[Apa yang berlaku kini adalah satu perakuan betapa projek penswastaan ilham Mahathir sudahpun gagal kerana ia telah melahirkan spesis yang terlalu manja dan terlalu banyak berhutang sehingga mengancam ekonomi negara serta kedudukkan bank tempatan. STS melapurkan 3 bank dijangka akan menyangga Halim jika dia dibiarkan. Apa yang menarik Danasaham mahu menyelesaikan kes ini secepat mungkin. Kenapa agaknya? Apakah kerana kedudukkan rezab negara dan NPL sekarang begitu membimbangkan?
- Editor]

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Countdown begins for Malaysia's UEM-Renong bid

By Wong Choon Mei

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Investors will have to wait another eight weeks to find out if the Malaysian government will win its $1.0 billion bid to take control of debt-ridden infrastructure company United Engineers-Renong Group (UEM).

While officials at the government agency established to make the takeover, Syarikat Danasaham, said they were "happy" with the market's response one day after its launch, several analysts on Wednesday issued reports that were cool on the offer.

They said the offer price was too low and advised minority shareholders to hang on to their shares even though Syarikat Danasaham said it would withdraw the offer if it did not receive 90 percent acceptances.

BITE THE BULLET

On Monday, Danasaham made a 3.72 billion ringgit ($1.0 billion) offer to buy 99.78 percent of UEM and take it private at 4.5 ringgit a share and 40 cents a warrant.

"We estimate the offer value to be low relative to our 9.0 ringgit fundamental valuation of UEM," ING Barings said in a research report, reflecting similar advice by others.

News of the government's planned intervention to restructure the indebted UEM-Renong Group, which has links to the ruling United Malays National Organisation party, was initially cheered by investors fed up with the country's slow corporate reforms.

UEM is the operator of Malaysia's most extensive network of highways and the healthier half of tycoon Halim Saad's empire, buried under 20 billion ringgit of loans.

The UEM-Renong Group's reluctance to bite the bullet and take the pain of restructuring has weighed on the markets, leaving the government with little choice but to step in.

Danasaham directors defended their plan, saying it was a move in the right direction for Corporate Malaysia.

"So far, the response we hear is mixed but more towards the positive side because people are saying that at least we are doing something," Azman Yahya, a Danasaham director, told Reuters after briefing analysts on Tuesday.

POSSIBLE TUSSLE

While the odds earlier on favoured an easy win for the government on talk it had 75 percent of UEM shareholder backing, it could still face stiff resistance from some minority shareholders.

"The 30 biggest shareholders own only about 60 percent, not all may want to sell to the government," a banker close to the offer said. "What Danasaham can count on at the moment is perhaps 50 percent and that includes Renong."

Halim controls UEM through his industrial flagship Renong , which owns 38 percent -- making it the single largest stakeholder.

"We can't say much at this stage, we don't want to be seen to be influencing other shareholders," a Renong spokesman told Reuters. "But we have got a copy of the draft offer and our board is studying it."

In a statement issued later, Renong denied an Asian Wall Street Journal report that it had given tacit pledges of acceptance for the government offer.

"Renong has not given any pledges of acceptance in connection with the shares of UEM," it said.

Danasaham wants to seal the deal fast.

"We want to submit the proposal for regulatory approval as soon as possible, at the earliest by the end of this week or early next week," a Danasaham official told Reuters.

The agency needs clearance from two regulatory watchdogs and has until August 27 to send its offer to UEM shareholders, but the official said Danasaham would try to post it before then.

UEM shareholders have 21 days until September 17 to decide whether to accept or to hold on to their shares.

UEM shares closed unchanged at 4.16 ringgit, near the middle of a 10-cent range, after surging 17 percent on Tuesday.