I can’t find this news on any Malaysian news site. I first read about it in the TCE:
TO further ease its debts, Dow Chemical has agreed to sell its stake in Optimal to Malaysian partner Petronas for $660m.
I pulled an extract from Project Finance International (subscribers only):
Dow has recently sold its entire stake in Malaysia-based Optimal Group of Companies to Petroliam Nasional (PETRONAS).
From Optimal’s history page, there are only two investors, UCC (now part of DOW) and PETRONAS.
I remember when Optimal was sucking up the Kerteh workforce with higher pay and better compensation. They opened up an international school in Kerteh, to cater for the (highly paid) expats who came in for the first 2 years. They also closed the school when the expats left, so you know it wasn’t meant as a service to local staff, even those who could afford it.
So, does this mean that the current Optimal salary, wages and benefits (SWB) will be in line with the rest of PETRONAS? Is there going to be an exodus of talent from Optimal to … don’t think there are other high-paying jobs around the KIPP (Kawasan Industry Petroliam PETRONAS), so we’ll see another exodus overseas.
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 