Pantai responses to BizWeek article on govt concessions
August 12, Star BizWeek ran a story titled Poser on Pantai pertaining to the contentious issue of Pantai Holdings' control over two government concessions, Fomema and Pantai Medivest.
August 13, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that the Treasury had realised that Pantai's stakeholding had become a problem as it was related to the concession for the supply of hospital requirements.
August 14, Bursa Malaysia's Sector Head (Issues & Listing - Group Regulations), Tan Yew Eng, wrote to Pantai Holdings with copy to Chung Tin Fah of Securities Commission, instructing the medical services groups to comply with the Securities Exchange's Corporate Disclosure Policy by replying and furnishing the Exchange within one (1) market day pertaining to two portions cited in the BizWeek article:
- "... Pantai is ... scouring for an adviser for a possible divestment..."
- "... a new partner may be appointed as joint concessionaires with Pantai."
August 15, Pantai Holdings submitted the following disclosures to Bursa Malaysia:
- Pantai has not appointed any adviser thus far in relation to the divestment of the two government concessions, namely Pantai Medivest and Fomema as the company has not received an offer which it can consider reasonable.
- Pantai has, to date, received two offers, each from a consortium of investors called Konsortium Kembalikan and Konsortium Pro-Home, for the acquisition of Pantai Medivest and Fomema, respectively.
However, Pantai said it had rejected the offer from these two consortiums as they were found to be inadequate.
Pantai said the identity of all investors in each of the consortiums have not been made known it has been informed that Dr Ridzwan Bakar, the former Chairman of the company, is linked to Konsortium Pro-Home, while businessman Mohd Zain Ibrahim and Abdul Aziz Abdul Wahab, the former Executive Director of Pantai Medivest, are linked to Konsortium Kembalikan.
- Pantai said reports about the possibility of appointment of a new partner as joint concessionaires are untrue.
Pantai Holdings is currently under de facto control by Singapore-based Parkway Holdings, which in turn is substantially linked to American investors.
Thus far, the Treasury has no further comment since the PM's August 13 remarks.
Comments
I am confused with this.
Firstly, who approves the transaction of Government Concessions, Treasury or Economic Planning Unit. Are these both under Prime Minister Department?
Secondly if the original deal involving the 2 concessions which require prior approval from the Government, and has not obtained such approval (as inferred from the admission by our PM on last Sunday), can the foreigner (because Pantai is now foreign controlled) have the right to sell?
It took almost one year to realise this. It's sad the our regulatory bodies are not vigilant in this aspect. Vultures have field-day.
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August 16, 2006 06:42 PM