Malaysians have been up in arms since the government announced that the toll rate for North South Expressway (NSE) will be increased by 10 percent beginning Jan 1, 2005. The decision has also revived interest in the Plus Expressway Bhd, the operator of the highway.

Who are Plus Expressway Bhd main shareholders?

They are United Engineers (Malaysia) Bhd (UEM) (46.16%), Khazanah Nasional Bhd (20.89%), Employees Provident Fund (9.72%) and Social Securities Organisation (5.22%).

How did Plus Expressway come about?

Three expressway concessionaires - Projek Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan Berhad (Plus), Elite and LinkKedua - were placed under Plus Expressway by key owner UEM in 2002 with the aim of integrating the operation of expressways. Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd was included recently.

The move by UEM has connected a 966.5km-long network of expressways that link all major cities on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Which highways are under Plus Expressway?

The North-South Expressway (NSE) was assigned to Plus under the Novation Agreement signed between the government and UEM on July 20, 1988.

Today, Plus holds the concessions to operate and maintain NSE, the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) and the Federal Highway Route 2 (FHR2) that total up to 847.7 km.

Meanwhile, the North-South Expressway Central Link, or Elite, started operations in December 1998. This expressway enables users to bypass Kuala Lumpur from Nilai and head towards the NKVE. The expressway stretches for approximately 48km.

The Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd (PBSB) is a concessionaire for the Penang Bridge for 25 years from 1993 to 2018. PBSB is responsible for the operations, maintenance, tolling and improvement works on the bridge.

Linkedua was assigned as the concession company to design, construct, operate and maintain the Second Link. The Second Link is the second Causeway that links Peninsular Malaysia with Singapore. It was first opened to traffic on Jan 2,1998.

What happened to UEM?

UEM was incorporated on March 10, 1966 to take over the local operations of United Engineers (S'pore) Limited. UEM was converted into a public company in 1975. In 1985, it was restructured for the implementation of the North South Expressway project.

In October 2001, UEM was privatised. It was taken off the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (now Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd) via a voluntary offer by Syarikat Danasaham Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

Who are Plus Expressway board of directors?

Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim owns 50,000 shares on top of 2,000,000 in UEM World Bhd. He is also the managing director of Khazanah Nasional Bhd. Other eight shareholders hold 40,000 shares each.

How much did Plus Expressway make in 2003?

In 2003, Plus Expressways Bhd received RM1.44 billion in toll collection, which is a 4.9% increase from 2002's RM1.38 billion.

What arrangements does the government could make to compensate Plus for not implementing a new toll rate?

On July 1999, it has come to an agreement on the extension of the concession period by 12 years - from 2018 to 2030 - as stated in Supplemental Concession Agreement (SCA).

The toll rate was later revised from 5 sen per kilometre to 12.36 sen per kilometre in 2002. This is to be further revised to 13.6 sen per kilometre to be implemented in January 2005.

Based on this agreement, the government is entitled in respect of the concession years between 2002 and 2008, 20 percent of the actual toll if Plus revenue exceeds the threshold toll revenue as specified in SCA.

However, full details of the agreement have not been made public.