By Aidila Razak
Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd is putting the cart before the horse by asking for confirmations from federal agencies before deciding on the Selangor government’s RM5.6 billion offer for two of it subsidiaries.
This was what was communicated to Puncak by Selangor’s investment arm Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB) in a letter yesterday, over the water consolidation offer which expires end of business today.
According to the letter sighted by KiniBiz, KDEB said that Pengurusan Aset Air Bhd (PAAB) and Unit Kerjasama Awam Swasta (Ukas) can only come in if the water concessionaires agree to the offer.
“Pertaining to the final approval of Ukas, we had previously highlighted that Ukas guidelines require the submission to be made by the target company, i.e. Syabas and PNSB.
“More importantly, as (Puncak) has yet to agree in principle to the KDEB offer for Syabas and PNSB, it is highly unlikely that Ukas would consider an application for consent at this junction, without agreement of both the buyer and the seller.
“In this regard, we urge PNHB to agree in principle to the KDEB offer to facilitate an immediate application to Ukas,” the letter read.
Selangor had in February made a collective RM9.65 bil offer to take over water treatment companies Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Holdings Bhd (Splash) and Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd (Abass) and Selangor’s sole water distributor Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas).
This is part of the water consolidation exercise, following which the entire water assets will be sold to PAAB. PAAB will in turn license the operations of water treatment and distribution to the state government.
Two of the water companies are subsidiaries of Puncak.
‘Get federal to join our talks’
KDEB also stressed that the state government has already obtained a written go-ahead from the federal government to proceed with takeover offers so Puncak need not have qualms on this front.
However, it said, if Puncak still requires federal input, it should rope the federal government into the negotiations.
“In the event that Puncak still believes that the upfront involvement of the federal government is necessary in making the offer for the consolidation of the Selangor water concessionaires, we would welcome the support of Puncak to make a strong case to the federal government for their immediate involvement in the consolidation,” it said.
Puncak and KDEB officials had met on Mar 1 on the matter, but Puncak told Bursa Malaysia that it did not receive sufficient clarification at the meeting.
Puncak in an announcement to Bursa Malaysia on Feb 27 said it had requested from KDEB written confirmation of approvals from PAAB, the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and the Ministry of Finance.
It said that the latter’s approval is required as it holds a golden share in Syabas
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