Anwar explained why he chose GIP, BlackRock
KUALA LUMPUR: The sale of the shareholding in Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) to BlackRock was made after going through strict conditions, with screening conducted among a total of 145 interested companies.
Berita Harian reported that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that out of the 145 companies, five companies were finally listed as eligible, including BlackRock, with one of the issues that arose at the negotiation stage being that most of the companies in question wanted to be given full management rights.
“Khazanah (Khazanah Nasional Berhad) reported that when it was opened for management consideration, around 145 (companies) were interested, finally five qualified.
“The conditions set by Khazanah are strict and they are not agreed to by most (companies). Firstly, (the position of) chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) must be Malaysians, besides, the majority of the holdings are (owned by) Malaysians.
“However, these companies that are interested, whether Singapore or others, want the right to manage. That means the CEO is among the people who determines it. This condition is not accepted. That is why the GIP was taken,” he said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time. (PMQT) at the Dewan Rakyat, today.
He answered a supplementary question from Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal (PN-Machang) who questioned the selection of Blackrock which is linked as a pro-Israel company.
BlackRock’s investment in this country is not new, in fact the international investment company has been investing in this country for decades, particularly in the equity and bond markets of government-linked companies (GLCs) and Malaysian corporates.
A review of the data shows that BlackRock already has interests and shareholdings in publicly listed companies on Bursa Malaysia worth RM24.7 billion and RM7.9 billion in Malaysian government and corporate bonds.
According to publicly available data also shows, until May 2024 the global investment firm already has equity investments in 100 listed companies in Malaysia covering the entire industry sector, with three banking institutions in the country.
Anwar insisted that Khazanah in his testimony also stated the difficulty in establishing cooperation with any foreign company since they refused to comply with the stipulated conditions.
“All (those interested) do not accept the strict conditions that we impose, especially in terms of shareholding control where we still maintain 70 percent of Malaysian companies namely Khazanah and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF),” he said.
4 GIP selection criteria
In the meantime, Anwar informed that the Consortium led by MAHB’s existing shareholders, namely Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah) and Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pejaran (EPF) chose GIP because it met four criteria including technical expertise in airport management and financial strength to carry out large transactions and investments.
The other three criteria involve a strong track record in airport transformation; the willingness to take on minority interests as well as the willingness to exit once the transformation efforts bear fruit.
In addition, EPF has also invested with GIP in infrastructure assets since 2012, including Sydney airport in Australia and Gatwick Airport, London.
Meanwhile, Anwar when answering additional questions from Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) regarding the privatization of MAHB, insisted that the issue should not arise.
He said, there is no question of privatization of MAHB since it is clearly still owned by the government with the shareholding increasing from 40 to 70 percent.
“Don’t give the impression that we don’t manage (MAHB) well, it records a profit even if it’s not big. So the question raised by the City of Melaka about privatization or sale, it doesn’t arise.
“We take over from 40 to 70 percent (shareholding), this is not privatization. So it still belongs to the government, which is Khazanah and the EPF…that’s what I want to explain,” he said.