MAY 25 — I refer to the report ”What’s behind the controversy of MAHB’s Khazanah-EPF takeover, and what does Israel have to do with it?”
According to the report: “If the deal goes through, the consortium — dubbed as the Gateway Development Alliance Sdn Bhd (GDA) — will own up to 67.1 per cent of MAHB’s shares, with Khazanah and EPF holding a 40 per cent and 30 per cent stake in the consortium respectively.”
The remaining 30 per cent will be held by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) through a joint venture (JV) company called GIP Aurea Pte Ltd, a joint venture.
Financial newspaper The Edge reported that GIP will effectively hold a 25 per cent stake in MAHB should the takeover take place, since it owns up to 80 per cent of the JV. Adia will only have a 5 per cent effective stake.
Who are the parties to GDA?
Khazanah is the country’s sovereign wealth fund and owned by the Minister of Finance (Incorporated). Khazanah invests across all levels of the Malaysian economy — from listed Malaysian companies to emerging sectors, as well as internationally across markets, asset classes, sectors and geographies.
The EPF describes itself as the one of the world’s oldest provident funds. Established in 1951, the EPF helps “the Malaysian workforce to save for their retirement in accordance with the Employees Provident Fund Act 1991”.
EPF calls the country’s workforce that contribute to the provident fund members — rightly.
New York-headquartered GIP is a leading infrastructure investor that specialises in investing in owning and operating some of the largest and most complex assets across the energy, transport, digital infrastructure as well as the water and waste management sectors.
On January 12, 2024, GIP and BlackRock jointly announced that they had entered into an agreement for BlackRock to acquire GIP for a total consideration of US$3 billion of cash and approximately 12 million shares of BlackRock common stock.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024 subject to customary regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
BlackRock is one of the world’s leading providers of investment, advisory and risk management solutions.
BlackRock’s involvement in greasing the Israeli war machine is well documented. Its headquarters in New York has been the scene of protests by pro-Palestinian groups accusing the company of profiting from genocide.
The company has also been targeted in the ongoing protests at US universities, where students are demanding their universities to divest from Israel — that is, withdraw funds their endowments have invested in companies that are linked to Israel.
Among the companies in which BlackRock has invested is Lockheed Martin, in which it holds a 7.4 per cent stake.
Lockheed Martin is a US-based defence contractor with multibillion dollar investments in the Israeli arms and aerospace industry. The company recently hit the headlines in Malaysia after former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad urged the government to oust two companies — Lockheed Martin and BAE System — that supply arms to Israel from the Defence Services Asia (DSA) and National Security (NatSec) Asia 2024 at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Mitec).
Now, Malaysians who are members of the EPF have every right to call on the fund’s managers to be aware of their humanitarian obligations to end all possible complicity with genocide, and therefore to immediately cease all links with BlackRock.
The call extends to Khazanah, Minister of Finance aka PMX, and Madani Government.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
