UPDATED 2.30PM: Let’s take a quick look at Puncak Niaga, one of the main water concessionaires in Selangor.
You can see that the firm is making huge profits. (Profits for 2006 were higher as there was a gain arising from the partial disposal of a subsidiary of RM206m in 2006.)
The group had close to a billion ringgit in deposits, cash, and bank balances as at 31 December 2007 and a net current asset ratio of 1.2. In other words, very liquid.
Syabas, which is 70 per cent owned by Puncak Niaga, received a government grant of RM250 million (that’s our money) “solely for the purpose of financing the costs and expenditure of the non-revenue water” to reduce unaccountable water loss.
The federal government also provided a support loan (current carrying amount close to RM80 million) to finance construction of the Wangsa Maju water treatment plant. It was originally repayable over 20 years (from 1999) at 8 per cent interest rate. But in 2004, the federal government “restructured” the loan: the interest rate was reduced to 3 per cent per annum retrospectively and the repayment schedule revised. How thoughtful.
Having made super profits with the help of public money, Puncak Niaga is now asking for a higher price than what the Selangor government is prepared to pay (RM1.6 billion for Puncak Niaga and RM1.5 billion for Syabas) to nationalise water assets in the state.
The total offer price of RM3.1 billion in total is based on the valuation of the water assets using book value (without any liabilities being assumed) as at 31 December 2007:
Puncak Niaga
Asset Value : RM1,140,000,000
Equity Value : RM 543,047,000
Total: RM 1,683,047,000
Less: Dividend (RM 75,330,000)
Offer Price for Puncak Niaga : RM1,607,717,000
Syabas:
Asset Value : RM1,088,000,000
Equity Value : RM 424,004,000
Total: RM1,512,004,000
Less : Dividend : (Nil)
Offer Price for Syabas : RM1,512,004,000
(Source: Puncak Niaga’s general announcement to Bursa of the letter of offer from Selangor state government dated 13 February. Deadline for acceptance of offer is 20 February.)
For the record, these are the directors of Puncak Niaga (during the financial year 2007):
- Tan Sri Rozali bin Ismail
- Dato’ Matlasa bin Hitam
- Dato’ Ruslan bin Hassan
- Dato’ Ir Lee Miang Koi
- Dato’ Syed Danial bin Syed Ariffin
- Tan Sri Dato’ Hari Narayanan a/l Govindasamy
- Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Ting Chew Peh
- Datuk Dr Rahman bin Ismail
- Tan Seng Lee
- Tengku Dato’ Rahimah binti Almarhum Sultan Mahmud *
* This Director had been redesignated to Non-Independent Non-Executive Director with effect from 1 January 2007.
The firm paid out close to RM11 million in directors’ remuneration in 2007.
According to the Annual Report 2007, these are the number of directors whose total remuneration for 2007 fell within the following bands:
- RM1 to RM100,000 - 1
- RM100,001 to RM200,000 - 2
- RM200,001 to RM300,000 - 1
- RM500,001 to RM600,000 - 0
- RM600,001 to RM700,000 - 1
- RM800,001 to RM900,000 - 0
- RM900,001 to RM1,000,000 - 2
- RM1,000,001 to RM1,100,000 – 0
- RM1,100,001 to RM1,200,000 – 0
- RM1,200,001 to RM1,300,000 - 1
- RM1,300,001 to RM1,400,000 - 1
- RM4,500,001 to RM4,600,000 – 0
- RM5,100,001 to RM5,200,000 - 1
Total directors’ remuneration rose 17 per cent from RM9.2 million in 2006 to RM10.8 million for 2007. In 2006, only one director received more than RM1.2 million and no one received more than RM4.6 million. But in 2007, three directors received more than RM1.2 million, including one director who received more than RM5.1 million.
Gamuda also has an interest in water in Selangor.
These firms are rolling in profits - and yet, there could be a 30 per cent water tariff hike in Selangor from April!-Anilnetto
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