27/2/07 (Business Times)  -  SYNERGY Drive Sdn Bhd is on track to becoming a global player within the next four to five years, and for starters it will bolster its huge plantation business.

Synergy Drive chief executive officer designate Datuk Ahmad Zubir Murshid said the process to form the enlarged entity is on schedule and the merger should be completed by October or November this year.

"We have already appointed consultants to fast-track the process and are forming sub-committees which are doing evaluation work. They will brief us on the results," he told a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"We are small compared to the multinational corporations of the world, but we are on track to becoming a global player, starting first with our plantation business," said Ahmad Zubir, who is also Sime Darby Bhd's group chief executive. Synergy Drive has appointed Bain & Co and Accenture as merger consultants, while Hewitt Associates will look into human resource issues.

Synergy Drive is the special purpose vehicle created to merge Sime Darby, Golden Hope Plantations Bhd and Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd and their group of companies.

Ahmad Zubir said Synergy Drive is not just another corporation. It is a "syarikat rakyat", or "people's company".

"Synergy Drive is indirectly owned by over 10 million Malaysians, of which 85 per cent represents the working population, and we want to represent the people by being a global player," he added.

Ahmad Zubir said Malaysia aims to achieve between five and 20 per cent growth within the next 10-15 years and Synergy Drive fits just nicely to contribute to such growth.

He said Malaysians are indirect shareholders of Synergy Drive via institutions such as the Employees Provident Fund, Amanah Saham Nasional or Amanah Saham Bumiputera.

The merger, valued at RM31.4 billion when it was first proposed last December, is Malaysia's largest to date and, once completed, will create a global leader in oil palm owning about 620,000ha of plantation land in Malaysia and Indonesia, 107,000 workers and a potential total annual revenue of over RM26 billion.

Post-merger, Synergy Drive will also have business operations in property, energy and oil and gas, motor vehicle, heavy equipment and general trading.

Separately, Ahmad Zubir confirmed that Sime Darby had expressed interest in building the RM15 billion undersea power cable chanelling power from Bakun Dam to Peninsular Malaysia, but had yet to receive any official reply from the Government.

"The power sector is the kind of project which can bring long-term income stream for the group for the next 30 years, and it is a viable project looking at the current price of oil and gas."

Ahmad Zubir said the project will position the group not only as the contractor but also as an owner, and it wants to be part of the Government's growth strategy.

He said that under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010), the Government is also looking at hydropower as an alternative source of energy and the conglomerate wants very much to be part of the endeavour.