The Editor
The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd
G501-G801, Level 5-8, Block G, Phileo Damansara 1
46350 Petaling Jaya Selangor
22 February 2007
Dear Sir,
Re: Past the tipping point I refer to the above article by Rais Hussin which in his column, My Bit, published by The Edge Malaysia, 12 February – 18 February 2007.
We at Khazanah Nasional Berhad note the concerns voiced by Mr Rais in the article regarding the well being of Time dotCom Berhad, one of our investee companies.
Nevertheless, we would like to point out 2 fundamental errors contained in the article.
1. Mr Rais wrote that “it is Telekom Malaysia’s turn to convince the public that the Time purchase was not a desperate Khazanah Nasional attempt to rid itself of a migraine…”
This statement is grossly misleading and factually wrong as Telekom Malaysia, also one of our investee companies, has never bought into Time dotCom. The speculative newspaper reports on the purchase was conclusively denied by Telekom Malaysia on 4th December 2006.
2. The writer mentioned and insinuated that he and his team have submitted a report to Khazanah on Time dotCom in March 2006 at Khazanah’s formal request.
We would like to stress that while one of Khazanah’s investment team did meet up with Mr Rais and his team on 20th April 2005, it was held in response to their proposal. Never at any point did Khazanah management formally solicit for Mr Rais to prepare a report on Time dotCom.
Nevertheless, as per our internal process that endeavours to see that proposals be given due consideration, our team did a proper evaluation of the proposal and concluded that it did not meet our objectives for Time dotCom. We would like to state on record that an integral part of the proposal by Mr Rais was conditional upon the appointment of his team as a new management team of Time dotCom.
We would again like to reiterate that we value suggestions by your esteemed columnists, but we do hope that these are made with the best of intentions for the well being of the nation as a whole.
Regards
Ahmad Shahizam Shariff
Senior Vice President
Managing Director’s Office
Khazanah Nasional Berhad