GEORGE TOWN: Works Minister Baru Bian confirmed today the ministry has received an official offer from Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd to take over Plus Malaysia Bhd.
He said the ministry is studying the offer before bringing it up to the Cabinet.
“No company other than Maju Holdings has made an official offer. The matter is still with the ministry and has not been brought to the Cabinet yet,” he told reporters after opening the Highway Concession Conference 2019 here today.
Baru was asked to comment on media reports that Maju Holdings has submitted a fresh offer to take over Plus.
Maju Holdings, controlled by businessman Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed, made an offer of RM36 billion in 2017 to take over Plus.
He said at that point, the Finance Ministry said the government had no plans to release its interests in Plus to Maju Holdings and was concerned with the financial standing and capability of a private entity like Maju Holdings to pay for the proposal.
In reply to a question, Baru said the ministry had not set a deadline to discuss the proposal but was now focusing on conducting a holistic study to determine the future of highway tolls in the country.
“We want to complete that first. It has been given to each ministry for their comments and will be tabled to the Cabinet soon,” he said.
The objective of the two-day conference which began today was to share the aspirations, experiences and ideas on current issues and challenges faced by the tolled highway industry in Malaysia, especially in financial, operations and maintenance aspects.
This is the second conference organised by the Works Ministry and the Malaysian Highway Authority with the cooperation of the Association of Highway Concessionaires Malaysia, attended by 300 local and foreign participants.
At the conference, the LLM also recognised the involvement of industry players in Malaysia which have implemented innovative highway digitalisation projects, and presented them the “Highway Digitalisation Excellence Award” (HDEA). — Bernama
