KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN builder Gamuda may be a buyout target after its market value fell by more than half this year due to a weak industry outlook, a newspaper reported.

A group of investors led by a Middle Eastern fund had been working on a deal to take the US$1.39 billion (S$1.89) company private, Malaysian financial Weekly The Edge reported on Saturday, citing sources.

'If things pan out, there should be some developments in a month or two,' the financial newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying.

Gamuda shares has lost 53 per cent of its value since the beginning of the year.

Gamuda is the contractor for a US$3.83 billion railway project in Malaysia. It also owns some of the busiest toll highways in the country, including Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong, an intra-urban expressway.

The royal family of northern Perak state, through unlisted Generasi Setia (Malaysia), controls a 7.52 per cent stake in Gamuda.

Australian investment firm Platinum Investment Management was the second-largest shareholder with a 7.48 per cent stake.

Last month, Gamuda formalised the employment of its managing director Lin Yun Ling by signing a five-year contract with him.

Mr Lin, who founded the company and still owns a 1.73 per cent stake, stunned investors in February when he sold 70 million shares in the company, fuelling talk that he could soon exit the firm. -- REUTERS

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