‘Dormant’ firm holds stake in RM7bn expressway

Much has been said about the controversial award of a record 60-year concession for the proposed RM7bn West Coast Expressway. But who actually owns the concessionaire?

The concessionaire for the 316km expressway from Banting to Taiping is West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd. It received an approval letter dated 26 January 2012 from the Public Private Partnership Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department to undertake the highway construction.

Now, we know that West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd is a 64.2 per cent subsidiary of Kumpulan Europlus Bhd. But who owns the remainder of the shares in WCE?

A company search of WCE reveals the following:

Ah, now things get interesting.

We know that Kumpulan Europlus is jointly controlled by Chan Ah Chye and IJM Corp Bhd. Chan is also on the board of the controversial housing developer Talam Corporation Bhd.

But what about the other two shareholders of WCE i.e. Perak Corporation Bhd (2m shares) and Prominent Xtreme Sdn Bhd (8.4m shares)?

According to the 2010 Annual Report of Perak Corporation, its substantial shareholders are Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Perak and Sime Darby Property Berhad.

That leaves us with Prominent Xtreme Sdn Bhd, an oxymoron – for it is hardly an extremely prominent company. In fact, you could say it is extremely obscure. So obscure that a company search reveals that it is ‘dormant’! Its revenue for the year ended 30 June 2010 added up to the princely sum of RM3843 (though it has assets and liabilities each side totalling RM20.8m).

Now who are the shareholders of the obscure Prominent Xtreme, which owns 8.4m shares in West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd? Not surprisingly, they are equally obscure names.

You won’t find much on them if you search their names online. Needless to say, there’s no website or telephone contact details for Prominent Xtreme.

I tried to find out who or what exactly was at Prominent Xtreme’s registered address at Jalan PJU 5/11. My enquiries revealed that only two firms are possibly at that address: a real estate firm and a company secretarial firm.

Another mystery: according to a circular to shareholders dated 6 May 2011, Perak Corporation had entered into a Conditional Share Sale and Purchase Agreement with Prominent Xtreme Sdn Bhd on 22 October 2010 to dispose of its entire equity interest in WCE, comprising 3.31m shares of RM1 each (representing 12 per cent of the issued and paid up share capital of WCE) for RM4m, which was fully paid on 21 March 2011.

But according to the company search of Prominent Xtreme, Perak Corporation still had 2m shares in WCE.

The government should clarify how a ‘dormant’ company can hold a 29 per cent stake in a concessionaire that is supposed to build a RM7bn expressway. Who exactly is behind this extremely obscure Prominent Xtreme?