There are likely to be eight or nine consortia bidding for Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s 32.21% stake in Pos Malaysia Bhd.
Khazanah Nasional has this week officially invited interested parties to bid for the stake, a process expected to last roughly a month.
An analyst with a local investment bank told StarBizWeek that details on the bidders were scarce but believed eight or nine consortia were eyeing for the stake.
Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said the bidders would have to be 51%-owned and led by Malaysian.
“I’m not sure who else are in the running, maybe Ekuiti Nasional Bhd and CVC Capital Partners as mentioned in an earlier report,” the analyst said.
According to earlier reports, conglomerate DRB-HICOM Bhd were among those who had put in a bid for Khazanah’s stake as it was familiar with companies in which the Government has a golden share.
However, this was not verifiable with Khazanah, with the Government’s investment arm’s executive director for investments Mohammed Rashdan Yusof not immediately available for comment.
The analyst said the “golden share” that the Government had in Pos Malaysia was also not an issue that could not be overcomed.
“The Pos Malaysia management has indicated that this is not an issue,” he said.
The Government’s golden share in Pos Malaysia, in the local context, gives it wide-ranging powers from that to influence appointments to top management positions and capital expenditure in companies in which it has major stakes.
Rashdan had said at Khazanah’s annual review briefing recently that the golden share was an issue under consideration but it would be up to the Government to decide.
Bankers familiar with the deal said potential bidders were cautious about the golden share issue and wanted the Government to water it down.
“It’ll be an emotive issue but it’s quite plausible that the Government will remove the golden share,” an analyst with a foreign investment bank said over the phone.
He cited the Jan 14 announcement on the appointment of a French national, Dominique de Soras, as managing director of Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd as proof that even government-linked companies were moving with the times. - By FINTAN NG, fintan@thestar.com.my
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