KUALA LUMPUR – FashionValet board member Aireen Omar slammed netizens for speculating on controversies surrounding the business, suggesting that they are trying to tarnish the image of the company and its owners.
In a teaser video for the “Apa Cerita” podcast, Aireen said that netizens should “have a life” and do things to improve themselves instead.
“I mean sometimes I feel that maybe they should have a life and look at other things and probably learn something and improve themself rather than try to put a company down or people down when you don’t know the facts truly,” Aireen said.
Her statement came as a response to a question by podcast host Asyraf Khalid, who asked Aireen to comment on the criticisms being hurled at FashionValet, in which she denied speculations of financial “scandals” involving funds from Khazanah.
“There’s no such thing as scandal or fraud or siphoning off money, not at all. I sit on the board, I look at the numbers and definitely there’s no such thing,” she said.
She also urged netizens to be fair and careful in what they say amid the company and its co-founder Datin Vivy Yusof garnering intense public scrutiny lately, and asked netizens: “Why are you creating ‘fitnah’ (slander) for nothing?”
Instead, Aireen mentioned that recent concerns with FashionValet are a natural occurrence in any business.
Comparing FashionValet to AirAsia, she said the company too has its ups and downs, citing the Covid-19 period as an example, which she also said impacted other several retail businesses as people were “revenge shopping”.
“I think they’re (FashionValet) doing a lot better right now, and they’re moving in the right direction. They’ve been doing pretty good, very well actually,” Aireen said.
Aireen is also the Investment & Ventures president of Capital A, which operates as the low-cost carrier AirAsia.
In the second quarter of 2024, Capital A reported a 54% increase in revenue to RM4.9 billion and an operating profit of RM52 million but ultimately ended with a net loss of RM542.5 million due to currency losses and costs for grounded planes.
In 2018, Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Permodalan Nasional Bhd acquired RM47 million worth of shares in FashionValet but courted controversy recently after revealing that they divested their stakes in the company for RM3.1 million. – November 3, 2024