KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Berjaya Corp Bhd's (BCorp) Tan Sri Vincent Tan is stepping aside as executive chairman and relinquishing control of the firm to his son and Abdul Jalil Abdul Rasheed, who was recently recruited to be chief executive officer.

The firm said in a statement that Tan will remain on its board as non-executive chairman, with son Datuk Seri Robin Tan continuing as executive deputy chairman.

The elder Tan said he was confident that BCorp was under the stewardship of those able to steer it to greater heights.

"It is also important to give Jalil space and freedom to run Berjaya in his own style. I can now take a step back from active day-to-day involvement in the Group’s businesses and devote more of my time and energy to promoting charitable initiatives and other interests.

"I have been blessed with my fortune and am thankful for the many opportunities Malaysia has given me. Now it’s time to give back,” Tan said in a statement announcing his move.

BCorp said Abdul Jalil, who joined on March 16, was given the mandate to transform the group into a high-performing organisation with an eye on enhancing corporate governance and transparency.

Tan hinted at his next passion project, saying that he was concerned about the affordability gap faced by B40 Malaysian households in purchasing their own homes and said he planned to address this via the Better Malaysia Foundation.

"We are launching a new social enterprise programme with one national goal, which is to assist our government’s efforts in solving the home ownership needs for low-income Malaysians through innovative and sustainable solutions,” he said.

In the same statement, Robin said his father’s decision was to ensure that professionals would be in charge of running BCorp.

Robin also disclosed that he would relinquish executive control in the future.

"Once the Group’s transformation process and plan have stabilised, in accordance with Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s vision of independent professional management, I also plan to step into a non-executive role on the Board. This will then also allow me to pursue my own personal passions,” Robin said.

Abdul Jalil, who will be taking the first three months to do a strategic review of the BCorp Group, said he was working with Robin to kickstart the transformative process and bring Vincent's future vision for the Berjaya Group to fruition.

"BCorp is a very diversified group and I am meeting my new colleagues in the various businesses to identify core and non-core assets and clustering the Group into consumer verticals, in line with our vision to become a diversified consumer group. We will engage with the public and investment community when we are ready to unveil our strategic plan.” he said.

Abdul Jalil was previously chairman of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) but departed the state-linked corporation under a cloud of controversy.

His recruitment at BCorp was notable as it was the first time the firm appointed someone outside the Tan family for the executive role.