Semasa berita ini ditulis belum diketahui lagi samada EPF membeli 3.2% saham time dotCom melalui tukaran hutang. Danaharta memiliki 3.5% time dotCom kerana ia menukar hutang RM300 juta menjadi ekuiti. EPF begitu degil untuk memberi penjelasan.

Tetapi jangan lupa Time Engineering (bapak time dotCom) berhutang EPF sebanyak RM502 juta. Jika ini ditukar menjadi ekuiti dotCom ini, EPF akan memegang 6% lagi.... bermakna EPF paling BANYAK [selepas KWAP 10.8% - Editor] memegang beli satu perniagaan yang amat berisiko tinggi dan sudah tiga tahun rugi. Malah ia sudahpun rugi berjuta-juta di atas kertas dalam beberapa hari sahaja kebelakangan ini kerana saham time dotCom menjunam tidak laku.

Jadi kalau diikut cakap orang kampung, EPF sudah bertukar peranan. Ia sudah menjadi 'Danaharta' yang bermuka tabung orang tua sedangkan ia menabung untuk kroni diktator dan haman tua.

Pelabur yang cerdik tidak akan menggali kubur sendiri malangnya EPF belum cerdik-cerdik lagi. Mungkin ramai yang akan 'mati' sebelum mencecah tua nanti.....

-TJr Man Kubur-

Rencana Rujukkan:

The Business Times, Singapore
15th March 2001

Danaharta emerges as 3.5% owner of Time dotCom

Substantial stake from debt-to-equity conversion, no cash outlay: official

By Eddie Toh in Kuala Lumpur

MALAYSIA'S bad debt recovery agency Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional has emerged as a substantial shareholder of Time dotCom following the dismal initial public offering (IPO) that has sparked a controversy over the suspected involvement of state-owned funds in the exercise.

A Danaharta official confirmed yesterday the agency was one of the sub-underwriters in the IPO that was undersubscribed by 75 per cent when it closed last month.

She said Danaharta merely converted part of its debt exposure to Time Engineering -- the parent of Time dotCom -- into equity by taking up the Time dotCom shares.

"Danaharta swapped the debt into equity. We did not put in any cash," she told BT.

Time Engineering is estimated to have owed Danaharta more than RM300 million (S$139 million).

Through the debt-to-equity conversion, Danaharta now owns more than 3.5 per cent of Time dotCom, above the 2 per cent threshold which makes the agency a substantial shareholder.

Danaharta's role is to restructure non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking system. To date, it has restructured three-quarters of the RM47 billion worth of NPLs in Malaysia.

While Danaharta's stake in Time dotCom is not expected to raise eyebrows, analysts and opposition politicians will be watching out for the involvement of two state-owned funds.

The market has been abuzz with talk the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen have mopped up the bulk of the unwanted shares from the underwriters.

It will not come as a surprise if the EPF emerges as a substantial shareholder of Time dotCom, the telco arm of the Renong Bhd. This is because EPF was owed RM502 million by Time Engineering. If the debt is swapped into equity as with Danaharta, EPF will own about 6 per cent of Time dotCom.

But it is not known if EPF had pumped in fresh funds to take up more Time dotCom shares at the IPO price, which has collapsed to RM2.27 from its IPO price of RM3.30 apiece.

A cash injection by EPF will cause an uproar among opposition politicians.

DAP chief Lim Kit Siang had blasted the EPF for allegedly buying Time dotCom shares following the declaration of its worst dividend payout in 25 years. "It was clearly not in the public interest for government-linked funds and agencies to be tapped to mount another bail-out operation to buy up the undersubscribed IPO portion at RM3.30 per share," he charged.

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg