It is learnt that a deal could be concluded soon, with most of the issues ironed out. The vendors of the 70% stake in the company, which is the publisher of the Malay Mail, are privately held Gabungan Kesturi Sdn Bhd and Datuk Mohd Ibrahim Nor. However, Mohd Ibrahim, formerly a controlling shareholder of Padiberas Nasional Bhd, is said to be looking to retain about 30% interest in the Malay Mail.
Ibrahim is chairman and shareholder of major magazine publisher Blu Inc, which has titles such as Female, Her World, NuYou and Glam.
The deal, a source says, will not involve cash outlay as Malay Mail is loss-making. Instead, the new propective owners will take over the debts and manage the company.
At present, the Malay Mail is wholly owned by Dynahall (M) Sdn Bhd, which is controlled equally by Gabungan Kesturi and Simpletech Sdn Bhd, the vehicle of Mohd Ibrahim.
Gabungan Kesturi is a politically linked company with ties to Umno. It has a 14.4% stake in Media Prima Bhd, which has 43.3% equity interest in The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP), the publishers of newspapers such as The New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro.
Meanwhile, Siew’s flagship company is Ancom Bhd, which has a media arm, specialising in outdoor billboards and advertising called RedBerry Sdn Bhd. This effectively explains Siew’s interest in the Malay Mail.
Other publicly traded companies of Siew’s are Nylex (M) Bhd and Tamco Corporate Holdings Bhd, where Ancom has 38.6% and 40.3% equity interest respectively.
Al-Amin, a close associate of Siew, is on the board of both Ancom and Nylex and is the executive chairman of property developer Country View Bhd, but he does not have a substantial shareholding in the developer.
According to sources, the duo plan to focus their efforts on the new media and turn Malay Mail into a free paper, targeting the younger generation. This will complement their outdoor advertising, which has the rights to airport, buses and hypermarkets.
It is understood that Ahirudin Attan @ Rocky will head the Malay Mail as its editor. Apart from making Malay Mail a free paper, Ahirudin’s involvement is to beef up its new media business, which effectively is an online news website.
Ahirudin is an obvious fit, as he has been active on the blogging scene since mid-2006 and was a former editor of the afternoon tabloid that mainly focuses on the Klang Valley. Thus, he seems to be an ideal choice to beef up the company’s online media business.
Ahirudin was a journalist with the NSTP group, where he rose to become the editor of Malay Mail. In 2006, he took a voluntary separation scheme offered by NSTP.
However, he is likely to have his hands full turning the paper around in the current economic climate, where advertising budgets have been slashed and operating costs are high.
The economic crisis and the shift to new media have resulted in threats to even such established newspaper brands as the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and some lesser known ones like Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Dips in sales brought about by a younger crop of readers who are more inclined to surf the Internet to obtain news than wait for newspapers in the morning, coupled with the economic crunch, have affected the growth of traditional newspapers.
Nevertheless, the Malay Mail has its strengths. With its 113-year history, the paper is still a known brand, and coupled with the fact that it used to have a strong following in the Klang Valley, a turnaround may not be so difficult, especially if it is given free.
The Malay Mail’s glory days were in the 1990s when it was an afternoon paper complementing its sister publication, The New Straits Times. Nevertheless, much like the fortunes of The New Straits Times, the Malay Mail lost its following because of competition from The Star.
Talk of Ahirudin rejoining the Malay Mail has been rife for sometime now, with an added twist that NSTP may be buying back the paper it had disposed of for RM5 million in March 2008.
However, with the latest developments, NSTP’s plans to buy over the Malay Mail is as good as gone for now.
This article appeared in the Corporate page of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 757, June 1-7, 2009.