PETALING JAYA: The water industry restructuring in Selangor is facing another deadlock as only Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Bhd has responded positively to the state government's offer which lapsed yesterday regarding the acquisition of Konsortium Abbas Sdn Bhd.

Last Friday, state-controlled Kumpulan Perangsang, which owns about 55% of Konsortium Abbas, announced that it had accepted the Selangor government's offer to acquire all the equity in Konsortium Abass for RM9.39 per share.

The acceptance is on condition, among others, that all liabilities owing to holders of the fixed-rate serial bonds of RM738mil are fully assumed or settled by the Selangor government.

According to ECM Libra, this is the only good news that have come out on the latest attempt at consolidating Selangor's fragmented water industry.

“Last Friday, shareholders of Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash) announced that the company was unable to accept the offer to acquire 100% equity in Splash valued at RM5.95 per share.

“Meanwhile, Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd had, on Jan 26, announced that Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd (PNSB) and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) are unable to table any proposal to shareholders until a clear and unambiguous offer is received,” the brokerage said in a report yesterday.

A Selangor government official told StarBiz that the state was always open to discussion on extending the deadine for the latest offer.

In a filing with Bursa yesterday, Puncak Niaga Holdings said it believed the conditional offers made by the Selangor government to acquire Puncak Niaga and Syabas “have lapsed” due to the rejection from Splash.

It said the conditional offer for PNSB and Syabas was, inter alia, conditional upon the Selangor government having, by virtue of acceptance of the concurrent offers, acquired or unconditionally contracted to acquire no less than 100% of the voting shares in Splash and Konsortium Abass and no less than 100% of the Konsortium Abbas' redeemable cumulative preference shares.

“Following the decision made by Splash on Jan 28, the company is of the opinion that the conditional offers are therefore deemed to have lapsed, with no further action to be taken by PNSB and Syabas respectively,” it said.