EPF partners with Taliworks for first venture in waste management
Joint press conference with the management of Taliworks Corporation Bhd and Employees Provident Fund Board (EPF) pertaining to TWKs recent joint venture with EPF.
PETALING JAYA: Taliworks Corporation is expecting to acquire Silk Holdings Bhd’s Kajang Silk Highway within the few months’ time.
Both parties are undergoing the negotiation process and finalising some specific terms, according to Taliworks chief investment officer Kevin Chin Soong Jin.
Among factors of consideration is the toll hike last October, which has resulted in a drop of traffic volume.
Chin noted that they expect to close the deal in the next few months.
Meanwhile, EPF chief executive officer Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan has also said EPF has been looking to invest in infrastructure and assets, and did not discount the possibility of considering the acquisition of Duke Highway.
Taliworks and EPF have announced their third partnership in a joint press conference between Taliworks and EPF on Tuesday, May 11.
Both acquired a 35% equity interest each in SWM Environment Holdings Sdn Bhd (SWMH). This also marks EPF’s first venture in waste management industry.
“For a fund that focuses on generating real rate of returns, this partnership is ideal as it is in line with our diversification programme and is able to provide the stability and predictability of income,” said EPF deputy chief executive officer (Investment) Datuk Mohamad Nasir Ab Latif.
Earlier in Taliworks’s AGM and EGM, the shareholders have approved the proposed acquisition of SWMH’s 35% equity interest at a price of RM245mil, as well as the proposed disposal of Taliworks’s disposal of its entire China waste and wastewater management businesses for a total sale consideration of USD54.6 million (RM230mil as of Feb 26).
Taliworks and EPF’s previous joint ventures included the acquisition of Grand Saga Sdn Bhd (the concession holder of the Cheras-Kajang Highway) and Grand Sepadu Sdn Bhd (the concession holder of the New North Klang Straits Bypass Expressway).
“I believe that this valuable partnership with EPF will continue to drive the momentum of the merger and acquisition business expansion model of Taliworks, where jointly, we will continue to target strategic assets that will generate immediate cashflow and earnings accretion to both entities which will ultimately support Taliworks’s dividend policy, ”said Taliworks executive director Datuk Lim Yew Boon.
