MMC confirms UEM bid, awaiting govt decision

MMC Corp Bhd yesterday said that it had submitted a preliminary proposal to the federal government to acquire UEM Group Bhd but had yet to receive “any indication” from the government on its proposal.

“MMC will lead a consortium for the proposed acquisition and to date, we have not approached the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and/or Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) to be our partners,” MMC said in a reply to a query by Bursa Malaysia. This was in response to The Edge’s article entitled “A circuitous bid to acquire PLUS” where it was reported that MMC had offered about RM15.6 billion to take over UEM.

It was also reported that MMC had plans to lead the consortium with a 40% stake while EPF and PNB would hold 30% each.

UEM owns a 38.5% stake in PLUS Expressways Bhd while the government’s investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which also owns UEM, holds a direct 16.7% stake in the toll road concessionaire.

MMC, the flagship company of tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, is understood to have submitted its proposal to the Ministry of Finance in August.

The move is seen as a “circuitous” way for MMC to acquire the toll road concessionaire.

PLUS had recently been a takeover target of both MMC Corp and Asas Serba Sdn Bhd, a privately held company which is the vehicle of Datuk Syed Md Amin Aljeffri and Ibrahim Bidin.

Syed Md Amin and Ibrahim are both former executives of Renong Bhd, which had owned PLUS until late-2001 when the government took over the toll operator.

Asas Serba had in May 2009 submitted a RM50 billion proposal which included taking over PLUS and 21 other toll road concessions while offering a 20% discount on current toll rates and no further rate increases.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, October 5, 2010.