KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's Terengganu state said on Wednesday it was open to buying a stake in national energy giant Petronas, after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he was considering such a sale to raise funds for his heavily-indebted federal government.
Tun Dr Mahathir told Reuters on Tuesday that the government could sell Petronas shares privately to states such as Sarawak, Sabah, Terengganu and Kelantan where the company has most of its energy assets. "If it's in the form of equity, say 5 per cent or 10 per cent, then we can probably consider , a reasonable amount of equity," Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, chief minister of the eastern state of Terengganu, told reporters in the state capital, according to national news agency Bernama.J.C. Fong, legal adviser to the Sarawak government, told Reuters he would not comment on Dr Mahathir's statement on Petronas until he saw a proposal and had the chance to evaluate it.