Government's investment arm Khazanah Nasional hopes to conclude the divestment of a 32.2 percent stake in Pos Malaysia Bhd within this year.

Managing director Azman Mokhtar said the company was seeing keen bidders but would not confirm or deny, that DRB-Hicom Bhd and Tune Group were among them.

"Depending on the consultation time with the government, the second stage would take between three to six months to finalise the deal," he told a press conference on the sidelines of Invest Malaysia 2010 here today.

Asked if the deal could be concluded within this year, he said:"We hope."

He also said qualifying bids should be majority controlled by Malaysian parties, with an appropriate consideration and due merit given to the quality of strategic and technical partners, which may include foreign parties.

It was reported that the 32 percent Pos Malaysia stake is worth about RM390 million.

Pos Malaysia’s other government-linked shareholders are the Employees Provident Fund (8.64 percent), Permodalan Nasional Bhd (6.05 percent) and Valuecap (1.51 percent), as at the end of 2008.

- Bernama