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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 w w w. t h e e d g e m a r k e t s. c o m

ISSUE 268/2021

CEOMorningBrief

100m water-resistant Malaysia Boutiques +603-9212 4456 E-Boutique: bellross.com

41mm

New BR 05 Skeleton Gold Automatic

TIME INSTRUMENTS
FOR URBAN EXPLORERS

VEGETABLE OIL PRODUCTION SET TO HIT FOUR-YEAR HIGH,
LEADING TO FALL IN PRICES — OIL WORLD p8

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 w w w. t h e e d g e m a r k e t s. c o m

ISSUE 268/2021

CEOMorningBrief
HOME: CIMB undertakes world’s first ringgit-denominated sustainability-linked
derivative transaction with Standard Chartered p5

‘They’ll have to pay’, Malaysia’s chip crunch triggers new era in supply deals p10
Asia-Pacific banks face Evergrande, Southeast Asia risks, says S&P p16

WORLD: RioTinto announces bold US$7.5 billion spend to halve carbon emissions by 2030; shares fall p19

MoH: No data leak, MySejahtera check-in QR
code and helpdesk abused by irresponsible parties

Report on Page 4.

PATRICK GOH/THE EDGE

After the recent climb,
which are the laggards of
the recovery theme play?

Report on Page 3.

thursday october 21, 2021 2 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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Mohamad Shahril Basri/The Edge

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Malaysia Malaysia’s new Daily Covid-19 figures:
reported 5,516 new daily Covid-19 cases daily Covid-19
on Oct 20, down from 5,745 cases the day cases below 6,000 As at Oct 19, 2021:
before, according to Health director-gen- mark for third
eral Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. Vaccine doses administered 134,684
straight day
Wednesday is the third straight day on Oct 20 % of population fully vaccinated 70.6
the country’s daily cases stay below the
6,000 level. by syafiqah salim % of population with at least 77.3
theedgemarkets.com one dose
In a statement, Dr Noor Hisham dis-
closed that only 102 or 1.8% of the cases 69 deaths and 85,916 active cases on As at Oct 20, 2021: 5,516
reported onWednesday were in Categories Oct 19 Number of new cases 5,414 (98.2%)
3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation, There were 69 Covid-19-linked fatalities
while the remaining 5,414 cases or 98.2% reported onTuesday (Oct 19) — including Category 1 (no symptoms) 102 (1.8%)
were in Categories 1 and 2. 11 brought-in-dead cases — down from 72 and
a day earlier.To date, the country’s cumu- Category 2 (mild symptoms)
There were currently 669 patients being lative Covid-19 fatalities stood at 28,062.
treated in intensive care units, of which 97 Category 3 (with pneumonia),
were suspected, probable or under inves- A total of 85,916 active cases were regis- Category 4 (with pneumonia,
tigation for Covid-19. tered onTuesday. Of these, 66,065 people requiring oxygen therapy)
were undergoing home quarantine, 12,592 and
Out of these 669, 333 needed ventila- patients were being treated in Covid-19 Category 5 (critical & requiring
tors to help them breathe, including 241 Quarantine and Low-RiskTreatment Cen- assisted ventilation)
confirmed to be positive for Covid-19. tres, 6,583 were hospitalised, while 676
more were being treated in intensive care Number of patients in ICU 669
Daily recoveries continued to outpace units (ventilated and unventilated). ICU capacity utilisation (%) 61.7
daily infections at 9,401 on Wednesday. 94% of adult population fully
These brought the country’s total recover- vaccinated against Covid-19 as of Updated as at 7.30pm, Oct 20, 2021
ies so far to 2,297,289, or 95.43% out of the Oct 19 Sources: CITF, MoH
2,407,382 cumulative coronavirus infections. A total of 22,013,263 individuals or 94% of the
adult population of the country had complet-
Meanwhile, the country’s rate of infec- ed their Covid-19 vaccination as ofTuesday.
tions currently stood at 0.88, with Putra-
jaya and Negeri Sembilan being the states According to the Ministry of Health’s
with the highest infectivity rate of 1.03. data on the CovidNow portal, they were
among 22,764,203 individuals or 97.2%
These were followed by Kuala Lumpur of the adult population who had re-
(1.01), Selangor (0.95), Melaka (0.94), Perlis ceived at least one dose of the vaccine.
(0.91), Kelantan (0.91), and Sabah (0.91).
As ofTuesday, 2,491,822 individuals or
Malaysia’s Covid-19 infection 79.1% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years Read also:
curve dips had received at least one dose of the vac- AstraZeneca delivers over half a
cine, including 1,039,689 individuals or million Covid-19 vaccine doses to
25000 Daily new cases 33% of the age group that had completed Malaysia Click here
7-day moving average their vaccination.

20000

15000

10000 6,898 Sabah begins administering Covid-19
5000 5,516 vaccine booster doses Click here
0 Jan 1, 2021
Oct 20, 2021 Malaysia still discussing with Saudi
Arabia on vaccines for Umrah, says
Khairy Click here

thursday october 21, 2021 3 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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After the recent climb, which areT U E S D AY M AY 1 8 , 2 0 2 1 4 T H E E D G E C E O M O
the laggards of the recovery theme play?T A B L E S A M P L E F O N T / C O L O U R

by adam aziz Undervalued consumer-linked counters vs. historical average
theedgemarkets.com
Company Market cap Price-
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 21): Investors are Sime Darby Bhd (RM mil) Share Trailing to-2019 2017-2019
looking for proxies to the rebound on con- Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd 15,645 price 12-month earnings average
sumer spending as more Malaysians have British American Tobacco (M) Bhd 10,489
started leaving homes for work, social gath- UMW Holdings Bhd 4,151 (RM) P/E (times) (times) P/E (times)
erings, shopping and holiday trips as a result DRB-Hicom Bhd 3,843
of the reopening of the domestic economy. Magnum Bhd 3,286 2.30 11.0 16.5 18.0
Hong Leong Industries Bhd 3,046
The rally in consumer-related coun- Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd 2,897 28.60 24.8 25.6 30.1
ters such as AirAsia Group Bhd and The Leong Hup International Bhd 2,777
Body Shop products distributor InNa- Padini Holdings Bhd 2,482 14.54 15.3 12.0 15.2
ture Bhd lately and shares of the Genting Aeon Co (M) Bhd 2,111
group of companies and banking stocks Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd 2,106 3.29 11.0 7.3 42.0
being actively traded showed that the re- Bermaz Auto Bhd 2,105
covery-theme play is gaining momentum Amway M Holdings Bhd 1,893 1.70 4.1 6.8 14.8
on Bursa Malaysia. Berjaya Food Bhd 923
Mynews Holdings Bhd 723 2.12 - 12.7 17.1
In fact, the valuations of some consumer 671
stocks are already on par with historical aver- Oct 20, 2021 9.07 10.1 8.7 13.4
age.These include the breweries, petrol kiosk Source: Bloomberg
operator Petronas Dagangan Bhd, majority 2.07 15.3 10.2 11.0
of home appliances companies, as well as
those in the fashion and apparel business like 0.68 14.1 16.1 20.3
Bonia Corp Bhd, and Magni-Tech Indus-
tries Bhd which has Nike as a key customer. 3.21 39.1 13.2 16.0

With the recent run-up, those who are 1.50 27.5 19.3 25.1
optimistic about the economic recovery
will look harder for laggards among com- 32.90 28.6 20.4 29.3
panies that may benefit as more people
head back to the malls and offices. 1.63 14.0 7.2 13.8

“In terms of valuations, one of the ways 5.62 19.3 18.1 18.4
we benchmark the companies is by com-
paring their current P/E (price-to-earn- 2.02 15.1 28.3 98.6
ings) ratio with their average P/E for the
last three years,” said Mahani Ibrahim, 0.985 - 24.4 34.6
chief executive officer (CEO) of PMB
Investment Bhd which has over RM1.3 billion in assets under management. over RM500 million in market capitalisa-
Another fund manager concurred.“The tion, with lower P/E multiple (based on
current share price and 2019 earnings)
2017-2019 average P/E will be a fair com- relative to the 2017-2019 average.
parison.
Bloomberg data showed that among
“Of course, when making the compar- common names on the list include My-
isons, investors should keep in mind that News Holdings Bhd, which is en route to
certain sub-sectors may have a slower pace have 50 branches of South Korea’s CU
of recovery than others,” the fund man- store operational by year end, from five
ager added. early this month.

Using the above valuation method, The It should also be interesting to see Berjaya
Edge has compiled a list of companies of Food Bhd’s performance moving forward,
after posting record revenue of RM717.27
Bloomberg million for the financial year ended June
30, 2021.The company is the franchisor of
brands like Starbucks, Kenny Rogers Roast-
ers, Krispy Kreme and Jollibean.

Sector-wise, companies involved in the
sale of cars and motorcycles are still un-
dervalued compared with their historical
valuations. Sime Darby Bhd in its latest
annual report pointed to the best ever re-
sults by its motor division in 2020, largely
supported by its China operations.

That said, it should be noted that the
Malaysian Automotive Association in July
revised its total industry volume for 2021
to 500,000 units, down 5.6% from actual
sales in 2020.The industry sold 318,874
vehicles in 9M2021, or 63.8% of the full-
year forecast, while second-hand car sales
gained traction.

continues on Page 4

thursday october 21, 2021 4 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Following MoH: No data must enter information such as their email
complaints from several MySejahtera us- leak, MySejahtera address or phone number, among other
ers about receiving troll emails and spam check-in QR code things, to receive an OTP.
SMS messages with one-time passwords
(OTPs) from the Covid-19 app’s helpdesk, and helpdesk Following the complaints received, the
the Ministry of Health (MoH) has given abused by MySejahtera team conducted an initial in-
assurance that there is no leak in the My- vestigation.The team found that the func-
Sejahtera database. irresponsible tion of the MySejahtera Check-in QR Code
parties Registration application was misused by
“The ministry has received complaints irresponsible parties.These parties used a
through the MySejahtera helpdesk and by syafiqah salim random email address or phone number to
social media about the OTP message to theedgemarkets.com complete the registration process.
confirm the user’s phone number for My-
Sejahtera check-in QR code registration Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge The MoH said that if the phone number
and spam emails from the MySejahtera or email address was entered randomly,
helpdesk. MySejahtera will send an OTP to the own-
er of the phone number or email address
“Based on the initial investigation and to confirm the registration.
actions taken by the National Cyber Secu-
rity Agency (NACSA), the sending of the In addition, the ministry noted that the
fake emails and SMSs is due to misuse of Need Help feature on the same website was
the API (application programming inter- also misused to send random spam emails.
face) and not a leak in the MySejahtera
database,” the ministry said in a statement “Following this irresponsible action, the
on Wednesday. MySejahtera team has further increased the
security level of MySejahtera’s applications
An API refers to the coding platform and websites to prevent such an incident
that allows two software programs to com- from happening again,” the ministry added.
municate.
The MySejahtera application and web-
An API endpoint is where it connects site are currently jointly managed by the
with the software program. APIs work by MoH and the National Security Council
sending information requests from a web (MKN).
application or server and receiving a re-
sponse. MoH: The ministry has received
complaints through the MySejahtera
On the MySejahtera website, there is helpdesk and social media about the OTP
a MySejahtera Check-In Registration fea- message to confirm the user's phone
ture that allows businesses, establishments, number for MySejahtera check-in QR
public transportation, and others to ob- code registration and spam emails from
tain and display the MySejahtera QR code.
To complete the registration, an applicant the MySejahtera helpdesk.

from Page 3 new cases surge from under 150 during and electronics (E&E) segment.
its relaxation of certain Covid-19 rules in Other factors are also at play.While Ma-
Other laggards include the number fore- August to over 3,000 cases this month be-
cast operators — which saw downward pres- fore coming off its peak.This reflects the laysians are spending again, retail sales vol-
sure on dividend payouts during the pandem- risk of a resurgence in Covid-19 infection. ume has not improved much since the 2020
ic period — but remain as analysts’ picks as a Movement Control Order, an economist
proxy for a meaningful recovery come 2022. On top of that, higher raw material told The Edge.
prices, such as agriculture feedstock and
Certain companies have missed the list packaging materials, due to reasons rang- “It will eventually go back to pre-pan-
due to the absence of historical P/E ratio, ing from supply chain disruptions to ele- demic levels, but the question is when? It
including InNature and MR DIY Group vated commodity prices, could be eating depends on external factors mostly, as well
(M) Bhd, who were listed in 2020. into companies’ profit margins. as tourists too. No more Chinese tourists,”
the economist said, referring to the influx
InNature, which touched a record high Fund management outfit Areca Cap- of tourists with strong spending power for
of 87.5 sen this week, ramped up its e-com- ital, which managed RM2.75 billion as several years before the pandemic.
merce business during the lockdown, and at end-March 2021, opted for a barbell
posted commendable results during the investment strategy balancing between On the other hand, this could also mean
temporary reopening in 2H2021. recovery play and growth stocks, said its the upside potential from the impending re-
CEO Danny Wong Teck Meng. turn of international tourists into the country.
Home improvement retailer MR DIY The government has said that it is looking to
continues to expand its outlet network by In a nutshell, the barbell strategy is used reopen borders for foreign travel in Decem-
opening 35 new stores in October, for a during times of uncertainty by investing in the ber, with the 90% adult population vaccina-
total of 175 additions this year. It current- two extremes of high-risk and no-risk assets, tion benchmark already surpassed this month.
ly has more than 800 stores nationwide. while avoiding middle-of-the-road choices.
As of Oct 20, seven states and federal
Restrictions on foreign tourists’ entry “On recovery play, we like banks, con- territories were in Phase 4 of the National
another factor to watch sumer counters, and selected construc- Recovery Plan, while the other nine were
Some risks remain on the horizon. tion companies,” said Wong. For growth in Phase 3. Malaysia has also reduced the
counters,Wong prefers exporters, indus- quarantine period for fully vaccinated trav-
Neighbour Singapore, which has vacci- trial companies and those in the electrical ellers to seven days, from 14 days previously.
nated 86% of its population, has seen daily

thursday october 21, 2021 5 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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CIMB Group Holdings Bhd group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad (left)
and Standard Chartered Malaysia managing director and CEO Abrar A Anwar.

CIMB undertakes world’s first ringgit-
denominated sustainability-linked derivative

transaction with Standard Chartered

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): CIMB Bank by Esther Lee transformed significantly but he still sees
Bhd has entered into a sustainability-linked theedgemarkets.com many companies facing challenges when it
derivative (SLD) transaction with Stand- comes to incorporating sustainability.
ard Chartered Malaysia. The SLD takes verifiable by independent sources, accord-
the form of an interest rate swap with a ing to the statement. “Despite their intention to transition to
notional value of RM2.45 billion for hedg- net zero by 2050, 67% of corporates have
ing purposes. CIMB said further that it is keen to yet to take any action due to lack of capital.
work with clients to execute more inno-
In a statement onWednesday (Oct 20), vative treasury and derivative transactions “We are grateful for the opportunity to
CIMB said the ringgit-denominated SLD with ESG-related pricing components or support CIMB with fulfilling their sustain-
transaction is the first of its kind global- utilisation of proceeds going forward. ability agenda as we collectively navigate
ly and Asia’s largest environmental, social net zero. Healing the world is a mammoth
and governance (ESG)-linked derivative It added that it had also been active in task, and this landmark deal shows how
transaction by notional value to date. offering loan or financing products and key collaboration is to making that hap-
bonds or sukuk that are sustainable or sus- pen. It isn’t just about helping clients; we
Notably, the SLD transaction has been tainability-linked. are looking inwards and making our own
structured to involve a pricing mechanism commitments.
where a discount or premium will be ap- CIMB Group group chief executive of-
plied depending on whether CIMB Group ficer (CEO) Datuk Abdul Rahman Ah- “To that effect, Standard Chartered is
Holdings Bhd — the listed holding enti- mad said that the transaction demonstrates working towards reaching net zero carbon
ty of the bank — achieves its pre-agreed the banking group’s commitment towards emissions from our financing by 2050 as
sustainability performance targets (SPTs). achieving its commitments to mobilising part of our strategic commitment to put-
RM30 billion in sustainable financing by ting the world on a sustainable path to a
“The ESG overlay of this instrument 2024, achieving net zero Scope 1 and 2 zero-carbon economy,” he said.
has been structured around two key per- GHG emissions by 2030 and net zero
formance indices (KPIs) that reinforce re- GHG emissions by 2050. Notably, CIMB launched sustainabil-
cently announced sustainability commit- ity-linked loans for corporate clients in
ments made by CIMB Group. “As a financial intermediary, we play a 2020 with an allocation of RM3 billion
critical role in channelling financing and through 2024. In the first half of 2021,
The two KPIs are the group’s percentile capital in ways that will support a just tran- CIMB acted as the lead manager for the
ranking for banks based on the S&P Glob- sition towards a net zero economy and government of Malaysia’s dual-tranche
al Corporate Sustainability Assessment in greater social equity. In collaboration with US$1.3 billion sukuk wakala offering,
support of the group’s aspiration to be an our clients and partners, we look forward where the US$800 million sustainabili-
industry leader on the Dow Jones Sustain- to introducing more innovative offerings, ty tranche was the world’s first US dollar
ability Index, and reductions in Scope 1 such as this SLD, in the sustainable finance sustainability sukuk offered by a sovereign.
and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions space,” he said.
in line with the group’s net zero ambitions. CIMB also launched and priced the
Standard Chartered Malaysia managing government of Indonesia’s US$3 billion
The SPTs that have been set are mate- director and CEO Abrar A Anwar comment- global sukuk offering, including a US$750
rial, ambitious, objective, measurable and ed that the attitude towards ESG issues had million green sukuk tranche.

thursday october 21, 2021 6 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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TNB makes He added that the group recently an- SKB Shutters
maiden foreign nounced its Sustainability Pathway, a announces
venture with UK blueprint with an aspiration to achieve
offshore wind net zero emissions by 2050, and is also 2-for-1 bonus
farm company aiming to reduce 35% of TNB’s emis- issue, free
sions intensity as well as 50% of its coal warrants
stake buy generation capacity by 2035.
by Justin Lim
by Sulhi Khalid “We believe this partnership will give theedgemarkets.com
theedgemarkets.com us an edge in an increasingly competitive
industry as we look to rapidly scale up our KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): SKB Shut-
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20):Tenaga Na- global RE portfolio and strengthen our ters Corp Bhd has proposed to undertake
sional Bhd (TNB) has acquired a 49% position in the future energy landscape a bonus issue of two new shares for every
stake in Blyth Offshore Demonstrator Ltd one share held.
(BODL), an offshore wind farm com- “It not only sets the pace for Vantage
pany in the UK, from EDF Renewables RE to grow in the UK and Europe, but The roller shutter and steel door man-
(EDFR), a subsidiary of French utility also provides a solid pathway for TNB ufacturer also announced free warrants
company Électricité de France (EDF). to accelerate its ambition to be a leading on the basis of one warrant for every two
provider of sustainable energy solutions. shares held.
In a statement onWednesday (Oct 20),
the national power company said the ac- “Involvement in the UK offshore wind The entitlement dates for the two issues
quisition was done via its wholly-owned sector will allowTNB to capitalise on the will be determined later, the group said
subsidiary Vantage RE Ltd and marked vast experience of the existing Vantage in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
TNB’s maiden entry into the international RE management, broaden its technolo-
offshore wind market as BODL currently gy know-how and provide further capa- SKB Shutters said the proposals,
owns offshore wind assets off the coast of bility and talent development within the which are subject to shareholders’ ap-
Blyth, Northumberland, England. group,” Baharin said. proval, could involve the issuance of 88
million bonus shares, and up to 66 mil-
“The assets include five turbines with a On the other hand, EDFR group sen- lion warrants.
total installed capacity of 41.5MW (Blyth ior executive vice president renewable en-
1) and further development rights for a ergies chairman and CEO Bruno Ben- It said that the share price adjusted for
floating offshore wind project of up to sasson said the group is committed to the proposed bonus issue should not be
58.4MW (Blyth 2) located off the North- contributing to the sector’s technological less than 50 sen based on the daily vol-
umberland coast. evolution and competitiveness and high- ume weighted average price (VWAP) of
lighted it is pleased to seal the partnership its shares during the three-month period
“The wind farm has been in operation with TNB. before the application date.
since 2017 under the Renewable Obliga-
tion Certificates (ROC) subsidy regime “TNB and EDF share the same ambi- Based on the five-day VWAP of SKB
that is expected to provide stable revenues. tion to contribute to a low carbon society. Shutters shares up to Oct 12, and the low-
Blyth 2 is an innovative floating offshore Therefore, beyond this first partnership, est daily VWAP of its shares during the
wind project currently in the early stage we envisage further cooperation on low past three-month period up to Oct 12, the
of development,” it said. carbon electricity generation in the Eu- theoretical ex-bonus price for its shares
ropean continent, as Blyth, and in Asia,” is expected to be between 55.97 sen and
Meanwhile,TNB president and chief he said. 50.33 sen.
executive officer (CEO) Datuk Baharin
Din said the landmark acquisition is one At noon break on Wednesday, shares Meanwhile, the group said the full exer-
of the planned strategic acquisitions for in TNB ended one sen or 0.1% higher cise of warrants could raise up to RM26.4
TNB to accelerate its journey in deliv- to RM9.83, giving it a market value of million, based on an illustrative exercise
ering on its global environmental, social RM56.29 billion. It saw 1.99 million price of 40 sen per warrant.
and governance (ESG) vision. shares changing hands.
The group intends to use the proceeds
for its working capital requirements.

SKB Shutters’ share price closed down
one sen or 0.55% to RM1.80, giving the
group a market capitalisation of RM79
million.Year to date, the stock has tripled
in value from 60 sen.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 21, 2021 7 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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thursday october 21, 2021 8 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20):World pro- Vegetable oil The downtrend in palm oil produc-
duction of four vegetable oils, namely production set tion has resulted in the crop enjoying
palm oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil and to hit four-year new record-high prices in line with the
rapeseed oil, is expected to increase high, leading to performance of other vegetable prices.
by about seven million tonnes for the
2021/2022 period, the biggest growth in fall in prices Recently, Plantation Industries and
four years, according to Oil World. — OilWorld Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida
Kamaruddin said the government had
Its head Thomas Mielke said this fol- Bernama approved 32,000 foreign plantation work-
lows two years of global production defi- ers who had completed their Covid-19
cit and a sharp decline in vegetable oil Suhaimi Yusuf/The Edge vaccination to be brought into Malaysia
stocks. in stages starting from mid-October.
Commenting on the Malaysian government’s
“If these forecasts materialise, veg- move, Indonesian Palm Oil Association Commenting on the Malaysian govern-
etable oil prices are set to decline and ment’s move, Indonesian Palm Oil Asso-
meal prices will become relatively strong- deputy general chairman Togar Sitanggang ciation deputy general chairmanTogar Si-
er during the year,” he said in a slide said allowing the 32,000 workers to enter tanggang said allowing the 32,000 workers
presentation during the Malaysian Palm to enter Malaysia could ease the tension
Oil Council (MPOC) Pointers on Price Malaysia could ease the tension of low of low production that the world’s second
Trends online seminar on Wednesday. production that the world’s second biggest biggest producer of palm oil is having now.

Mielke said world palm oil pro- producer of palm oil is having now. He also said that India’s duty changes
duction recovered only by 1.7 million affected the entry of palm oil from Ma-
tonnes in the October 2020-September million tonnes below potential due to, laysia and Indonesia into the world’s big-
2021 period. among others, a shortage of labour. How- gest palm oil consumer market in 2020.
ever, the situation is likely to improve next
An increase by 3.5 million to four mil- year with 32,000 foreign workers allowed For January to September this year,
lion tonnes is likely for this (2021/2022) to enter the country,” he said. India emerged as Malaysia’s biggest ex-
season, he said. port destination for palm oil at 22.15%,
followed by China (11.38%), the Neth-
Of that, production in Indonesia is erlands (6.4%) and Turkey (4.37%).
expected to rise by 1.7 million to two
million tonnes, while output in Malay- Themed “Determining Price Direc-
sia is forecast to improve one million tion Amidst Market Uncertainty”, the
to 1.2 million tonnes, and that of other week-long online seminar shared insights
countries is going to contribute about from experts into the markets for Certi-
800,000 tonnes. fied Sustainable Malaysian Palm Oil and
prospects for palm oil in Asian countries
“In Malaysia, the average palm oil from 2022 onwards.
yield is likely to fall to a 20-year low in Read also: Climate change putting na-
2021 and total production to only 18.2 tional rice security at risk — minister
million tonnes or even less despite gen- Click here
erally favourable weather.

“Overall, for this year, Malaysian palm
oil production will turn out about four

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20):The crude CPO futures “Futures for December surged 1.7% to
palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa hit all-time high close at RM5,046 a tonne, the highest on
Malaysia Derivatives closed at an all-time record for a most active contract.
high today as concerns over weak produc- of RM5,071
tion in coming weeks continued to lift sen- a tonne “Crude palm oil prices are expected
timent, a dealer said. to average RM4,100 a tonne this year on
Bernama lower production. Palm oil production in
The benchmark palm oil contract for Malaysia may drop six per cent to 18 mil-
January 2022 jumped RM127 to RM5,071 this year closing at RM5,066 (last done) lion tonnes this year,” it said.
a tonne. on the most active month after locking in
a rise of 122 points. At the close, the CPO futures contract
Palm oil trader David Ng told Berna- for November 2021 added RM125 to
ma that solid gains in soybean oil on the “Higher bean oil, canola futures and pe- RM5,300 a tonne, December 2021 surged
Chicago Board ofTrade (CBOT) and the troleum prices together with lower palm oil RM134 to RM5,177 a tonne, January 2022
crude oil market also added to the posi- supply concern propelled CPO to record increased RM127 to RM5,071 a tonne,
tive sentiment. high prices,” he added. February 2022 put on RM118 to RM4,968
a tonne, March 2022 improved RM110 to
“Sentiment remains bullish given the CGS-CIMB in a research note said the RM4,853 a tonne and April 2022 added
strong fundamentals. Prices today hit an CPO price surged to a fresh record high RM106 to RM4,730 a tonne.
all-time high, last done for January 2022 as stronger petroleum prices and soybean
is at RM5,066 a tonne. oil futures increase its appeal as an alter- Total volume rose to 64,497 lots from
native to biofuel. 60,426 lots on Monday while open inter-
“We locate support at RM4,900 a tonne est widened to 255,174 contracts from
and resistance at RM5,150 a tonne,” he said. 251,681 contracts previously.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based Palm Oil The physical CPO price for October
Analytics’ owner and co-founder Dr Sathia South was RM100 higher at RM5,320
Varqa said CPO posted spectacular gains, a tonne.
reaching a record high for the seventh time

thursday october 21, 2021 9 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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news In brief

FGV hopes to finalise independent auditor appointment by November KIP REIT declares
1.55 sen distribution
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): FGV Holdings Bhd said it hopes to formalise the
appointment of an independent auditor by November in its effort to remove the KUALA LUMPUR (Oct
US ban on its palm oil products. It is currently engaging a US-based legal counsel 20): KIP Real Estate
to finalise the terms of the appointment, the group said in a filing with the bourse. Investment Trust’s
The independent auditor, it said, will assess the group’s operations against the (REIT) net property
11 International Labour Organization indicators of forced labour, as advised by income (NPI) fell 2.34%
the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in a bid to lift the withhold release to RM13.67 million for
order imposed by the CBP. “In ensuring that the scope and methodology of the the first quarter ended
audit meet the requirements and expectations of the CBP, FGV foresees a slight Sept 30, 2021 (1QFY22), from RM14
delay in the appointment and expects to formalise the appointment by November,” million a year earlier, on the back of a drop
it said. To recap, the CBP issued the withhold release order on Sept 30, 2020 in revenue. Revenue fell 6.02% to RM17.14
against palm oil and palm oil products made by FGV and its subsidiaries and joint million from RM18.23 million, due to
ventures. The ban was imposed following a year-long investigation into allegations lower promotional area income amid the
that the plantation group used forced labour, as the CBP said that its investigation restrictions on mall level activities. “The net
reasonably indicated signs of forced labour such as deception, physical and sexual property income came in lower in tandem
violence, the retention of identity documents and intimidation, and that threats with the lower revenue as compared with
had been made. — by Ahmad Naqib Idris the preceding year’s corresponding quarter
at a lower negative variance due to careful
Mah Sing concludes RM300m Classic Scenic buys industrial land, cost management,” KIP REIT said in a filing
sukuk issuance factory in Perak for RM12.5 million with Bursa Malaysia. The REIT declared a
first interim distribution per unit of 1.55 sen
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Property KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Classic Scenic Bhd’s amounting to RM7.8 million to be payable
developer Mah Sing Group Bhd wholly-owned subsidiary Finesse Moulding (M) on Nov 23, which includes a non-taxable
announced via a bourse filing that it has Sdn Bhd has acquired a piece of industrial land portion of 0.71 sen derived from capital
completed the issuance of secured and and a factory on it in Bidor, Perak for a total of allowances and tax-exempt income. KIP
unrated Sukuk Murabahah of RM300 RM12.5 million. In a bourse filing on Wednesday, REIT said the quarter also saw a decrease
million on Wednesday. The sukuk issuance Classic Scenic announced that its wholly-owned in the average occupancy rate for its seven
is part of the property developer’s ongoing subsidiary had on Oct 20 entered into a sales and KIPMalls. — by Shazni Ong
RM1 billion Sukuk Murabahah programme purchase agreement with VE Surpass Frame (M)
since last year when it announced plans to Sdn Bhd for the industrial land measuring 48,275 Ageson aborts rights issue of ICULS
diversify into glove production. According square meters. The company said the purchase
to a bourse filing, the sukuk issued will price will be financed through proceeds to be KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Ageson Bhd
have a tenure of five years and carry raised from the proposed private placement of (formerly known as Prinsiptek Corp
a fixed profit rate of 4.9% per annum up to 20% of the total number of issued ordinary Bhd) has decided to scrap its proposed
payable semi-annually. In accordance with shares in Classic Scenic announced on Oct 8. rights issue of irredeemable convertible
Islamic finance principles, the sukuk is Classic Scenic said the existing manufacturing unsecured loan stocks (ICULS). This is due
secured by assets owned by Mah Sing via plant in Rawang is already running at optimum to the “expected longer time” required for
its subsidiaries and designated accounts. capacity rate, about 80%. “The group intends the company to complete the rights issue,
The proceeds from the sukuk will be used to ramp up the production capacity for the small cap home builder and developer
for shariah-compliant purposes such wooden picture frames and mouldings in the said in a bourse filing. Ageson said it will
as landbanking, capital expenditures, new manufacturing plant located in the said explore an alternative avenue to raise
investments and working capital as well as properties in order to capitalise on the higher funds expeditiously for its operational
the refinancing of its existing borrowings demand [for] wooden picture frames and requirements. The 10-year zero coupon
and/or redemption of unrated perpetual mouldings given the positive outlook of the rights issue, announced on Feb 26, involved
securities. — by Seah Eu Hen wooden frame industry. Furthermore, it said up to 30.68 billion ICULS to raise as much as
given that the company is currently renting the RM306.77 million. On Aug 12, the company
Carimin announces five sen said properties from the vendor, it would make amended the cash-call terms to increase
special dividend better business sense to own the properties the amount to be raised to as much as
instead of continuing paying rental indefinitely, RM319.55 million, through the issuance of
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Carimin as well as to avoid the risk of non-renewal of the up to 12.78 billion ICULS at an issue price of
Petroleum Bhd has declared a special tenancy agreement. — by Esther Lee 2.5 sen each. — by Justin Lim
dividend of five sen for the financial year
ended June 30, 2021 (FY21) to reward
its shareholders. According to its filing
with the bourse, the group’s shares will
trade ex-dividend on Nov 3, and the
dividend will be paid on Nov 17. Coupled
with the first and second interim
dividends of 0.5 sen each, Carimin’s total
payout for FY21 will be six sen. —
by Ahmad Naqib Idris

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‘They’ll have to pay’, Malaysia’s chip crunch
triggers new era in supply deals

reuters

by Liz Lee
Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Malaysian Taiwan is the biggest service provider sors, light-emitting diodes, and integrat-
electronics firms central to the supply of with more than 50% of market share, fol- ed circuits for the likes of Apple, Samsung
basic chips that drive the world’s cars, lowed by China, the United States, and then Electronics, and German carmakers, said
smartphones, and home devices have said Malaysia. The latter is home to suppliers it is running 90% of its factory capacity —
big-name customers are beating on their and factories serving chipmakers such as and is also worried about rising costs.
doors to lock in take-or-pay, longer-term STMicroelectronics and Infineon, and car-
deals — and happy to pay more if need be. makers includingToyota Motor Corp, Ford “We’ve had to stay adaptable and mind-
Motor Co, and General Motors (GM). ful of workers’ well-being during the lock-
Manufacturers are rushing to replenish downs, including offering various types of
chip stocks depleted during coronavirus Datuk SeriWong Siew Hai, president of incentives like cash to keep employees moti-
pandemic factory curbs — not least au- the Malaysia Semiconductor Industry As- vated and productivity high,” Heng Charng
tomakers who earlier cancelled orders ex- sociation, warned the shortage is likely to Yee, vice president of business and opera-
pecting poor demand.That chip shortage last for years. Some customers are ordering tions, told Reuters.
has slammed their output, and still dislo- more than they need to lock in supplies,
cates supply chains, just as consumer de- Wong said, while long-term contracts that The Malaysian government’s stringent
mand ramps up along with a global easing range from one to three years have now workplace rules, requiring frequent swab
of Covid-19 restrictions in everyday life. become a new industry norm. tests and limits on staff numbers, for exam-
ple, have also added cost pressure, she said.
At factories in Malaysia, operators like chip “For the capacity to match demand, (it
packaging firm Unisem (M) Bhd said that will take) at least two to three years from ‘They’ll have to pay’
drive is leading buyers that sell chips to auto now,”Wong told Reuters. Investors and analysts said the short-
and electronics manufacturers to become will- age is also the fruit of underinvestment
ing to sign up for big price hikes, some even Outbreak means shutdown in technology to make older-generation
asking for as many assembled chips as plants Companies like Unisem have been ramp- chips that can cost less than US$1, wide-
can produce — whatever the cost. ing up. But Unisem, with a market value ly used in auto industry, as heavyweights
of about US$1.6 billion, is still operating such as Samsung and Taiwan Semicon-
But Malaysia’s chip assembly industry, at just 80% of its capacity, to reduce a risk ductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ploughed
accounting for more than a 10th of a glob- of mass infections on its factory floor that billions into developing more powerful,
al trade worth over US$20 billion, warned could lead to an entire plant shutdown. high-end chips.
that shortages — exacerbated by years of
underinvestment in basic chip production, While 98% of its staff are now fully vac- “We always think of these back-end sem-
while high-end semiconductors were fa- cinated, it has been forced to temporarily iconductors as low-margin business. But
voured — will last at least two years. shut down its Ipoh plant twice since June they suddenly have additional 5%-10%
due to an outbreak in the factory and a na- pricing power,” said Patrick Chang, ASE-
Firms must marry the need to ramp up tional lockdown order. Several automakers AN regional chief investment officer equi-
production with the imperative to avoid and semiconductor companies have said ties at Principal Asset Management Bhd.
Covid-19 infections in factories that could pandemic-related disruption in Malaysia
trigger complete shutdowns. has hit supply chains. Amid such demand, Unisem is pushing
ahead with expansion at its plants in Ma-
“The shortage is very real,” said John GM’s chief executive officer Mary Barra laysia and China — which will only come
Chia, chairman of Unisem. “For CEOs (of explained earlier this month to Fox Busi- on stream 12-15 months down the line.
our clients) to escalate their issues to me ness, “We were hit maybe harder than most
directly shows that this is a serious mat- because some of the specific facilities in Ma- “We are cautious,” said chairman Chia.
ter... now they want to talk to me directly,” laysia were heavily impacted by Covid-19.” “We have been hit blue and black before,
he told Reuters. remember the dotcom days?”
The gradual ramp-up at Unisem match-
Chia declined to provide names of cli- es that of many of its peers. “We tell them (customers) now to at
ents requesting as much supply as they can least sign up for 70% of their forecast
get their hands on. Unisem’s customers Despite surging orders, Globetronics (volume). If they don’t give me that full
include suppliers to global carmakers and Technology Bhd, which makes optical sen- amount, they will still have to pay.”
electronics firms like Apple.

He said demand is so robust that its
Chengdu plant in China is booked out for
the whole of next year — and it will take
months for it to clear backlogs for some
automotive components.

Pre-pandemic, the world’s outsourced
chip assembly and test industry was esti-
mated to be worth around US$23 billion
and it is seen growing to US$30 billion
in 2022, according to market research
firm Yole Development.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Daya Mate- Daya Materials OCI Sdn Bhd, and 55% stake in Daya
rials Bhd announced onWednesday that it gets green light Secadyme Sdn Bhd.
has received Bursa Securities’ approval for on regularisation
its regularisation plan. The plan was sub- These will be followed by the disposal
mitted to the regulator on Dec 31, 2020. plan by Newco of its entire equity interest in
Daya Materials to a special-purpose vehi-
The shares of the energy company were BY ESTHER LEE cle to be incorporated.
actively traded in the morning trading ses- theedgemarkets.com
sion, with a total of 115.39 million shares Other salient points include the settle-
exchanging hands.At noon break, the coun- ment of liabilities to its creditors amount-
ter was up 0.5 sen or 33.33% to two sen. ing to some RM109.6 million and the set-
tlement of professional fees of RM610,114,
The regularisation plan will see the ex- a private placement of up to 250 million
change of the total number of issued shares shares at 20 sen per share.
of Daya Materials comprising 2.04 billion
shares for 20.43 million new shares in Pro- Daya Materials triggered Practice Note
pel Global Sdn Bhd (Newco), on the ba- 17 (PN17) criteria on Feb 28, 2018 as its
sis of one new Newco share for every 100 shareholders’ equity on a consolidated ba-
existing Daya Materials shares held on an sis was RM19.1 million, less than RM40
entitlement date to be determined later. million and represented less than 25% of
its issued share capital.
It will also see the proposed assumption
of the listing status of Daya Materials by The group’s major subsidiary Daya
Newco and the admission of Newco to and Proffscorp Sdn Bhd also defaulted in pay-
withdrawal of Daya Materials from Bursa, ments of both the principal sum and in-
with the listing of and quotation for the terests to Malayan Banking Bhd and the
enlarged issued share capital of Newco on Small Medium Enterprise Development
the exchange’s Main Market. Bank Malaysia Bhd and it failed to provide
a solvency declaration to Bursa.
There will also be a reorganisation com-
prising the acquisitions by Newco from Furthermore, its external auditor also
Daya Materials of its entire 51% stake each expressed a disclaimer of opinion on the
in Daya PetroleumVentures Sdn Bhd and company’s audited consolidated financial
Daya CMT Sdn Bhd, 50.1% stake in Daya statements for the financial year ended Dec
31, 2018.

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1MDB audit report the only special audit
report Najib asked to see and amend
before it was presented to PAC

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): The 1Malaysia by Izzul Ikram & to be submitted to the relevant authorities in
Development Bhd (1MDB) audit report was the
only special audit report which Datuk Seri Najib Timothy Achariam her experience.
Razak requested to see and amend prior to its
presentation to the Public Accounts Commit- theedgemarkets.com Sri Ram: In your experience, in a case of a
tee (PAC) during his tenure as prime minister.
special audit, has the auditee ever been given
At the 1MDB audit tampering trial on a copy of the audit report?
Wednesday before Justice Mohamed Zaini Saadatul: No.
Mazlan, former National Audit Department Sri Ram: Except for this one. How about
(NAD) audit director Saadatul Nafisah Bashir in earlier special audits?
Ahmad said that for a special audit, an auditee Saadatul:We present it to Cabinet (or who-
usually does not receive the audit report before ever requested the special audit), and then after
it is presented to the PAC. that [the auditee] will get the report.
Sri Ram: It would appear that your special
During her re-examination as a prosecution audit is actually an investigative audit.
witness, lawyer Datuk Gopal Sri Ram had asked Saadatul: Something like that.
her whether Najib had ever requested to see Unlike the klia2 audit report, Najib had al-
and amend special reports such as the 1MDB legedly instructed his former principal private
report before. secretary Tan Sri Shukry Salleh to instruct the
NAD to make changes by dropping certain
She said Najib requesting a report and seek- “sensitive information” from the 1MDB au-
ing amendments was never done before.When dit report.
asked by the lawyer of an instance where a spe- Shukry had previously testified that he fol-
cial report was done, she cited the klia2 audit lowed the former premier’s instructions and
which was approved by Najib’s Cabinet in 2015. informed Saadatul about it.
He testified in early February 2016 that Na-
In 2015, then transport minister Datuk Seri jib had asked him to obtain the audit report on
LiowTiong Lai announced the audit on the air- 1MDB from then auditor general Tan Sri Am-
port’s construction cost overruns was approved brin Buang because it “needed to be checked
by the Cabinet and Najib. before it’s printed”.
Shukry said he called Ambrin at the NAD a
Sri Ram: You described this as a special Najib is charged with abusing
audit, is this the first time you all have done a his power to amend the 1MDB
special audit? audit report before it was few days later to obtain the report, but the latter
was hesitant to hand it over. Shukry testified to
Saadatul: No, we have done a few before submitted to the PAC to protect having received the report from the NAD and
this. himself from disciplinary, civil handed it to then 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda
Kandasamy to examine its contents.
Sri Ram: Can you give his lordship (Justice and criminal actions.
Mohamed Zaini) an example [of] one that you
can remember? “Arul Kanda had then told me that there
were facts that needed to be set straight between
Saadatul:We have done one, also a request Ambrin and 1MDB. He also had told me that
by the Cabinet and on klia2. he had met with Ambrin before to discuss the
content of the report,” he said.
Sri Ram:Who was the prime minister when On trial are Najib and Arul Kanda.
that audit was carried out? Najib is charged with abusing his power to
amend the 1MDB audit report before it was
Saadatul: I think it was in 2012, it was Da- submitted to the PAC to protect himself from
tuk Seri Najib. disciplinary, civil and criminal actions while
Arul Kanda is charged with abetting the for-
Sri Ram: Did the second accused (Najib) mer premier.
call for a copy of that report? The charges are framed under Sec-
tion 23(1) of the Malaysian An-
Saadatul: No. ti-Corruption Commission
Sri Ram: Did he ask [for] any changes [to] (MACC) Act 2009, which
be made to that report? specifies a jail term of up
Saadatul: No. to 20 years and a fine of
Saadatul, in her re-examination by Sri Ram, no less than five times
explained that a special audit is an au- the amount of gratifi-
dit requested by the Cabinet, PAC cation or RM10,000,
or any other special authority Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge
which is not part of the NAD’s
planned audits. whichever is higher.
Saadatul then also said she
had never given an auditee a
copy of the report before it was

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Zahid’s defence: Prosecution’s claim
RM18m in charity funds used to buy

Bali hotel not included in charges

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): At the by Izzul Ikram & Timothy Achariam All the evidence adduced by Rashid and
High Court on Wednesday, Datuk Seri theedgemarkets.com Shaheen were irrelevant to the charge, ac-
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s lawyer argued cording to Hisyam.
the prosecution’s claim that RM17.9 Rashid had testified to the court that
million in fixed deposit withdrawals he had met Nurulhidayah to discuss the He was referring to the sixth out of Za-
fromYayasan Akalbudi (YAB) were used proposed venture. He had also told the hid’s 12 criminal breach of trust (CBT)
to finance his daughter’s bid to buy a court that he sought to sell off his shares charges, where he had allegedly transferred
hotel in Bali was never mentioned in because the company was facing diffi- RM17.9 million fromYAB to Lewis & Co.
the charges. culties in repaying a US$24.8 million
EXIM Bank loan for the purchase of The lawyer called this charge “irrele-
At his corruption trial before Justice the hotel in Bali. vant”, “ridiculous”, and “totally misplaced”
Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Za- because Ri-Yaz and the hotel were not men-
hid’s counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik as- The deal, however, did not materialise tioned in the charge.
serted that the prosecution’s 47 charges and the money was later transferred back
had never mentioned the purchase of the to Lewis & Co, then put into fixed deposits Previously, deputy public prosecutor
hotel, which was allegedly for the Umno in July 2016 and May 2017. (DPP) Datuk Raja Rozela RajaToran sub-
president’s daughter Datuk Nurulhidayah mitted last week that Rashid and Shaheen
Ahmad Zahid. Hisyam rebutted the assertions by the had confirmed that the interested buyer of
prosecution last week that Zahid had the Ri-Yaz Asset shares was in fact Zahid’s
On June 30, 2016, Zahid instructed law dishonestly misappropriated the funds daughter Nurulhidayah.
firm Messrs Lewis & Co to issue a cheque which were meant to be used by YAB
for RM8.6 million to hotel operator Ri- for the poor. “The buyer was Datuk Nurulhidayah
Yaz Asset Sdn Bhd. [Zahid’s] daughter, and this was confirmed
“As far as the charges are concerned, by Tan Sri Rashid and Datuk Mohd Sha-
A partner at the law firm had testified there is no mention of the sale of shares heen who had met both Nurulhidayah and
that he was instructed by the accused to fromTan Sri Rashid [Manaf], no mention Zahid to discuss the proposed venture,”
make the payment for the purpose of pur- about Ri-Yaz Asset [Sdn Bhd], no men- Raja Rozela had said.
chasing a 60% stake in the company from tion of [Ri-Yaz managing director] Datuk
Ri-Yaz Asset’s chairman Tan Sri Rashid Mohd Shaheen [Shah], no mention of a “What does a purchase of a boutique hotel
Manaf. purchase of a hotel in Bali,” he said. in (Bali), Indonesia have to do for or help the
poor in Malaysia?” the senior DPP, who is
Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge deputy head II of the prosecution division in
theAttorney-General’s Chambers,had asked.
Zahid is on trial for 12 CBT charges, along with eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering,
involving tens of millions of ringgit belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi. Justice Sequerah suggested to Hisyam
that he thinks the prosecution was submit-
ting based on the circumstances and time
frame of the botched hotel purchase.

“They (prosecution) are saying that the
money was used for that purpose, for that
very purpose, so it’s more an inference from
the circumstances,” he added.

The Umno president’s lawyer replied that
the charge was egregious to the accused, be-
cause the allegation was that his client com-
mitted CBT the moment he transferred the
money from the bank to the client account.

“My lord, in conclusion, we call this case
of the prosecution an abuse of process, to
put charges with no legs with ten arms, it’s
against the public interest.

“So in short my lord, we say that the
prosecution has not proved a prima facie
case on CBT my lord, based on the charge
they purport,” he said.

Zahid is on trial for 12 CBT charges,
along with eight for corruption and 27 for
money laundering, involving tens of mil-
lions of ringgit belonging toYAB.

Justice Sequerah fixed Nov 22 for con-
tinued submissions by the defence in reply
to the prosecution’s case.

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Shafee entitled to damages for Malaysian
Bar’s mishandling of 2015 motion

Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge

by hafiz yatim
theedgemarkets.com

PUTRAJAYA (Oct 20): Senior lawyerTan Federal Court Judge Datuk Abdul Rahman “It was the wrong procedure in the par-
Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is entitled Sebli ruled that Shafee (pic) is entitled ticular instance [for Ambiga to act on that
to get damages from the Malaysian Bar to claim for defamation. motion then]. This is due to the Malay-
for breach of its statutory duty in allowing sian Bar AGM having no power to con-
and publishing a motion of condemnation The third judge in the unanimous de- vict someone of any disciplinary offence.
against him in its annual general meeting cision was Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat. The AGM is not the right forum to pass
(AGM) in 2015 without first lodging the Role of Malaysian Bar has changed judgement.”
complaint with the disciplinary board. since 1992
The apex court, however, did not make “It should have been left with the dis-
The condemnation sought by the person any decision on Tommy who submitted ciplinary board and for the disciplinary
who made the motion,TommyThomas (now the motion and George who supported process to continue.This is to ensure that
Tan Sri), and seconded by former Court of the motion as Justice Abdul Rahman said the disciplinary process is not tainted be-
Appeal judge Tan Sri VC George followed they were not part of the statutory body. fore the complaint,” the top judge added.
Shafee having the infamous roadshow to
explain the conviction of opposition leader Justice Abdul Rahman also noted that However, the apex court noted that Am-
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy II. the role of the Malaysian Bar had changed biga, who was representingTommy in this
since the formulation of the LPA, where case, had argued that Shafee brought it
The Federal Court’s three-member the task to discipline its members was given upon himself for having the roadshow and
panel chaired by Tan Sri Rohana Yusuf to the disciplinary board since 1992 and disclosing in-camera evidence.
set aside the decision of the High Court not the Malaysian Bar.
and the Court of Appeal in ruling earlier Justice Abdul Rahman said it was diffi-
that no damages should be given to Shafee. Section 99 (1) of the LPA states: Any cult for the bench to accept Ambiga’s ex-
complaint concerning the conduct of any planation to condemn the appellant (Sha-
Following this, the apex court directed advocate and solicitor or of any pupil shall fee) as the Bar was seen acting in ultra vires
that assessment of damages be decided by be in writing and shall in the first place be of Section 99 (1).
the High Court. made or referred to the disciplinary board,
which shall deal with such complaint in “The provision is never meant to be
Federal Court Judge Datuk Abdul Rah- accordance with such rules as may from abused in this case,” the apex judge rea-
man Sebli who wrote the unanimous de- time to time be made under this Part. soned.
cision said the Malaysian Bar should have
before tabling and publishing the motion Justice Abdul Rahman also said the Ma- He also questioned why George or
against Shafee — for all 50,000 members to laysian Bar is not legally bound to act on Tommy did not lodge a complaint with
view — make a complaint against the senior motions with seditious tendency or con- the disciplinary board themselves as he
lawyer for misconduct as stipulated under sidered sub judice. described that they wanted Shafee to be
Section 99 (1) of the Legal Profession Act condemned in the peer meeting (AGM)
1976 (LPA) to the disciplinary board. The Federal Court judge pointed to the before the disciplinary board.
67th Malaysian Bar AGM minutes earlier,
The fact that the motion was accepted — that when Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan was This, Justice Abdul Rahman said, was
published in February 2015 — and made leading the Malaysian Bar, she rejected a the wrong procedure in lodging the com-
known to its members for it to be debated motion against a member of the Bar who plaint as it was in breach of the law in
in the AGM despite Shafee obtaining an in- had disciplinary complaints on the grounds tabling it for the AGM as it may be prej-
junction to stop it affected his reputation that the complaints had not been made to udicial and prejudgement ahead of the
before the matter was brought to the disci- the disciplinary board. disciplinary proceedings before the dis-
plinary board. ciplinary board.
She, Justice Abdul Rahman said, noticed Click here to read the full story
Thus, Justice Abdul Rahman ruled that that it would set a terrible precedent if the
Shafee is entitled to claim for defamation. Bar were to be brought (into the disciplinary
proceedings) by way of a motion and having
“It is not for this court to find the appel- it published.
lant guilty for misconduct in the ongoing
disciplinary proceedings. But we find the
Malaysian Bar breached its statutory duty
in acting on the motion by publishing it,
and [putting it on the agenda] for the AGM,
before lodging a complaint with the disci-
plinary board.

“This may have prejudiced the appel-
lant’s (Shafee’s) case in the ongoing dis-
ciplinary board proceedings. Hence, the
appeal [by Shafee] is allowed, with no or-
der as to costs.The assessment of damag-
es will be done by a High Court judge,”
Justice Abdul Rahman said.

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world

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Asia-Pacif- Asia-Pacific “Regionwide, there is potential for the
ic banks face threats from a shaky Chinese banks face recently improved outlook trend to wane,”
property sector and lower growth forecasts Evergrande, Gunning said.
for Southeast Asia, said S&P Global Ratings. Southeast Asia
risks, says S&P S&P said on the economic front, the
In a report released onWednesday, the scenario in Asia-Pacific dipped over the
rating agency said other seismic shifts are by surin murugiah past quarter.
occurring too. theedgemarkets.com
“Our full-year 2021 Asia-Pacific growth
It said emerging trends — including S&P said the digitalisation ecosystem across the forecast was recently revised to 6.7% from
digitalisation technologies and an increas- financial services sector is developing rapidly. 7.1%.
ingly strong investor focus on environmen-
tal, social and governance (ESG) risks — “This reflects several factors, chief
could have profound effects on Asia-Pacific among them slower consumer activity
banks. and a spate of regulatory actions in Chi-
na, the repercussions across the region of
In the report titled “Asia-Pacific Fi- lower growth in China, and the effects of
nancial Institutions Monitor 4Q 2021: the Delta variant outbreak in Southeast
Evergrande, Southeast Asia Risks, And Asia,” it said.
The Digital Dilemma”, S&P credit an-
alyst Gavin Gunning said the past quar- Meanwhile, S&P said the digitalisation
ter was tough for banks in some juris- ecosystem across the financial services sec-
dictions. tor is developing rapidly.

“Notably, the spillover effects from It said one aspect of digitalisation in
property sector risks in China are height- Asia-Pacific in the spotlight is central bank
ened as the malaise engulfing Evergrande digital currencies (CBDCs), where China
plays out. is leading from the front.

“And in Southeast Asia, our economic China was already well progressed
growth outlook is weaker. Recent negative in pilot trials for its retail CBDC in
government intervention in some jurisdic- 2020, and the country is better pro-
tions has added to the negative sentiment, gressed compared to many other ju-
which has affected our view of banks. risdictions in Asia-Pacific and globally,
S&P added.

(Oct 20):The family office for Nicky Op- Family who son have both set up investment firms
penheimer and his son Jonathan has set exited De Beers to manage their wealth in the city-state,
up an outpost in Singapore to boost its for US$5b taps known for its high standard of living, po-
Asia exposure and partner with the region’s litical stability and plethora of tax treaties.
wealthy. Asia’s rich Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio also
signaled last year he would open a family
Edoardo Collevecchio, the former chief by Ben Stupples office there to run his investments and
of staff for Oppenheimer Generations, is Bloomberg philanthropy in the region.The number
moving from London to build and lead of family offices in Singapore rose five-
its team in Singapore, whileYi Ling Ong Bloomberg fold between 2017 and 2019, according
joins from Temasek Holdings Pte as head to government data.
of investment for the Asia unit, the com-
pany said in a statement. “We look forward to deepening re-
lationships with like-minded partners,”
The investment firm, which represents a Jonathan Oppenheimer, 51, the family
branch of the dynasty that founded mining office’s executive chairman, said in the
giant Anglo American and turned De Beers statement.
into the world’s largest diamond producer,
said it hopes a presence in the city-state The Oppenheimers trace their fortune
will help drive investments between Asia to the 1917 formation of Anglo American
and its home market of Africa. in South Africa.The firm later took control
of De Beers, where Nicky Oppenheimer,
“Over the next 20 or 30 years, the syn- 76, was chairman from 1998 to 2012.
ergies between Africa and Asia are going
to be substantial,” Collevecchio, 33, said Oppenheimer Generations, which was
in an interview. “We want to be here at the created after Anglo American bought the
start of that journey.” family’s 40% stake in the diamond firm,
now has more than two dozen employ-
The Oppenheimer family has a com- ees in South Africa, the U.K. and Jersey,
bined net worth of $8.2 billion, largely according to LinkedIn data. Its other in-
through the 2012 sale of their stake in De vestments include Tana Africa Capital, a
Beers for about $5 billion, according to the private equity joint venture set up a dec-
Bloomberg Billionaires Index. ade ago with Temasek to invest in African
companies.
The Oppenheimers join a growing num-
ber of billionaires turning to Singapore as “This is an incredibly exciting chal-
fortunes surge across Asia. lenge,” Collevecchio said about Asia. “We
see so much potential.”
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and
vacuum-cleaner billionaire James Dy-

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TAIPEI (Oct 20):Taiwan tech giant Fox- Foxconn says reuters
conn is looking at making electric vehicles looking at making
(EVs) in Europe, India and Latin Amer- Foxconn this month bought a factory
ica, including “indirectly” cooperating EVs in Europe, from U.S. startup Lordstown Motors Corp
with German automakers, Chairman Liu India, Latin to make electric cars. In August it bought
Young-way said on Wednesday. America a chip plant inTaiwan in a move to supply
future demand for auto chips.
Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Pre- by Ben Blanchard
cision Industry Co Ltd, aims to become a Reuters Foxconn, best known for making iP-
major player in the global EV market and hones for Apple Inc , has set a target to pro-
has clinched deals with U.S. startup Fisker vide components or services for 10% of the
Inc andThailand’s energy group PTT PCL. world’s EVs by between 2025 and 2027, as
it looks to diversify revenue streams away
Speaking to reporters at a business forum from being a contract electronics maker.
inTaipei after unveiling three EV prototypes
on Monday, Liu said that due to disclosure Liu, speaking earlier at the same forum,
restrictions he couldn’t provide any details of said Taiwan had a natural edge when it
its plans for Europe, India and LatinAmerica. came to making EVs because of its existing
strength in software and semiconductors.
“Europe will be a bit faster, I agree with
that. But as to where, I can’t tell you,” he said. “These are the advantages that Taiwan
has cultivated for many years and is best at.”
Asked if they would be cooperating with
German car firms he said “indirectly”, say- Foxconn’s shares closed up 0.5% on
ing the timeline would be Europe first, Wednesday, outperforming a 0.1% fall on
then India and Latin America, adding that the broader market. They are up almost
Mexico was “very possible”. 17% since the start of the year.

Liu has previously mentioned Mexico
as a possible EV production site.

He said they would be using what Fox-
conn refers to as its BOL model, meaning
Build, Operate, and Localise — investing
with partners to build and operate local
factories and then sell to local consumers.

In May, Foxconn and carmaker Stel-
lantis announced a plan https://www.
reuters.com/technology/stellantis-fox-
conn-form-connectivity-... to create a
joint venture to supply in-car and connect-
ed-car technologies across the auto industry.

SAN FRANCISCO (Oct 20): Micron Micron “We certainly want to very seriously as-
Technology Inc said on Wednesday it is considering new sess manufacturing in the US, because the
considering building a new memory fac- US memory chip US ought to have more than 2% of mem-
tory in the United States but that state factory as it gears ory manufacturing for the sake of national
and federal subsidies will be needed to security and for the sake of supply chain
offset costs that are higher than its fac- up spending resiliency,” Sadana said in an interview.
tories in Asia.
by Stephen Nellis Sadana said the company has not settled
The Boise, Idaho-based company is the Reuters on a country for its next factory for advanced
only American firm that makes both key chips.The factories will require tools such as
types of memory chips, competing against ASML Holdings’ extreme ultraviolet (EUV)
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co lithography machines, which can cost more
Ltd and SK Hynix and Japan’s Kioxia, than US$100 million each.
Toshiba’s former memory chip unit.
Micron plans to spend up to US$12
Micron has pilot manufacturing lines billion in capital expenditure and US$3
for developing new technologies at its billion on research and development next
Idaho headquarters and a factory in Vir- year, Sadana said, and up to US$150 bil-
ginia that turns out special high-reliabil- lion over the next decade.
ity chips for automobiles. But its most
advanced memory chips, which go into Micron estimates costs for memo-
devices including PCs, phones and data ry manufacturing are 45% higher in the
centers, are made in Taiwan, Japan and United States than in Asia, Sadana said.
Singapore.
He said Micron’s decision will depend
Sumit Sadana, Micron’s chief busi- on whether US subsidies for buildings fac-
ness officer, told Reuters memory chips tories and investment tax credits for expen-
are about 30% of the global semiconduc- sive tools — both of which are being debat-
tor market but only 2% are made in the ed in the US Congress — are put in place.
United States.
“We need these policies to be stable and
bipartisan in nature,” he said.

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Renault sees Reuters
bigger production

hit from chip
shortage
— sources

by Gilles Guillaume
Reuters

PARIS (Oct 20): French carmaker Renault The shortage in chips had come at tric vehicles would account for up to 90% of
expects to produce at least 300,000 fewer the worst possible time, automotive lob- its Renault brand sales by 2030, but compo-
vehicles this year due to a global shortage by group PFA said on Tuesday, as car- nent shortages have forced carmakers world-
in semiconductor chips, three sources close makers recovered from coronavirus dis- wide to cut or even suspend production.
to the firm told Reuters on Wednesday, a ruptions and shifted towards producing
much bigger hit than previously estimated. all-electric vehicles. All cars manufactured in the Europe-
an Union this year must comply with EU
The supply problems would cost Re- It said that chip supply constraints regulations that cap average CO2 emis-
nault, which is set to publish its third-quar- could stretch well into 2022. sions from new cars at 95g CO2/km, or
ter sales on Friday, over a third more than face heavy fines.
the 220,000 lost vehicles it forecast in early Renault said over the summer that elec-
September.

A Renault spokesperson declined to
comment.

“The forecasts change all the time, but
the shortfall will be between 300,000 and
400,00 vehicles,” said one of the sources.

The other two sources said this figure
could be between 350,000 and 380,000
vehicles.

TOKYO (Oct 20): Japan’s Tohoku Elec- Tohoku Electric with Chinese and South Korean buyers
tric Power has signed a contract with BP buys six LNG for cargoes in a tight spot market as freez-
for six cargoes of liquefied natural gas, two ing conditions hit the region for weeks on
trading sources told Reuters, avoiding pay- cargoes from BP end, sending Japanese electricity prices to
ing record high prices on the spot market in short-term global records.
for short-term supplies. deal — sources
This winter, the regional crunch looks
The cargoes will be delivered in the first by Aaron Sheldrick & Marwa Rashad set to be played out on a global scale as Eu-
half of next year and are priced at 20% Reuters rope struggles for gas supplies, benchmark
of Brent crude, the sources said, translat- prices in the United States are around sev-
ing into about US$17 per million British its fuel procurement strate- en-year highs, and economic growth in
thermal units (mmBtu) at current prices. gy. BP did not immediate- China is squeezed by power shortages.
ly respond to a request
That is less than half the prevailing for comment. Tohoku’s deal also underlines the ab-
spot price in Asia of US$38.50/mmBtu, Japanese LNG buy- sence of Japanese buyers in the spot market
a record high as an energy crisis engulfs ers have said they would as they rely on long-term contract supplies
much of the Northern target short-term sup- of LNG, where the average price was just
Hemisphere, driv- ply agreements when over US$10 mmBtu in August, according
ing a rally in oil and they need to top up to official trade figures.
pushing coal prices long-term contractu-
to historic highs. al cargoes of the su- Japan imported 5.41 million tonnes
per-chilled fuel. of LNG in September, figures from the
“They should Last winter they government showed onWednesday, down
be happy with that frantically competed 17% from a year earlier, another sign Japa-
price,” said one of nese buyers have avoided the spot market,
the trading sources, traders said.
who spoke on con-
dition of anonymity. LNG inventories in Japan are also sea-
sonally above average, but with electricity
A Tohoku Elec- prices rising in recent weeks,Tokyo-based
tric spokesper- executives and traders said they are con-
son said the utility cerned about another winter of high prices
would not discuss and the threat of blackouts.

Reuters

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MELBOURNE (Oct 20): Anglo-Australi- RioTinto ing coal in the steelmaking process to cut
an miner RioTinto announced onWednes- announces bold industry carbon emissions, and it has also
day a US$7.5 billion plan to reduce carbon US$7.5 billion said it is looking at hydrogen.
emissions by 50% by 2030, a reduction spend to halve
three times greater than its previous tar- carbon emissions But Rio did not commit to bigger reduc-
get, but shares fell as investors reacted to by 2030; shares fall tions for its customer emissions, currently
the higher spend. targeted at 30% by 2030.
by Melanie Burton
As steel and iron ore producers contin- Reuters Rio’s new targets blow past those of rival
ue their push to cut carbon emissions in BHP Group, which targets reducing its op-
line with global climate commitments by will happen in a lower-yield environment,” erational emissions by 30% by 2030, but still
2050, Rio said it sought to halve its scopes said RBC in a note. falls short of Fortescue Metals Group’s goals.
1 and 2 carbon emissions — direct emis-
sions by the company and certain types of “So although we think this is the right “Rio Tinto has finally joined the par-
indirect emissions, respectively — by the strategy it may take a significant amount ty with some very ambitious emissions
end of the decade. of time for the shares to reflect this.” reduction targets, showing BHP and its
shareholders what climate action for a di-
Rio brought forward its target to 2025 Rio raised its capital spending plans for versified miner should look like,” said ac-
for a 15% reduction in emissions from 2022 to US$8 billion from US$7.5 billion tivist investor the Australasian Centre for
2018 levels, five years faster than it had and said it expected to spend US$9 bil- Corporate Responsibility.
previously targeted. lion for 2023, and US$10 billion for 2024.
RBC had consensus estimates for 2023 Fortescue committed earlier this month
“It’s a massive shift but it’s the future for spending at US$6.8 billion and US$5.8 to achieving net zero emissions by 2040 from
RioTinto,” chief executive Jakob Stausholm billion for 2024. the operations of its steelmaking customers,
told a media briefing ahead of an investor by boosting hydrogen and green energy pro-
day conference and presentation. Stausholm said Rio was also taking a duction to cut its carbon footprint.
number of“tangible actions”towards helping
To meet this goal, Rio will increase its its customers reduce their emissions. To decarbonise its iron ore operations,
power from renewables, boost research and Rio plans to deploy one gigawatt (GW) of
development spending on decarbonisation The world’s biggest iron ore miner said solar and wind power generation, replacing
pathways, and also double spending on this month it was trialing new technology gas-fired power generation. It also intends
growth in minerals critical to the energy that would use biomass in place of cok- to decarbonise its Boyne Island andToma-
transition to about US$3 billion a year go aluminium smelters in Australia, which
from 2023. will require an estimated 5 GW of solar and
wind power generation. Rio’s aluminium
Shares were down 3.1% in London. business accounts for some 70% of its di-
“This transition towards more spend- rect and indirect emissions.The reductions
ing at a time where the prospects for iron compare to a 2018 baseline of 32.6 million
ore cash generation look challenged will tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from
further complicate this transition, as this Rio’s share of operations.

NEW DELHI/LONDON (Oct 20): The Energy crisis a Puri said high energy prices are impact-
current energy crisis is a wake-up call for wake-up call for ing global economic recovery, stoking in-
the need to invest more in the sector to more investment, flation and logistics costs. “If prices are not
avoid another energy supply crunch, Abu brought under control, global economic
Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) chief says ADNOC recovery could be fragile.”
executive officer (CEO) Sultan Ahmed CEO
al-Jaber told an energy conference on Oil prices have to be predictable, de-
Wednesday. by Nidhi Verma & Ahmad Ghaddar pendable, and stable, Puri said, adding that
Reuters high prices may also impact the producers
The oil minister of India, the world’s in the long run.
third biggest oil consumer and importer, bloomberg
echoed Jaber’s comments. India’s oil secretaryTarun Kapoor said:
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber “OPEC can very easily raise production
“Yes, a wake-up call. That there is not and gain confidence of consumers. If the
enough investment. In addition to that is sellers don’t come to help then the relia-
also the fact that the transition to green bility goes away.”
energy is also imposing a cost,” said the
minister, Hardeep Singh Puri. Both Jaber and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of
Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the
India is facing its worst power crisis in world will continue to need fossil fuels de-
years and has been hit hard by rising oil spite the transition to cleaner energy sources.
prices, with local fuel prices surging to re-
cord high and its trade deficit ballooning Prince Abdulaziz said there was a lack
to the highest in at least 14 years. of anticipation that the world economy
would grow as fast as it is doing now.
India imports 85% of its oil needs and
buys most of this from the Middle East “People all of a sudden woke up to the re-
producers. ality that they are running out of everything:
They ran out of investments, they ran out
The United Arab Emirates is investing of stocks, and they ran out of… creativity
boosting its oil and gas production, Jaber in trying to be attending to real solutions
said, adding that ADNOC would remain that address real issues,” Prince Abdulaziz
a trusted oil supplier to India. told the CERAWeek India Energy Forum.

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TAIPEI (Oct 20):Taiwan’s export orders Taiwan’s connectivity and showing off faster chips
set a record in September, growing faster September and sharper cameras without raising the
than expected on demand for new smart- export orders phone’s price.
phones and chips and ahead of the year- beat forecast as
end holiday shopping season, and the gov- China curbs loom Looking ahead, the ministry warned of
ernment said the outlook was good, though uncertainty from China’s energy curbs,
uncertainty over China’s economy cast a by Roger Tung & Ben Blanchard which have shuttered factories in parts
shadow. Reuters of the country, and global risk from the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwan’s export orders, a bellwether of bloomberg
global technology demand, rose 25.7% However, the year-end holiday shop-
from a year earlier to $62.9 billion in ping season and demand for 5G and oth-
September, a historic high, data from the er new technologies will help maintain
Ministry of Economic Affairs showed on steady growth for export orders, the min-
Wednesday. istry added.

That was the 19th month of expan- The ministry’s statistics director Huang
sion, and the pace was much faster than Yu-ling said they expected full year export
the median forecast of a rise of 17% in a orders to rise more than 20% compared
Reuters poll. with 2020.

The ministry said new smartphone In August, export orders jumped 17.6%
launches and demand for new technolo- from a year earlier to $53.5 billion.
gies helped sustain export orders, as well
as stockpiling for Christmas and NewYear The ministry said it expects export or-
holidays. ders in October to rise between 22.1%
and 25% from a year earlier.
Taiwanese companies such as Foxconn
and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufactur- Orders from the United States rose
ing Co Ltd (TSMC) are major suppliers 29.3% in September from a year earlier,
to Apple Inc, Qualcomm Inc and other a faster rate of expansion compared with
global tech firms. the 19.2% logged in August, while orders
from China were up 11.5%, versus a gain
Apple unveiled the iPhone 13 and a of 15.9% the previous month.
new iPad mini last month, expanding 5G
Orders from Europe leapt 53.1%, while
those from Japan were up 2.6%.

(Oct 20): Results from companies Procter Diapers to yogurt, into widespread constraints impacting our
& Gamble Co and Danone SA as well as global firms face supply chain in many parts of the world,”
phone maker Ericsson on Tuesday show higher costs amid said Danone’s finance chief Juergen Esser.
higher costs and supply chain disruptions,
signaling more margin pressure for global supply-chain Sweden’s Ericsson told investors on
firms and higher prices for shoppers. woes Tuesday global supply chain issues will
still be a major hurdle.
Panic-buying at the start of the pan- Reuters
demic led to mass shortages of everything “Late in Q3 we experienced some im-
from toilet paper to packaged foods. Glob- reuters pact on sales from disturbances in the sup-
al lockdowns and labor shortages crimped ply chain, and such issues will continue to
supply chain movement and caused lasting productivity gains and price increases. pose a risk,” Chief Executive Officer Börje
log-jams at ports from China to California. “Like just about everyone across the sec- Ekholm said in a statement.

Many companies have leaned on price tor and beyond, we see inflationary pres- The company was not able to deliver
increases to offset higher prices for ma- sures across the board.What started as in- certain hardware to its customers due to
terials needed to make and ship essential creased inflation on material costs evolved a chip shortage at suppliers, coupled with
necessities like diapers and bottled water. logistics problems, it said.
Executives and analysts have said price in-
creases will linger into next year. Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc is due
to report results on Wednesday. Investors
Procter & Gamble, which noted its are closely watching the car maker’s mar-
first-quarter operating margins were gins. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk
squeezed, now expects a hit of about has previously said the company is spending
$2.3 billion in expenses this fiscal year, heavily to fly car parts around the world
compared with a prior forecast of about to meet demand, while at the same time
$1.9 billion. working to cut costs at its factory in China
by sourcing more local parts.
The company is blaming higher raw
material costs as well as diesel and energy Some investors want to see how those
prices, and said it does not expect those costs add up.
issues to ease up anytime soon.
“I think that there is probably a head-
Danone, which sells Activa yogurt and wind to margins.They’re paying more for
Evian bottled water, warned of growing in- components,” said Gene Munster, man-
flationary pressures next year after sticking aging partner at venture capital firm Loup
by its 2021 outlook on Tuesday, pledging Ventures, an investor inTesla. “I think that
its operating margins will be protected by would be a huge positive if they can raise
auto gross margin in this environment.”

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Nestle raises Nestle shares, up 8% so far this year, Deliveroo
full-year growth were expected to open 0.8% higher in upgrades
outlook thanks pre-market trading. full-year forecast
to coffee, higher
The maker of KitKat chocolate bars and by Paul Sandle
prices plant-based burger patties has guided for Reuters
a 4% increase in input costs this year and
by Silke Koltrowitz said last month that cost inflation would LONDON (Oct 20): Deliveroo upgraded
Reuters likely be even higher in 2022. its full-year growth forecast on Wednes-
day after the gross value of its orders in
ZURICH (Oct 20): Nestle raised its Global supply chains are under strain the third quarter increased 58% year-on-
sales guidance on Wednesday, saying it due to factors such as a resurgence of Cov- year, despite lockdown measures easing
now expected full-year organic growth id-19 cases in Asia and staff shortages in in most of its markets.
of 6%-7% after strong coffee sales and the United States.
price hikes pushed organic sales 6.5% The British food delivery firm , which
higher in the third quarter. Peer Danone warned on Tuesday of had performed strongly during lockdowns,
growing inflationary pressures next year, said it expected its gross transactional val-
Like its peers, the world’s biggest while Procter & Gamble Co said it would ue to rise by 60-70% this year, up from its
food group is facing pressure on mar- raise prices in the United States to counter previous forecast of 50-60%.
gins from rising input costs, but it kept higher costs.
its outlook for a stable margin this year Founder and chief executive Will Shu
as price increases of 2.1% in the third At Nestle, organic sales — which strip said Deliveroo made good progress in the
quarter helped mitigate input cost in- out acquisitions, divestitures and curren- quarter, including launching a new rapid
flation. cy swings — rose 7.6% in the first nine grocery delivery service called Deliveroo
months, the group said in a statement, Hop. “While we are mindful of current
“The company knocked it out of beating a forecast for a 6.6% increase in a and potential macroeconomic disruptions
the park for the third quarter,” Kepler company-compiled consensus. and uncertainties, we expect further strong
Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox said, adding performance in the remainder of the year
the quarterly pricing component was Strong coffee sales were a driver, with and we are increasing our full year GTV
the strongest since the first half of 2015. Starbucks-branded products posting 15.5% growth guidance,” he said.
growth and Nespresso portioned coffee
“Most companies with strong brands also up 11%. Out-of-home consumption The value of Deliveroo’s orders in the
will be able to pass on prices and I think of food and drinks — severely hit during the quarter increased to 1.59 billion pounds,
the market still does not get that,” he pandemic — recovered further, Nestle said. with the number of orders increasing 64% to
said. 74.6 million.The average size of each order
The Swiss company had previously fell by 4% to 21.4 pounds, Deliveroo said.
raised its full-year guidance to 5%-6% in
July. It still expects an underlying trading
operating profit margin at about 17.5% this
year and a “continued moderate margin
improvement” in the mid term.

Anglo-Dutch rival Unilever is due to
give a trading update onThursday.

OSLO (Oct 20): Norwegian robotics firm AutoStore, billion at the time. SoftBank did not sell
AutoStore said onWednesday it had priced Norway’s biggest stock in the IPO.
its initial public offering (IPO) at 31 Nor-
wegian crowns per share, the top of its tar- IPO in two “SoftBank is a very good partner,
get range, valuing the company at 103.5 decades, valued at ready to help us drive more attention in
billion crowns ($12.4 billion). the APAC region ... they have a large net-
US$12.4 billion work of companies that can potentially be
SoftBank-backed AutoStore will be AutoStore customers so we see a lot of
Norway’s most valuable new listing for two by Gwladys Fouche potential with the relationship,” Lier said.
decades when it goes public on Euronext’s & Supantha Mukherjee
Oslo Stock Exchange later onWednesday. AutoStore is Norway’s most valuable
Reuters new listing since the 2001 debut of Statoil,
The company raised 2.7 billion crowns now known as Equinor, which was valued
in cash from the issue of new shares, while Founded in 1996,AutoStore has 20,000 at 151 billion crowns at the time of its IPO.
existing owners such as Thomas H. Lee robots deployed across more than 35 coun-
Partners, EQT and others sold stock worth tries to automate warehouses.The company, Four cornerstone investors, Alecta Pen-
15.3 billion crowns. whose customers include ASDA, Gucci and sionsforsakring, FIL Investments, Mawer
Lufthansa, uses robots to store and retrieve Investment Management and WCM In-
“The money we get from the IPO will products, allowing customers to store four vestment Management, had each commit-
be used primarily to deleverage the debt times the inventory in the same space. ted to invest $200 million ahead of the IPO.
to a level that is more normal for a pub-
lic company,” CEO Karl Johan Lier told In April, Japan’s SoftBank bought a AutoStore reported net revenue of $182.1
Reuters. 40% stake in the Norwegian company for million last year and expects revenue of about
$2.8 billion, valuing AutoStore at about $7 $300 million in 2021, rising to more than
He plans to bring down the leverage $500 million in 2022 with a project pipe-
ratio to around 2.5 from the current ratio line worth $3.4 billion across 2,000 projects.
of between 5 and 6.
Bankers from Carnegie, J.P Morgan,
Following the IPO, the free float of Au- Morgan Stanley, ABG Sundal Collier, Cit-
toStore shares will amount to about 17.4% igroup, Jefferies, Mizuho, SpareBank 1 Mar-
of the overall equity. kets and Moelis were involved in the deal.

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world

Singapore tor of Straits Bunkering Pte Ltd, Shafiq reuters
charges two Nezammuddin, as kickbacks for nominat-
people for ing Straits for the supply of bunker fuel Japanese
corrupt marine to KPI’s customers, the CPIB statement volcano spews
fuel trading said on Tuesday. plumes of ash,
people warned
practices “Afzal had also allegedly obtained a
gratification in the form of a S$90,000 away
by Roslan Khasawneh (about US$67,000) loan from Shafiq as
Reuters an inducement for the same purpose,” the by Ju-min Park
statement said. Reuters
SINGAPORE (Oct 20): Singapore au-
thorities have charged two individuals in In addition, Afzal had allegedly given TOKYO (Oct 20): A volcano erupted in
court for alleged corruption in relation to gratifications totalling about US$165,000 Japan on Wednesday, blasting ash sev-
the trade and supply of marine fuels, the to other individuals on multiple occasions eral miles into the sky and prompting
Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau as “inducements or rewards for them to officials to warn against the threat of
(CPIB) said in a statement. place orders with KPI for the supply of lava flows and falling rocks, but there
bunker fuel.” were no reports of injuries or casualties.
Afzal Mohamed Ekbar, a bunker trad-
er at KPI Bridge Oil Singapore Pte Ltd KPI Bridge Oil and Straits Bunkering Mount Aso, a tourist destination on
at the time, had allegedly obtained at did not immediately respond to requests the main southern island of Kyushu,
least US$191,000 on multiple occasions for comment. sent plumes of ash 3.5 km (2.2 miles)
between 2017 and 2018 from the direc- high when it erupted at about 11:43
Singapore, the world’s top marine refu- a.m. (0243 GMT), the Japan Meteor-
elling bunkering hub, has tightened rules ological Agency said.
in recent years to boost transparency and
prevent cheating in the notoriously opaque It raised the alert level for the volcano
industry. to 3 on a scale of 5, telling people not
to approach, and warned of a risk of
In September, authorities sentenced large falling rocks and pyroclastic flows
nine people to up to three years in jail for within a radius of about 1 km (0.6 mile)
cheating buyers out of US$337,000 worth around the mountain's Nakadake crater.
of shipping fuel.
Local police said there were no re-
LONDON (Oct 20): Britain’s Queen Eliz- Queen Elizabeth ports of people injured or missing as of
abeth, the world’s longest-reigning mon- told to rest by Wednesday evening, and that 16 people
arch, cancelled a planned visit to Northern who had gone hiking on the mountain
Ireland onWednesday and accepted med- doctors — Palace earlier on the day came back safely.
ical advice to rest for the next few days,
Buckingham Palace said. by Guy Faulconbridge & Kate Holton Television networks broadcast imag-
Reuters es of a dark cloud of ash looming over
The queen, 95, has reigned for almost the volcano that swiftly obscured large
seven decades. She was just 25 when she The queen sent her “warmest good swathes of the mountain.
became Queen Elizabeth II on Feb 6, 1952 wishes to the people of Northern Ireland,
on the death of her father. and looks forward to visiting in the future”, Ash falls from the 1,592-metre
the palace said. (5,222-foot) mountain in the prefecture
“The queen has reluctantly accept- of Kumamoto are expected to shower
ed medical advice to rest for the next few Just this week, Elizabeth brushed aside nearby towns until late afternoon, the
days,” the palace said. “Her Majesty is in an attempt by a magazine to award her the weather agency added.
good spirits and is disappointed that she will title of “Oldie of theYear”, saying that she
no longer be able to visit Northern Ireland, felt too young at heart. Mount Aso had a small eruption in
where she had been due to undertake a se- 2019, while Japan's worst volcanic dis-
ries of engagements today and tomorrow.” aster in nearly 90 years killed 63 people
on Mount Ontake in September 2014.
A source said the queen’s decision was
not related to Covid.

t h u r s d a y o c t o b e r 2 1 , 2 0 2 1 24 T h e E d g e C E O m o r n i n g b r i e f

MARKETS

CPO RM 5,071.00127.00 OIL US$ 84.04-1.04 RM/USD 4.1597 RM/SGD 3.0956 RM/AUD 3.1148 RM/GBP 5.7336 RM/EUR 4.8355

Top 20 active stocks

NAME VOLUME CHANGE CLOSE YTD MARKET
(MIL) (RM) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL)

Daya Materials Bhd 126.1 0.005 0.020 33.33 40.9

M3 Technologies Asia Bhd 109.9 0.005 0.065 0.00 58.1

Joe Holding Bhd 103.6 0.005 0.050 -54.55 153.0

Macpie Bhd 97.2 0.000 0.130 -45.26 123.0

Kanger International Bhd 74.1 0.000 0.050 -65.52 298.9

Pasukhas Group Bhd 69.4 0.000 0.050 -86.14 57.9

AirAsia Group Bhd 57.8 -0.030 1.130 27.68 4404.8

Mag Holdings Bhd 56.5 0.000 0.215 7.50 299.6

Hiap Teck Venture Bhd 56.4 -0.035 0.660 43.48 1139.3 World equity indices

My EG Services Bhd 56.1 0.000 1.050 9.38 7,558.5

Bintai Kinden Corp Bhd 54.1 0.015 0.445 -27.64 169.6 CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE
(%)
Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd 52.3 -0.010 0.935 61.21 1876.4 DOW JONES 35,457.31 198.70 0.56 (%)
INDONESIA 6,656.00 -2.77 -0.04
Bumi Armada Bhd 47.9 -0.010 0.530 51.43 3130.7

KNM Group Bhd 46.7 0.000 0.225 9.76 749.8 S&P 500 4,519.63 33.17 0.74 JAPAN 29,255.55 40.03 0.14

Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd 46.2 -0.005 0.380 -78.41 1409.7 NASDAQ 100 15,410.72 109.83 0.72 KOREA 3,013.13 -15.91 -0.53

Inari Amertron Bhd 45.5 0.050 3.850 40.28 14188.3 FTSE 100 7,222.72 5.19 0.07 PHILIPPINES 7,297.08 30.77 0.42

Nextgreen Global Bhd 36.7 0.140 1.220 205.00 888.7 AUSTRALIA 7,413.67 38.82 0.53 SINGAPORE 3,198.08 -0.93 -0.03

Destini Bhd 35.6 -0.015 0.240 -11.11 399.2 CHINA 3,587.00 -6.15 -0.17 TAIWAN 16,887.82 -12.85 -0.08

Scope Industries Bhd 33.5 0.015 0.365 22.75 421.1 HONG KONG 26,136.02 348.81 1.35 THAILAND 1,637.55 7.16 0.44

Harn Len Corp Bhd 30.2 0.150 0.960 31.51 194.4 INDIA 61,259.96 -456.09 -0.74 VIETNAM 1,393.80 -1.53 -0.11

Data as compiled on Oct 20, 2021 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Oct 20, 2021 Source: Bloomberg

Top gainers (ranked by %) Top losers (ranked by %)

NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET
(%) (‘000) CHANGE CAP (%) (‘000) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL) (%) (RM MIL)

Pegasus Heights Bhd 0.010 100.000 7640.5 -60.00 107.7 Talam Transform Bhd 0.025 -16.67 53.9 -16.67 107.4

Vsolar Group Bhd 0.015 50.000 1582.1 -62.50 68.5 CME Group BHD 0.040 -11.11 117.1 -33.33 38.7

Daya Materials Bhd 0.020 33.330 126085.8 33.33 40.9 Dolomite Corp Bhd 0.045 -10.00 1715.9 -60.87 26.6

Eduspec Holdings Bhd 0.020 33.330 1045.6 0.00 57.9 Alam Maritim Resources Bhd 0.045 -10.00 1024.8 -47.06 68.9

Nexgram Holdings Bhd 0.025 25.000 175.7 -44.44 110.4 Focus Dynamics Group Bhd 0.050 -9.09 2416.0 -92.31 318.6

Key Alliance Group Bhd 0.030 20.000 572.6 -40.00 76.6 Euro Holdings Bhd 0.520 -8.77 7364.6 -82.07 417.0

Harn Len Corp Bhd 0.960 18.520 30170.2 31.51 194.4 AT Systematization Bhd 0.055 -8.33 2047.4 -70.27 279.6

Metronic Global Bhd 0.035 16.670 1098.5 -65.00 75.9 Alcom Group Bhd 0.940 -7.84 2723.4 57.98 126.3

HPP Holdings Bhd 0.610 16.190 10506.7 0.00 236.9 Annum Bhd 1.060 -7.83 977.3 -17.83 79.5

TH Plantations Bhd 0.830 14.480 11917.2 45.61 733.6 MQ Technology Bhd 0.065 -7.14 9247.3 -51.85 57.0

XOX BHD 0.040 14.290 2244.2 -63.64 161.4 Central Global Bhd 1.060 -7.02 1503.3 198.59 100.5

Nextgreen Global Bhd 1.220 12.960 36655.0 205.00 888.7 Golden Land Bhd 0.465 -7.00 98.1 8.14 99.7

Green Ocean Corp Bhd 0.045 12.500 1228.5 -50.00 95.0 Asian Pac Holdings Bhd 0.135 -6.90 1186.0 -3.57 141.8

AE Multi Holdings Bhd 0.045 12.500 451.5 -63.15 97.4 G3 Global Bhd 0.070 -6.67 1487.4 -86.07 151.5

Bina Darulaman Bhd 0.585 12.500 2500.0 51.95 177.8 Melewar Industrial Group Bhd 0.445 -6.32 5299.2 -18.35 159.9

Complete Logistic Services Bhd 2.090 11.760 1895.0 198.57 268.9 TECHNA-X Bhd 0.075 -6.25 1112.8 -53.13 152.4

Subur Tiasa Holdings Bhd 1.370 11.380 3952.9 90.28 258.0 Saudee Group Bhd 0.075 -6.25 2081.8 -82.01 53.7

Tiger Synergy Bhd 0.050 11.110 24010.5 -54.43 128.5 Ocean Vantage Holdings Bhd 0.320 -5.88 4474.9 -28.09 131.5

Joe Holding Bhd 0.050 11.110 103646.4 -54.55 153 Destini Bhd 0.240 -5.88 35635.4 -11.11 399.2

Asia Media Group Bhd 0.150 11.110 4305.8 -11.76 35.9 SC Estate Builder Bhd 0.080 -5.88 19694.6 33.33 85.9

Data as compiled on Oct 20, 2021 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Oct 20, 2021 Source: Bloomberg

Top gainers (ranked by RM) Top losers (ranked by RM)

NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET
(RM) (‘000) CHANGE CAP (RM) (‘000) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL) (%) (RM MIL)

Genetec Technology Bhd 47.58 2.20 510.2 2650.29 2459 PMB Technology Bhd 14.920 -0.620 444.4 225.76 3135.2

Malaysian Pacific Industries 46.00 0.80 163.5 77.20 9149.2 Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia 22.380 -0.220 58.5 -3.70 6842.6

Nestle Malaysia Bhd 134.00 0.70 65.5 -3.53 31423 Ann Joo Resources Bhd 2.610 -0.150 4041.9 66.24 1416.3

DKSH Holdings Malaysia Bhd 5.85 0.31 572 72.57 922.3 Press Metal Aluminium Holdings 6.020 -0.150 12081.7 43.50 48618.8

Seni Jaya Corp BHD 2.86 0.26 132.8 257.50 138.8 Genting Plantations Bhd 7.490 -0.140 619.2 -23.06 6720.0

Westports Holdings Bhd 4.65 0.25 4801.5 8.14 15856.5 Hengyuan Refining Co Bhd 4.710 -0.110 848.5 -21.37 1413.0

Complete Logistic Services Bhd 2.09 0.22 1895 198.57 268.9 RHB Bank Bhd 5.780 -0.110 5138 6.06 23515.1

Khind Holdings Bhd 4.13 0.20 359.7 40.96 165.4 Negri Sembilan Oil Palms BHD 3.320 -0.110 17.3 5.07 233.1

Greatech Technology Bhd 7.18 0.18 2221 57.80 8990 Kossan Rubber Industries 2.350 -0.110 11919.1 -46.63 5996.3

Keck Seng Malaysia Bhd 4.01 0.16 415.9 4.43 1440.8 Kesm Industries Bhd 12.140 -0.100 17.6 -10.60 522.2

Hong Leong Financial Group 18.54 0.16 218.6 2.66 21232.8 Annum Bhd 1.060 -0.090 977.3 -17.83 79.5

Harn Len Corp Bhd 0.96 0.15 30170.2 31.51 194.4 Ta Ann Holdings Bhd 3.200 -0.090 3306.9 5.61 1409.5

Frontken Corp Bhd 3.80 0.14 4615.7 60.56 5975.2 Hong Leong Industries Bhd 9.070 -0.080 39.0 2.02 2897.6

Subur Tiasa Holdings Bhd 1.37 0.14 3952.9 90.28 258 Genting Bhd 5.250 -0.080 2966.1 19.69 20215.5

AEON Credit Service M Bhd 13.72 0.14 289.3 14.33 3502.8 Central Global Bhd 1.060 -0.080 1503.3 198.59 100.5

Widetech Malaysia BHD 4.54 0.14 146 656.67 203.2 Alcom Group Bhd 0.940 -0.080 2723.4 57.98 126.3

Nextgreen Global Bhd 1.22 0.14 36655 205.00 888.7 Sungei Bagan Rubber Co Malaya 3.520 -0.080 59.7 13.55 233.5

Petronas Dagangan Bhd 20.22 0.14 169.8 -5.51 20087.6 Coastal Contracts Bhd 1.230 -0.070 3834.7 70.83 642.7

Wong Engineering Corp Bhd 1.69 0.12 3919.7 168.25 185.6 TAFI Industries Bhd 1.890 -0.070 5461.1 213.46 234.2

UMS Holdings BHD 2.44 0.12 3.5 35.56 99.3 Genting Malaysia Bhd 3.210 -0.070 9157.8 22.64 18146.8

Data as compiled on Oct 20, 2021 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Oct 20, 2021 Source: Bloomberg