The Sun reporters sacked for exposing Litrak in 1999

I am reproducing this message sent to me today for readers of Colour-blind.

Both Ganesh Sahathevan and Alan Yeoh were sacked after writing several articles concerning Litrak, See Hoy Chan and EPF. Gamuda’s executive director Dato’ Lin Yun Ling happens to be the brother of Dr Lin See Yan, the former deputy Governor of Bank Negara. Tan Sri Ramon has responded to say that he only owns 1,000 shares and he bought the shares after retirement from civil service. We were not sure how much shares were owned by AAB and Napsiah Omar.

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 08:31:35 PDT
From: ganesh sahathevan <g_sahathevan@hotmail.com>
Subject: LDP Highway:A highway to Government indulgence

The owners of the privatised Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong(LDP), Lingkaran
Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (Litrak),have just announced that their revenue
is , and will continue to be higher then expected.

It’s executive director and substantial shareholder,Dato Lin Yun Ling,
has even announced that the company has a surplus of about RM 200 m in
cash.

All this after the Government agreed to pay Litark RM 85 million,at the
height of the recession, in “compensation”, for revenues lost when the
company agreed not to raise toll rates by RM0.50, as provided in the
concession agreement with the Government.

This “compensation” may sound fair, but one must consider the assistance
that the Government has ALREADY provided the company.

First, there was a RM535 million fixed rate loan from the Employees
Provident Fund (EPF), for a term of 13 years which even Lin Yun Ling
described as “uncommon”; EPF normally lends for only 5-8 years.

Then,there was a RM98 million loan at concessional rates.  The rates
have yet to be disclosed by the Finance Ministry.

On top of all this there is also a RM 100 million grant to pay for land
acquisition.

Some analysts say that the RM 85 million the Government has given Litrak
is actually in excess of the revenue that the company might have lost by
it’s own estimates.

The main beneficiary of the Government’s kindness has been Lin Yun Ling,
whose Gamuda Bhd,constructed the LDP in a joint venture with Yusof Daud,
for a cost of RM 600 million, or RM 40 million per km. In comparison,the
NKVE only cost RM 10 million per km.Lin and Raja Elena of Perak are
Gamuda’s two largest shareholders.

What are the reasons for such special treatment?  Perhaps the answer
lies in Litrak’s shareholders.

The largest shareholder is now Gamuda, a company linked with Perak
royalty and a number of ex-civil servants.

Ministers Napsiah Omar, and Dollah Badawi are also shareholders as is
former secretary general of the Treasury , Ramon Navaratnam.  Then there
is also Institut Kefahaman Islam (IKIM), various state bodies, and even
Rating Agency Malaysia.

Most mysterious of all shareholders is Litrak executive director, Haji
Yussof Daud, who controlled , before listing, 51% of the company, via a
company with a paid-up capital of only RM 100,000.He now controls about
30%.

A more mysterious shareholder is one who controls 600,000 shares via a
dormant, RM 2 company, whose directors are Gamuda finance managers.
They in turn, report to Gamuda and Litrak director Saw Wah Theng.  Saw
is an alternate director to Lin on the Litrak board.