DUBAI: Advisers working on Saudi Aramco’s mammoth share sale may split a fee pool of as much as US$450 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter, making it one of the biggest IPO payouts globally.

The oil giant is set to pay between US$350 million and US$450 million to a group of more than 20 banks working on its initial public offering, the people said, asking not to be identified. The payment would represent a fee of about 1% on the US$40 billion Aramco is seeking to raise – relatively low compared to other markets.

JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley are expected to be paid the most, the people said. The final amount paid to banks will depend on how much Aramco raises, they said. A representative for Aramco declined to comment.

Investment bankers from around the world have been pitching for years to win a coveted role on Aramco’s IPO. Many firms have been investing heavily into the kingdom on expectations of a fee bonanza as the country diversifies away from oil. Many have been left disappointed though as deals have been delayed or failed to materialise.

Falling short of Softbank’s record

Even though Aramco’s would be one of the biggest fee pools for investment banks, it would still fall short of the US$535 million Softbank Group Corp paid when it raised US$21 billion by selling shares in its Japanese telecommunications business last year.

Still, perhaps bankers shouldn’t complain too much. When Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank raised US$6 billion in its 2014 IPO, advisers including HSBC and Gulf International Bank were paid just 0.1% of the offering value.

Aramco’s board is planning to meet with its advisers on the IPO around Oct. 17 to give final approval for the share sale, according to other people familiar with the matter. Aramco is speeding up preparations for the IPO with an aim of listing on the Saudi bourse as soon as November, Bloomberg News has reported.

The draw of working on what’s set to be the world’s biggest IPO – even for relatively low compensation – has attracted some of the top Wall Street names. Aramco appointed nine global co-coordinators, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG. There are also 15 book runners and three financial advisers.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd paid US$300 million to banks when it raised US$25 billion in the biggest IPO to date.

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 16 ― The government is awaiting the findings of the special task force announced in June to investigate the enforced disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and activist Amri Che Mat, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Responding to requests for updates on the probe, the home minister said only that the task force was still investigating.

“Currently we have not received any reports on the case, so we wait for the task force (to conclude their investigations),” he said after officiating the National Registration Day at the National Registration Department here.

Muhyiddin said the task force was previously given six months to complete their probe on the report by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) on the latter’s inquiry into Amri’s case.

There are seven members in the taskforce, including the chairman, former High Court Judge Datuk Abd Rahim Uda.

The others in the taskforce are Bukit Aman Integrity and Standard Compliance department director Datuk Zamri Yahya; Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission operations division director Datuk Muhammad Bukhari Ab Hamid; Attorney General’s Chamber’s prosecution division legal officer Mohd Sophian Zakaria; Home Ministry’s Police Commission’s division secretary Mohd Russaini Idrus; Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s inspection and consultancy division assistant commissioner Azian Umar and independent lawyer Datuk Roger Tan Kor Mee.

Amri, 44, a co-founder of Perlis Hope Welfare Association, disappeared on November 24, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 ― Putrajaya will not include amendments in the Employment Act 1955 as a means to protect job seekers from discrimination, a deputy minister said today.

In his reply to Permatang Pauh MP (PH) Nurul Izzah Anwar during Question Time, Deputy Human Resource Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar said this includes pregnant women and that the law under the Employment Act only comes into play after the hiring process.

“The coverage of Act 265 only arises when the relationship between a job and employer begins. The ministry is currently reviewing employment laws specifically those related to discrimination in the workplace which will be included in the proposed amendments to the Employment Act.

“The proposals include the definition of discrimination based on gender, religion, race, disability, marital status, pregnancy and language and discrimination involving the terms and conditions in an employment contract,” he said.

“But for now, the ministry has no plans to include protection for job seekers in the amendments of the Employment Act,” Mahfuz told the Lower House, despite plans to extend maternity leave from then current 60 days to 90 days from 2021 in Budget 2020.

However, the deputy minister said that the ministry welcomes any complaints to be lodged so that the government can take action against the employers ― including stepping in for negotiations and advising the employers against such practices.

“If there are any complaints to the ministry, we will conduct negotiations and give advice to employers, so that they will not do such unreasonable things,” he said.

LOS ANGELES: Basketball player LeBron James waded into the dispute between the NBA and China yesterday, saying he believes Daryl Morey went too far when he tried to exercise his right to free speech.

The Los Angeles Lakers star criticised the Houston Rockets GM, saying he was “misinformed” and needed to be educated after Morey tweeted his support for the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

“I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey. But I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke,” James said before the Lakers exhibition contest against the Golden State Warriors.

“So many people could have been harmed not only financially but physically, emotionally and spiritually, so just be careful with what we tweet, and we say, and we do.

“Yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that too.”

James’s Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets were thrust into the controversy when the clubs arrived in China last week to play two exhibition games on Oct 10 and Oct 12 amidst turmoil after Morey tweeted, “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

Morey’s tweet was in support of the protesters fighting a move by China that would allow extraditions from Hong Kong to mainland China.

Human rights has long been an issue in China well before the former British colony returned to mainland control in 1997.

Hong Kong has been rocked since June by protests that were ignited by a now-scrapped plan to officially allow extraditions but snowballed into a movement calling for more democratic freedoms and police accountability.

James said Morey was thinking of himself when he made his comment.

“There are ramifications for the negative that can happen when not thinking about others, when you are only thinking about yourself,” he said.

James also has a lifetime endorsement deal worth tens of millions with Nike, which does big business in China. James has made about a dozen trips to China with Nike.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver stressed last week that he regrets Chinese NBA fans are upset but would not apologise for Morey’s tweet.

“I don’t come here, either as the commissioner of the NBA or as an American, to tell others how they should run their governments,” Silver said.

“We’re not apologising for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression.”

As for having NBA telecasts pulled from Chinese television, Silver said, “It’s unfortunate, but if that’s the consequences of us adhering to our values, we still feel it’s critically important we adhere to those values.”

KOTA BHARU: DUN Kelantan hari ini merakamkan rasa dukacita atas kenyataan mengelirukan Menteri Kewangan Lim Guan Eng mengenai pembayaran royalti kepada negeri itu.

Usul berkenaan dikemukakan Hassan Mahmood (PAS-Tawang) di bawah Perkara 30(1) Peraturan Tetap Dewan Negeri Kelantan.

Speaker DUN Kelantan, Abdullah Ya’kub yang meneliti cadangan itu kemudian meluluskan usul berkenaan untuk dibahas kerana memenuhi tiga syarat iaitu melibatkan perkara tertentu dan mustahak, untuk kepentingan orang ramai dan perlu disegerakan.

Md Alwi Che Ahmad (BN-Kok Lanas) yang kemudian bangun untuk membahaskan usul berkenaan turut melahirkan rasa dukacita yang teramat di atas ketidakfahaman menteri kewangan yang gagal memahami maksud antara wang ehsan dan bayaran royalti.

“(Beliau) bertukar antara buah dokong dan buah rambai. Apa yang disebut wang yang diterima oleh kerajaan negeri adalah wang ehsan. Kerajaan dahulu (Barisan Nasional) dah bagi.

“Tapi kerana nak lepaskan diri daripada soalan Ketua Pembangkang Parlimen (Ismail Sabri Yaakob) beliau (Lim) jawab di luar Parlimen dan dia boleh berbohong,” katanya pada persidangan DUN Kelantan di Kompleks Kota Darul Naim, hari ini.

Mengulas lanjut, Alwi berkata rakyat Kelantan berhak menerima bayaran royalti mengikut perjanjian yang ditandatangani sebelum ini mengikut lunas undang-undang.

“Rakyat Kelantan bukan pengemis, rakyat Kelantan rakyat merdeka. Maka saya menyokong usul ini dan mendesak royalti mesti dibayar dengan segera,” katanya.

Abdullah kemudian membuka peluang kepada Adun yang hadir mengundi usul itu dengan majoriti Adun mengundi bersetuju menerusi pungutan suara.

Semalam, Lim dilaporkan berkata bayaran royalti minyak telah dibuat pada bulan lepas atas arahan Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Bagaimanapun, Menteri Besar Kelantan Ahmad Yakob hari ini dilaporkan berkata Kelantan hanya menerima wang ehsan pada 17 Sept lepas daripada Kerajaan Persekutuan dan bukannya bayaran royalti.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — The government lowered the price threshold for foreign house buyers in an urgent move to prevent the current property overhang from ballooning into a crisis, Tun Dr Mahathir explained today.

The prime minister said he was previously critical of such measures being implemented in the Forest City project in Johor where properties were said to be freehold and high-end to protect domestic home buyers.

“Forest City was quite different… the property was freehold and luxurious… only foreigners can afford to buy.

“This is not for foreigners who can afford to buy,” he said, referring to the recent announcement that foreigners can now buy high-rise houses in Malaysia at the lowered price of RM600,000 instead of the previous minimum set at RM1 million.

“Obviously there are people who are not so rich and they want to have a flat here and they can buy cheaper flats and apartments,” he told reporters at the launch of Malaysia Medical Device Expo 2019 (MYMEDEX) and International Medical Device Conference 2019 (IMDC) held at MITEC this morning.

Dr Mahathir said the property overhang could result in a financial crisis, pointing to Hong Kong and Tokyo which were attributed to overdevelopment of their cities.

“Property overhang can result in crisis so we have to get rid of this overhang so that the market for property becomes healthy again.

“We need to sell them or the developers will get into trouble,” he added.

The government’s move to lower the threshold was announced during the tabling of Budget 2020 in Parliament last Friday and drew mixed responses.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng who tabled the budget has said the measure was necessary to cut the oversupply of condominiums and apartments amounting to RM8.3 billion in the second quarter of 2019.

Lim said the move was to encourage the sales of properties from developers and would not affect the secondary housing market.

But critics have claimed that housing developers might take advantage of the situation by engaging in high-rise property speculation in order to jack up prices.