|
|
MAY
12, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 18 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK
|
Illustration
by Manodh Premaratne
|
BUSINESS
BUZZ
The
Nationalist Card Again
Maybe it's time to show a little sympathy toward Singapore Telecom. The
state-controlled telephone company lost out in the bidding for Cable & Wireless
HKT, Hong Kong's dominant telecommunications company, to Richard Li of Pacific
Century CyberWorks who had home-town and possibly Beijing support. Now SingTel's
bid for a stake in Malaysia's Time Telecom has hit a similar snag. "At the
highest echelons of government there is strong opposition to a foreigner
moving in," says a well-placed Kuala Lumpur source. "There is word from
the top that a Malaysian solution would be preferred."
Time and its subsidiary Time dotCom hold government licenses to provide
voice and data services over wireless and fixed lines until 2018, helping
the nearly bankrupt company look more attractive than it might first appear.
SingTel is seeking to improve its regional reach with a 20% stake in Time
dotCom, which would allow it to use Time's fiber-optic network throughout
the peninsula. Talk in Kuala Lumpur of "a nationalist solution" has prompted
Time's many creditors to form a strong lobby under the leadership of Sapura,
a local telephone company that has not been fully paid for the cellular
firm it sold to Time dotCom. Sapura's offer for 40% of Time has not gone
over well, in spite of the fact that it has said it will give the shares
to all the other creditors if the deal goes through. Halim Saad, chief of
the Renong Group, which owns Time, calls the Sapura offer too low and says
it would disastrously reduce the value of important national assets. Besides,
if Time goes to Sapura, Renong would lose control of Time dotCom. When asked
in parliament about the Time sale Deputy Finance Minister Shafie Mohamed
Salleh said that the government would not interfere. But he added that it
would still consider this an "issue of nationalism." Such questions are
always present in Malaysia, but are more pressing now that the General Assembly
sessions of the dominant United Malays National Organization are about to
begin. It is traditionally the time for Malay drums to be beaten - not a
good time for SingTel.
Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com
This
edition's table of contents | Asiaweek.com
Home
Quick
Scroll: More stories from Asiaweek, TIME and CNN
|
|
|
|
ASIAWEEK'S
LATEST |
Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000
| | |