An ambitious billion-ringgit plan by private company Asas Serba to take over tolled highway concessionaires may just find takers, with listed concessionaire Litrak the first to state its readiness to consider any offer. A further sign of Asas Serba's intent is its engagement of RAM Consultancy Services to evaluate the feasibility of acquiring the country's 22 highways for some RM50 billion, as well as ways to implement such a takeover Join discussion...

Private entity Asas Serba Sdn Bhd’s attempts to take over the country’s tolled highways seem like a hard battle to win. Datuk Syed Md Amin Aljeffri, one of the four individuals behind Asas Serba, was quoted two weeks ago that the company might brief Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on its proposal after the plan was submitted to the Government in May. He did not reply to an email sent by StarBiz. Join discussion...

Only a month ago, the plan appeared doomed after Najib publicly squelched the plan, telling reporters that state investment agency Khazanah “has no plans” to sell Plus Expressways. Plus is the largest of the country’s 22 highway concessionaire companies and Khazanah, through wholly-owned United Engineers Malaysia, holds 64 per cent of the highway firm. Join discussion...

Pricing and funding will be the biggest hurdle if Asas Serba Sdn Bhd were given the green light by the Government to take over all the 22 toll concessions in the country, say analysts. “How to price the toll concessions? If we take the water consolidation in Selangor as an example, there are already many issues despite the fixed pricing at one-time book value,” OSK Investment Bank analyst Jeremy Goh told StarBiz in a telephone interview. Join discussion...

MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Najib Razak has poured cold water on a proposal by a private company to buy the country's largest highway concessionaire Plus Expressways from a state investment agency Join discussion...

RECENTLY, there has been a slate of reports by various investment banking research houses criticising proposed plans to buy back the highways from concessionaires — a proposal that has been criticised by the concessionaires themselves. The DAP has suggested that the government buy back all shares of PLUS Expressways Bhd that it does not already own, and take over its existing asset-backed liabilities for the approximate amount of RM15 billion. This amount and more would be recovered from motorists using the North-South Highway by maintaining the existing toll rates for six years. Should PLUS be acquired this year, by 2016, toll collection would no longer be required on PLUS-owned highways. Join discussion...

Malaysia’s Giant Group has asked the central province of Quang Tri for a permit to survey, design and build a 95-km railway section that links Dong Ha city to Lao Bao on the Vietnam-Laos borderline. Join discussion...