He said the best choice currently is for Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the major shareholder in PLUS, to manage the toll concession company and settle its debt.

“We will see which is best. If Khazanah manages PLUS, okay, it can resolve the debt issue,” he told Malaysian journalists covering the 35th Asean Summit here today.

It was reported that Khazanah managing director Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said the sovereign wealth fund was not interested to sell its stake in PLUS, which is the biggest toll concession company in the country.

Khazanah owns a 51% interest in PLUS while the remaining 49% is held by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) following the takeover in 2011 with a transaction value of RM32 billion.

However, Mahathir said the government was also prepared to let go of PLUS if there was a party willing to pay a high price to acquire it and assume its debt.

“If there are offers by other people to take over the debts of up to RM30 billion, then it’s a good thing. For the government, we (will) talk with Khazanah,” he said.

Last week, integrated facility management and construction conglomerate Widad Business Group Sdn Bhd upped its offer to acquire 100% equity in the company to RM5.3 billion from RM3 billion earlier.

This offer included a compensation waiver of RM3.04 billion and debt assumption of RM30 billion, bringing the enterprise value of the offer to RM38.34 billion.

It was reportedly the highest bid from the private sector to date.