Malaysian conglomerate Synergy Drive Tuesday said it is confident of winning a multi-million dollar undersea power cable project linking the controversial Bakun dam to the peninsula.

It comes just three days after the government gave Synergy Drive permission to acquire 60 percent of Sarawak Hidro, the operator of the Bakun hydro-electric dam in eastern Sarawak state on Borneo island.

"We have expressed our intention on that. So far we have not gotten a reply yet (but) I hope pretty soon," Ahmad Zubir Murshid, Synergy Drive chief executive officer, told reporters during a palm oil conference.

Synergy Drive is the just-completed merged vehicle of three government-linked plantation groups, Sime Darby, Kumpulan Guthrie and Golden Hope Plantations in an 11 billion dollar deal.

It will be the world's largest listed palm oil firm when it lists at the end of this month.

He also said the company had yet to begin talks with the government to buy the stake held by Sarawak Hidro, set up by the finance ministry to take over the Bakun dam project after it was temporarily shelved in 1997.

"We have not discussed with the government yet, we have received the letter of intention and definitely we will sit down and negotiate with the government on the Bakun project," he said.

Sime Darby, is leading a consortium in the construction of the six billion ringgit (1.8 billion dollars) Bakun dam project. The 2,400 megawatt dam is expected to be completed in 2010.

The dam, which involves flooding an area the size of Singapore, has attracted fierce criticism because of its harmful impact on the environment.

Environmentalists have also said the 700-kilometre (435 miles) undersea cable would be unsafe because it lies across an earthquake-prone region.