Malaysia Wealth Fund Gets $500 Million Offer for Stake in Indonesia Toll Road
Malaysia Wealth Fund Gets $500 Million Offer for Stake in Indonesia Toll Road
(Bloomberg) -- Khazanah Nasional Bhd., Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, received an offer of about $500 million for its stake in an Indonesian toll-road operator, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Indonesia’s Astra Infra teamed up with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in bidding for PT Lintas Marga Sedaya, the concession holder of a 117-kilometer (73-mile) toll road connecting Jakarta to Cirebon in the western part of the Java island, said the person. Khazanah’s board is meeting Friday to discuss the offer and the sovereign wealth fund may or may not accept it, said the person, asking not to be named as the information is private.
Khazanah controls 55% of Lintas Marga through its unit UEM Group Bhd., while Astra Infra owns the remaining 45% of the toll-road operator. The Indonesian company has first right of refusal on UEM’s holding in Lintas Marga, said the people. Astra Infra is wholly owned by car company PT Astra International.
The bidders are seeking to benefit from increasing traffic that’s prompted Indonesia to pledge more than $400 billion in infrastructure spending. Representatives for Khazanah, Lintas Marga, Astra Infra, UEM Group and CPPIB declined to comment.
In 2006, UEM Group was awarded the highway project, called Cikopo-Palimanan and also known as the Cipali toll road, but construction didn’t start until 2013 as the company needed to complete land acquisition and get the required regulatory approvals. The project was finished in 2015 and is the Malaysian group’s first highway concession in Indonesia.
--With assistance from Yudith Ho and Scott Deveau.
To contact the reporters on this story: Elffie Chew in Kuala Lumpur at echew16@bloomberg.net;Fathiya Dahrul in Jakarta at fdahrul@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, Ville Heiskanen
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