Puncak Niaga

In a clear attempt to break the deadlock between the Selangor government and Puncak Niaga Bhd, the state has invited the water treatment concessionaire to jointly meet with PAAB to resolve outstanding issues in relation to the latest offer by KDEB to take over the water assets in the state.

This comes hot on the heels of Puncak Niaga’s response to KDEB’s offer in late Deb 2013 stating that they had to resolve certain issues with PAAB before the board could consider the offer.

Puncak Niaga wanted to clarify the offer with PAAB before taking any action.

The Selangor government, through KDEB, has been trying to privatize the state’s water concessionaires for the past four years. KDEB got the mandate from the federal government in Feb 2008.

Khalid says KDEB should have no trouble raising funds for the acquisition.

Once KDEB takes over the water concessionaires, it plans to sell the water assets of these companies to PAAB. PAAB has already been acquiring PNSB and SYABAS’s debt papers, which are now (March 2013) worth less than rm4.99 billion.

If the consolidation exercises takes place, PAAB will act as the holding company of all the water assets. The state will create a SPV to manage and operating the water assets using an asset light model. The SPV will then leases the assets in return for an estimated lease payment of between 3% and 4% which is PAAB’s cost of debt.