The Selangor government says the offer documents made to the water concession companies are provided with details and contain enough information to allow them to make a decision.
“The offer documents are prepared professionally and meet international standards addressing all the terms in order to avoid any doubt,” Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said in a statement yesterday.
On Wednesday, Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd (PNHB) managing director Datuk Hashim Mahfar told Bursa Malaysia in a statement that it was unable to table any proposal to shareholders on the latest RM9bil takeover offer by the Selangor government as it required a clearer bid. It said a decision would only be made after all information was obtained.
Based on a review of the offer documents, PNHB’s subsidiaries - Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd and Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) - found numerous ambiguities which required explanation from the state government, especially pertaining to the offer price for the water assets and other issues.
These include the number of shares the Selangor government intends to purchase from the shareholders of Puncak Niaga and Syabas.
Khalid said the statement issued by PNHB and Syabas that the company could not make a decision on the offer because the offer documents were not detailed enough was “vague and malicious”.
“The statement by Hashim is only intended to prolong the process of acquisition by the Selangor state government, which wants to provide better services and quality water supply to the rakyat,” Khalid said in the statement.
The Selangor government stressed that the acquisition could be resolved soon if it was provided with the necessary information. It said PNHB and Syabas needed to understand that the conditional offer was subject to the information given to the state government.
“The value of this acquisition offers can be done in a fair manner and accepted by all the concessions if PNHB and Syabas provided the necessary information to the Selangor government. In any acquisition, transparency is a prerequisite for ensuring fair and equitable settlement,” Khalid said.
Meanwhile, Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash), which is 40% owned by Gamuda Bhd and 30% by Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Bhd (KPS), was unable to accept the conditional offer from Menteri Besar Selangor (Incorporated) (MBI) to acquire all the voting shares in the company, Gamuda and KPS said in separate statements to Bursa yesterday.
They said the conditional offer was made on Jan 6, 2011 at a cash offer price of RM5.95 per offer share; Splash said the offer had undervalued the company.
In its reply to MBI, Splash had said the offer was also well below the previous offer made by the Selangor state government on July 15, 2009, which Splash had then accepted in good faith.
As such, it would like to renew its own offer to the Selangor and federal governments on April 20, 2010 of RM10.75bil to consolidate the Selangor water industry with Splash as the “top-to-toe” operator and consistent with the intentions of the Water Services Industry Act, 2006 (WSIA).
Splash viewed that the main stumbling block thus far had been the inability to bridge the gap between what the water operators wanted (commercial value) and what the governments were prepared to pay.
In its reply to MBI, Splash also wanted the critical issues that it had outlined to be addressed in order for the restructuring to proceed.
Splash said it hoped that it had provided a working model for the Selangor government and the federal Government to move forward with the long-delayed restructuring of the Selangor water industry.
It believed that the existing provisions in the WSIA were adequate to enable such a model.
Splash said it was willing to work with any entity that may be proposed by the state government or the federal government to undertake the restructuring, but in the event that neither government had a preference, Splash was also willing to proceed immediately with its proposal.
KPS is 60% owned by Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd, which is controlled by MBI. KPS-nominated directors in Splash had abstained from deliberation and deciding on the offer as the transaction was deemed to be a related party transaction.- The Star
No comments:
Post a Comment