This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 16, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd clarified yesterday that the government has been engaging with it and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) — the shareholders of PLUS Malaysia Bhd — about its objectives of reducing highway users’ toll burden on relieving the government’s compensation pressures.

Khazanah controls a 51% stake in PLUS, while the EPF holds the remaining 49%.

The engagement has also been about respecting the value of the highway concession for existing debt and equity holders, Khazanah said in a statement yesterday.

“There have also been several unsolicited offers which Khazanah is aware of, although the parties concerned have not directly engaged with us. We have provided advice and viewpoints to the government and have engaged with it to assist in determining policy considerations towards achieving the objectives stated above,” Khazanah explained.

“Khazanah would like to emphasise again that throughout the entire engagement process, the government has been thoroughly professional and has upheld the appropriate governance in striving for the best resolution to the matter,” the statement read.

On Tuesday, Khazanah managing director Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan was reported as saying that Khazanah and the EPF had not been engaged in the process of selling PLUS, despite several offers having been made to the government.

He was also quoted as saying that any decision on the sale of PLUS, from a governance standpoint, needs to be done properly through the highway concession’s owners, and that that part had “never started”.

He also pointed out that neither Khazanah nor the EPF had put PLUS up for sale.