Saturday, December 20, 2008

Sime Darby:Raiders At The Gate ?

Hantu Laut

I am in complete agreement with our former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad here.Why repair something if it ain't broken.

There is nothing wrong with the IJN. Probably, the only government agency doing an excellent job and is the pride of the nation.It has saved many lives of those who can't afford the high costs of treatment.It's the government's social obligations to the people.

Is the government running out of ideas or running desperately out of funds that it has completely lost touch with reality or is there something more sinister than what the eyes can see?

As former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has said one has to be discernible with what can be privatised and what not.

How would it make sense that Sime Darby a profit-oriented corporation is interested in an organisation that have to fulfill the government's social obligation and responsibility towards the people or are they only interested in making life easy for themselves by collecting the subsidised portion from the government, everything on the platter, a ready-made IJN and constant flow of revenue from the government.

You don't need smart people to make this type of decision.

Government should only privatise those agencies not doing well due to bad management by idiotic and bureaucratic civil servants.Why sell something if there is nothing wrong with it, unless there is gleam and greed in some one's eyes.

The pumping of IJN into Sime may lead to other things, A takeover of Sime by interested party later is not an impossibility.I don't know how much is the government's stake in Sime Darby.If the government owned less than 50% than Sime can be subjected to takeover bid, hostile or otherwise, by any party that already have significant equity in the company or by outside entity that have access to huge financial resources and allowed a takeover with the blessing of the government.

In December 2007 Sime Darby became the biggest corporation on the KLSE with market capitalisation of RM66 billion after a re-listing exercise, surpassing Malayan Bank and IOI.Upon re-listing the share price debuted at RM11.20 and peaked in January 08 at RM13.40.Yesterday its share price closed at RM5.45.

With the bleak economic outlook and a saturated palm oil market the share price is expected to decline further.This golden goose is ripe for takeover bid and don't be surprised if there are already discreet plan to make hay while the sun shines.It would be a steal to takeover Sime at current market price.

The government has already dug about three feet deep of its grave and continuing with its arrogance and ignoring the people wishes would complete the six-foot depth required to bury them by the time the next general election comes around.

The unsolicited proposal should be thrown out of the window.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And today they are to open an airport!!!.
Do we see the hand of SIL in all of this?
Last gasp efforts?

Anonymous said...

same old story.
govt builds using taxpayers money. excpeiotn rather than the rule, the tree grew well with bountiful fruits.fruit is now ripe for picking. then, some fat arse whose KPI is falling faster then a fueless jet, decides to hijack it to save his arse. come next year, he will be knighted as BEST CEO IN TOWN.
Thank you very much BN.

Anonymous said...

HL,

I had a dinner Friday with some colleagues who are Singaporeans. I was so jealous & envious. Why? because the way they talked about their Government! The way they boasted about their Town Councils! The way they talked about thier PM & Ministers! basically they had only good things to say! One of my Singaporean colleagues is Chinese & the other Indian. Did not matter what race they were.
Now back to your topic...unfortunately whatever the BN Govt. does, we don't trust them! In this case, they need money desperately or someone in UMNO is out to make a fast buck again!
Even if it was a good idea, our mistrust of the UMNO led BN Govt. will not let us see "objectively"!

gram.kong said...

anonymous,
The new airport is a big surprise.It's goes to show the shortsightedness of our government planners.

In fact the KLIA is underutilised, I don't see the need for a new airport for the next 10 years.Certain time of the day the KLIA looks like a ghost town.

gram.kong said...

anonymous,
It's business proposition, as long as our government resists, it's fine.

gram.kong said...

SM,
I have always been admirer of LKY and Singapore.I lived there for more than 10 years, it's one of the most functional cities in the world.

I was in KL in October I can't say the same of KL, it has the worst taxi drivers in the world and I am not joking,I mean the worst and the government not doing anything to change this bad image.

Driving around KL during peak hours is a nightmare and all due to bad town planning from many years ago.