Sime Darby drops IJN bid
(The Malaysian Insider) – Plantations-to-property multinational Sime Darby Berhad has dropped its bid for the Institute Jantung Negara (IJN) following public outcry and the government's decision to defer discussions on the controversial proposal.
The government-linked-conglomerate said today it reached the decision after "taking into consideration the public sentiment and feedback received" for its proposal to buy a 51 per cent stake in IJN from the Ministry of Finance.
"We are a company whose shareholders represent more than 10 million Malaysians and we have to respect the wishes of the rakyat for IJN to remain in its present structure, " said Datuk Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid, Sime Darby's the group chief executive officer and group president.
"We believe that continued investment in cardiovascular care is critical because it is a leading cause for hospital admissions and one of the major causes of deaths in Malaysia. A partnership with IJN would have been a winning proposition for us, IJN, stakeholders and the public and it was based on this fact that we approached the government on a possible partnership with IJN," he explained in a statement issued today.
The conglomerate said it wrote to the government last August expressing its interest in a partnership that would be mutually beneficial in extending the scope and scale of operations of Sime Darby Healthcare and IJN as "such a partnership would have brought together IJN's leadership in cardiovascular ad thoracic care and Sime Darby Healthcare's expertise in private tertiary care".
Sime Darby said its healthcare division's plan was to set up centres of excellence in various medical fields such as cancer, heart and neurology in Malaysia and abroad, adding that in its proposal to the government it was aware of IJN's role in providing excellent and affordable medical treatment to pensioners, low income earners and the poor.
"The cornerstone of the proposal was aimed at ensuring that the Rakyat would not be deprived of top class medical care and included a guarantee that poor patients, pensioners and those from the lower and middle income groups would continue to enjoy excellent medical treatment without change to the status quo," the company said.
Ahmad Zubir also said that he remained upbeat about the prospects of the healthcare sector and would continue to look for opportunities for expansion and to turn Sime Darby Healthcare into a gold standard healthcare provider in the region.
IJN was spun out of Kuala Lumpur Hospital's Cardiothoracic Surgery Department three years after former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad suffered a heart attack in 1989.
The institute, established in 1992, is currently expanding to increase its facilities which are expected to complete by the second quarter of 2009. Upon completion, IJN will have a total of 432 beds dedicated for heart treatment and will be one of the largest heart centres in the region.
It treats some 150,000 patients a year, of whom some 100,000 are government servants. The government regulates the fees with its first-class medical treatment at below market rate.
