KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 7): UEM Group, the wholly owned infrastructure arm of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, has not given an interview to the press in more than a decade. Current managing director Datuk Amran Hafiz Affifudin who had been on the top job at UEM Group for 119 days at the time of the interview, explains that the long silence does not indicate inactivity at the diversified group, as there was also a change in direction at the company, brought about by the need for Khazanah to pursue green infrastructure ventures in a big way, and for the sovereign wealth fund to strengthen local investments, among other considerations.
UEM Group has under its belt such huge companies as highway concessionaire PLUS Malaysia Bhd in which it has 51% equity interest, cement manufacturer Cement Industries of Malaysia Bhd (CIMA), construction outfit UEM Builders Bhd, developer UEM Sunrise Bhd, and healthcare and hospital concessionaire UEM Edgenta Bhd, among others.
Amran Hafiz is candid and talks about the misconceptions regarding the PLUS concession being lucrative, about how UEM Group had in 2014 decided to wind down its operations in UEM Builders, and how he hopes that UEM Group and UEM Sunrise will monetise their 8,000 acres (3,237.49 hectares) of land bank in Johor. He interestingly declines to comment on talk that UEM Edgenta may be privatised, and does not discount the possibility of UEM Group selling a strategic stake in CIMA, but will retain control of the cement manufacturer which has, lately, been doing well.
In a nutshell, Amran Hafiz’s mandate is to improve valuations and returns, and grow UEM Lestra Bhd, which is in green industries from renewable energy, waste management to green infrastructure, and to double UEM Group’s net asset value, triple its revenue streams in five years, and have an average return on equity of more than 5%.
“It's not an easy job, but all of us didn’t sign on to do an easy job. That's the challenge,” he quips.
Read more in the Dec 9 issue of The Edge Malaysia weekly.
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