BANGI, March 11 — Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said today he will meet Energy, Water and Green Technology Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili over his administration’s failed offer to take over three water firms in the state.

“I will make an announcement with the energy, water and green technology minister this evening. It could be in Parliament or Putrajaya,” the Selangor mentri besar told reporters here.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Khalid and Ongkili last month, Selangor made a RM9.65 billion ringgit offer to take over the operations of four water concessionaires — Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Bhd (Syabas), Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Konsortium Abbas Sdn Bhd and Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Holdings Bhd (Splash).

The firms had until March 10 to accept the offer but did not do so.

Syabas and Splash have effectively rejected the renewed offers by the state government, in an announcement made to Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

While Splash rejected the offer outright, Puncak Niaga and its subsidiary, Syabas, said they were willing to “consider” the state’s offer subject to several conditions.

These conditions include a higher return on equity of 15 per cent instead of 12 per cent and the full payment of the disputed compensation for the non-increase in water tariff hikes by the state government.

The two companies have also rejected the due diligence by the state government on Puncak Niaga and Syabas assets and refused to go through international arbitration in the event of disagreements over the appropriate return of equity.

Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd controls two water concessions, which are PNSB, a water treatment plant operator, and Syabas that has the mandate to distribute water in the state, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Gamuda Bhd has a 40 per cent stake in Splash.

Puncak Niaga is the biggest water treatment operator in Selangor by virtue of its 100 per cent ownership of PNSB and its 70 per cent interest in Syabas.

Splash is 40 per cent controlled by Gamuda, 30 per cent by KPS and another 30 per cent by the Sweetwater Alliance Sdn Bhd.

The fourth water treatment concessionaire is Konsortium Abass, which is almost wholly-owned by KPS, which in turn is a 57.9 per cent subsidiary of KDEB.

According to The Star Online, Gamuda said anything less than Splash’s net asset value (NAV) of RM2.54 billion will result in losses on divestment to Gamuda and the company could not justify the acceptance of such a huge loss to its shareholders. The takeover offer for the company is less than 10 per cent of its NAV.

Water supply in Selangor has been a contentious issue since the state fell to Pakatan Rakyat in Election 2008, with the residents experiencing repeated supply outages that the state administration alleged were due to sabotage by the rival Barisan Nasional coalition.