from Khazanah about “responsible exits,” their defense falls flat. While the pandemic did indeed batter many businesses, let's not pretend FashionValet’s issues sprouted overnight.
Subsidiaries like DropIt Ventures and the dUCk brand reveal mismanagement on all fronts, from bad investments to unbridled spending.
How else can you explain a cool RM12.3 million splashed on renovations?
Apparently, the company wanted the perfect ambiance to bleed taxpayer money in style.
Not only did they make bad business decisions, but they also sold their shares at a shocking 93% loss.
That’s like buying a Ferrari only to sell it for the price of a used bicycle.
In fact, Khazanah and PNB’s RM47 million has now become RM3.1 million.
And while Vivy Yusof and her husband claim responsibility for the losses, responsibility here rings hollow when the public has been forced to shoulder the bill.
Now, as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) begins its probe, one can only hope they finally uncover why our national coffers became a personal ATM for FashionValet.
These funds could have been directed toward any number of national needs – healthcare, infrastructure, education. But instead, they went into a losing venture that didn’t just fail to thrive but practically flaunted its failure.
As taxpayers, we are entitled to more than platitudes about “unforeseen challenges.”
We demand to know: who authorised these investments, who waved aside the mounting losses, and why was there no accountability until it was too late?
If nothing else, let the absurdity of this situation be a lesson: perhaps we should be a little more discerning about throwing good money after bad fashion.
Mihar Dias 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 Newswav.
