Petronas plans group in shipping

Petronas plans group in shipping

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Malaysian national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) has acquired a 29.3 percent stake in Malaysia International Shipping Corp Bhd. (MISC) as part of a plan to create a major shipping group, sources said yesterday.

Petronas bought the stake from the Pension Trust Fund Group, making it the largest shareholder in MISC, the country's biggest shipping company.

The plan entails making MISC a shipping giant and involves Petronas, along with transport operators Konsortium Perkapalan Bhd. and Diperdana Corp. Bhd., AFX-Asia, an AFP-affiliated financial news wire, said quoting industry sources.

"They have to come up with a structure which will make sense as the initial purchase proposal involved more than two billion ringgit (US$740.7 million)," one of the sources said.

The sources also said Konsortium would eventually acquire part of the 29.3 percent stake from Petronas, to be covered possibly through a share swap which would see Petronas eventually holding a stake in either Konsortium or Diperdana.

Konsortium, the second largest shipping and haulage group after MISC, had earlier announced its intention to acquire the 29.3 percent stake. The group is headed by Premier Mahathir Mohamad's son, Mirzan Mahathir.

"At the end of it... Mirzan (Mahathir) is a step closer to getting MISC. But perhaps not in the form that he had initially planned," one of the sources said.

No details were given on the acquisition price but the block of shares is valued at 2.025 billion ringgit based on the closing price of MISC stock at 6. 90 ringgit on the local bourse Friday.

MISC is involved in the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG), liner, dry bulk and tanker shipping activities as well as in the land-based haulage logistics business.

Petronas, on the other hand, is a major user of sea-based transportation services in its shipment of LNG, petroleum and petroleum-based products.