I would like to share my views on the much talked about Synergy Drive merger involving Sime Darby, Golden Hope Plantations and Kumpulan Guthrie.
Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, the ex-chairman of PNB and chief executive of Guthrie and Dato' Dominic Puthucheary, Gerakan's MP have been very vocal in opposing this merger. While I admittedly agree with some of the views voiced by Dato' Dominic and Tan Sri Khalid via the media, I am saddened by their overall opinion.
The negative views of these two gentlemen and by many other Malaysians on this mega-merger has led me to believe that we are a frightened society - frightened to do new things and frightened of globalisation.
If we were to stay this way, how are we going to face the era of globalisation that is already knocking on our doors? I believe this 'village mentality' of ours is also the cause of our arch- nemesis, Singapore, being more successful than we are.
As a lecturer who is also a unit trust holder of PNB and a shareholder of Guthrie, I believe that the merger makes sense at some level for at the end of the day, it would make some eight million PNB unit trust holders and several million shareholders of Guthrie, Sime Darby and Golden Hope richer.
How? PNB would reap better returns from its investments which would result in us unit holders receiving better dividends. One can already see PNB's investments and that of shareholders in these three companies increase three fold just from the rush of investors buying into them. In fact, it was said that PNB's 45 percent holding has already ballooned to RM17.55 billion from RM13.95 billion, a gain of RM3.6 billion in less than two months.
Some have also commented that the merger would result in assets of the Malays being taken away. My response to that is 'how so?' since PNB and EPF would still be the major stakeholders of the company and we know for a fact that PNB and EPF enable Malay equity ownership directly and indirectly.
It is just so sad that we are faced with a group of cynics who can't even support or give a chance to a proposal that will put Malaysia on the world map and a force to be reckoned with in the global plantation industry.
Don't you find it funny that we are one of the biggest producers of palm oil for the last 30 odd years but we have never achieved global dominance? Do you want to see the 'failing' of Malaysian initiatives just like the MSC project where we started the initiative but we are now trailing behind India, Singapore and South Korea?
This will happen with our palm oil industry if we don't take steps to move from being a regional to an international player and to modernise the industry. We can only do this with size.
While I may support the deal, I agree that a good and capable leader must be picked and that all synergies promised must be realised. It's a long way to go for us in realising this merger, but I ask my fellow Malaysians to open up their eyes and see the possibilities of this in relation to the country.
