Highways to be returned after debts paid, says takeover company

The shareholders of a company that proposes to take over four highways said today the object is to return the highways to the government without any extension period to the concessions.

The directors of Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat Bhd (ALR) said the takeover of four highway concessionaire companies would be funded through loans.

They said the shareholders of the company will not be entitled to receive any dividends, or a return on equity.

“As a consequence, there is no need to prolong the concession period once all of ALR’s debts have been fully repaid,” the company said.

Without the need to pay dividends to shareholders, the cash flows from the concessions could be fully used to pay off the loans obtained to buy the four companies, they said.

The five shareholders and directors of ALR are Azlan Mohd Zainol, Idrose Mohamed, Soam Heng Choon, Dr Nirmala Menon and Sharil Tarmizi.

The company has made a conditional offer to acquire the companies behind the Kesas Expressway, SMART Tunnel, Sprint Expressway, and Damansara-Puchong Expressway or LDP.

ALR said the takeover will involve a total of RM5.48 billion which would be paid by taking on loans. ALR said it expected a strong credit rating from the dedicated cash flow profile, allowing it access into the capital markets to fund the acquisition of the highways.

It said the company would not seek any government guarantee for any sukuk arrangement to finance the takeover.

The takeover had the aim of minimising the length of extensions to the concessions involved before returning the concessions to the government once its debts were fully repaid.

ALR said that it anticipates being able to accelerate the full repayment of any debt financing and return the highways to the government in a timely manner, based on expected traffic projections.

The five directors and shareholders said they had voluntarily agreed to serve on the board and were “independent of both the government and existing shareholders of the concession companies, not representatives or nominees of any parties or have any political affiliations”.

Their involvement was based on “our personal conviction and belief on the merits of the proposal, where the country and its rakyat would stand to reap the benefits”, they said.

“With humility, we hope that our collective track record in the public and private sectors would be a testament to our affirmations above and our sincere intentions to facilitate the toll restructuring for the benefit of all stakeholders involved,” they said.
FMT

Highways to be returned after debts paid, says takeover company

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