This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 22, 2025 - September 28, 2025
BUSINESSMAN Tan Sri Azmil Khalili Khalid is understood to have been selected as the preferred candidate to acquire the highway assets of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), sources familiar with the matter tell The Edge.
It is understood that Azmil and his team are performing due diligence on the highway assets and negotiating with PNB. If all goes well, he would have pipped IJM Corp Bhd (KL:IJM), the only other bidder, for PNB’s highways.
Azmil could not be reached for comment.
PNB’s highway assets are held under Projek Lintasan Kota Holdings Sdn Bhd (Prolintas). Prolintas owns the concessionaires for the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (SUKE) as well as the Damansara-Shah Alam Highway (DASH) and has a 51% stake in Prolintas Infra Business Trust (KL:PLINTAS), the highway asset trust listed on Bursa Malaysia. Prolintas Infra BT holds the concessions for four urban highways — the Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (AKLEH), the Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE), the Kajang Dispersal Link Expressway (Kajang SILK) and Lebuhraya Kemuning Shah Alam (LKSA).
“Azmil is the only one who seems to have made progress with PNB. I believe he is going through their books … but then again, there are still some quarters who wonder if PNB will indeed divest its highway assets,” says a source.
The scepticism about whether the sale will materialise stems from PNB having floated Prolintas Infra BT via an initial public offering only 18 months ago, in March 2024, raising the question as to why it went through the tedious process of floating its units at 95 sen apiece and raising RM445.3 million from selling a 49% stake.
A source close to Azmil says there are a couple of banks that have expressed interest in funding the acquisition, which should stand him in good stead to acquire the PNB highways. The price tag for the acquisition is still not known.
SUKE, which is a 24.4km three-lane, dual-carriageway running from Sri Petaling to Ulu Kelang, cost RM5.7 billion to construct and commenced toll collection in October 2022. Its concession is for 55 years, from Dec 25, 2014, to Dec 24, 2069.
DASH, which also has a 55-year concession from Dec 25, 2014, to Dec 24, 2069, starts in Puncak Perdana and ends at the Penchala Interchange. It is 20.1km long, features 13 interchanges and cost RM4.2 billion to construct. It only started collecting toll in December 2022.
It is noteworthy that the acquisition of Prolintas’ 51% stake will likely trigger a mandatory general offer (MGO) for Prolintas Infra BT. At its closing price of 96 sen per unit last Friday, Prolintas Infra BT had a market capitalisation of just over RM1 billion.
Meanwhile, neither SUKE nor DASH is expected to fetch high valuations, considering the two have just commenced operations.
Checks on the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) website indicate that Prolintas, which holds all of PNB’s highway assets, suffered an after-tax loss of RM714.07 million on revenue of RM547.06 million in its financial year ended Dec 31, 2024 (FY2024). In the past five financial years, the company bled red ink in three of them (FY2024, FY2023 and FY2022).
As at end-December 2024, Prolintas had total assets of RM16.77 billion and total liabilities of RM29.25 billion, while its accumulated losses stood at RM2.02 billion.
Prolintas’ losses were brought about by both Projek Lintasan Sungai Besi-Ulu-Klang Sdn Bhd, the concessionaire for SUKE, and Projek Lintasan Damansara-Shah Alam Sdn Bhd, the concessionaire for DASH, losing money, which is true of most new highways, especially in the initial years of operation.
In its financial year ended Dec 31, 2024, Projek Lintasan Sungai Besi-Ulu-Klang suffered an after-tax loss of RM315.6 million on revenue of RM101.54 million. The highway operator had total assets of RM7.86 billion and total liabilities of RM13.76 billion.
Projek Lintasan Damansara-Shah Alam, meanwhile, suffered an after-tax loss of RM213.66 million on revenue of RM78.02 million in its financial year ended Dec 31, 2024. The company had total assets of RM5.35 billion and total liabilities of RM9.4 billion.
Publicly traded Prolintas Infra BT raked in RM11.18 million in net profit on the back of RM159.74 million in revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2025. In the previous corresponding period, the highway concessionaire chalked up a net profit of RM6.12 million from RM155.85 million in revenue.
Azmil is best known as the public face of the MTD group of companies, which has business interests such as highway concessions, property development and precast construction. While his key highway operating company is AFA Prime Bhd, which holds the concession for the KL-Karak Highway and East Coast Expressway Phase 1, the bid for PNB’s highway assets is understood to have been submitted in his name, sans AFA Prime.
Perhaps the writing for PNB’s selection of Azmil as the favourite to acquire its highway assets was already on the wall. At end-August, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said PNB ought to put national and bumiputera interests first when making any decisions regarding the strategic review or disposal of its investments in Prolintas.
He highlighted the fact that PNB was an institution entrusted with safeguarding national and bumiputera interests. “This review process should not proceed if it compromised the long-term benefits of unit holders or negatively impacted PNB’s efforts to contribute to the welfare of the people and national development,” he added.
IJM Corp’s largest shareholder is the Employees Provident Fund, which has 18.38% equity interest in the construction giant. Other notable shareholders are Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP), PNB and Urusharta Jamaah.
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