No clear route ahead.

TAKING over PLUS and other concessionaires by the Government is a popular rallying call. But such a drastic move needs to be tempered with consideration for the health of the stock market, the investment climate and the rights of investors, big and small.

PROJEK LEBUHRAYA UTARA SELATAN EXPRESSWAYS BHD (PLUS) is just one of three companies whose stock market future is tied to a resolution of the highway privatisation and toll issue. The other is IJM, which merged with Road Builder (M) Holdings in 2007. It operates the Sungai Besi Highway and the New Pantai Expressway. A third - Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd, controlled by Gamuda Bhd - is the concession-holder of the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP).

As a listed entity, PLUS is a blue-chip government-linked company (GLC) that is on the radar screen of foreign funds. At the same time, it has minority shareholders whose interests are very much within the

purview of the Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG).

MSWG chief executive Rita Benoy Bushon says moves to take PLUS or other listed …