KUALA LUMPUR: The government was right in rejecting the takeover offer for the North-South Expressway (PLUS) by Idaman Saga Sdn Bhd as the bid was not compelling enough and was based on some “inaccurate assumptions“, a prominent think-tank said today.
Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan said it was wrong to describe the rejection, which was announced in Parliament recently by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, being made out of the blue.
“This is not a rejection made out of simply reading a letter that has been sent, there must be some serious study on the side of the government that they have already done it. There must also have been some level of negotiations before the decision was taken, so it is wrong for us to assume that no study, no research has been done at all, there must be some background work that has been put into this,” Wan Saiful said in an interview.
He said the government must have known that the takeover proposal, which includes a freeze on toll increase along the country’s largest highway network spanning across Peninsular Malaysia until the end of the concession agreement in 2038, was based on wrong assumptions and inaccurate figures.
“So I really doubt the government has made the decision in a hasty manner as implied, they must have done their homework. This is an offer to buy something off from the government, if a good offer is made and the government feels that is something really beneficial for the people, I’m sure it will reconsider it. They would want to make money for the country as well,” he added.
“In a situation where the owner of an asset is not actively seeking to sell the asset, somebody else suddenly comes in and say we want to buy it and these are the reasons why you should sell it, so the onus is on the person who wants to make the purchase to make it a compelling offer, in this case clearly it is not, so that’s why it is not happening,” Wan Saiful said.
PLUS is owned by two government-owned entities, UEM Group and Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
Asked on the bidder’s contention that it was not given an opportunity to present its model to the government, Wan Saiful is of the view that this was a case of no willing seller but a very eager buyer. -- Bernama