This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 23, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: While the government prefers to stay out of the business and is willing to divest its stake in PLUS Malaysia Bhd, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the offers by the private sector so far are not attractive enough, adding yesterday that the offers to acquire PLUS so far do not reflect the future prospects for the highway operator.

“The government doesn’t like to be involved in [the] business; it is better for the private sector to be in the business. We hope they make profit and we get 24% of their profit without any investment or risk. But the offers from the private sector are not attractive [and they] do not reflect the bright prospects for PLUS, so we are still studying many proposals — [for it to be] owned by the government or the private sector,” he said.

“There is a possibility [for it to be sold to private companies]. There are four [offers] or more. But we haven’t seen any proposals that [are] attractive,” he added.

PLUS has attracted three acquisition proposals from the private sector. According to reports, Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd, controlled by Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed, was the first to bid for PLUS at an enterprise value of RM34.9 billion including debts. The other two proposals came from private equity fund RJR Capital and Widad Business Group (WBG). RJR offered to buy out PLUS for RM3.5 billion, plus shouldering its liabilities. WBG offered two options, with the first being a takeover of the 51% stake owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd for RM1.5 billion cash as the balance 49% remains with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). The second option is a full takeover of the concessionaires from Khazanah and the EPF for RM3 billion.