KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 3) : Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana) which is undergoing a corporate restructuring exercise, is eyeing for a listing status for its rail businesses post completion of the My Rapid Transit (MRT) system, with the earliest being in 2018.

Its group managing director Datuk Shahril Mokhtar said that to get its house in order for the listing some five years down the road, Prasarana had restructured its businesses into four different subsidiaries to allow greater freedom for each businesses in charting and executing its own growth plan.

Speaking at a briefing on Thursday, Shahril said the four companies were Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd, Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd, Prasarana Integrated Management and Engineering Services Sdn Bhd (PRIME) and Prasarana Integrated Development Sdn Bhd (PRIDE).

Its rail transport business which include the RapidKL LRT Kelana Jaya and Ampang Lines, as well as the RapidKL Monorail services will be parked under Rapid Rail, while the RapidKL, Rapid Penang and Rapid Kuantan bus services will be put under Rapid Bus.

Shahril explained that the need to separate both the rail and bus transport services under two entities was because the bus service is currently making losses, while the rail business was profitable.

"Effective January 1, Prasarana will become an investment holding company. The rail business on its own is making money, but bus is not making money at all.

"Each bus costs about RM650,000 and the fare is currently too low, and the pricing is too sensitive. So we need to create two different panels so that the government can see how we behave and operate," said Shahril.

Prasarana has 1,431 buses for RapidKL bus services, but only about 850 units were in operation due to the lack of bus drivers, said Shahril. Rapid Penang has 350 buses, while Rapid Kuantan has 32 buses.

He said RapidKL's rail businesses was making about RM50 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), on the back of RM240 million of revenue as at financial year 2011.

On the other hand, while the bus services made about RM180 million in revenue, its operating costs exceeded RM280 million as at 2011, said Shahril.

The restructuring was part of the Prasarana's five-year long term plan as underlined under its Go Forward Plan 2.0 (GFP 2.0) blueprint.

Besides the rail and bus transport businesses, Prasarana also formed PRIME and PRIDE, which will undertake the group's engineering consultation and property development businesses respectively.

Prasarana wants to utilise the existing and future railway lands to develop commercial properties to enhance and optimise the value of the lands, as well as creating another income stream to the group.

It is widely known that the business of public infrastructure was hardly a money-making venture, claimed Shahril. However, at the same time, Prasarana does not want to be dependent on the government forever to fund its operation, he said.

To date, Prasarana funded its operation via issuing bonds and sukuk. The group's outstanding debts stand at about RM10 billion currently, with about RM400 million of interests to be serviced annually.

To this end, Prasarana has awarded the contract to redevelop the Dang Wangi LRT station into a RM1.04 billion mixed commercial development with Crest Builder and Detik Utuh Sdn Bhd (Crest Builder-Detik Utuh JV).

For that project, Prasarana is expected to pocket RM220 million as the group owns 21.1% share of its GDV.

Prasarana has also awarded the contract to develop the Ara Damansara LRT stations into a mixed commercial development with a GDV of RM687.6 million to Trans Resources Corp Sdn Bhd.

Another joint venture for property development project will also be announced sometime next month, said Shahril. The project, which is located in Brickfields, will have a GDV of approximately RM1.2 billion, he said.

"We are also talking very closely with the government to build affordable housing under the Projek Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) at some of our existing and future stations," added Shahril.

On its engineering consultation business under PRIME, Shahril said Prasarana has received invitations to participate in the development of rail transport services in several Middle Eastern and African countries including Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria.

He said Prasarana is in the final stage of talking with a major rail operator in Europe to bid for some rail network jobs in Saudi Arabia.

"Currently, our non-fare box revenue stand at about 8% of our total revenue, while fare revenue made up the other 92%. We hope by the end of 2017, we can increase the share of non-fare box revenue to 20% of our total revenue," said Shahril.

To fund for the LRT extension project, Prasarana is looking to tap the capital market by issuing RM6 billion of debts. Currently, said Shahril, the group is looking at the mixture of conventional bonds and sukuk for the debt program.

RM3 billion will be issued by February and the balance RM3 billion will be issued in the third quarter this year, he said.