The Edge 08072022

CHINA CONSIDERS US$220 BIL STIMULUS WITH
UNPRECEDENTED BOND SALES p19

F R I DAY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 w w w. t h e e d g e m a r k e t s. c o m

ISSUE 407/2022

CEOMorningBrief
HOME: Economists: Malaysia’s jobless rate won’t return to pre-pandemic levels for now p5
Govt testing mechanism for targeted fuel subsidies, will present to Cabinet once ready, says Zafrul p6

Whole industry now supports Govt’s SWN plan for 5G, says Axiata chairman p9
WORLD: US weekly jobless claims rise; layoffs hit 16-month high in June p18
Tycoon whose bet broke the nickel market walks away a billionaire p26

Boris Johnson quits as UK PM,
dragged down by scandals

Report on Page 2.

Buyers are seeking
to renegotiate palm
oil contracts as CPO

price slumps

Report on Page 4.

FRIDAY JULY 8, 2022 2 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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Boris Johnson quits as UK PM,
dragged down by scandals

LONDON (July 7): Scandal-ridden Boris BY KATE HOLTON, ELIZABETH PIPER mised by finance minister, Nadhim Za-
Johnson announced onThursday he would & ALISTAIR SMOUT hawi, who was only appointed to his post
quit as British prime minister after he dra- Reuters on Tuesday, calling on his boss to resign.
matically lost the support of his ministers and
most Conservative lawmakers, but said he among Conservative Party members to Zahawi and other cabinet ministers
would stay on until his successor was chosen. replace Johnson, followed by junior trade went to Downing Street on Wednesday
minister Penny Mordaunt and former fi- evening, along with a senior representa-
Bowing to the inevitable as more than nance minister Rishi Sunak. tive of those lawmakers not in government,
50 ministers quit and lawmakers said he to tell Johnson the game was up.
must go, an isolated and powerless Johnson While Johnson said he would stay on,
said it was clear his party wanted someone opponents and many in his own party said Initially, Johnson refused to go and
else in charge, but that his forced depar- he should leave immediately and hand over seemed set to dig in, sacking Michael Gove
ture was “eccentric”. to his deputy, Dominic Raab. Former Con- — a member of his top ministerial team who
servative prime minister John Major said was one of the first to tell him he needed to
“Today I have appointed a cabinet to it was “unwise and maybe unsustainable” resign — in a bid to reassert his authority.
serve, as I will, until a new leader is in for him to remain in office when he could
place,” Johnson said outside his Downing still exert its powers. But by Thursday morning as a slew of
Street office where his speech was watched resignations poured in — including that of
by close allies and his wife Carrie. “For the overall well-being of the coun- Michelle Donelan who he only appointed
try, Mr Johnson should not remain in education secretary on Tuesday night — it
“I know that there will be many people Downing Street — when he is unable to became clear his position was untenable.
who are relieved and perhaps quite a few command the confidence of the House
who will also be disappointed. And I want of Commons — for any longer than nec- “You must do the right thing and go
you to know how sad I am to be giving up essary to effect the smooth transition of now,” Zahawi tweeted.
the best job in the world. But them’s the government,” Major said in a letter re-
breaks,” he added, making no apology for leased to media. Some of those that remained in post,
the events that forced his announcement. includingWallace, had said they were only
Keir Starmer, leader of the main oppo- doing so because they had an obligation
There were cheers and applause as he sition Labour Party, said he would call a to keep the country safe.
began his speech, while boos rang out from parliamentary confidence vote if the Con-
some outside the gates of Downing Street. servatives did not remove Johnson at once. Once it was clear he was standing down,
Johnson began appointing ministers to va-
After days of battling for his job, Johnson ‘You must do the right thing and go now’ cant posts.
had been deserted by all but a handful of his The crisis comes as Britons are facing the
closest allies after the latest in a series of scan- tightest squeeze on their finances in dec- “It is our duty now to make sure the peo-
dals sapped their willingness to support him. ades, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandem- ple of this country have a functioning gov-
ic, with soaring inflation and the economy ernment,” Michael Ellis, a minister in the
“It was a short and bizarre resignation forecast to be the weakest among major Cabinet Office department which oversees
speech which didn’t mention the word nations in 2023 apart from Russia. the running of government, told parliament.
resign or resignation once. There was no Click here for the full story
apology, no contrition,” Conservative It also follows years of internal division Read also:
lawmaker Andrew Bridgen said. “There sparked by the narrow 2016 vote to leave What next for UK economy as Boris
was no apology for the crisis his actions the European Union, and threats to the Johnson quits? Click here
have put our government, our democra- make-up of the United Kingdom itself with The many scandals of Boris Johnson’s
cy, through.” demands for another Scottish independ- premiership Click here
ence referendum, the second in a decade.
The Conservatives will now have to
elect a new leader, a process which could Support for Johnson had evaporated
take weeks or months, with details to be during one of the most turbulent 24 hours
announced next week. in recent British political history, epito-

A snapYouGov poll found that defence
minister Ben Wallace was the favourite

Note: Dear readers, there will be no CEO Morning Brief on Tuesday (July 12) as we are taking a break for Hari Raya Aidiladha.
We will be back on Wednesday (July 13). For the latest news during the holidays, check out https://www.theedgemarkets.com/.

FRIday juLY 8, 2022 3 TheEdge CEO morning brief

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Buyers are seeking Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives CPO future contract
to renegotiate
(RM) Last settlement Change
palm oil contracts 5000 4,275
as CPO price 3,946 4,120 4,135 4,173 4,228
slumps 4000

by Justin Lim 3000
theedgemarkets.com
2000
KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): The rapid fall
in crude palm oil prices in the past month has 1000 -127 53 80 105 128 137
prompted contract renegotiations between oil 0 July August November December
traders and buyers who are taking the deliver- September October
ies now, as an increasing number of buyers de- -1000 2022
clined to take delivery of the vegetable oil that
were locked in previously at much higher prices. Source: Bursa Malaysia Derivatives

Traders are unlikely to be able to sell the veg- remain weak until Indonesia’s palm oil stocks to three million to 3.5 million tonnes/month
etable oil at anything above RM6,000 per tonne, fall to between four million and five million to clear stocks ahead of the peak produc-
according to traders who spoke to The Edge. tonnes from as high as 8 million to 8.5 million tion season.
tonne they were estimated to be at end-June.
When contacted, Abdul Hameed, sales “We are of the view that to clear the excess
director of Manzoor Trading based in La- “I don’t think the situation will improve stockpile, Indonesia’s palm producers will
hore, Pakistan, said traders are facing “huge (anytime soon) due to good production, high need to entice buyers by lowering CPO pric-
losses” amid the sharp drop in CPO prices, inventories and slower demand,” he said, high- es — causing local and international CPO
dragged by high palm oil inventory and the lighting also concerns about the peak produc- prices to fall significantly in recent weeks.
anticipation of lower demand ahead of a po- tion season for palm oil that has just begun. We think CPO prices could stay weak dur-
tential global recession. ing the adjustment period and trade at larger
CGS-CIMB, meanwhile, estimates that discounts over competing edible oils until
“Traders are facing huge losses in Pakistan Malaysia’s palm oil inventory would grow to Indonesia’s palm oil stocks fall to the four
and India as well due to costly purchases of a seven-month high of 1.68 million tonnes million to five million tonnes level,” it added.
(CPO stocks at) near US$1,750 (per tonne) by end-June — up 10.5% from end-May
and now the market (value for the CPO futures and up 4.2% year-on-year — due to higher It should be noted that palm oil top pro-
contract) is near US$1,000,” he said. output and lower exports. ducer Indonesia had on last Friday (July 1)
announced a plan to increase its export quo-
He said buyers are asking to replace their “The weaker Malaysian exports were due tas in an attempt to cut bloated domestic
existing oil palm deliveries contract with new to higher palm oil exports from Indonesia inventories. Previously, Indonesia imposed
ones at lower prices. after the lifting of its export ban on May a three-week export ban starting from April
23, which shifted some palm oil demand to 28 till May 23. It is understood that the tem-
With excess stock and the prospects of Indonesia from Malaysia,” according to the porary ban and various curbs on shipments
lower demand, he said the outlook for CPO research house in a note Tuesday. caused local stockpiles to overflow and prices
prices looks bearish, signalling further weak- of fresh fruit bunches to crash.
ness in CPO prices in the near future. It said the changes in export policy
throughout the first half of the year might Since Indonesia removed its export ban,
“There is a possibility that CPO prices have led Indonesia’s palm oil stocks to rise CPO price for September delivery has fall-
could fall below the RM3,500 or RM3,000 lev- to as high as 8 million to 8.5 million tonnes en 35% or RM2,184 from its recent peak
el mark this month,” he took toTwitter to share at end-June (versus 3.6 million tonnes as at of RM6,324 on June 7, 2022, Bloomberg
on Thursday, adding that the CPO price will end-December 2021, and 6.1 million tonnes data showed. At press time on Thursday,
at end-April 2022). the benchmark CPO price added RM85 to
RM4,140 a tonne, from its previous close.
“As such, we estimate Indonesia will need
to speed up exports over the next few months

(July 7): Palm oil snapped a four-day losing Palm oil halts The selloff was triggered by Indonesia’s
streak as commodities including crude oil slump as China’s move to ramp up exports to slash its bloat-
and metals jumped on China’s US$220 stimulus plan aids ed inventories by allowing producers to ship
billion stimulus plan. volumes at a rate of seven times their domes-
commodities tic sales obligation, up from five times.The
Futures for September delivery rose country’s palm oil board said that stockpiles
2.1% to close at RM4,140 (US$935) a by Sing Yee Ong may return to normal by the end of August,
ton, reversing an earlier slump of 4.8%. Bloomberg if the government accelerates permit issuance
and exporters speed up shipments.
China is considering allowing local gov- trading and hedging strategies at Kaleesuwari
ernments to sell 1.5 trillion yuan (US$220 Intercontinental. Prices have the potential to Meanwhile, Malaysian supplies are ex-
billion) of special bonds in the second half, improve further in the coming days, he said. pected to pick up as the country enters a
an unprecedented acceleration of infra- high productivity cycle. Stockpiles prob-
structure funding. ably jumped about 13% in June from a
month earlier to 1.72 million tons, the
The recent slide in palm oil to a low biggest monthly increase in 10 months,
of RM3,735 Wednesday could also have according to a Bloomberg survey.
spurred bargain hunting and short cover-
ing, said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, head of

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KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Although Economists: Employment growth forecasted at +2.5%
Malaysia’s labour market has shown per- Malaysia’s jobless (2021: +2%) while unemployment to
sistent improvement, it is still unlikely to rate won’t return shrink by -15% this year (2021: +3%),”
fully recover to pre-pandemic levels at this to pre-pandemic the research house said.
juncture given multiple headwinds on the
horizon, said UOB Research. levels for now The Departmemt of Statistics Malaysia
(DOSM), in its latest data on Thursday
“Worsening supply chain disruptions, by Justin Lim (July 7), said the May unemployment rate
elevated cost and consumer price pres- theedgemarkets.com was unchanged from April’s 3.9%. It not-
sures, as well as mounting fears of global ed that the April 2022 unemployment rate
recession may soon see more firms hitting ernment’s ongoing policy support for tar- dipped below 4% for the first time since
the brakes on recruitment,” said UOB sen- geted and vulnerable groups remain key the Covid-19 outbreak began in early 2020
ior economist Julia Goh and economist positive drivers of the labour market re-
Loke Siew Ting. covery in the near term. It added that Malaysia’s number of un-
employed persons declined to 637,700 in
In a note, they cited the S&P Global Offering a similar view, MIDF Research May 2022 from 649,300 in April 2022
manufacturing survey for Malaysia, which projected Malaysia’s jobless rate for 2022 while the country’s labour force increased
showed that goods producers reported job to be at 3.8% — lower than 4.6% in 2021 to 16.54 million persons in May 2022 from
shedding for the fifth consecutive month in but still higher than the pre-pandemic’s 16.5 million in April 2022.
June as a result of the non-replacement of 3.4%.
voluntary leavers, a lack of available work- Its chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr
ers from abroad, and reducing outstanding It said the labour market is expected to Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in the statement
business in tandem with subdued demand strengthen further in the second half of the that the recovery in the Malaysian labour
conditions. year underpinned by upbeat momentum market in May continued to be stable and
in the domestic economy and steady ex- aligned with full operation of all econom-
The survey also showed that manufac- pansion in the external sector. ic activities.
turers grew increasingly concerned that
rising input costs and output prices amid “In addition, we foresee slight improve- Mohd Uzir said the encouraging eco-
sustained material shortages and elevated ment of non-citizen hiring. Employment of nomic activities during the month stimu-
energy prices would weigh on the man- the workers had declined by -1.8% in 2020 lated more demand for goods and servic-
ufacturing sector, alongside the ongoing and -2.9% in 2021 which brought to total es, thus, providing more opportunities for
impact of the pandemic globally. more than 100,000 leaving the workforce businesses to revive their revenues.
due to the pandemic. Non-citizen worker
“This coupled with concerns about the constitutes about 10% of Malaysia’s work- “The labour market is also observed
timing of a full global recovery brought the ing population,” said MIDF Research. to expand as more demand and supply of
degree of Malaysian business optimism labour prevails in the market to accommo-
down to the lowest since last August in “Underpinned by domestic reopening date the needs of the growing economic
June,” said Goh and Loke. and strong economic fundamentals, Ma- activities.Thus, the labour force situation
laysia’s unemployment rate is during the month remained resilient regis-
“As such, we reiterate our year-end tering a month-on-month increase in the
unemployment rate forecast of 3.6% for projected to trend lower this year to number of labour force [at] 0.2% to re-
2022 (Bank Negara Malaysia estimates: 3.8% in 2022 from 4.6% in 2021. cord 16.54 million persons (April: 16.5
~4%, end-2021: 4.2%, end-2019: 3.3%),” million persons).
they said. “However, the projected jobless rate
is still higher than pre-pandemic’s 3.4%. “Subsequently, the labour force partic-
They added that Malaysia’s transition ipation rate in May 2022 increased mar-
to endemicity with the full reopening of ginally to 69.5% (April 2022: 69.4%).This
economic activities and country borders situation was steered by steady employ-
since April, higher national vaccination ment growth while unemployment reduced
rates against Covid-19, as well as the gov- further,” he added.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): The De- DOSM’s inflation “In addition, the entry of foreign labour
partment of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) warning as into the country to cope with labour short-
warned on Thursday (July 7) that the in- ages in certain industries is also foreseen
crease in the price of goods will result in in- Malaysia’s jobless as a positive element in ensuring that the
flation that will affect Malaysia’s econom- rate stays at 3.9% labour market remains stable even though
ic recovery and that China’s zero-Covid it will lead to higher competition and a
policy has caused shortcomings and delays by Justin Lim tight labour market.
in the supply of materials, thus, affecting theedgemarkets.com
the global market, especially in the man- “Thus, the labour market is anticipated
ufacturing sector. 2022’s 3.9%, according to the DOSM. to be in a positive recovery momentum in
Looking ahead, the DOSM said the the upcoming months,” the DOSM said.
“The crisis of rising prices of [com-
modities] prevailing in the market had operation of Malaysia’s economic sectors According to the DOSM, Malaysia’s
indirectly impacted Malaysia’s economic and social activities is observed as a con- number of unemployed persons declined
development,” the DOSM said in a state- tributing factor to the increase in demand to 637,700 in May 2022 from 649,300
ment to announce Malaysia’s latest-report- for labour in the country. in April 2022 while the country’s labour
ed unemployment rate reading at 3.9% in force increased to 16.54 million persons in
May 2022. May 2022 from 16.5 million in April 2022.
Click here for the full story
The country’s May 2022 unemploy-
ment rate was unchanged from April

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Govt testing Govt does not
mechanism for interfere with
BNM’s monetary
targeted fuel policy — finance
subsidies,
minister
will present to
Cabinet once by Shazni Ong continue with our accommodative mon-
ready, says Zafrul theedgemarkets.com etary policy,” he said.

by Shazni Ong KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Finance Min- Meanwhile,Tengku Zafrul said the gov-
theedgemarkets.com isterTengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz ernment will continue to refine its fiscal
said onThursday (July 7) that the govern- policies which include assistance that can
KUALA LUMPUR (July 7):The govern- ment does not interfere in Bank Negara reduce the cost of living for the people.
ment is in the midst of selecting the mecha- Malaysia’s (BNM) monetary policy because
nism for a targeted fuel subsidy system and the central bank is “independent of the gov- He said ongoing initiatives include giv-
will present it to the Cabinet once it is ready, ernment” and that government interven- ing out subsidies in order to reduce the
said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri tion in monetary policy decisions will affect cost of living for the people.
Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz. financial market integrity.
“Malaysia has also recorded a strong
He said Putrajaya is testing several pro- Tengku Zafrul said BNM’s monetary first quarter (2022) gross domestic product
posals on the table to determine the best policy or interest rate decisions are based growth for the year at 5% [from a year ear-
measures for execution. on the central bank’s economic and in- lier] and I have before this clearly explained
flation outlook assessment and that the my optimism that the second quarter of this
“There is, of course, merit to a target- government cannot instruct BNM to in- year would continue to be stronger,” he said.
ed approach, but any targeted approach to crease or decrease interest rates.
implement is always about the execution. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said on
He was speaking to reporters here after Wednesday (July 6) its Monetary Policy
“So in fact, today, after this, I’ll be going officiating at the launch of telecommu- Committee had decided to increase the
to a few petrol stations to test the mecha- nication infrastructure services company OPR by 25 bps to 2.25% as the unprec-
nisms or the platforms that are being pro- edotco Group’s Sustainability Blueprint. edented Covid-19-driven conditions that
posed to be used,” he told reporters after necessitated a historically low OPR con-
launching the edotco 2021 Sustainability Mobile telecommunication network pro- tinued to recede.
Blueprint and Report 2021 on Thursday vider Axiata Group Bhd owns a 63% stake
(July 7). in edotco, according to Axiata’s website. The central bank said the country’s eco-
nomic activity continued to strengthen in
Previously, Tengku Zafrul announced Tengku Zafrul was responding to re- recent months. On inflation, the central
that the projected consumption subsidy porters’ questions on BNM’s decision on bank said that year-to-date in 2022, Ma-
expenditure had reached RM77.3 billion Wednesday (July 6) to increase the over- laysia’s headline inflation, as measured by
so far this year — the highest subsidy in night policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points the consumer price index, averaged 2.4%.
history ever borne by any government. (bps) to 2.25%.
“The [Malaysian] inflation outlook
The minister disclosed that the petrol He said BNM’s latest OPR hike de- continues to be subject to global com-
subsidy alone cost the government RM5 cision had taken into account Malaysia’s modity price developments, arising main-
billion a month last month. and global inflation numbers. ly from the ongoing military conflict in
Ukraine and prolonged supply-related
He also cited research done by the cen- Tengku Zafrul said global inflation is disruptions, as well as domestic policy
tral bank and various other independent re- caused by rising commodity prices due measures,” BNM said in a statement.
search houses which showed that for every to the Russia-Ukraine conflict as well as
one ringgit, 53 sen of the subsidy is bene- continuous supply chain disruptions. In currency markets onThursday (July
fited by the top 20% (T20) of households. 7), the ringgit weakened to 4.4278 against
According to him, BNM’s OPR hike the US dollar.
“If you assume the subsidy to be RM30 decision is also intended to curb the out-
billion, which it will be, then RM15 billion of flow of investments from the Malaysia, a The exchange rate on Thursday was
it is going to those who can afford, which is move which will cause the ringgit to de- between 4.4235 and 4.4288.
theT20,” he said, stressing the need to limit preciate even more.
the subsidy to M40 and B40 households. Over the last one year, the exchange
“If the OPR remains, investors will rate was between 4.1300 and 4.4288.
“It’s something that the government shift their investments outside Malaysia Read also:
wants to do and has been looking at,” he which would lead to the fall in the ring- Special task force urges BNM, DOSM
said. git, and with the weakening of the ring- to provide explanation for OPR increase
git, [we] will see the price of goods rise Click here
“As for the timeline, I cannot commit because we import 60% of [Malaysia’s]
because we need to go back to present it raw materials [needs]. Govt to ramp up implementation of
to the Cabinet. We are looking at various ESG-related strategies in Budget 2023
platforms because obviously the users are “The [OPR] increase is also based Click here
different. The customer experience would on the latest regional developments. If
be very different in rural areas and in the viewed historically, the current 2.25%
city,” he added. OPR is still lower compared to the rate
of 3% pre-Covid-19 pandemic.We still

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Seng Fong sees 11% share price dip
in Main Market debut

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Rubber pro- by Izzul Ikram & Chester Tay profit of RM13.37 million on a quarterly
cessor and trader Seng Fong Holdings theedgemarkets.com revenue of RM261.94 million.
Bhd’s share price dipped below its 75 sen
initial public offering (IPO) price on Main Seng Fong Holdings Bhd For the cumulative nine-month period
Market debut on Thursday (July 7). ended March 31, 2022 (9MFY22), the
75 sen rubber processor and trader of Standard
Seng Fong’s shares opened at 74 sen 74 sen Malaysian Rubber (SMR) Grade and Pre-
and subsequently fell as low as 66.5 sen, IPO price: 75 sen mium Grade block rubber posted a net
down 11% from its IPO price. The stock profit of RM31.32 million on revenue of
later recouped some losses and settled 7.5 70 RM662.43 million.
sen or 10% lower at 67.5 sen on its maiden
trading day, for a market capitalisation of 65 67.5 sen Seng Fong posted a net profit of
RM350.3 million. A total of 97.59 million 9am RM34.62 million for FY21, versus
shares were traded. 4.59 pm RM12.74 million for FY20 and RM14.35
Source: Bloomberg July 7, 2022 million for FY19. Its FY21 net profit was
The decline contrasts with several re- supported by revenue of RM768.17 mil-
cent listings which saw positive debuts, manufacturing, which is thereby driven lion, compared with RM616.43 million for
including Orgabio Holdings Bhd, which by the automotive industry.We are of the FY20 and RM636.83 million for FY19.
closed 9.7% above its IPO price of 31 sen view that the Covid-19 damage is likely to
on its first day of trading, as well as SFP diminish in the near future, and as a result Seng Fong chief financial officer Phil-
Tech, which saw a whopping 123% in- we expect the global economy to recover, ip Tan Se Shir noted that the boost in
crease in its share price during its debut. which will likely boost sales of automo- 9MFY22 earnings was underpinned by an
tives and tyres. increase in gross sales of its premium grade
Other new listings which ended their rubber mainly due to increased demand
first day of trading below their IPO price in- “With the increase in vehicle produc- from the tyre manufacturing industry.
cludeYX Precious Metal Bhd (down 3.6%) tion and sales of automotives, as well as
and Unitrade Industries Bhd (down 6.3%). replacement of worn-out tyres, demand He added that the company plans to uti-
for tyres is expected to increase and con- lise its initial public offering (IPO) proceeds
Despite the lacklustre share price per- sequently demand for block rubber will to part-finance the expansion of its annual
formance, the group said it foresees in- also increase as well,” he said. production capacity by 17% to 166,000
creased demand for rubber in view of rising tonnes by 2023, from 142,000 tonnes cur-
automotive sales as the global economy For the third quarter ended March 31, rently, to meet the expected further increase
continues to recover from the lingering 2022 (3QFY22), Seng Fong logged a net in demand for Premium Grade block rub-
effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. ber from the tyre manufacturing industry.

Seng Fong non-independent executive Meanwhile,Tan said that Seng Fong’s
director Jimmy Er Tzer Nam said that as cost-plus business model enables the com-
the global economy continues its recovery pany to pass on higher raw material costs
after the Covid-19 pandemic ends, demand by accordingly increasing prices of its rub-
for automotive vehicles and tyres is set to ber products.
increase.
“We apply a cost-plus [business] model
“Approximately 70% of global natu- — we are selling at a premium and buying
ral rubber is used for tyre manufacturing. at a discount. Any increase in the purchase
Block rubber is the main material for tyre price of raw material will be passed on to
our customers, therefore the selling price
moves in tandem with our purchase price
of the raw material,” he said.

In a note on Thursday, Hong Leong
Investment Bank Research ascribed a fair
value (FV) of RM1 to Seng Fong and said
the company is currently optimising its
capacity by 16.9% driven by increasing
demand from China — the world’s largest
vehicle market.

“We take comfort in Seng Fong’s cost-
plus business model, protecting its gross
margin from increasing raw material and
distributional costs.

“We derive an FV of RM1 for Seng
Fong, based on 11 times FY23 price-earn-
ings ratio, given its healthy balance sheet,
stable business model, earnings growth
and attractive dividend yield,” the research
house said.

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KUALA LUMPUR (July 7):Axiata Group edotco: ing so we are continuing, maintaining our
Bhd’s 63%-owned subsidiary, edotco Group Operations operations using internal cash,” he added.
Sdn Bhd, said its Myanmar operations are in Myanmar
largely unaffected by the political upheaval running well but Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, Mohamed Ad-
there, but the company is not putting more repatriation of lan said there is a need to reprice in terms of
money into the country for now. funds a challenge rentals from the company’s customers there.

“The challenge for Myanmar today is by Shazni Ong “Given the depreciation of the currency
more on the repatriation of funds because theedgemarkets.com there, what we are seeing today by 50% to
essentially getting the US dollar is quite a 60%, given that some of the rentals are in
challenge in the country. But apart from that, Sri Lanka rupee, there is a need to revise our
operationally things are running well and pricing in the market today,” he said.
in fact in terms of getting approvals from
the government, it is much faster than what According to edotco’s website, the inte-
we’ve seen in the past,” said edotco group grated telecommunications infrastructure
CEO Mohamed Adlan AhmadTajudin. services company has a portfolio of over
3,000 towers and managed sites in Myan-
“For us, we’ll continue to sustain the mar and over 1,000 towers in Sri Lanka.
business over there but we are not going to
put much more investment at least at this On a related note, Mohamed Adlan said
point in time until there is clarity in terms that as one of the major partners for Digital
of how [the situation] is going moving for- Nasional Bhd (DNB) in terms of assisting for
ward,” he told reporters at the launch of the rolling out of 5G towers in the country,
the edotco Sustainability Blueprint and edotco hopes to deliver nearly 1,000 towers
Report 2021 on Thursday (July 7). to DNB by the end of the year.

Mohamed Adlan said that apart from “The beauty about our industry is that
some areas where it is probably not safe when we actually receive the orders, we
to operate, most of edotco’s operations in then build the infrastructure. So all of our
Myanmar are not affected. capex is backed by a certainty of long-term
cash flow,” he said.
“But from our perspective, we are not
putting more cash into the country. Our op- According to Mohamed Adlan, the cost
erations in Myanmar today are self-sustain- varies from as low as US$20,000 to as
high as US$50,000 per tower depending
on several factors.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): All of the Whole industry “At this stage it’s very hard for me to
country’s main telecommunications com- now supports comment further but all players as far as
panies are now supportive of the govern- Govt’s SWN I know are committed to this,” he said.
ment’s desire to have a single wholesale plan for 5G, says
network (SWN) to implement 5G nation- Axiata chairman Shahril Ridza said Axiata’s unit Cel-
wide, said Axiata Group Bhd chairmanTan com Axiata Bhd as well as Digi.Com Bhd,
Sri Shahril Ridza Ridzuan. by Shazni Ong which are in the process of merging, are
theedgemarkets.com both committed to deploying accessible
“I think it’s very clear that essentially and affordable 5G access to consumers.
the whole industry is now in line with the
government’s aspiration of a single whole- The two telcos recently received a notice
sale network,” Shahril Ridza told report- of no objection from the Malaysian Com-
ers at the launch of the edotco 2021 Sus- munications and Multimedia Commission
tainability Blueprint and Report 2021 on to proceed with the proposed merger of
Thursday. their telco operations.

The telco players agreed recently to take The nod from the regulator came a day
up a stake in Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), before the June 30 deadline for telco op-
the special-purpose vehicle set up to roll erators to subscribe to a stake in DNB as
out the 5G network nationwide. part of a compromise to roll out the infra-
structure under the SWN model.
DNB chief executive officer Ralph Mar-
shall said on July 1 that the proposed sale of “We need to make sure we’re ready in
70% of the company’s equity to the telcos terms of access and ownership of a portion
is expected to be completed in two months. of DNB. It must be done in a fair manner
to ensure that the industry won’t feel that
“The six MNOs (mobile network op- we are unnecessarily and unfairly domi-
erators) have signed the reference access nating the position,” said Shahril Ridza.
offer and they have also signed off on the
term sheets, which will then lead to the He was referring to the situation where
shareholders’ agreement and the subse- DNB’s 70% stake sale may not result in
quent completion of the shareholders’ ar- equal shareholding among participating
rangement,” Marshall had said. telcos in the event of any merger among
them.
Shahril Ridza said negotiations remain Read also: TM succeeds in dismissing
ongoing between the parties on two as- US$34.5 mil claims byVodoke Click here
pects, namely allocation of shares and com-
mercial agreements.

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Defence in Syed Saddiq trial seeking to impeach
star witness over contradictory statements

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7):The defence by Tarani Palani tions of Rafiq’s witness statement where he
in former youth and sports minister Syed theedgemarkets.com indicated that the fundraising was for Syed
Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s criminal tri- Saddiq’s personal campaign for the Muar
al is seeking to impeach star witness Rafiq of government in early 2020. parliamentary seat.
Hakim Razali over the witness’ contradic- Rafiq testified in court onThursday that
tory statements. Gobind:Your evidence during investiga-
during the said meeting, Syed Saddiq had tion and when this document (witness state-
Lead defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo instructed him and BersatuYouth assistant ment) was prepared indicates that you know
informed the court that Rafiq’s oral evidence secretary Ahmad Redzuan Mohamed Shafi the money was for Syed Saddiq’s personal
was inconsistent with the witness statement to withdraw RM1 million after inquiring campaign in Muar. Do you agree with me
provided to the defence. about the balance in the party’s account. that what you are saying in court contra-
venes what you have said in the statement?
“[We] are saying neither of them are true However, Gobind highlighted the contra-
but they are contradicting each other,it’s [due diction in Rafiq’s written statement where Rafiq: Ya.
to] the contradiction we want to impeach Rafiq said he received instructions through OnWednesday, Rafiq also testified to the
his credibility as a witness,” the counsel said. aWhatsApp call from Syed Saddiq instead. ordeal he faced while remanded by MACC
for six days in 2020. He said he was under
Rafiq, the prosecution’s 13th witness, Gobind: Do you agree that it contradicts tremendous stress.
has been on the stand since Tuesday (July what you said in court? Gobind then put it to him onThursday
5) and the defence has incessantly pointed that there could be a possibility that MACC
out contradictions in the 32-year-old’s tes- Rafiq: Agree. had pressured the youth wing’s leaders to
timony, leading them to seek impeachment. Gobind: [You said] in the discussions implicate Syed Saddiq.
[at the house] Syed Saddiq instructed you Gobind: [MACC] put pressure on all of
However, there is a novel point of law to [to withdraw the money].That is not true... you all so you will sing to its tune.
be decided revolving around Rafiq’s written Rafiq: I think I was confused. Rafiq: You would have to ask MACC.
witness statement, which was not tendered Gobind: My question is do you actually Gobind: But you don’t deny it.
in court. The former assistant treasurer of remember? Rafiq: There is a possibility but you
Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), Rafiq: I remember [he asked] me the would have to ask MACC the details.
who is central to the first charge of criminal balance in the account and asked me to Syed Saddiq has been charged with abet-
breach of trust (CBT) against Syed Saddiq, withdraw [the money]. ting Rafiq in committing criminal breach of
gave oral evidence instead. Gobind: But you don’t remember when trust involving RM1 million of funds belong-
and where? ing to BersatuYouth.The offence allegedly
Speaking to reporters after the proceed- Rafiq: Ya. took place in March 2020, when Syed Sad-
ings onThursday, Gobind explained that in diq was chief of the youth wing.
circumstances where previous statements RM120,000 for Syed Saddiq’s If found guilty of the charge, which is
made are inconsistent with the ones made personal use framed under Section 406 of the Penal
in court, the procedure would be to request Gobind also questioned Rafiq on monies in Code, Syed Saddiq could be jailed for up
a copy of the statement given to the police Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise (ABBE)’s to 10 years, whipped and fined.
or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Com- account which are related to the second mis- Syed Saddiq has also been charged un-
mission (MACC). appropriation charge that the Muar Member der Section 403 with misusing RM120,000
of Parliament faces. in party contributions raised through a
“The judge will look at it to see if there is Maybank Islamic Bhd account belonging
a contradiction, that is what happens when ABBE is a company to generate income to Armada Bumi Bersatu Enterprise be-
there is no witness statement,” he said, but for the youth wing, which includes activities tween April 8 and 21, 2018. If convicted
that is not the case here. such as merchandise sales. for this, he could be jailed up to five years,
whipped and fined.
He added: “Then the question is [what In previous proceedings, Rafiq, who is In addition, he faces two charges of en-
is] the procedure to be applied here.” the sole account holder for the said account, gaging in money laundering activities in-
verified that RM120,000 was transferred volving two transactions of RM50,000 each
Earlier in open court, Judicial Commis- to Syed Saddiq in four transactions. The — money that is believed to be proceeds of
sioner Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid also said money was a result of fundraising activities unlawful activities — via his Maybank Is-
it is an interesting question as to how the through two dinner programmes. lamic account and his Amanah Saham Bu-
court would approach the matter. miputera account, on June 16 and 19, 2018.
He also testified that the money was for The latter two charges were framed under
“We have to be very careful about this. the use of all Armada members. However, Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Launder-
We don’t want to commit any procedural Gobind on Thursday drilled into the dis- ing,Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds
mistakes. crepancy between Rafiq’s oral and witness of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, which are
statements. punishable under Section 4(1) of the same
“I don’t want anything that could poten- act with a maximum jail term of 15 years,
tially prejudice the accused to be wrongly Gobind: You testified that the money and a fine of not less than five times the
admitted,” he said. was transferred into Syed Saddiq’s [pri- amount involved.
vate] Maybank account.You testified that The trial continues Friday.
He asked both prosecution and defence the monies were for the use of all Armada
to do a bit more reading on the matter and members for Armada programmes.Are you
adjourned the matter to Friday. sure? Please think carefully.You want to cor-
rect the statement?
Witness: ‘I think I was confused’
Earlier this morning, Gobind highlighted Rafiq: No, I stick by my statement.
more contradictions over an alleged meeting Gobind then went on to highlight por-
that took place at Syed Saddiq’s house after
the ‘Sheraton Move’ which led to the change

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Bloomberg

Ex-Goldman
bankerTim
Leissner’s 1MDB
sentencing
delayed until 2023

by Patricia Hurtado
Bloomberg

(July 7): Former Goldman Sachs Group prosecutors. He spent more than a week ter a two-month trial. Last week, Brodie
Inc banker Tim Leissner’s sentencing for on the stand during Ng’s trial, describing set Ng’s sentencing for Nov 9.
his role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd 1MDB deals and the bankers’ schem-
(1MDB) corruption scandal was delayed ing with financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Leissner has been free on US$20 mil-
until next year. Low) to loot the Malaysian sovereign lion (about RM88.56 million) bail since
wealth fund. his arrest by US authorities in June 2018.
Leissner, who pleaded guilty to charges Brodie last month granted Leissner’s re-
in 2018 and testified against his former col- Leissner’s lawyer Henry Mazurek de- quest to modify his bail, allowing him
league Roger Ng, was originally scheduled clined to comment on Wednesday. to relocate to Texas for a new job. She
for sentencing onWednesday (July 6), but also sealed further information about
US District Judge Margo Brodie in Brook- Ng, who worked under Leissner and the former banker after his lawyer said
lyn, New York postponed the hearing to was the only Goldman banker to go to there were “credible concerns” regarding
Feb 15 without explanation. trial over the global 1MDB scandal, was Leissner’s safety.
found guilty in April by a federal jury af-
The bribery and money-laundering
charges to which Leissner pleaded guilty
carry maximum sentences of decades in
prison. But the former Goldman South-
east Asia chairman is likely to get much
less time due to his cooperation with

PUTRAJAYA (July 7): The Federal Perak MB, Umno Sri Shahrir Samad, Umno supreme
Court on Thursday (July 7) dismissed politicians fail council member and former Pulai MP
a judicial review application made by to challenge Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed and Umno
Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani central organising secretary Datuk Mohd
Mohamed and 30 others who wanted to compound notices Sumali Reduan as well as other politi-
challenge the compound issued on them linked to 1MDB cians who were among 80 named by for-
three years ago under the anti-money in apex court mer Malaysian Anti-Corruption Com-
laundering law for accepting money re- mission (MACC) chief commissioner
lated to 1Malaysia Development Bhd by hafiz yatim Latheefa Koya in receiving 1MDB funds
(1MDB). theedgemarkets.com from former premier Datuk Seri Najib
Razak.
Among the 30 were former Johor
Baru Member of Parliament (MP) Tan They represented the Umno divisions
or Umno or Barisan Nasional liaison
committee in receiving the funds.

Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri
Hasnah Mohammed Hashim who sat
alone on the apex bench dismissed the
motion by Saarani and the others for
leave to have the merits of their appeal
heard.

“There is no novel issue raised before
the Federal Court to decide for the first
time in the appeal and hence it does not
meet the threshold under Section 96(a)
of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.

“Hence, the appeal by Saarani and 30
others is dismissed,” she added.

reuters Click here for the full story

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patrick goh/the edge

Zahid accuses prosecution of trying
to ‘trap’ him with questions about
Yayasan Akalbudi’s transactions

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): UMNO pres- by Timothy Achariam Zahid confirmed the withdrawal, say-
ident Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi theedgemarkets.com ing the law firm had on the same day
accused the prosecution in his corruption issued an RM5.9 million cheque to Tan
trial of trying to “trap” him with their line is managed by a law firm and it is clear the Sri Lee KimYew’s company, Bee Garden
of questioning. donation had been credited, it is immoral Holdings Sdn Bhd, for two bungalows
to ask who the giver is or has the money in Country Heights.
Zahid, 69, said this when deputy public been credited... Putting this question to me
prosecutor Harris Ong Mohd Jeffery Ong repeatedly, is to trap me,” he said. Zahid explained that the money was
questioned him about transactions involv- withdrawn from the fixed deposits prema-
ing funds from his charitable organisation, To this, Ong said he was only seek- turely because they were needed to pay for
Yayasan Akalbudi’s (YAB), which the for- ing “truth and justice”, which led to the bungalows, which he said were sold to
mer Deputy Prime Minister is accused of an interjection from Zahid’s lawyer him at “below market value”.
misappropriating. Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, who said the
matter could be left to submissions at He said the seller gave them a short
Zahid was testifying in his own defence the end of the trial. timeframe to purchase the units because
and was going through law firm Lewis & Lee needed the money to settle his income
Co’s ledger — the law firm entrusted by High Court Judge Datuk Collin Law- tax issues.
Zahid to handleYAB’s funds. Ong showed rence Sequerah, who was presiding over
him 11 cheques amounting to RM3.8 mil the tiral, Justice Sequerah concurred that “That’s why the discount was given
from various individuals and corporate bod- it should be left to submissions and in- and the decision was made fast,” Za-
ies for donation to YAB that was credited structed Ong to continue with his line of hid said.
into a customer’s account at Lewis & Co. questioning.
Zahid previously claimed in the trial
When asked about one of the donors, Bungalows bought to help cash-strapped that the bungalows were bought for Islamic
Zahid said he did not know any of them Country Heights boss Lee Kim Yew religious studies.
and told the court that it was “immoral” In the ledger, Ong showed Zahid that there
to ask about the donors. were entries about the law firm placing Zahid is facing 47 charges involving
RM2 million into fixed deposits on Nov RM31 million of funds from YAB in this
Zahid was also asked about money 30, 2016 and a further RM5 million in trial, namely 12 counts of criminal breach
changer Omar Ali Abdullah, who was fixed deposits on December 9, 2016. of trust, 27 counts of money-laundering,
entrusted to compile donations for YAB and eight counts of bribery.
and had brought two cheques to Zahid The lawyer also showed that money Read also: Govt’s appeal against Najib’s
from donors. was taken out of the fixed deposits on Jan daughter over RM10.3 mil income tax
4, 2017. fixed for October Click here
“The donation was not made in my
name but to a foundation. If the foundation

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Sam Fong/The Edge

Former
Maybank CEO
Farid Alias to join
Bursa Malaysia
as independent

director

by Sulhi Khalid
theedgemarkets.com

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Former Ma- Tan Sri Abdul Farid Alias
layan Banking Group (Maybank) chief ex-
ecutive officer (CEO) and president Tan Abdul Farid holds a Bachelor of Sci- think a CEO should overstay,” he said then.
Sri Abdul Farid Alias will join Bursa Ma- ence degree majoring in accounting from He also said that his next stint would
laysia Bhd as its independent and non-ex- the Pennsylvania State University and
ecutive director, effective Friday (July 8). an MBA in Finance from the Universi- not be in banking as “I cannot do anything
ty of Denver. in competition with Maybank, that’s not
Abdul Farid, 54, was the head honcho right”.
of Maybank from August 2013 to April He attended the Advanced Manage-
this year. ment Program by Harvard Business Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the
School. current Bursa Malaysia chairman,Tan Sri
Apart from Maybank, Abdul Farid AbdulWahid Omar, is also a former CEO
had worked at Schroders, JPMorgan and In an interview with The Edge Malaysia and president of Maybank.
Khazanah Nasional Bhd, among others, weekly in April, Abdul Farid said he had
according to Bursa Malaysia’s filing on decided to leave Maybank as he felt it was Shares in Bursa Malaysia closed one
Thursday. “the right time”. sen or 0.16% lower at RM6.38, giving the
group a market capitalisation of RM5.16
“A seasoned chartered banker, Abdul “It’s going to be nine years, and I don’t billion.
Farid brings to the board over 30 years of
investment banking and capital markets
credentials,” the filing said.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Nurul A’in Nurul A’in team in shaping this future,” she said.
Abdul Latif has been appointed as PwC set to be PwC Faiz said he is confident that Nurul’s
Malaysia’s new deputy executive chair ef- Malaysia’s first
fective July 1, the company said, adding female executive extensive working experience across the
that she will succeed executive chairman chair next year spectrum of the firm’s clients, from the
Datuk Mohammad Faiz Azmi upon his federal and state governments, public
retirement in 2023. by Hailey Chung interest entities as well as non-govern-
theedgemarkets.com mental organisations, will be key to PwC
Prior to her appointment, Nurul Malaysia’s future growth.
served as PwC Malaysia’s markets lead- Nurul A’in Abdul Latif
er for six years since July 2016. “She will also be an excellent role
model to our profession as our first fe-
In a statement on Thursday (July 7), male executive chair of the firm,” he said.
Nurul highlighted her commitment to
deliver the firm’s environmental, social, Nurul has over 25 years of experience
and governance (ESG) commitments af- working with large public-listed compa-
ter taking up the role. nies locally on audit and business advi-
sory matters, as well as cross-border cli-
“With the call for greater sustainabili- ents with a two-year stint in the United
ty becoming an urgent priority, not only Kingdom.
for businesses but the wider community,
trust will underpin our efforts to deliver Mandarin-speaking Nurul also cur-
on our ESG commitments. rently serves as a council member of the
Malaysian Institute of Certified Public
“As part of living PwC’s purpose — to Accountants and the Malaysian Institute
build trust in society and solve important of Accountants.
problems — I hope to continue engaging
with our clients, our people and our wid- PwC Malaysia said it has grown its
er stakeholders on the role we all play to service offerings to meet the rising de-
secure a sustainable future. mand for digital services, bridge the wid-
ening global skills gap and advance the
“I look forward to working alongside local and regional sustainability landscape
Datuk Faiz and the rest of the leadership while under Nurul’s leadership.

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From left: Ng Chor Ming Nicholas (COO), Law Ming Bin (CTO), Kwan Chin Hoong (CSO) and Benedict Wong Peng Sim (CEO).

Ace Media Network eyes regional
expansion after acquisition by

Singapore’s Mediaload
Ace Media Network (AMN), the manag-
er of home-grown influencer platform Mediaload, with its vast network and resources, will has partnered 50 other media publishers, includ-
KOMACI, is eyeing a growth of at least be able to reach the region through the synergistic ing Oh Hangat and Bawang Rangers, collectively
50% year on year for the next three partnership with AMN. reaching more than 20 million followers. Its digi-
years following its acquisition by Sin- tal content, assets and commerce platforms form
gapore-based digital media company Mediaload. “AMN will be able to replicate our Malaysian AMN’s core, and that’s what keeps Wong positive
success in neighbouring nations as our offerings on the company’s prospects despite the gloomy
Mediaload, which has a presence in Thailand, can be tailor-made to the needs that are unique global economic outlook.
Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, to each country. For example, KOMACI will now
Cambodia and India, sees a huge growth oppor- have access to regional influencers for local and “As consumer behaviour changes due to the
tunity in Southeast Asia’s digital economy. Its CEO international brands using our platform as the pandemic, more companies are being pushed to
Vichet In said the company aims to capitalise on main conduit,” Wong said. invest in and to digitalise their business. Therefore,
AMN’s expertise while leveraging a dynamic market we are uniquely positioned to provide a seamless
like Malaysia to enhance its position in the region. KOMACI aside, AMN is also focusing on devel- connection on digital media platforms for all types
oping software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings for of commerce transactions. We will be focusing on
“With AMN’s impressive data-driven platform partners and clients who are interested in leverag- helping such businesses and brands on their consum-
technologies and KOMACI, its influencer platform, ing influencer marketing campaign management, er journey to realise their potential through AMN’s
which has the potential to be one of the biggest analytics and social commerce. With its collective result-oriented marketing experience,” said Wong.
influencer platforms in the world, Mediaload has assets, resources and technology, it is able to ana-
found the right fit,” he said, adding that the acqui- lyse and diagnose what is needed for a client brand Post-acquisition, he said, Mediaload’s track
sition is also expected to provide Mediaload with a and then provide the appropriate strategies and record, innovation and interest in developing and
competitive edge in offering integrated solutions solutions, ranging from data-driven content and nurturing digital media technology will be a great-
across the region with AMN as an innovator. articles to influencer-led campaigns. er impetus for AMN to create more dynamic and
fluid solutions for its clients in Malaysia and the
AMN is a digital media technology company that Wong cited its pilot project for AirAsia’s Buy Now, rest of the region.
provides end-to-end media technology solutions for Fly Now campaign as an example of AMN’s ability
brands and agencies to reach out to audiences in to deliver. “Within three days of receiving the client Southeast Asia’s digital economy is expected
the ever-changing social media landscape. It counts brief to deliver a solution featuring 30 influencers, to reach US$100 billion by 2025, according to the
Tourism Malaysia, Domino’s, AirAsia and Carlsberg we implemented a fast-turnaround campaign e-Conomy Southeast Asia 2019 report. The report
among its clients. that generated over 1.7 million exposures with highlighted that the region has the “most engaged
an above-average engagement rate of 3% to 5%, mobile internet users in the world”. There are 360
According to its CEO Ben Wong, KOMACI’s net- depending on the tiering of influencers,” he said. million internet users in Southeast Asia, 90% of
work has more than 9,000 influencers to help its whom connect to the internet primarily through
clients speak to the domestic audience, and now AMN is also the owner and operator of two por- their mobile phones.
tals, 88Razzi.com and Rileklah.com. Additionally, it

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news In brief

Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge

Siab bags RM89.57 mil construction job in Klang

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Construction engineering company Siab Holdings Bhd has
bagged an RM89.57 million contract to build a two-storey warehouse with office space
in Klang, Selangor. Construction of the proposed industrial development, which it
secured from SDN Assets I Sdn Bhd, also includes one substation, one guardhouse, one
tank house and pump, mechanical and electrical area, as well as common facilities. The
project was secured via its wholly owned Siab (M) Sdn Bhd. — by Izzul Ikram

BNM international reserves dips CIMB Group seeks to buy remaining 14 individuals linked to ‘Nicky Gang’
further to US$109 bil as at end-June minority shares in CIMB Bank for freed of charges
KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): The central RM1.4 mil PUTRAJAYA (July 7): The Court of Appeal
bank’s international reserves dipped further on Thursday (July 7) acquitted and
to US$109 billion as at June 30, 2022, down KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): CIMB Group discharged 14 individuals including two
from US$109.2 billion as at June 15. “The Holdings Bhd is planning to acquire the siblings of businessman Nicky Liow Soon
reserves level has taken into account the remaining minority shares it doesn’t own in Hee from charges of being involved in the
quarterly foreign exchange revaluation CIMB Bank Bhd for RM1.4 million, in its bid organised crime group known as the “Nicky
changes. The reserves position is sufficient to streamline the shareholding structure. In Gang” five years ago. The three-panel
to finance 5.8 months of imports of goods a filing with Bursa Malaysia, CIMB Group judge led by Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said
and services, and is 1.1 times total short- said the exercise involves a members’ made the unanimous decision after lawyer
term external debt,” it added. Month-on- scheme of arrangement, which is subject to Datuk Rajpal Singh, representing 13 of the
month, BNM’s international reserves fell the approval of CIMB Bank shareholders individuals, informed that the Attorney-
US$3.8 billion to US$109 billion as at June at a court-convened meeting after which General’s Chambers (AGC) had received
30, from US$112.8 billion as at May 30. it must be sanctioned by the High Court. representations from all appellants to be
— by Izzul Ikram The scheme provides an opportunity for a fully acquitted of the charges. “The High
small number of CIMB Bank shareholders, Court’s order of discharge not amounting to
Credence founder and chief executive who are not investors of the public-listed an acquittal (DNAA) is set aside. With this,
officer Krish Datta says the digital services CIMB Group, to realise their investment in all the accused are acquitted and discharged
will provide capabilities ranging from tech CIMB Bank at an “attractive” premium and from the charges,” said Kamaludin, who
infrastructure to business insights, cloud valuation, the group said. — by Chester Tay sat with Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk
advisory, IT landscape migration, software-as- Hashim Hamzah. — Bernama
a-service (SaaS), managed services as well as
Suhaimi Yusuf/The Edge
analytics and insights.

TM unveils cloud and digital services ECM Libra shareholders told to reject Annuar said the entire ecosystem related to
company Credence takeover offer chicken production is also being scrutinised and

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Telekom Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Shareholders of that continuous monitoring would be carried
Bhd (TM) has unveiled its new cloud and ECM Libra Group Bhd have been told to out to ensure that the supply system and the
digital services company Credence, with the reject the takeover bid by Datuk Lim Kian
aim to accommodate private enterprises Onn, the group’s non-independent and ecosystem remain under control.
and the public sector in their digital non-executive director, who has made a
transformation journey, according to a joint conditional mandatory general offer (MGO) Chicken breeders allowed to take
statement. Credence founder and chief to buy out minority shareholders of the advance subsidy payments
executive officer Krish Datta said the digital group, according to independent adviser PUTRAJAYA (July 7): Small- and medium-
services will provide capabilities ranging DWA Advisory Sdn Bhd. The independent scale chicken breeders are allowed to take
from tech infrastructure to business insights, adviser also deemed the takeover offer advance payments of the chicken price
cloud advisory, IT landscape migration, as “not fair” and “not reasonable”. DWA subsidy as one of the ways to ensure that
software-as-a-service (SaaS), managed Advisory added that the offer price of supply of chicken in the market remains
services as well as analytics and insights. The 22 sen per share is “not fair” as the offer stable, Communications and Multimedia
digital services company also announced price is lower and represents a discount Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa announced.
key partnerships with VMware, AWS and of approximately 37.14% to the estimated The minister, who is also the chairman of the
Huawei, enabling them to offer a broad value of the group’s shares of 35 sen based Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation,
range of options to enterprises, customised on revalued net asset value. — by Sulhi said the payment process would also be made
to their respective growth needs. — Bernama Khalid easy so as to enable the breeders to receive
the subsidy without hassle. — Bernama

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home

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7):The decision Umno to know by give an immediate response to enable
on the application for amendments to July 16 whether the party to make the necessary prepa-
Umno’s constitution to enable the party it can postpone rations for elections if the application is
to postpone its elections will be known party elections not approved.
on July 16 at the latest.
Bernama Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail
Bernama was informed of the mat- SabriYaakob, who is an Umno vice-pres-
ter by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) ident, was also reported to have said that
through a brief email here on Thursday the RoS had 60 days, with the deadline
(July 7). being July 16, to make its decision on
the application.
“Please be informed that the decision
on the application for amendments to Umno previously postponed its par-
Umno’s constitution will be issued by ty elections for 18 months after the
the RoS on July 16 at the latest,” it said. 2018/2021 term ended on June 30 last
year. The 18-month period will end by
The media previously reported the end of this year and Umno elections
Umno deputy president Datuk Seri must be held before Dec 30.
Mohamad Hasan as saying that the
party had yet to receive any feedback However, in May, the Umno Special
from the RoS since the notice on the General Assembly unanimously approved
party’s constitutional amendment was a motion to amend its constitution which,
submitted on May 17. among other things, allows party elections
to be held no more than six months after
He said it is unfair for the RoS to keep a general election.
Umno waiting and urged the agency to

KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): A group of Armed forces The founders had applied to register
armed forces veterans who are founders veterans file the party on March 9, 2021, and this was
of Parti Kemakmoran Negara has filed a judicial review rejected a year later. They later appealed
judicial review at the High Court here on to register as the decision on March 25 this year.
Thursday (July 7) to compel the Home political party
Affairs Minister to make a decision on the Some 113 days, or almost four months,
group’s appeal against the rejection of the by Hafiz Yatim have passed since the appeal was filed and
party’s registration. theedgemarkets.com no decision has been made by the minister
(Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin) since.
The veterans, led by former Royal Ma- Photo credits: Lim Wei Jiet
laysian Air Force (RMAF) officer Brigadier Hence, in the judicial review they are
Gen (Rtd) Datuk Abdullah Mohamed and seeking a court order to compel the min-
seven others, named the Home Minister ister to make a decision within seven days
and the Registrar of Societies (RoS) as of the appeal, should the veterans’ appli-
respondents in the judicial review appli- cation be allowed.
cation filed by Messrs LimWei Jiet Advo-
cates and Solicitors. Abdullah, who leads the group as its
pro-tem committee, is a decorated former
A statement released by the law firm RMAF officer who was involved in vari-
said the application was filed because of ous counter-insurgency measures against
the delay of the Home Affairs Minister in the communists in the ‘70s and ‘80s and
reaching a decision on the party’s appeal holds a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies
against the RoS’ decision on March 16 to at Lancaster University, UK and a Master
reject its registration. of Business Administration from Oklaho-
ma City University, USA.
Lim Wei Jiet (seventh from left) with the pro-tem committee members after filing the court papers.
The other founders are veterans from
the Malaysian Armed Forces, Royal Ma-
laysian Navy, and RMAF.

In Abdullah’s supporting affidavit to
the application, he said that after the
group filed the appeal, its solicitors fol-
lowed up by sending a letter on April 20
this year.

“However, we were informed by the
RoS via a letter dated April 27 this year
that they had yet to give our letter to the
minister as they need to make some com-
ments or notes with the letter.

“Another letter was sent by Messrs Lim
Wei Jiet on June 9 for a decision to be
made, but till today, for some 113 days, no
decision had been made by the minister
in our appeal,” Abdullah said. Following
that, this judicial review was filed.

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HOME

BERNAMA villages in this district on Monday (July 4). Malaysian on death row
Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muham- Kalwant Singh hanged
Accumulated
water source on mad Sanusi Md Nor said the conclusion was this morning
made based on an aerial survey conducted
Gunung Inas with the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) at BY MASSITA AHMAD
triggered Baling the mountain area onWednesday which also Bernama
floods — Sanusi found no burst of the water reservoir as was
claimed to have triggered the floods. SINGAPORE (July 7): Malaysian on death
Bernama row Kalwant Singh was executed early this
“I had the opportunity to board the PDRM morning in Singapore’s Changi Prison, and
BALING (July 7): The accumulated water helicopter to survey the area and was able to his remains will be taken back to Cameron
source at Gunung Inas near here, which flows see the path of the water flow from Gunung Highlands later on Thursday (July 7).
down rapidly at the corner of a steep slope, is Inas to the disaster areas and Pekan Kupang.
believed to be one of the causes of the floods Kalwant’s execution was confirmed by his
and water surge phenomenon that hit several “From my observation, the water must counselToo Xing Ji when contacted by Bernama.
[have] accumulated so much at one time with
the formation of dozens of water routes form- “Yes. He has been executed,” he said when
ing on Gunung Inas down to the corner of a contacted.
very steep slope and caused the water to flow
rapidly at Lata Celak,” he said in a statement Singapore Court of Appeal onWednesday
on Thursday. dismissed the final appeal of Kalwant, whose
execution was set for Thursday.
He said the dams built on the mountain
for a Musang King orchard project were also Kalwant, 32, has been on death row in Sin-
still intact. Muhammad Sanusi said the large gapore since he was convicted and handed
trees along the watercourse on the mountain down the mandatory death penalty on June
were also still there as they were not felled for 1, 2016, for drug trafficking.
the Musang King durian plantation project.
His conviction and death sentence were
The floods in Baling claimed three lives upheld by the Court of Appeal the same year.
while more than 1,400 residents had to be Click here for the full story
evacuated to three temporary evacuation cen-
tres as seven houses were completely destroyed
and about 70 other houses were damaged.

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world

WASHINGTON (July 7):The number of US weekly jobless policy rate by three-quarters of a percent-
Americans filing new claims for unemploy- claims rise; layoffs age point, its biggest hike since 1994, as it
ment benefits unexpectedly rose last week fights inflation. Another similar-sized rate
and demand for labor is slowing, with lay- hit 16-month hike is expected this month.The Fed has
offs surging to a 16-month high in June as high in June increased its benchmark overnight inter-
aggressive monetary policy tightening from est rate by 150 basis points since March.
the Federal Reserve stokes recession fears. by Lucia Mutikani
Reuters Demand for labor is gradually cooling.
Initial claims for state unemployment A separate report from global outplace-
benefits increased 4,000 to a seasonally ad- reuters ment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas
justed 235,000 for the week ended July 2, onThursday showed layoffs announced by
the Labor Department said on Thursday. seasonal fluctuations from the data. But a US-based employers jumped 57% to 32,517
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast global semiconductor shortage has forced in June, the highest since February 2021.
230,000 applications for the latest week. manufacturers to adjust their schedules.
Job cuts increased 39% to 77,515 in the
Claims have been bouncing around the This could lead to fewer temporary lay- second quarter from the January-March
230,000 level since the beginning of June, un- offs and result in lower seasonally adjust- period. But layoffs in the first half of the
derscoring the labor market’s strength even as ed claims. year were the lowest since 1993.
some companies in the housing and technolo-
gy sectors have been cutting jobs.Tesla has laid The US central bank in June raised its “Employers are beginning to respond
off hundreds of workers in the United States. to financial pressures and slowing demand
by cutting costs,” said Andrew Challenger,
The claims data could become volatile senior vice president at Challenger, Gray
in the weeks ahead. & Christmas. “While the labor market is
still tight, that tightness may begin to ease
Automobile manufacturers typically close in the next few months.”
assembly plants for annual retooling after
the July 4 Independence Day holiday, which Job cuts surged in the automotive, con-
is anticipated by the seasonal factors, the sumer products, entertainment, financial
model that the government uses to strip out and real estate industries.

(July 7): UK house prices continued to UK house prices are doing little to dampen growth, Halifax said.
shrug off fears of an economic downturn continue to defy Mortgage lending data last week sug-
and the cost of living crisis, posting the slowdown fears,
biggest monthly rise since early 2007 in gested the property market remains well
June, according to Halifax. Halifax says underpinned, at least in the short term,
with the number of loan approvals unex-
A shortage of properties coming on to the by Philip Aldrick pectedly rising in May.
market combined with continuing strong de- Bloomberg
mand saw prices rise 1.8% from May, a 12th Galley said the resilience of the mar-
consecutive monthly increase, the mortgage tionwide Building Society said last week that ket was because home buyers tend to be
lender said in a report Thursday (July 7). prices rose just 0.3% in June, and Zoopla wealthier households, who still have a stock
reported that sales agreed in May were down of excess savings built up in the pandem-
Compared with the same month last 13% year-on-year. ic. They are also not as affected by rising
year, prices were up 13% — the fastest inflation as poorer households.
annual growth rate since late 2004. It took Rising Bank of England interest rates,
the average property value to a new record which have been lifted from 0.1% to 1.25% However, he warned that the housing
of £294,845 (US$352,160). since December last year, and soaring inflation market cannot “remain immune from the
challenging economic environment”.
“The UK housing market defied any
expectations of a slowdown,”said Russell “In time, increased pressure on house-
Galley, managing director at Halifax. hold budgets from inflation and higher in-
terest rates should weigh more heavily on
The findings contrast with recent signs the housing market,” he said.
that the market is cooling. Rival lender Na-
Halifax research shows affordability is
becoming stretched. “The strong rise in
property prices over the last two years, cou-
pled with much slower wage growth, has
already pushed the house price to income
ratio to a record level.”

Out of balance
For the moment, UK property remains in
hot demand and supply limited. The shift
in demand toward bigger properties is also
driving prices up. Average prices for de-
tached houses rose by almost twice the rate
of apartments over the past year, up 13.9%
versus 7.6%.

Click here for the full story

f r i d a y j u LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 19 T h e E d g e C E O m o r n i n g b r i e f

world

China considers US$220 bil stimulus
with unprecedented bond sales

(July 7): China’s Ministry of Finance is con- Bloomberg that quota before they started selling the
sidering allowing local governments to sell bonds, meaning the money would not be
1.5 trillion yuan (US$220 billion) of special bloomberg spent until much later in the year.
bonds in the second half of this year, an un-
precedented acceleration of infrastructure “It has been clear for sometime that From 2019 onwards, the central gov-
funding aimed at shoring up the country’s local governments need more money.The ernment began issuing the quotas earlier
beleaguered economy. news today suggests that the central gov- so local authorities could start selling the
ernment is still unwilling to expand its debt as soon as possible after the new
The bond sales would be brought for- own balance sheet, and instead let lo- year began. In December last year, the
ward from next year’s quota, according to cal governments bring borrowing quota Ministry of Finance said it had already
people familiar with the discussions, who from 2023, which means a fiscal cliff next issued almost 1.5 trillion yuan worth of
asked not to be identified because they are year,” said Wei Yao, head of research for 2022’s quotas, and then pushed for all
not authorised to speak publicly. It would Asia-Pacific and chief economist at So- 3.65 trillion yuan worth of bonds to be
mark the first time the issuance has been ciete Generale SA. sold quickly and used this year.
fast-tracked in this way, underscoring grow-
ing concerns in Beijing over the dire state of Still, it remains “very, very challeng- By the end of June, most of those
the world’s second-largest economy. ing” for China to achieve its growth tar- bonds were sold, meaning there is space
get, she said, sticking to the bank’s call in the second half of the year to sell more
Previously local governments did not of a 4% expansion this year. debt if the government wants to.
start selling the debt until Jan 1, when the
new budget year begins. The proposal to China’s Ministry of Finance and the In 2018, the NPC allowed the State
adjust that timeline would therefore need to National Development and Reform Com- Council to start granting some of the
be reviewed by the State Council and may mission did not immediately respond to following year’s bond quotas early but
also need approval from the country’s legis- faxed requests for comment. did not mention the timing of sales.That
lative body, the National People’s Congress. means allowing the use of 2023’s quota
Each year local governments receive a this year may need the approval of the
The debt would mostly be used to pay quota for how many general and special NPC first, possibly at one of the regular
for infrastructure spending, an old play- bonds they can sell. Until 2018 prov- meetings of its standing committee.
book that policymakers are using to boost inces and cities would wait for the NPC
an economy hit by Covid-19 lockdowns and meeting in March to officially approve Separately, the NDRC, the country’s
a housing slump. The funding would add top economic-planning body, is asking
to 1.1 trillion yuan in new support for in- regional authorities to submit plans for
frastructure announced over the past few projects for 2023 as early as possible, peo-
weeks, as President Xi Jinping’s government ple with knowledge of the matter said.
tries to get the economy back on track to-
wards achieving its annual growth target of While it is a normal practice for lo-
around 5.5%. cal governments to make proposals for
the following year, that process normally
Commodities rallied in European trad- kicks off in the last quarter of each year,
ing hours following the news, with cop- one of the people said. Some provinces
per extending gains to as much as 3.6% were told to start new projects when fea-
to US$7,789 a ton on the London Metal sible even if the construction was orig-
Exchange. inally scheduled to start next year, one
of the people said.

The government’s growth target for
2022 is looking increasingly challenging
amid Covid-19 resurgences and a prop-
erty downturn. Economists surveyed by
Bloomberg forecast the economy will grow
4.1% this year.

Read also:
China unveils plans to spur car demand,
may extend EV tax break Click here

Shanghai cases double in a day, fuelling
lockdown fears Click here

China’s steel industry sounds the alarm
over crisis conditions Click here

f r i d a y j u LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 20 T h e E d g e C E O m o r n i n g b r i e f

world

Heads of MI5, reuters
FBI give joint

warning of
growing threat

from China

by Judy Babu former protester at Tiananmen Square would automatically lead to greater po-
Reuters to be elected. litical freedom has, I’m afraid, been shown
to be plain wrong,” McCallum said.
(July 7): The heads of MI5 and FBI Wray warned that the Chinese govern-
warned of the growing long-term threat ment “poses an even more serious threat “The allegations against China by US
posed by China to UK and US inter- toWestern businesses than even many so- and UK intelligence officials are complete-
ests, in their first joint appearance on phisticated businesspeople realize,” and is ly groundless and the so-called cases they
Wednesday. “set on stealing your technology.” listed are pure shadow chasing,” a spokes-
person for the Chinese embassy in the UK
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum The Chinese governement’s hacking said, in response to a question about the
said the service has already “more than program is “bigger than that of every oth- comments made by McCallum andWray.
doubled our previously-constrained effort er major country combined,” according
against Chinese activity of concern,” add- to Wray. The spokesperson said that China
ing it was running seven times as many urged both the countries to “have a clear
investigations as in 2018. Over the past year, the UK has shared understanding of the trend of the time,
intelligence with 37 countries to help abandon the Cold War mentality which
FBI Director Christopher Wray said them defend against cyber espionage, Mc- has long gone out of date, stop spreading
that the Chinese government “poses the Callum said, adding that in May they had “China threat”, and stop creating con-
biggest long-term threat” to economic and disrupted a sophisticated threat targeting frontation and conflicts.”
national security, for the UK, the US and critical aerospace companies.
allies in Europe and elsewhere. Speaking at MI5 headquarters in
Speaking about Taiwan, which China Thames House, London, both the security
“The Chinese government is trying regards as a province,Wray said that Chi- services heads gave numerous examples
to shape the world by interfering in our na may try to forcibly take it over and if of issues linked to China, asking an au-
politics (and those of our allies, I should that were to happen, “it would represent dience which included businessmen and
add),” Wray said, saying Beijing had di- one of the most horrific business disrup- academics to be cautious and encouraging
rectly interfered in a Congressional elec- tions the world has ever seen.” them to partner with the FBI and MI5 so
tion in New York this year, as it did not they can have the appropriate intelligence
want a candidate who was a critic and “The widespread Western assumption about this threat.
that growing prosperity within China and
increasing connectivity with the West

(July 7): India’s anti-money laundering Indian agency New Delhi, which has heightened the
agency said on Thursday it seized 4.65 seizes US$59 mil scrutiny of Chinese-origin firms since
billion rupees (US$59 million) in bank a Himalayan border clash between the
accounts and cash as well as gold bars from Chinese two nuclear-armed neighbors in 2020,
belonging to Chinese smartphone maker phone maker is probing the local units of ZTE Corp.
Vivo Mobile Communications Co’s local and Vivo for alleged financial improprie-
unit and its related companies. Vivo ties, Bloomberg News reported previously.

The agency raided 48 locations and by Sankalp Phartiyal China took note of the raids, with a
foundVivo remitted 624.76 billion rupees Bloomberg spokesman for its embassy in India urg-
or roughly half of its local sales outside ing the country to enforce the law and
of India, mostly to China, according to provide a fair, just and non-discrimina-
a statement from the Enforcement Di- tory environment for Chinese companies
rectorate. operating in India.

“These remittances were made in or-
der to disclose huge losses in Indian in-
corporated companies to avoid payment
of taxes in India,” the agency alleged.

A Vivo representative in India didn’t
answer calls, text messages or respond
to an email seeking comment.

Vivo’s woes follow a close review by
Indian authorities of bigger rival Xiaomi
Corp’s local unit on accusations that it
moved money out of the country by false-
ly claiming it was for patent-fee payments.

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LONDON (July 7): Shell Plc said soaring Shell sees Shell now expects to reverse previous write-
margins from fuel production may have add- US$1 bil gain in downs on asset values by US$3.5 billion to
ed more than US$1 billion to the earnings of refining on record US$4.5 billion.
its refining business last quarter, when gasoline
prices broke records in several countries. fuel prices The company took a US$3.9 billion im-
pairment in the first quarter, stemming from
The trading update from the London-based by Laura Hurst its planned exit from ventures in Russia. It will
energy giant is the first indicator of just how Bloomberg take an additional hit of as much as US$350
much cash was flowing into the coffers of ma- million from the loss of LNG volumes from the
jor oil companies due to the inflationary surge Shell’s shares advanced as much as 2.5%, Russian Sakhalin-2 project, it said onThursday.
in the price of gasoline, which climbed above and traded up 1.2% at 1,997.2 pence as of
US$5 a gallon in the US for the first time. 9:36am in London. Trading and optimisation results from
Shell’s sprawling integrated gas unit fell from
While the rising cost of energy is strength- Still, analysts at RBC Europe Ltd saw the previous quarter, when the business ben-
ening the oil majors after several tough years, the update as “neutral”, citing uncertainty efited from “exceptional” trading opportuni-
it risks a political backlash. US President Joe around the “magnitude of working capital ties.The renewables and energy solutions di-
Biden has directly called on fuel retailers to outflows”. In May, Shell said that it would vision is expected to report adjusted earnings
cut prices and companies are facing windfall be hit by around US$7.4 billion of working of US$400 million to US$900 million for the
taxes in some countries. capital movements. second quarter amid an “exceptional market
environment”, the statement showed.
Shell’s indicative refining margin jumped Oil prices have jumped 30% this year as the
to US$28.04 a barrel in the second quarter war in Ukraine stokes supply concerns. Having Shell didn’t give an update on the future of
from US$10.23 in the first three months of ramped up its long-term price assumptions, its buyback program, having said it completed
the year, the company said in a statement on US$8.5 billion of repurchases in the first half
Thursday.That’s expected to have a positive of the year.The company has previously sig-
impact of US$800 million to US$1.2 billion on nalled an acceleration in returns, saying that
the results of its products division, compared shareholder distributions would be in excess
with the prior period. of 30% of operating cash flow.

Oil traders in
panic after Russia
order to halt CPC

Terminal

by Sherry Su
Bloomberg

(July 7): A Russian court order to halt oil Bailiff requirement another 1 million barrels a day.
loadings from a port in the Black Sea has The CPC stoppage is meant to begin after a Several oil traders in the region expressed
unnerved European crude traders already bailiff arrives. That hasn’t happened yet, and
reeling from the tightest regional market in the terminal operator, Caspian Pipeline Con- concerns over the possible shutdown, saying
years, sending prices for competing barrels sortium, has asked the higher regional court to spot prices could go up even further because
spiraling. delay the order suspending operations, arguing of an urgent need for alternative grades. Some
a sudden stop could cause permanent damage. refineries that already bought CPC cargoes for
On Tuesday, a Russian court ordered August loading said they were worried whether
a 30-day stoppage of the CPC Terminal, European refiners are now mostly keeping their shipments will now be delayed.
through which more than 30 million bar- away from Russia’s Urals crude following the Click here for the full story
rels of mostly Kazakh crude gets exported invasion into Ukraine, putting a greater empha- Read also:
each month. It said the halt is because the sis on other sources of supply. Oil up nearly US$5 as tight supply
facility violated its oil-spill prevention plan. outweighs recession fears Click here
But Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Libya, the Russia to take Sakhalin-1 project under its
If it comes to pass, the stoppage would North Sea andWest Africa — all major suppli- control, says lawmaker Click here
be another blow to a European oil market ers to Europe — already saw their combined
that’s lost large amounts of supply to un- monthly exports decline by a combined 1.04
rest in Libya, and seen sharply reduced million barrels a day in June, tanker tracking
shipments from elsewhere. For now the compiled by Bloomberg show.
terminal is running as normal.
Exports from Libya have fallen to about
Azeri Light oil, popular among Europe- a third of last year’s level amid the worsen-
an refiners because of its low sulfur levels, ing political crisis. Should the court order
jumped to a premium of more than US$10 go ahead, it would strip Europe of at least
a barrel to benchmark Dated Brent, the high-
est level several traders were able to remem-
ber. Further afield, Nigeria’s Forcados crude
was offered at a premium of US$14 a barrel.

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(July 7): Samsung Electronics Co report- Samsung sparks significantly compared to the first quarter
ed a better-than-anticipated 21% jump in US$30 bil tech as people spent less on pricey IT products.
revenue, assuaging investors’ worst fears rally after 21%
about the impact of weakening consumer The sector is the worst-performing
demand and soaring materials costs on the sales jump group so far this year
US$550 billion chip industry.
by Sohee Kim South Korea’s chip stockpiles jumped
The results from South Korea’s largest Bloomberg more than 50% in May, according to the
company — among the first major tech national statistics office, signaling sluggish
firms to report earnings after a pivotal & Securities. “Negotiations for chip prices consumer demand is directly impacting the
quarter — helped drive a rally in Asian would be heated in the current quarter if memory chip industry. Samsung and compa-
stocks Thursday. While concerns linger demand continues to fall. But the markets triot SK Hynix are two of the leading trio of
about the longer-term impact of a poten- are not expecting severe price drops as memory makers supplying the world’s data
tial global recession, investors seized on happened in previous downturns.” centers and electronics makers. Both have
Samsung’s top-line expansion as a sign seen their share prices slump by over 20% this
that chip stocks may have been oversold. Samsung will provide net income and year as worries over a potential recession grow.
split out divisional performance with its
Samsung gained 3.2% in Seoul, while full report at the end of this month. Smart- Samsung warned of an “immense” chal-
fellow memory maker SK Hynix Inc rose phone shipments in the second quarter lenge over its business outlook during its
2%.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufactur- might have fallen by more than 10 million last earnings call as global macro risks
ing Co jumped 5% and smaller rival Unit- units to 63 million compared to the pre- like inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war
ed Microelectronics Corp surged 7.3% in vious three months, according to Eugene threatened ripple effects. Consumers and
Taipei.TSMC will report its monthly sales Investment & Securities analyst Lee Se- enterprise clients are cutting their spending
on Friday. ung-woo. Sales of TVs and PCs also fell to hunker down before a potential reces-
sion, while rising interest rates and costs
The four Asian chipmakers gained are directly hitting their disposable income.
about US$30 billion of market value col-
lectively in the morning. Despite that rally, US rival Micron Technology Inc, the
they remain down for the year, reflecting third biggest DRAM maker, last week gave
uncertainty about the longer term. a grim outlook for the current quarter with
lowered expectations for tech spending.
“The results were less bad than expect-
ed,” said Song Myung-sup, an analyst at
HI Investment & Securities. “There were
huge worries and earnings estimates were
getting lowered. But the results came with-
in the boundary of expectations.”

Samsung’s narrow sales beat offset
weaker-than-expected operating profit,
reflecting margin pressures from rising in-
flation. Operating profit grew at its slowest
pace in more than two years to 14 trillion
won (US$10.7 billion) in the June quarter,
versus the 14.6 trillion won projected. It
posted sales of 77 trillion won, helped by
a weakening of the Korean won.

“Samsung seemed to manage memo-
ry chip shipments in the second quarter
pretty well by keeping its inventories and
stabilizing prices,” said Greg Roh, head of
technology research at HMC Investment

(July 7): Apple Inc plans its largest smart- Apple plans later this year with the other two models,
watch display to date, a bigger battery and extreme sports will have about 7% more screen area than
a rugged metal casing as part of the up- watch with larger the largest current Apple Watch.The dis-
coming Apple Watch geared toward ex- screen, metal play will have a resolution of about 410
treme sports athletes, according to people pixels by 502 pixels and retain the same
with knowledge of the plans. case overall sharpness as the existing models.

The rugged version of the AppleWatch by Mark Gurman Apple could use the larger screen area
will get a screen that measures almost 2 Bloomberg to show more fitness metrics or informa-
inches diagonally, while a new, standard tion on watch faces at one time.The com-
AppleWatch Series 8 will keep the 1.9-inch pany added several new fitness features in
diagonal screen size of the current Apple watchOS 9, including multisport workouts
Watch Series 7. A planned update to the and improved intensity tracking during ex-
low-end Apple Watch SE also will retain ercise routines.
the current screen size. Click here for the full story

The larger display on the extreme sports
model, which is planned to be announced

f r i d a y j u LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 24 T h e E d g e C E O m o r n i n g b r i e f

world

EAGAN, Minnesota (July 7): As the crypto Investors take activity shows continued Bitcoin consolidation.
winter deepens, only the staunchest Bitcoin Bitcoin off Key levels to watch for Bitcoin are US$18,910,
investors are still holding onto their tokens —
but not on the exchanges. exchanges as a level that prices have dipped below twice in mid-
crypto winter June, and US$21,557, around its late-June highs,
Investors in the world’s biggest cryptocur- according to Craig Johnson, the chief market
rency are going into hibernation mode with on- settles in technician of Piper Sandler Companies.
chain activity dropping by 13% in early July from
November’s highs — levels last seen in the bear by Immanual John Milton “There’s no fundamentals for crypto, of
phases of 2018 and 2019 when Bitcoin was worth Bloomberg course. It’s just purely price action,” Johnson
less than US$10,000 (about RM44,260) — ac- said in an interview last Friday (July 1).“You’re
cording to a Glassnode analysis. for the first time since 2020. just going to look at this and say, until you break
While several activity levels — a demand indi- out of that range — up or down — you are not
The risk-off market mood is spreading to going to make any conclusion that there’s a trend
the cryptocurrency exchanges as investors with- cator — have trended downward in recent weeks, change yet.We’re just short-term consolidating in
draw and stow their coins offline in crypto there still appears to be a stable holder base as the context of a longer-term downtrend.”
wallets instead.The exchanges have seen their prices hover around US$20,000. HODLers —
balances drop more than 20% from a Jan 20 stalwart investors who refuse to sell — are evi- A close above US$26,000 or US$28,000
peak, according to Glassnode. dent as Glassnode says relatively flat transaction could finally put a stop to the downward slide
the token had been on since April, Johnson said.
“Bitcoin has seen a near complete expul-
sion of market tourists, leaving the resolve The rout in Bitcoin has hit Coinbase Global
of HODLers as the last line standing,” ac- Inc the hardest as the exchange saw a drop of
cording to a Glassnode newsletter dated July 450,000 Bitcoin over the last two years. Binance,
4. Bitcoin fell below US$20,000 last month which recently partnered with TikTok creator
Khaby Lame and football star Cristiano Ronal-
do, has seen an increase of 300,000 Bitcoin over
the same time span, making it the most popular
Bitcoin exchange, per Glassnode andTXMC.

Recent breaks in operations, such as Coin-
flex’s andVauld’s pause in withdrawals and Coin-
Loan’s reduction in withdrawal amounts, have
decreased investor trust in exchanges. Illiquid
supply increased by 223,000 Bitcoin in June as
investors migrated funds to wallets from exchang-
es,according to Glassnode data.Of that 223,000,
large-scale crypto holders made up much of that
outflow from the exchanges as they withdrew over
140,000 tokens in June.These whales have been
responsible for exchange outflows of almost 8.7
million or over 40% of global supply of Bitcoin.

“The Bitcoin bear is in full swing, and in its
wake, the HODLers of last resort are the last
ones standing,” Glassnode said.

MELBOURNE (July 7): Bets that Asian cen- Morgan Stanley have also tightened in recent months.
tral banks will keep ramping up interest rates says inflation in South Korea’s one-year one-day swap rate
are overdone as inflation is likely to peak this Asia set to peak
quarter, according to Morgan Stanley. predicts policymakers will raise their bench-
this quarter mark to 4.2% by mid-June, versus economists’
Consumer prices may rise less rapidly than forecasts for it to peak at 2.5% by year end.
currently expected given supply imbalances are by Matthew Burgess & Marcus Wong Thailand’s two-year non-deliverable inter-
reversing, global food costs have fallen, and Bloomberg est-rate swap showed traders are pricing in
wage pressures will be muted, economists led more than 200 basis points of rate hikes over
by Chetan Ahya wrote in a note onWednesday. Stanley analysts wrote. “We are increasingly that period.
Price gains may be stickier in Australia, South confident that inflation is peaking this quarter,
Korea, and Singapore while remaining within and that inflation could start to surprise on the While traders are betting on further rate
the comfort zone in China, they said. downside in the coming months.” hikes, global inflation is already showing some
signs of cooling. Costs of everything from cook-
Morgan Stanley’s prognosis may offer some Emerging Asia bonds have fallen for four ing oils to wheat and corn — a key component
comfort to Asia’s stock and bond traders who straight months, while the MSCI Asia Pacific of Asian inflation gauges — have tumbled to
have been rocked by fears that regional central Index of shares is trading near a two-year low their lowest level in months,while the Bloomberg
banks will follow the Federal Reserve (Fed) after the Fed delivered a series of outsized rate Commodity Index has plummeted from a high
in pushing up rates aggressively.The forecast hikes to tame inflation. Policymakers in South set a month ago.
also coincides with speculation the weakening Korea, the Philippines, India, and Malaysia
global outlook will cause policymakers to opt “With growth concerns now coming to the
for more measured increases. fore and perhaps taking some precedence over
inflation risks, we think it has reduced the risks
“The level of interest rates needed to slow that central banks in the region will have to go
growth and demand will not be as high as what deeply into restrictive territory as implied by
is being perceived by markets,” the Morgan market pricing,” the economists wrote.

F R I D A Y J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 25 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

NEWS IN BRIEF

Ukraine raises flag on recaptured REUTERS European countries that support Kyiv amid
island, but loses key supporter in doubts about their staying power for what
UK’s Johnson British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) and has become a protracted conflict. In a phone
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (left) call, Johnson promised Ukraine’s President
KYIKYIV/BAKHMUT, Ukraine (July 7): visiting an exhibition of destroyed Russian military Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he will continue to
Ukrainian forces raised their national flag on vehicles and weapons at Mykhailivska Square in work with partners to end the grain blockade
a recaptured Black Sea island on Thursday in the coming weeks, and told him “You’re a
in a defiant act against Moscow, but Kyiv Kyiv, Ukraine on June 17, 2022. hero, everybody loves you,” a spokesman for
lost one of its main international supporters said. “Russia cannot be destroyed. You can break Johnson said. Moscow was fast to respond
after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson your teeth on it — and then choke on them.” to Ukraine’s defiant flag-raising ceremony
said he would step down. Russian forces Johnson said Britain’s support for Ukraine would on Snake Island, located about 140 km (90
also shelled potential conquests in eastern continue regardless but his resignation comes miles) south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa.
Ukraine ahead of an expected new offensive. at a time of domestic turmoil in some other Its warplanes struck the strategic island
Moscow did not conceal its delight at the shortly afterwards and destroyed part of
political demise of Johnson, a leader whom the Ukrainian detachment there, it said. —
it has long criticised for arming Kyiv so Reuters
energetically. “The moral of the story is: do
not seek to destroy Russia,” Russian Foreign Click here for the full story
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

Pakistan surprises with 125 bps Indonesia considering cutting palm oil Hong Kong suspends flight bans
hike to curb prices export levy to spur shipments as it eases Covid-19 rules

(July 7): Pakistan’s central bank raised JAKARTA (July 7): Indonesia is considering HONG KONG (July 7): Hong Kong has
borrowing costs more than expected to quell cutting its palm oil export levy to encourage suspended a rule that banned individual
Asia’s second-fastest inflation and meet more shipments, a cabinet minister said on flights for bringing in passengers infected
conditions for a loan from the International Thursday, another move to spur exports after with the Covid-19 virus, as it caused
Monetary Fund. State Bank of Pakistan a ban designed to protect domestic cooking “unnecessary trouble” and inconvenience
lifted the target rate by 125 basis points oil supplies saw palm oil inventories swell. to residents of the global financial hub,
(bps) to 15% on Thursday. The move was The world’s biggest producer of the edible the government said on Thursday. Airlines
predicted by only three of 24 economists in oil has unrolled a series of policies aimed at welcomed the move that paves the way
a Bloomberg survey with most forecasting stimulating exports after a three-week ban on for the return of scores stranded overseas
smaller increases. The hike aims “to moderate shipments that ended in late May triggered by the bans, which exceeded 100 this year
domestic demand, prevent a compounding disruption at home and abroad. To jumpstart and greatly frustrated people accustomed
of inflationary pressures and reduce risks to exports, the government needs to make extra to easy and efficient travel links with the
external stability,” the central bank said in a effort to quickly cut domestic stocks and former British colony. “The social cost
statement. Inflation, due in part to pent-up prop up palm fruit prices for farmers that caused by the ‘circuit breaker mechanism’
demand, high global commodity prices and have slumped since the ban, Senior Minister is quite large, and it also brings unnecessary
rising imports, surged to a 13-year-high of Luhut Pandjaitan said at an industry event. trouble to... international students and
21.32% in June. Pakistan’s central bank joins “For shipments to flow we may have to lower their families,” the government said in a
nearly 60 monetary authorities, including the export levy to provide incentives for statement. All arrivals must still spend at
the Federal Reserve, in raising policy rates. businesses to export,” Luhut said. He did not least a week in hotel quarantine and comply
Inflation during current fiscal year is forecast provide further details. Indonesia had cut the with frequent testing orders, providing
at around 18-20 percent before declining export levy to a maximum US$200 per tonne stool samples for babies, and filling out
sharply in the next fiscal and the economy is for July from US$375 previously, but is due multiple forms. Airlines earlier faced a ban
predicted to grow at 3-4%, the central bank to increase the level to US$240 in August. — of five days if their flights brought in more
said. Prior to Thursday’s decision, the State Reuters than five infected people. That was down
Bank of Pakistan had increased rates by 400 from as much as two weeks before, making
bps since the start of the year. — Bloomberg Click here for the full story operations tougher as the city’s borders
were effectively shut for more than two
Insulting someone online could mean a year in jail in Japan years. — Reuters

(July 7): Cyberbullies in Japan could now face up to a year in prison as the government cracks
down on online abuse following the suicide of a 22-year-old professional wrestler and reality
TV star who was hounded on social media. New penalties for public abuse as part of a revised
law came into effect Thursday, allowing fines of up to 300,000 yen (US$2,200) from the
previous 10,000 yen and jail sentences of up to 12 months compared with 29 days previously.
“It’s important to try to stamp out the kind of vicious insults that have sometimes even driven
people to die,” Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa told reporters on Tuesday. “The revision
to the law doesn’t unjustly limit freedom of expression.” — Bloomberg

Click here for the full story REUTERS

F R I D A Y J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 26 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

Tycoon whose bet broke the nickel
market walks away a billionaire

BY ALFRED CANG, JACK FARCHY
& MARK BURTON
Bloomberg

SINGAPORE/LONDON (July 7): By the global metals markets is based on nu- trade. But a price of around US$50,000
2:08pm Shanghai time on March 8, it was merous interviews with people who were would be more than twice the level at which
clear that Xiang Guangda’s giant bet on involved, all of whom requested anonymity. he had entered his short position, and would
a fall in nickel prices was going spectac- Multiple attempts to seek comment from mean accepting billions of dollars in losses.
ularly wrong. Tsingshan were unsuccessful.
Xiang, who is in his early 60s, stood
Futures had just skyrocketed above Massive short squeeze firm. From a start making frames for car
US$100,000 a tonne and his trade was Xiang had built up his massive short po- doors and windows in Wenzhou, east-
more than US$10 billion underwater. sition in late 2021 and early 2022 partly ern China, he’d built Tsingshan into the
It was threatening not only to bankrupt as a hedge, partly as a bet that a planned world’s largest nickel and stainless steel
Xiang’s company, but to trigger a Leh- jump in Tsingshan’s production this year producer, with an empire stretching from
man Brothers-like shock through the en- would drag down prices. But when Russia’s mines in remote Indonesian islands to steel
tire metals industry and possibly topple invasion of Ukraine jolted global markets, mills on China’s east coast. Along the way,
the London Metal Exchange itself. nickel started climbing — gradually at first, he’d acquired a reputation for visionary
before rocketing 250% in an epic squeeze. thinking and a taste for betting big.
But Xiang was calm. Within hours,
more than 50 bankers had arrived at his On the evening of March 8, senior bank- He had caught the attention of the LME
office wanting to hear how he planned to ers crowded into a room at Tsingshan’s before, when in 2019Tsingshan was on the
respond to the crisis. He told them simply: headquarters demanding answers. Others other side of a short squeeze, withdrawing
“I’m confident that we will overcome this.” dialled in for video calls from London or large amounts of nickel inventories from
Singapore. Of those present, some didn’t exchange warehouses and causing prices
And he did. leave until early the next morning. to jump.
Four months on, the nickel price is fall-
ing, as Xiang had predicted. The coterie The crowd that night was so large because This time, his aggressive approach to
of banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co Xiang’s position was spread across about 10 trading was having much wider ripple ef-
that were baying for his blood has been banks and brokers — he had been a good fects.
repaid. He has closed out nearly all his client for many of them, including JPMor-
short position in nickel, making a loss on gan, for years. But after nickel started spiking The spike in prices and the trading
the trade of about US$1 billion — a man- on March 7, Tsingshan struggled to meet freeze caused havoc for companies that
ageable sum given the profits being gen- its margin calls. Now he owed each of them use nickel, like stainless steel mills and
erated elsewhere in his business empire, hundreds of millions of dollars. makers of batteries for electric vehicles.
say people who know him. Some simply stopped taking new orders.
Crucially: the man nicknamed ‘Big The LME had eventually intervened to On the LME, dealers were left frantically
Shot’ in Chinese commodities circles is halt trading a couple of hours after nick- trying to recoup missed margin calls from
poised to walk away from the fiasco with el hit US$100,000. It also cancelled bil- clients who couldn’t pay, and at least one
his multibillion-dollar mining and steel- lions of dollars of transactions, bringing the had to seek financial support from its par-
making company, Tsingshan Holding price back to US$48,078, where it closed ent company.
Group Co, intact and even expanding. the previous day, in what amounted to a
But while Xiang moves on, others are left lifeline for Xiang and Tsingshan. Yet with unprecedented chaos rippling
dealing with the destruction wrought by the through the industry, Xiang — still facing
crisis. His miraculous escape was thanks in no To reopen the market,the LME proposed his bankers in the early hours of March 9
small part to the actions of the LME, which a solution: Xiang should strike a deal with — had a key advantage. They were more
controversially intervened to prevent prices holders of long positions to close out his terrified than he was.
from rising and then suspended trading un-
til Xiang had struck a deal with his banks. CONTINUES ON PAGE 27
Those on the other side of the trade,
who lost billions, were furious. Months
later, the LME is dealing with a raft of
investigations and lawsuits, and the nickel
market is still reeling.
“Nice to see that @jpmorgan and The
Big Shot got out of this whole thing with
only scratches,” Cliff Asness, founder of
AQR Capital Management, said last week
in a tweet thick with sarcasm. “It’s just
heart warming.”
This account of how Xiang extricated
himself from a short squeeze that rocked

F R I D A Y J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 27 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

FROM PAGE 26

If he refused to pay, they would have to
chase him in courts in Indonesia and Chi-
na.What’s more, he had executed his nickel
trade through a variety of corporate entities
— such as the Hong Kong branch of battery
unit Ruipu Energy Co — and it wasn’t clear
the banks would even have the right to seize
Tsingshan’s most valuable assets.

The bankers understood that if things
went wrong, their careers would be over, one
person who was in the room remembered.

JPMorgan, which had the biggest ex-
posure, took the lead.The group included
some international players like Standard
Chartered Bank Plc and BNP Paribas SA,
but many were Chinese and Singaporean
banks that had little experience handling a
situation like this.

Personal guarantee “The moment we realised what was really exited his position entirely with JPMorgan
Xiang told the assembled bankers he had no happening,we felt we could no longer entrust and several other banks, leaving him with a
intention of closing the position anywhere the LME with our clients’ money,” saidTran- remaining short of less than 20,000 tonnes.
near US$50,000. A few hours later he was strend, a US$6.7 billion Dutch algorithmic
delivering the same message to Matthew fund. Open interest across the exchange’s People familiar with the matter estimate
Chamberlain, chief executive of the LME. six main metals slid to the lowest in more Tsingshan’s losses on the trade at around
Tsingshan was a strong company, he said, than a decade as traders headed for the exit. US$1 billion. Xiang isn’t concerned. The
and it had the support of the Chinese gov- loss has been roughly offset by the profits of
ernment.There would be no backing down. Each month,Tsingshan and its banks re- his nickel operations over the same period.
viewed their standstill agreement. After the The standstill agreement, which Xiang ex-
Instead, he wrote a list of the assets he initial dip, nickel spent long stretches in lim- tended from the initial three months, is set
was willing to put up as collateral: a string bo with prices hovering around US$33,000. to expire in mid-July.
of ferronickel plants in Indonesia. But for
some of the bankers, that wasn’t enough. It was a nervous time. Tsingshan still Now ‘Big Shot’ is moving on with his life,
They wouldn’t be able to do any due dili- had a vast short position, meaning it and focusing on plans for the future atTsingshan,
gence on the Indonesian assets for weeks or its banks could still be exposed to large losses which had revenues of US$56 billion last
months, and even those who worked closely if prices started rising again — for example, year. His ability to trade on the LME may be
withTsingshan hadn’t seen the facilities for if sanctions against Russia led to an actual reduced, for now at least, but he is still able
years because of the pandemic. disruption in nickel supplies, which so far to trade on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
they hadn’t. He has ambitions to expand, not only in
So Xiang made a further concession that Asia, but also to Africa.AndTsingshan is as
was both valuable and, in Chinese business Finally, in May, prices tumbled decisively powerful as ever in the nickel market: a mas-
culture, humbling: a personal guarantee. If below the key US$30,000 level after Chi- sive increase in production from his plants
Tsingshan didn’t pay its debts, the bankers na’s lockdowns dented metals market senti- in Indonesia is one of the key factors driv-
could turf him out of his home. That was ment. Over the following weeks,Tsingshan ing prices lower, much as Xiang predicted.
what he was willing to offer.Take it or leave it. reduced its position — which in early March
had been over 150,000 tonnes — to just But while Xiang may be moving on, the
It wasn’t much of a choice. On March 60,000 tonnes. LME is still dealing with the fallout. Regu-
14, a week after the chaos that engulfed the lators have pointed to the chaos in nickel as
nickel market,Tsingshan announced a deal By this point, prices were below the level a sign of the risks lurking in commodity mar-
with its banks under which they agreed not at whichTsingshan had stopped being able kets, and called for greater oversight of the
to pursue the company for the billions it to pay its margin calls in early March, which entire sector. Hedge fund Elliot Investment
owed for a period of time.In exchange,Xiang meant Xiang no longer owed the banks any Management and trading firm Jane Street
agreed a series of price levels at which he money. He proposed dropping the personal have launched legal action against the LME,
would reduce his nickel position once prices guarantee from the deal, seeing it as a hu- seeking nearly US$500 million.
dropped below about US$30,000. miliating concession to his earlier financial
troubles. Some of the banks were willing to And the nickel market is still broken, say
When the market reopened two days do so, but JPMorgan was not: the number of people involved in it, with both open inter-
later, prices moved lower, easing the strain nickel plants used as collateral was reduced, est and trading volumes stuck at sharply
on Xiang and the banks. A brief dip below but the personal guarantee would stay.A JP- lower levels as traders step away from us-
US$30,000 allowed Tsingshan to cover Morgan spokesman declined to comment. ing LME prices in their contracts. Jim Len-
about 20% of its short position. non, a veteran nickel market-watcher and
It was not the only sign that the crisis had managing director of Red Door Research
The pressure on the LME was only in- soured Xiang’s relationship with his banks. In Ltd, estimates that less than 25% of global
tensifying, however. The exchange’s regu- June, as recessionary fears swept global mar- nickel output is now being sold on the basis
lators launched reviews of its governance kets, Xiang’s short position was beginning of LME prices, down from 50% before the
and oversight.The Dallas Federal Reserve to look like a smart trade. He asked some of crisis in March.
and International Monetary Fund joined his banks for a little flexibility, allowing him
in a chorus of public criticism, and many to run the position for longer than had been “A lot of the industry now has temporarily
hedge funds were still furious at the LME’s envisaged under their deal.Again, JPMorgan disengaged from the LME,” he says. “The
decision to cancel trades. said no, and by the end of June Xiang had market is still functioning, but it’s struggling.”

F R I D A Y J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 2 28 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 4,135.0080.00 OIL US$ 101.550.86 RM/USD 4.4278 RM/SGD 3.1588 RM/AUD 3.0289 RM/GBP 5.3001 RM/EUR 4.5203

Top 20 active stocks

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

SENG FONG HOLDINGS BHD 97.60 -0.075 0.675 0 350.3

REACH ENERGY BHD 70.60 -0.005 0.040 -33.33 43.9

TOP GLOVE CORP BHD 68.50 0.070 1.010 -61.00 8,087.3

HIBISCUS PETROLEUM BHD 46.00 -0.050 0.875 7.36 1760.9

JADE MARVEL GROUP BHD 41.40 -0.050 0.865 31.06 283.7

WIDAD GROUP BHD 39.90 0.000 0.365 0.00 1004.7

MY EG SERVICES BHD 39.90 0.005 0.865 -19.16 6,388.5

TA WIN HOLDINGS BHD 37.10 0.005 0.085 -32.00 290.9

DAGANG NEXCHANGE BHD 28.90 0.010 0.765 0.66 2414.5 World equity indices

NWP HOLDINGS BHD 21.40 -0.010 0.260 6.12 136.9

CYPARK RESOURCES BHD 19.90 0.015 0.330 -63.74 194.3 CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE

BUMI ARMADA BHD 19.40 -0.010 0.350 -25.53 2071.3 (%) (%)
DOW JONES 31,037.68 69.86 0.23 INDONESIA 6,652.59 6.18 0.09
KANGER INTERNATIONAL BHD 19.10 -0.005 0.040 -80.00 24.1

SUPERMAX CORP BHD 17.40 0.025 0.835 -43.20 2,225.2 S&P 500 3,845.08 13.69 0.36 JAPAN 26,490.53 382.88 1.47

CIMB GROUP HOLDINGS BHD 16.00 -0.010 5.090 -6.61 53,313.9 NASDAQ 100 11,852.59 72.69 0.62 KOREA 2,334.27 42.26 1.84

DATASONIC GROUP BHD 15.40 -0.010 0.430 4.88 1231.7 FTSE 100 7,188.74 80.97 1.14 PHILIPPINES 6,352.32 -92.69 -1.44

LAY HONG BHD 15.20 0.015 0.280 16.67 207.3 AUSTRALIA 6,647.96 53.47 0.81 SINGAPORE 3,129.40 25.74 0.83

METRONIC GLOBAL BHD 14.30 0.000 0.090 -26.28 27.0 CHINA 3,364.40 9.05 0.27 TAIWAN 14,336.27 350.76 2.51

TANCO HOLDINGS BHD 14.20 -0.005 0.255 6.25 444.2 HONG KONG 21,643.58 56.92 0.26 THAILAND 1,562.37 20.58 1.33

VELESTO ENERGY BHD 13.80 0.000 0.090 -25.00 739.4 INDIA 54,194.46 443.49 0.83 VIETNAM 1,166.48 16.87 1.47

Data as compiled on Jul 7, 2022 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Jul 7, 2022 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)

PASUKHAS GROUP BHD 0.020 33.33 409.5 -20.00 38.1 VSOLAR GROUP BHD 0.005 -50.00 339.2 -66.67 24.2

IMPIANA HOTELS BHD 0.025 25.00 2581.6 -66.67 36.1 AT SYSTEMATIZATION BHD 0.010 -33.33 325.0 -66.67 60.0

BARAKAH OFFSHORE PETROLEUM 0.030 20.00 91.8 -62.50 30.1 BCM ALLIANCE BHD 0.020 -20.00 428.1 -33.33 40.7

FAST ENERGY HOLDINGS BHD 0.030 20.00 765.1 -68.42 22.1 XOX TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.025 -16.67 90.1 -50.00 22.3

ZECON BHD 0.410 17.14 15.0 1.23 60.4 TPC PLUS BHD 0.190 -15.56 25.0 0.00 58.6

VIZIONE HOLDINGS BHD 0.075 15.38 1084.7 -6.25 153.4 KHEE SAN BHD 0.120 -14.29 10.3 -14.29 16.5

G3 GLOBAL BHD 0.040 14.29 472.5 -50.00 116.1 MALAYSIA PACIFIC CORP BHD 0.060 -14.29 0.1 -40.00 17.3

SINMAH CAPITAL BHD 0.125 13.64 371.1 -13.79 49.1 MQ TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.035 -12.50 2,854.4 -30.00 43.8

ASIA MEDIA GROUP BHD 0.215 10.26 11677.4 48.28 51.5 PDZ HOLDINGS BHD 0.035 -12.50 412.0 -22.22 20.3

MMAG HOLDINGS BHD 0.055 10.00 1204.2 -26.67 93.7 SCC HOLDINGS BHD 0.320 -12.33 5.0 -14.67 45.2

MANAGEPAY SYSTEMS BHD 0.110 10.00 1097.9 -46.34 94.8 CABNET HOLDINGS BHD 0.230 -11.54 19.1 -11.54 41.1

ARTRONIQ BHD 0.455 9.64 3621.3 -26.02 144.6 REACH ENERGY BHD 0.040 -11.11 70,624.5 -33.33 43.9

IVORY PROPERTIES GROUP BHD 0.115 9.52 320.0 -8.00 56.4 SAUDEE GROUP BHD 0.040 -11.11 1,138.4 -27.27 39.7

BINASAT COMMUNICATIONS BHD 0.235 9.30 1397.6 -25.40 91.2 PUC BHD 0.040 -11.11 12,517.1 -72.41 65.0

AGESON BHD 0.245 8.89 3342.4 -52.31 76.4 KANGER INTERNATIONAL BHD 0.040 -11.11 19,132.9 -80.00 24.1

MINDA GLOBAL BHD 0.065 8.33 666.7 18.18 85.9 SENG FONG HOLDINGS BHD 0.675 -10.00 97,594.0 0.00 350.3

JOHAN HOLDINGS BHD 0.065 8.33 57 -23.53 75.9 KEY ASIC BHD 0.045 -10.00 352.8 -35.71 61.3

CHINA OUHUA WINERY HOLDINGS 0.065 8.33 51 -45.83 43.4 BOX-PAK MALAYSIA BHD 1.090 -9.17 10.8 -14.17 130.9

TOYO VENTURES HOLDINGS BHD 0.595 8.18 2273.8 -57.8 63.7 BTM RESOURCES BHD 0.105 -8.70 0.2 -36.36 18

EONMETALL GROUP BHD 0.615 7.89 4284.7 28.13 170.1 WAH SEONG CORP BHD 0.535 -8.55 932.1 -18.94 414.3

Data as compiled on Jul 7, 2022 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Jul 7, 2022 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)

NESTLE MALAYSIA BHD 133.00 0.900 39.7 -0.89 31188.5 CARLSBERG BREWERY MALAYSIA 21.820 -0.340 38.9 8.67 6671.4

KUALA LUMPUR KEPONG BHD 20.68 0.660 889.000 -5.05 22,296.3 PETRONAS CHEMICALS GROUP BHD 8.340 -0.310 11181.0 -6.50 66720.0

PPB GROUP BHD 15.52 0.240 244.6 -9.24 22078.7 PRESS METAL ALUMINIUM 4.270 -0.240 10235.2 -26.12 35183.2

SIME DARBY PLANTATION BHD 4.05 0.220 5,114.5 7.71 28008.6 VITROX CORP BHD 6.740 -0.230 511.0 -32.33 6366.8

HARTALEGA HOLDINGS BHD 2.80 0.140 6,320.3 -51.13 9568.9 BERJAYA FOOD BHD 3.790 -0.210 1603.8 76.28 1350.4

MALAYSIAN PACIFIC INDUSTRIES 28.00 0.120 99.4 -43.27 5569.1 HONG LEONG BANK BHD 20.180 -0.200 1004.8 8.38 43744.5

SARAWAK OIL PALMS BHD 3.74 0.110 1656.4 7.16 2219.5 PETRON MALAYSIA REFINING 4.590 -0.180 1654.3 4.79 1239.3

FAR EAST HOLDINGS BHD 3.50 0.100 10.0 19.62 2078.4 KESM INDUSTRIES BHD 6.140 -0.160 12.5 -50.00 264.1

FIMA CORP BHD 2.13 0.100 11 13.30 505.6 D&O GREEN TECHNOLOGIES BHD 3.680 -0.110 1270.5 -37.63 4552.7

HONG LEONG INDUSTRIES BHD 8.75 0.100 1.3 -4.68 2795.4 BOX-PAK MALAYSIA BHD 1.090 -0.110 10.8 -14.17 130.9

FRASER & NEAVE HOLDINGS BHD 21.20 0.100 92.8 -14.31 7775.7 BATU KAWAN BHD 21.900 -0.080 10.6 -3.52 8619.0

MAXIS BHD 3.34 0.080 2936.6 -30.97 26152.7 MANULIFE HOLDINGS BHD 2.070 -0.080 11.7 -10.00 437.9

HAP SENG CONSOLIDATED BHD 7.13 0.080 78.1 -7.40 17751.3 MATRIX CONCEPTS HOLDINGS BHD 2.170 -0.080 656.7 -1.36 1810.3

ORIENTAL HOLDINGS BHD 6.10 0.080 68.6 16.19 3784.2 SENG FONG HOLDINGS BHD 0.675 -0.075 97594.0 0.00 350.3

HONG LEONG CAPITAL BHD 5.41 0.070 882.9 -25.69 1335.7 CHIN HIN GROUP BHD 3.200 -0.070 2885.4 22.61 2831.1

TOP GLOVE CORP BHD 1.01 0.070 68505.2 -61.00 8087.3 RHB BANK BHD 5.650 -0.070 5276.1 5.21 23798.2

KLCCP STAPLED GROUP 6.87 0.070 97.2 4.89 12402.6 SUNGEI BAGAN RUBBER CO MALAYA 3.240 -0.070 4.2 0.00 214.9

ZECON BHD 0.41 0.060 15.0 1.23 60.4 KECK SENG MALAYSIA BHD 3.420 -0.070 21.2 -0.58 1228.8

AXIATA GROUP BHD 2.71 0.060 2132 -34.86 24869.1 SENI JAYA CORP BHD 2.330 -0.060 4 -11.74 113.1

AMMB HOLDINGS BHD 3.85 0.060 3151.4 21.45 12746.8 KUMPULAN FIMA BHD 2.350 -0.060 773.9 14.63 648.8

Data as compiled on Jul 7, 2022 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Jul 7, 2022 Source: Bloomberg