Monday, September 14, 2009

Syed Mokhtar, Kisai eyeing Proton stake

Khazanah stake may be acquired via DRB-HICOM

PETALING JAYA: Low-profile tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary may be eyeing Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s stake in Proton Holdings Bhd.

News of his interest surfaced after a blogger mentioned his name and that of Datuk Kisai Rahmat, a former Proton executive director in charge of the national carmaker’s engineering and manufacturing division, as those interested in Khazanah’s 42.74% stake.

According to a source, this stake could be acquired via DRB-HICOM Bhd, a company in which Syed Mokhtar holds a 56% stake. “Unofficially yes, he’s interested in acquiring the Khazanah stake,” the source told StarBiz yesterday.

It, however, declined to say whether talks were already ongoing with Khazanah.

This would not be the first time that DRB-HICOM is used as a vehicle to acquire Khazanah’s stake as the company was in preliminary talks to acquire the stake in late 2006.

DRB-HICOM is no stranger to Proton as the company used to own a 27% stake until it was sold off to Petroliam Nasional Bhd in 2000.

Efforts to contact Kisai, who is vice-chairman of Yasmin Holdings Sdn Bhd, were unsuccessful.

It is understood that Kisai could partner the Naza group to acquire the stake. The Naza group is primarily involved in automobile distribution and manufacturing as well as property development. The group’s late founder, Tan Sri SM Nasimuddin SM Amin, was also keen on a stake in Proton.

Alor Star-based Yasmin Holdings is involved in providing rust-proofing services to Proton. The company is also involved in the provision of oil and gas services as well as information technology services.

Besides DRB-HICOM, an automobile manufacturer and distributor, Syed Mokhtar is involved in a slew of business ventures, including ports, power generation, plantations and property development.

He has controlling stakes in two other listed companies – MMC Corp Bhd and Tradewinds Corp Bhd.

Besides a stake sale to local business entities, analysts were also speculating that Proton could be close to a stake sale to Renault SA, although no details were forthcoming on the deal. They maintained that Proton needed to form a strategic partnership with a foreign carmaker for the company to have a viable long-term future.

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