‘Listing Petronas Carigali makes sense’

KUALA LUMPUR: A potential listing of Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd “makes sense” as it may lead to higher income for Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) exploration arm and bigger dividends for the government, said an economist.

“Even though the government has to share potential dividends with other shareholders, the company would have higher capability to increase its revenue and income after the listing.

“The government will potentially get higher dividends than what it normally receives,” said Putra Business School business development manager Associate Professor Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff.

He said through a listing, Petronas Carigali could get additional funding.

This would enable the company to take advantage of available opportunities in the market, he said.

“Petronas Carigali is among the most-performing public companies and has yet to be listed... so there is lower risk of it not attracting investors. In my opinion, it (the listing) would make sense,” said Razman.

It was reported yesterday that Malaysia might list a Petronas subsidiary on Bursa Malaysia to attract more investors to the local stock market.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said listing Petronas Carigali, the upstream unit of Petronas, was a possibility but there were also other candidates.

At a dialogue with fund managers at JP Morgan’s headquarters in New York on Thursday, he was told that many investors believed listing Petronas or Petronas Carigali would give a boost to the Malaysian bourse.