Syed Mokhtar eyes UEM, RRI and police land

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — Tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary has written to Putrajaya seeking 1,200 hectares of land in Sungei Buloh and the police training centre in Jalan Semarak here apart from a RM15.6 billion bid to take over the UEM Group Berhad which runs the PLUS highways.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Syed Mokhtar’s MMC Berhad sent the UEM Group bid to the Ministry of Finance in August and it has come to the attention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his capacity as the Finance Minister. The UEM Group is owned by government sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad.
“The government’s position is that if Khazanah wants to sell, there is no objection,” a government source told The Malaysian Insider.

Syed Mokhtar is one of the richest men in the country.

“But the government will not force Khazanah to sell its stake in UEM to MMC,” he added. The UEM bid is just one of the deals being pursued by the Kedah-born tycoon, who rose from a transport business start-up to control rice supplies in the country to running ports. The Malaysian Business magazine last year estimated that Syed Mokhtar is worth some US$1.8 billion (RM5.58 billion) with his shareholdings in several listed companies.
It is learnt that Syed Mokhtar has also written to the government to buy 1,200 hectares out of the 3,000 hectares of Rubber Research Institute (RRI) land in Sungei Buloh to be developed by the Najib administration under his Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
Apart from that, it is understood that the businessman is also asking to develop the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) in Jalan Semarak which also houses the Police Museum and its logistics centre. The site also houses a police golf course next to the leafy Gurney residential area which counts some embassies and tycoons as its residents.
“Putrajaya has yet to decide on the RRI land or Pulapol,” the government source said.
Before the offer for the historic police land, the government had recently indicated it will develop the massive Sungei Besi airport which is a strategic base for the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and the Police Air Wing. The Sungei Besi development by the government-linked 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is also under the ETP.

Najib has left it to Khazanah to ensure the disposal of strategic stakes is to its interests.

Since Najib took office as the country’s sixth prime minister in April 2009, he has earmarked government assets in Kuala Lumpur for redevelopment and has asked Khazanah to dispose of controlling shares in the nearly 70 companies in the state asset manager’s stable. But Najib, who is Khazanah chairman, has left it to the asset manager’s managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar and his team to ensure the disposal of strategic stakes is to its interests.
Apart from MMC’s bid for UEM, Khazanah has also received a RM50 billion bid for toll road operator PLUS Expressways Berhad. It has yet to decide on any of the bids, sources said.
MMC’s bid for UEM is seen as a way to acquire PLUS, which controls the North-South Expressway and several other toll highways in Peninsular Malaysia.
Several bloggers linked to Syed Mokhtar have written that MMC intends to bid for the UEM Group by forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) as its partners.
The proposed buyout would involve the SPV planning to raise RM16 billion, which would include a working capital of RM500 million, for the UEM Group which includes Faber Group Bhd, UEM Land Holdings Bhd, Time Engineering Bhd and the unlisted UEM Builders which is involved in constructing the Second Penang Bridge to complement its 25-year concession for the Penang Bridge.
UEM Group’s total assets as at December 31, 2009 stood at approximately RM31.1 billion.
The bloggers say both EPF and PNB have not been consulted in the structuring of the proposed deal and may not agree with the proposal of MMC’s 40 per cent being valued at RM1.92 billion, while each of EPF’s 30 per cent and PNB’s 30 per cent at RM1.44 billion each.
Syed Mokhtar’s MMC is also part of a consortium led by Gamuda proposing a RM36 billion Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) circle line in Kuala Lumpur. A decision on the project, which is part of the ETP, will be made this month.