RM106 mil bailout for Maika?

The long wait by some 66,000 shareholders of Maika Holdings Bhd is about to end as a local Indian private sector group has agreed to purchase all of their investments for about RM106 million, according to sources close to the matter.
   
The proposed purchase value of the shares was RM20 million above the total net value of Maika’s assets, which were only worth about RM85 million currently, they told Bernama today.
   
"The very long wait of more than 26 years is finally over for these thousands of people from the Indian community," said one of them.
   
The sources said the government understood that the Maika share problem had been a sore point with the Indian community in the country for many years and it had decided to resolve the prickly issue.
   
It had been reported that many people who invested in Maika shares in 1984 were Indian estate workers who had pawned their family jewellery and withdrawn their life savings to invest.
   
But Maika Holdings, which was established in 1982 to enable Malaysian Indians to participate in the country's economic growth, had not produced good returns, much to the disillusionment of its shareholders.
   
The sources said that the government expected that all parties involved in the Maika share purchase would have the interest of the shareholders at heart and act quickly to resolve all outstanding matters.
   
They also said that the Maika share issue was one of the many significant issues that had been brought up to the attention of the government by the Indian community, non-govermental organisations and leaders.
   
The government, they said, was aware of the many issues and was working towards resolving them through various means, and this included the establishment of a dedicated Cabinet Committee and Special Implementation Taskforce aimed at helping the Indian community in the country.
     
- Bernama