According to Kumul Consolidated Holdings Limited (KCHL), the government will sell off its companies that are not making money. These include Datec, EMTV and FM100.
KCHL managing director Isikeli Taureka said that the National Executive Council (NEC) had already approved of this sale. “EMTV and FM100 are all up for sale because they are not going to bring in any money. They are all making a loss,” he said. “That’s the whole idea of the KCHL Amendment Act to separate the political decisions from commercial decision-making. Unfortunately, we won’t get that till we privatise some of those entities.”
Taureka said that in November, the NEC approved the changes supported by the Asian Development Bank. With a loan of K500 million over three years, the decision of the NEC involved debt-free financing and SOE reform.
“The NEC decisions allow us to go through the reform, selection process, better boards, better management selection process, returning to a (sound) financial footing and delivering services,” he said.
Taureka added that bmobile Solomon Islands would also be sold although there are no details yet.
“Kumul Telikom Holdings retail (arm) bmobile PNG had divested along with non-core assets and duplicated mobile towers,” he said. “We want them to focus on the sale of the non-core assets and integrate Telikom and bmobile. DataCo on the other hand is sitting on the other side. It is a wholesale business and it is competing with its two sister companies. We have to get rid of this competition among SOEs. At the end of the day all we want is better services for Papua New Guineans.”
