Malaysia: Govt to sell non-strategic GLC assets, priority for bumi buyers

  • The 12th Malaysian Plan (12MP) document revealed that the sale of such assets will give priority to bumiputera investors.
  • This is with regard to the 12MP’s strategy to enhance the role of state-owned enterprises in becoming enablers for bumiputera equity ownership.
  • This comes on top of a plan to ensure that any sale of bumiputera-owned equities will remain in the hands of the bumiputera community.
  • The 12MP document says GLCs and GLICs will be required to enhance the bumiputera agenda and ensure the sustainability of its corporate sector ownership.
  • “Programmes to facilitate more bumiputera companies to be listed will be expanded through improvements to the existing programmes,” it says.
  • For this purpose, a bumiputera prosperity division with a clearer function and mandate will be created by re-assigning officers from every ministry and government agency.
  • This includes strategic collaboration with foreign investors to help bumiputera firms become global players.
  • Furthermore, the 12MP adds, Permodalan Nasional Berhad will come up with more investment products similar to Amanah Saham Bumiputera, but with exposure to foreign markets.
  • Several economists have raised concerns over the safety net measure underlines in the newly released 12th Malaysia Plan which restricts the sales of bumiputera shares and companies only to bumiputera.
  • Economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram opined that limiting bumiputera share transactions only to bumiputera as mentioned in Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s speech could be a double-edged sword as they would lower the share value.
  • “Currently, nominee shares take up to 12.3%. The country was promised long ago that the beneficiaries behind these nominees would be published. Instead, their share of presumably Malaysian share ownership has gone up. The public wants to know why they don’t want to identify themselves, and the government should also want to know,” he said.
  • Jomo also said bumiputera constitutes about 40% of known Malaysian shareholder ownership. This is more than the 30% envisaged under the New Economic Policy (NEP) which supposedly ended in 1990.
  • Meanwhile, Sunway University professor of economics Yeah Kim Leng said the measure will be challenging for stocks as such restrictions limit the market base to broaden its breadth of investors and deepen liquidity in terms of active trading.
  • The development expenditure for the 12th Malaysia Plan will cost MYR400bn – up 61% from the previous 11th plan.
  • Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said to fund this plan, the government will have to pare down debt and tax more.
  • “To ensure that there is sufficient fiscal space to fund all the development programmes under the 12MP, the government remains committed to fiscal consolidation measures based on the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework. Although this will increase Malaysia’s deficit target, which is estimated to increase by 6.5% – 7% of GDP in 2021, the government remains committed to fiscal consolidation measures in the medium term,” he said.

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28-Sep-2021