Telekom Malaysia the once darling of the telecommunication stocks has seen its share price come down by more than 60% in the past 2 years. Then another shock with GE14 results, which created more uncertainties for the group as political appointees would see themselves vacating their seats at GLC’s, leading to then CEO Dato Shazali Ramli immediately announcing his resignation. The board then appointed Datuk Bazlan Osman the Chief Operating Officer the left hand man for Shazali as the interim leader for the group as the Acting Group Chief Executive Officer.

But bed of roses is not what the new CEO stepped into, TM has been under pressure from the new government from day one with Communication Minister, YB Gobind Deo numerous times warning telco’s to get their acts together. Without pointing fingers, the Minister was visibly dissatisfied with the state of affairs of the country’s high speed broadband connection and the many complaints he has been hearing from the people. Having only just occupying the position for 6 months, Datuk Bazlan announced his resignation and will be leaving the company come February 2019. Despite a veteran at TM, the mild mannered Bazlan must have been overwhelmed by the confluence of issues plaguing the group at the moment. Ascending to the post will be Imri Mokhtar currently the COO who rejoined TM 3 years ago. His portfolio then included managing Unifi and was responsible for the end-to-end management comprising phone, broadband, mobile, TV, wifi and value-added services for TM’s home and SME customers.

Imri has an arduous task ahead of him, broadband continues to be the bread and butter for the group and he will need to pivot the mammoth group to be more agile and responsive to market conditions. Maxis and Time are strong on the heels and seems to be in favourable terms with the new Minister, TM will have to play the cards right if it wants to get government contracts for the next HSBB fibre rollout.