Let’s KPI Khazanah
By Sakmongkol AK47
Was Asas serba’s offer to take over the 23 toll road concessions for RM 50 billion rejected because Nor Mohamad Yaakob wanted it that way?
For that matter, had the offer been made by any other entity for RM 50 billion, would such an offer be cavalierly rejected?
I say cavalier because the boss at Khazanah, Azman Mokhtar made just a cursory mention that it had received an offer from Asas Serba. RM 50 billion and yet no considered evaluation? 50 billion isn’t exactly small change is it?
He went on to say, PLUS highways are generating cash and profit and the highways belonged to the people. But we are never told the basis for rejecting offers to buy the PLUS highways. Surely the reasons to divest are there because Khazanah and EPF formed a SPV to take over the business.
My point is, if there are reasons justifying the eventual takeover of PLUS highways by the Khazanah-EPF JV, then the same reasons must have existed at the time when Asas Serba or MMC made their offers. Or the people from MMC and Asas Serba didn’t think about these reasons?
We the ‘people’ who own the PLUS highways don’t know what is happening.
Asas Serba offered to buy at RM 50 billion. That would make the owners RM 50 billion richer. RM 50 billion would go into the system and would probably increase liquidity. The government would probably save money by not having to pay compensation in the form of subsidies.
There was also an offer made by MMC group led by Syed Mokhtar alBukhari. It was also rejected. The offer was said to be somewhere in the region of RM 15-16 billion.
I always thought, the basic role of Khazanah, at least before being headed by Azman Mokhtar is to function something like Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. Basically it invests in sound companies and let those who are cleverer and better than them, manage and operate the businesses. It’s a sovereign fund anyway.
In that way, it ensures the best returns to it as a stakeholder. It now seems Khazanah wants to micromanage everything which means it is running the business. It is now in business with the luxury of using money belonging to us the people.
Now, as we read the many public statements by Azman Mokhtar, the principle which he uses to reject or spurn an offer is to say it won’t sell a profitable business. The other excuse he uses is to say a particular business belongs to the people. I like these two principles by which he swears because; we are going to take him on that.
Why did it reject a RM 50 billion offer without explaining? It gives rise to suspicions that a reasonably good business offer is rejected on some non-objective reasons. Why is Khazanah still being controlled by Nor Mohamad Yaakob when it is the finance Minister who should be in charge of it? Hasn’t Husni Hanazlah got the steely determination in his constitution to counter Nor Mohamad Yaakob?
Has khazanah got a big war chest? Has it got money to spend around? Has Khazanah veered from its original objectives on which it was established?
A look at the management structure of Khazanah gives the impression it’s a club for the alumnus of consultant companies. Mckinsey, Ethos and Bina Fikir. The ‘best brains’ said Nor Mohamed Yaakob at one UMNO General Assembly. These people would live and breathe by the code of KPI.
That’s a lot of bull crap. Anyone who attended the fanfare-ish ETP presentation by Idris Jala would be immediately aware of the emptiness in that claim when the young cikus (a large number from McKinsey) manning the many booths were often hung out to dry.
We need to examine the incestuous practice of seconding or hiring consultants in charge of Khazanah and then having the same people consulting out their work to their previous companies. Do we need consultants to hire consultants?
