Ijok IIA: Persoalan Tambahan Untuk Tan Sri

Saya mendapat pesan dari Rocky, seorang blogger yang bersama saya di Ijok baru-baru ini, bahawa mungkin susah untuk dapat bertemu Tan Sri. Berikut adalah komen Rocky:

Bro,

I have asked my friends in KeAdilan to pass your questions to Tan Sri. Kalau beliau tidak sempat menjawab sekarang, masih perlu dijawab minggu depan atau bulan depan.

Tan Sri Khalid is not in KeAdilan just for Ijok; he's known for staying in one place for the long term. So if your questions beg answers, he should answer them.

Lebih elok kalau kita dapat bertemu beliau.

Thank u.

Namun, saya memohon sesiapa boleh mengaturkan untuk kami, sila letakkan komen anda bila dan masa Tan Sri mahu bertemu kami. Mungkin dengan masa yang lebih, dapat beliau menjawab dengan canggih. Saya akan menunggu dan akan pergi walaupun saya dapat mesej ini:

"Kaum wanita dinasihatkan tidak pergi ke IJOK buat masa sekarang kerana BATANG BERJUNTAI dalam keadaan TEGANG." :-)

Disamping itu, saya mempunyai cutting suratkhabar lama untuk Tan Sri mengenang kembali seperti berikut:

The Asian Wall Street Journal
17 June 1994

PNB Chief Moves to Guthrie With Lucrative Share Deal

By Raphael Pura

KUALA LUMPUR -- The chief executive of Malaysia's huge national investment corporation will leave his post with a hefty golden handshake and the promise of more gains to come.

Permodalan Nasional Bhd. said Thursday that Abdul Khalid Ibrahim will acquire up to 20% of its publicly listed subsidiary, Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd., when he leaves his post as PNB chief executive on July 1 to become Guthrie's deputy chairman and chief executive officer. Datuk Khalid will initially buy a 5% stake in Guthrie, or 50 million shares, for 125 million ringgit ($48.1 million), or 2.50 ringgit a share. He will also have a three-year option to buy an additional 15% of Guthrie at a price to be determined.

Guthrie stock closed Thursday at 3.96 ringgit per share, up 24 sen. That means Datuk Khalid will enjoy an immediate windfall, on paper, of about 73 million ringgit. But Datuk Khalid said at a press conference that he intends to hold his Guthrie stake as a long-term investment, and plans to expand the company. "PNB wants Guthrie to be a corporation that could challenge . . . other multinationals in Malaysia and elsewhere," he said.

Guthrie, one of Malaysia's biggest plantation concerns, last year made a pretax profit of 101.4 million ringgit on revenue of 1.05 billion ringgit. The company currently is 90% owned by PNB, a government-created investment holding company that manages a portfolio valued at about 20 billion ringgit, the bulk of it in the form of unit trusts owned by more than three million Malaysians.

Datuk Khalid will be replaced at PNB by Mohamed Hilmey Mohamed Taib, a 41-year-old former banker and accountant who is currently PNB's deputy chief executive.

Datuk Khalid, a 47-year-old former university lecturer and merchant banker, joined PNB in 1978 and helped direct the then-fledgling investment company's growth into a mammoth stock-holding concern for Malaysia's "bumiputra," or indigenous, citizens. He also helped create a unittrust scheme whereby bumiputras, mainly ethnic Malays, can purchase shares in PNB's underlying stock portfolio and reap hefty dividends. PNB's after-tax profit rose 17.5% in 1993 to 736.9 million ringgit.

PNB made an international splash in 1981, when it wrested control of Guthrie from the company's British shareholders through a one-billion-ringgit "dawn raid" on the London Stock Exchange. PNB's other long-term investments include stakes in Malaysian Mining Corp. Bhd. and UMW Holdings Bhd.

Although Datuk Khalid's shift to Guthrie was expected, some Malaysian securities analysts were surprised at the heavily discounted 2.50 ringgit price for Guthrie shares that PNB offered its departing chief. When PNB floated 10% of Guthrie on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in 1989, the company pledged to offer an additional 20% of Guthrie's equity to the public. The prospective sale to Datuk Khalid fulfills that promise, but it means PNB is passing up the chance to seek a higher price for Guthrie stock from other bidders or the public.

"It really looks like PNB is paying (Datuk Khalid) off," says one securities research manager, who believes Guthrie stock would sell readily. "They're forgoing a higher price on the market by offering such a discount."

Datuk Khalid says he regards the arrangement "not as a monetary reward, but as an opportunity because the risk is being taken by me." He adds that he is financing the acquisition largely through bank borrowings secured by the Guthrie shares. "I've not taken this much liability in my career," he says. "None of my family assets could cover this liability."

The PNB chief adds that the arrangement has the support of PNB chairman Ismail Mohamed Ali, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Dr. Mahathir and Datuk Anwar head Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputra, a government-backed foundation that is PNB's ultimate holding company.

Datuk Khalid says he decided to leave his PNB post for the challenge of owning and running a large company. "A portfolio manager is very different from an operational manager," he says, though he declines to outline his plans for Guthrie. The company's earnings have grown only slowly in recent years and Guthrie has begun seeking ways to expand into fields such as property development.

Mr. Hilmey, who replaces Datuk Khalid at PNB, has spent 13 years with the investment company, serving as assistant general manager of one of PNB's unit trusts and general manager for finance before becoming deputy chief executive in 1990.

(Copyright (c) 1994, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.)

Sekiranya ini bakal menjadi sebahagian dari jawapan Tan Sri, maka tentu sekali saya berani berkata deal Tan Sri ini adalah yang terbaik saya pernah lihat kerana margin capital gain boleh mencukupi untuk mendapat pembiayaan.

Tokoh korporat lain dimasa itu di suruh beli pada harga pasaran dan juga harga lebih mahal dari pasaran. Ada yang dipinta membuat National Service yang selalunya tidak menguntungkan. Apa pula National Service Tan Sri?

Adakah Tan Sri orang Anwar, isu Tan Sri sebagai kroni tidak pernah ditimbulkan oleh Dato Seri Anwar?

Lihatlah dan paham bahawa suratkhabar lama sebenarnya sesuatu yang berharga. Janganlah jual pada Cina-Cina yang memekik "Surat khabar lama! Surat khabar lama!". Isi kandungnya lebih berharga dari harga kertas yang dibelinya.

Kita tunggu sahaja jawapan Tan Sri Khalid. Adakah jawapannya jawapan ahli politik atau jawapan ahli korporat?