Ranhill, Petronas and Keppel implicated in Unaoil's "bribery scandal"? (3)

Ranhill Holdings has reacted through an announcement on Bursa's website.


It has come to our attention that there had been a series of articles published by The Huffington Post and Fairfax Media recently with regards to the investigation centres on a Monaco company called Unaoil for the alleged unethical business practices. The articles mentioned that Unaoil’s multinational clients in Libya included a Malaysian company Ranhill.

With regards to the above, we wish to clarify and confirm that neither Ranhill Holdings Berhad nor any of its group of companies has entered into any transaction or arrangement with Unaoil. 

We wish to further clarify that at Ranhill, we have due process prescribed in the forms of policies and procedures in regards to engagement of third parties that include due diligence process and we practise code of conduct and good business ethics.


That seems like a rather clear answer.

However, it looks like there was definitely a "Ranhill" which was dealing with Unaoil, as described for instance in this link:

"Know your counterparty: how not to lose millions on your business deal"

Some snippets:


In early 2005, a company called Amona Africa placed a bid for a major construction contract with the Libyan government. The initial contract value was almost a billion US dollars, with opportunities for this to increase.

At the same time, the Malaysian based Ranhill group wanted to acquire Amona Africa. The Ranhill holding company entered into an agreement to buy a majority shareholding, conditional on the construction contract being awarded to Amona Africa.

To improve the chances of securing the construction contract for Amona Africa and control of Amona Africa for Ranhill, executives of Ranhill began discussions with a company called Unaoil. Unaoil had business contacts in Libya who could provide access to members of the Gadaffi regime. This would lead to opportunities to lobby at the very highest level for the award of the construction contract.

Ranhill did not yet own or control Amona Africa. Nor were any Ranhill directors on the Amona Africa board. Negotiations with Unaoil were conducted by the group CEO of Ranhill and two other senior executive directors. One of these, a Mr Lough, was represented to Unaoil by the CEO as 'Ranhill's 'Mr Libya'. At this stage, Unaoil did not need to analyse which Ranhill group company the negotiators were representing. They were simply trying to do a deal between senior executives of the Ranhill group on one hand and Unaoil on the other.


Is this "Ranhill group" in no way, shape or form related to the currently listed "Ranhill Holdings"?