Sunday, July 08, 2007

Govt mulls KTMB takeover

Is Scomi still keen? Chan Kong Choy, the Transport Minister, said last night the Government is studying a takeover of KTMB. nDefinitely worth tracking this one. [Govt mulls proposal to takeover KTMB - Chan, Bernama.]

People may put down the railway company but they know it has a HUGE landbank. At the last count, it had some 31,000 acres throughout the country. That's excluding the most coveted property in Singapore: 536 acres of land right in the middle of the island republic. Which is about twice the size of the site of Penang's proposed new city centre!
Not too long ago, Kamaluddin, Abdullah Badawi's son, was said to be eyeing KTMB for his company Scomi. The talk died down after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke of it at a press conference at the height of his spat with the Prime Minister.
Is he still eyeing it?

Screenshots has a posting on Money Trains, which features Scomi prominently.

11 comments:

  1. $90 billion projects
    What say you bro?
    Helping to revive the economy?
    Election in the air

    I guess this is a third of the total mega projects
    The government of Ahmad Badawi
    By the time all rolled out in July
    The can be over $200 billions

    We hear the same echo
    Funded by private investments
    When the going gets tough
    Man we tax payers come to the rescue

    Scomi will want the project
    KTMB sits on billions on land
    In the country and Singapore
    Only a fool will let go this opportunity

    The government of the day
    The Cabinet will mull the decision
    Privately the score will be settled
    In July something will happen

    I sit I watch I read
    The blunders dig into the country
    With full view of the people
    Sweet talk and money trains

    Listen to Najib
    Give Felda settlers money to spruce up houses
    Loans to renovate homes
    This is a failure
    Only the BN doesn’t want to admit

    Mega projects on the roll
    Who will benefit of it all?
    You know, Bro, the gravy trains crawl
    The BN will wait there
    Showing placards election is near!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bro, KTMB has never made profits and will never ever! Whatever they do or who ever comes... It is not just KTMB but it is the same for trains throughout the the world. Really difficult to figure out why? So it's no use eyeing it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:25 pm

    bro,
    scomi must be interested. scomi must want it.
    the question is how to go about getting it without attracting so much attention.

    scomi has got away with a lot, bro.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Reminds me of several lines in Pink Floyd's Money

    Money it's a crime
    Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie
    Money so they say
    Is the root of all evil today
    But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're
    giving none away

    -The Man Who Sold The World-

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah!

    Finally Chan Kong Choy is now back as Minister for Transport and not just Minister of Air Asia Affair.

    What he got to say of TRansmile with former MoT as Chairman/Director?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:27 pm

    Dear A Voice,

    You are spot on! Looks like the former Minister of Air Asia has something up his sleeve! Look at what he said here:

    July 08, 2007 16:48 PM

    EPU In Final Stage Evaluating Kuala Lumpur-Singapore Bullet Train Proposal - Chan

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in the Prime Minister's Department is in the final stage of evaluating the proposed RM8 billion bullet train project between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said.

    "From the technical aspect, we (Transport Ministry) have given our inputs. The EPU is in the last lap of perusing the proposal paper.

    Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the government's investment arm, had completed the social impact study," he said when asked on the progress of the high-speed train project mooted by YTL Group.

    YTL, a public-listed conglomerate, had proposed to develop and finance the project which could cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to merely 90 minutes instead of the current eight hours.

    YTL conducted a feasibility study and had submitted its findings to the government for consideration. If the project receives the government nod, it would be implemented under the Private Financing Initiative.

    Asked on "The Edge Weekly" report that the project was facing stiff opposition from "some quarters" in the government as YTL had sought an annual subsidy to the tune of RM1 billion from the government, Chan said he was not aware of such a request from the company.

    He said the government was studying the project proposal carefully and had not made a decision yet.

    -- BERNAMA

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  7. Anonymous8:54 am

    Last KTM was run by some PTE parties and the Sentul land went to Why Ti Hell who grows money in IPPs.

    KTM is back with govt.

    Now another round of biddings!

    Again KTM will be bailed by the people with the assets stripped.

    Sentul land developer makes money.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9:26 am

    Jeez, u guys r so pathetic!

    Attn: a voice, minister of bulls,

    If u smartalecks think that u can start and run a low-cost airline profitably, then why don't u go ahead and do so, instead of bad-mouthing Tony Fernandes and AirAsia via the Transport Minister?

    Cheap shots are easy, but do u have the guts to start up an airline?

    If u r not prepared to put up, then why bother to vent your vitriol?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:55 am

    Good morning Skilganon,

    What the hell is wrong with you? The Voice is talking about the Minister, not TonyFernandez. This Chan Kong Choy guy has been acting like the Minister in charge of only Air Asia and I agree with the Voice. Whether he has guts or not to form a budget airline is not the issue. If everyone can do what he has guts to do, then we'll have thousands of prime ministers in this country).

    By the way, dear Skilganon, TonyFernandez is a pathetic bloke too. So I suppose TheVoice and this Minister of Bulls have something in common with Fernandez, eh?

    Best Regards

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous6:17 pm

    tune a sing

    Spare me your puerile attempt at humour by taking the moniker which sounds perilously close to a well-known Chinese obscenity. Maybe that is indicative of your mental state.

    In any case, exactly what did the Transport Minister do to be called Minister of AirAsia? You mean that he should also be called Minister of MAS, Minister of KTM or Minister of KLIA?

    At least, Tony F can run an airline profitably. Did MAS manage to do likewise over the past several years?

    Perhaps you and your ilk can't stand to see someone like Tony F become successful. That's just ******* jealousy - the Aussies call it the "tall poppy syndrome".

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous11:18 am

    Yup, yup, yup. I smell elections in the air.
    PAS ANYBODY?
    this is my country,this is my friend,this is my family,this is my vote.....@&%@&^*

    ReplyDelete