Zaid Fumes At Pmx For Playing The Bumiputera Race Card In Sapura Energy S Lifeline Extension

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AS Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pledged “additional due diligence” in his Madani administration’s RM1.1 bil injection into cash-strapped Sapura Energy Bhd, former de-facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has berated the former against “using Bumiputra” to justify the so-called “strategic investment”
At the monthly gathering of treasury staff this morning (March 13), PMX who is also the Finance Minister has reiterated that such capital injection is vital to rescue some 2,000 oil & gas (O&G) SMEs – many of whom are Bumiputera entities – by means of solely repaving them while existing shareholders or financial creditors are exempted.
“Stop using Bumiputras as a tool. Stop being racist. Being stupid is bad enough,” he penned on his X account.

“Whenever Bumiputera leaders seek to justify a stupid decision, they always use Bumiputera as the reason for it. It’s ridiculous.”
A UMNO member with an opposition-slant, Zaid further cornered Anwar if he would have refrained from injecting capital into the debt-laden global integrated O&G services and solutions outfit supposedly majority of the vendors were Chinese.
“Do you mean PMX will not invest in Sapura if the vendors are Chinese? So, does it become strategic only if Bumiputera entities are involved?” he chastised.
“Why were the Bumiputera vendors not paid in the first place? Because of other Bumiputera in the company looking after their interest. This bul*shit must stop.”
Yesterday (May 12), Madani administration spokesman Datuk Fahmi Fadzil has clarified that the government does not view the investment in the form of redeemable convertible loan stocks (RCLS) as a bailout as it was made with specific conditions.
Not only that but the Communications Minister went a step further to draw comparison between the Madani-styled “strategic investment” from bailout exercises executed during the “Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era”.

“Among the conditions is for this fund to be used to pay off arrears and money owed by Sapura Energy to over 2,000 vendors, 80% of whom are Bumiputera,” he justified at a media conference in his Putrajaya office yesterday (March 12).
“The government – as a general rule – will look into it case by case but we will practice the principle of ‘there is no free lunch’. This is not free money.”
Meanwhile, Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) which is Sapura Energy’s largest shareholder (44.13% stake) deemed that facilitating the completion one of the largest corporate and debt restructuring in Malaysia is critical to prevent Sapura Energy’s liquidation which would result in the fire sale of strategic national oil and gas assets – both domestically and globally.
The government-linked investment company (GLIC) further justified that the corporate exercise is similar to what other countries have undertaken to facilitate the restructuring of their critical industry players like Singapore’s Sembcorp and South Korea’s investment in Daewoo Shipbuilding.
At the close of today’s (March 13) trading, Sapura Energy which ended as the day’s most actively traded stock for two days running, was up 0.5 sen or 12.5% to 4.5 sen with 174.04 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM827 mil. – Focus Malaysia

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