9 mac 3

BUKIT AMAN TO INVESTIGATE ZETI’S HUSBAND
FOR ALLEGEDLY RECEIVING 1MDB FUNDS p3

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021 w w w. t h e e d g e m a r k e t s. c o m

ISSUE 145/2021

CEOMorningBrief
HOME: Genting Malaysia’s senior management takes temporary voluntary 20% salary cut,
asks staff to consider variation in employment contract based on rank p4
AmBank share price tumbles while volume soars to record high p5

WORLD: UK’s Sunak extends COVID rescue plan but moves to bring in more tax p16

Putrajaya settles
with Deloitte for
RM324m in relation
to 1MDB scandal

Report on Page 2.

THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 2 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

the edge ceo morning brief published by publisher + ceo . Ho Kay Tat
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HOME

Putrajaya settles with Deloitte for
RM324m in relation to 1MDB scandal

BY HAFIZ YATIM
theedgemarkets.com

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Finance uals like Jho Low and other parties related 2014, without any qualification or empha-
Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Ab- thereto, and who are still being actively sis of the matter.
dul Aziz has confirmed that the Malay- pursued in relation to the 1MDB scandal.
sian government has agreed to a settlement Deloitte was 1MDB’s third auditor af-
of US$80 million (RM324 million) with “The Ministry of Finance would like ter KPMG and Ernst &Young were fired
Deloitte PLT in relation to the 1Malaysia to thank the Attorney General’s Cham- by the investment fund. In 2016, after US
Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal. bers, the Securities Commission Ma- authorities filed civil lawsuits over 1MDB,
laysia, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Royal Deloitte said the 1MDB finance statements
He said the settlement served to resolve Malaysian Police Force, the National An- it audited should no longer be relied on.
all claims related to their fiduciary duty ti-Financial Crime Centre, the Malaysian Deloitte resigned as the fund’s auditor ear-
on auditing the accounts of 1MDB and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Na- lier that same year.
SRC International Sdn Bhd for the 2011- tional Centre for Governance, Integrity
2014 period. and Anti-Corruption for their efforts in The Edge had previously reported that
achieving this settlement,” he added. besides the settlement with AmBank, the
“This marks another success in the Ma- government was looking at settling with
laysian government’s continuing recovery Deloitte was appointed as 1MDB’s audi- an audit firm.
efforts against parties involved in 1MDB, tor in December 2013 as a replacement for
SRC and its related entities.The Malaysian KPMG Malaysia, which was sacked after it Some opposition politicians like Da-
government is determined to ensure that wanted to issue a qualified audit report for mansara MP Tony Pua had also said fol-
appropriate actions are taken against all 1MDB’s 2013 financial statements. lowing the settlement with AmBank that
individuals or entities involved, directly or the government ought to pursue action
indirectly, in the global 1MDB scheme,” This was in relation to a difference of with auditing firms which were responsi-
he said in a statement. opinion on the fair value of 1MDB’s invest- ble for auditing 1MDB.
ment in Bridge Global SPC through Bra-
The settlement, reported by The Edge zen Sky Ltd, a company linked to Jho Low. Earlier, in July 2020, Putrajaya success-
earlier today quoting sources, comes after fully negotiated with Goldman Sachs to
Putrajaya announced last Friday that it On taking over, Deloitte verified the reach a settlement worth RM15.8 billion
has settled with AmBank Bhd for RM2.83 accounts for the financial years 2013 and (US$3.9 billion).
billion in relation to 1MDB’s 2009 bond
issue.

It is understood that the deadline to
resolve the negotiations with Deloitte was
over the weekend (Feb 28).

The successful out-of-court settlement,
Tengku Zafrul said, will expedite the pay-
ment of monies to fulfil 1MDB and SRC’s
outstanding obligations, which would oth-
erwise be delayed by potentially protracted
and costly court battles.

He said the settlement represents the
largest 1MDB-related settlement by an
audit firm in Southeast Asia.

“This settlement will not affect or com-
promise Malaysia’s claims against individ-

THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 3 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

HOME

Bukit Aman to investigate Zeti’s husband
for allegedly receiving 1MDB funds

THE EDGE FILE PHOTO

BY TIMOTHY ACHARIAM
theedgemarkets.com

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Bukit Sarawak Report and TheWall Street Jour- Goodstar Ltd — a company owned by
Aman said today that it has begun in- nal,” the weekly reported. Jho Low. Good Star had received US$700
vestigations into Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ay- million from the 1MDB/TIA bond is-
man for allegedly receiving funds linked The report added that the source of sue with the help of AmBank, reported
to 1Malaysia Development Berhad four of the transactions involved over The Edge.
(1MDB) in a Singapore bank account RM600 million in profits made by Jho
under his name. Low and his associates after flipping the BNM had told The Edge that it was
RM5 billion 1MDB/TIA (Terengganu unable to respond to questions as it was
Bukit Aman Commercial Criminal In- Investment Authority) bonds that were “bound by the international protocol for
vestigation Department director Datuk arranged by Ambank in May 2009. sharing of financial intelligence”.
Zainuddin Yaacob said in a press release
that they are investigating Tawfiq under “Besides this,Tawfiq and Low were also In a statement today, BNM said that as
Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laun- believed to have been partners in a com- a member of Egmont Group 1 of financial
dering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act pany that Low set up in July 2007 called intelligence units (FIU), it is bound byThe
2001. Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia (ADKMIC),” Egmont Group Principles concerning in-
the report said. formation exchange between the FIUs to
He also said that the police will be “protect the confidentiality of information
investigating the matter under the Mu- The Edge added that documents also in accordance to international standards
tual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act showed that ex-BSI bankerYakYew Chee and protocols”.
2002 in relation to the funds which are had told CAD that when ADKMIC was
allegedly in Singapore, adding that this incorporated, there were six to seven “BNM has in place mechanisms to pro-
Act will enable them to interview wit- shareholders, including Low and Tawfiq. tect the operational independence of the
nesses abroad. FIU, which are in full compliance with the
CAD probes found that between June Financial ActionTask Force (FATF) 2 in-
He urged all parties to refrain from 2011 and September 2013, US$153 mil- ternational standards.These mechanisms
speculating until the investigations are lion (RM620 million) were transferred to ensure that there is no restriction on the
complete and findings are handed over ADKMIC’s bank account in RBS Coutts, flow of information to the enforcement
to the Attorney-General’s Chamber. Singapore from a bank account in RBS agencies,” it said.
Coutts, Switzerland, that belonged to
Tawfiq is the husband of Tan Seri Zeti
Akhtar Aziz, a former Bank Negara Ma-
laysia (BNM) governor who retired in
April 2016.

The investigation comes amid a report
by The Edge Weekly which stated that the
Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of
the Singapore Police Force had informed
BNM of suspicious transactions involving
a UBS bank account belonging to Iron
Rhapsody Ltd.

The report said Iron Rhapsody —
whose beneficial owners are Tawfiq and
Ayman, according to the CAD — had re-
ceived US$16.22 million (RM65.71 mil-
lion) from companies/bank accounts of
fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, a central
figure in the 1MDB scandal, in five sepa-
rate transactions.

The inflows of money into the ac-
count that occurred in 2008 and 2009
triggered suspicious transaction report
(STR) alerts.

However, Bank Negara was only alert-
ed in 2015 and 2016. Soon after this, in-
vestigators in Malaysia, Switzerland and
the US began looking into the theft and
laundering of billions of dollars that be-
longed to 1MDB.

“The probes were triggered by exposes
published from March 2015 by The Edge,

THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 4 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

HOME

Yinson’s unit
bags RM1.5b
solar PV power
project in India

Genting Malaysia’s in January 2021 due to MCO 2.0 and BY WONG EE LIN
senior management “even with the recent availability of vac- theedgemarkets.com
cines, tourist traffic to RWG is expected
takes temporary to remain subdued and uncertain in the KUALA LUMPUR (March 3):Yin-
voluntary 20% short term”. son Holdings Bhd’s unit has bagged a
salary cut, asks staff contract worth an estimated 27.5 bil-
to consider variation “In this regard, our colleagues have vol- lion rupees (RM1.5 billion) to develop
in employment unteered again to reduce their salaries dur- a 190MW grid-connected solar pho-
contract based ing this challenging time, and on behalf of tovoltaic power project in the Nokh
Genting Malaysia, I seek your agreement Solar Park in India’s Rajasthan state.
on rank to a temporary variation of your employ-
ment contract to give effect to a reduction The contract awarded to the
BY JOYCE GOH in monthly base salary or your agreement group’s indirect 80%-owned sub-
theedgemarkets.com to take no pay leave as the case may be,” sidiary Rising Sun Energy (K) Pvt
noted the letter to staff signed by president Ltd (RSEK) by NTPC Ltd has an
KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Gent- and chief operating officer Datuk Seri Lee estimated aggregate value based on
ing Malaysia Bhd’s senior management Choong Yan. a fixed tariff of 2.25 rupees per kWh,
team has taken a temporary voluntary said Yinson.
20% salary cut for three months, and the “Subject to your agreement, the tem-
company has written to staff for them to porary reduction in monthly basic salary The plant will be located about
consider a variation in their employment or no pay leave will take effect from March 30km away from Yinson’s existing
contract with a suggested variation stag- until May 2021. 140MW Bhadla projects operated
gered depending on job grade from 15% by its 95%-owned subsidiary Rising
to 20% reduction in salary or one day no “The senior management team, includ- Sun Energy Pvt Ltd, the group said
pay leave per week, according to a letter ing our deputy chairman and chief execu- in a bourse filing.
sighted by The Edge. tive office and all vice presidents and above
have voluntarily agreed to waive 20% of Yinson said RSEK will enter into
“We need to control RWG’s (Resorts their salaries for the aforesaid period,” the a power purchase agreement to sup-
World Genting’s) cost base to ensure letter added. ply 25 years of solar power generated
the sustainability of our business and electricity to NTPC. Any extension
to help protect as many jobs as possi- The Edge had reached out to Genting of the agreement period beyond 25
ble during this challenging time,” the Malaysia on this at 8:25am. years will be through mutual agree-
group explained. ment between NTPC and RSEK.
The group had also announced salary
It noted that RWG was closed again cuts last year. Also in 2020, Genting saw The commercial operation of the
some job cuts as the leisure and hospitality plant is scheduled to commence in
group had been hit as visitorship fell due April 2022, saidYinson, adding that
to the Covid-19 virus. the deal is expected to contribute
positively to the group’s earnings and
For the full year ended Dec 31, 2020, net assets per share.
Genting Malaysia registered a net loss of
RM2.26 billion from a net profit of RM1.4 Shares of Yinson closed two sen
billion a year earlier. or 0.38% higher at RM5.30 today,
valuing the group at RM5.83 billion.
Its full-year revenue dropped 56% to Over the past year, the counter has
RM4.53 billion in FY20 from RM10.41 slipped 24.6% from RM7.03.
billion a year earlier.

THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 5 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

HOME

AmBank share price tumbles while
volume soars to record high

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): AMMB BY TAN SIEW MUNG Bursa Malaysia banks
Holdings Bhd’s (AmBank) share price theedgemarkets.com price-to-book value
plunged 11.4% or 36 sen to a near four-
month low of RM2.80 on the first trad-
ing day after the banking group last Company P/BV (times)
Friday announced a whopping glob- AMMB Holdings Bhd
al settlement in relation to the 1Ma- Public Bank 1.73
laysia Development Bhd (1MDB) Vol (mil)
scandal. 120 RM Hong Leong Bank 1.31
4.0
The stock took a nosedive at the BIMB 1.14
opening bell, it hit a low of RM2.63,
down 53 sen or 16.8% against the pre- Maybank 1.10
vious closing of RM3.16 last Friday. Its
trading volume swelled to a record high RHB 0.79
of 101.8 million shares.
80 3.5 CIMB 0.78
The selling spread to its derivatives.
AmBank-C21 lost two-thirds of its val- MBSB 0.52
ue, two sen, to close at one sen, Am-
Bank-C23 was down two sen to 3.5 sen AmBank* 0.50
while AmBank-C24 dropped 2.5 sen to
four sen. 40 3.0 Affin 0.36

The selldown was not a surprise con- 0 RM2.80 * after adjustment for RM2.83 billion global settlement
sidering that the global settlement will Feb 11, 2020 As at March 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg
dent the banking group’s financials. Fur-
thermore, some analysts raised the issue Source: Bloomberg 2.5 Analysts’ call on AmBank
on corporate governance as the manage- Mar 3, 2021
ment did not flag the contingent liabili-
ties risk to the investing public. Research house Call Target
price
On the other hand, some see AmBank (RM)
as becoming a potential merger candi-
date. Such expectation, said analysts, pegs the lowest target price of RM2.50. TA Research Buy 4.00
lent some support to its share price. Meanwhile,TA Securities Holdings Bhd
and KAF-Seagroatt & Campbell Securi- Nomura Buy 3.70
Interestingly, some analysts’ valua- ties Sdn Bhd, both of which are recom-
tions and recommendations on the bank- mending their clients to buy AmBank Maybank Kim Eng Hold 3.40
ing stock contrast quite dramatically. shares, have the highest target price of
RM4, according to Bloomberg. Kenanga Market perform 3.05
According to Bloomberg, there are six
sell calls on AmBank, four ‘buy’ recom- At RM2.80, AmBank is valued at HLIB Hold 2.95
mendations, and seven ‘hold’ calls. RM8.44 billion. It is trading at a price-
to-book value of 0.43 times — the sec- AffinHwang Sell 2.90
Macquarie, which has an “underper- ond lowest among the Bursa-listed banks
form” recommendation on AmBank, after Affin Holdings Bhd which is trad- MIDF Trading sell 2.75
ing at 0.34 times — compared with the
industry average of 0.9 times. Howev- CGS-CIMB Reduce 2.67
er, AmBank is valued at price-to-book
value of 0.50 times after adjustment for PublicInvest Trading sell 2.60
the RM2.83 billion global settlement.
Macquarie Underperform 2.50
Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd
As at March 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg

Bursa Malaysia banks YTD share price performance analyst Ng Jun Sheng wrote in a note
today that the knee-jerk selloff towards
% Gain/(loss) the RM2.63 to RM2.80 levels provides
a good bargain-hunting opportunity for
Public Bank 2.43 the stock.

-0.23 AmBank “All in all, 1MDB is a legacy issue,
and we believe AmBank is capable of
-0.99 Af n weathering the storm and being suc-
cessful again in rolling out long-term
-1.48 Maybank business strategies, rebuilding its image,
and eventually shaking off any negative
-2.39 BIMB perception,” he said.

-2.58 RHB CGS-CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd an-
alyst Winson Ng wrote in a note yester-
-3.78 MBSB day that the research firm is projecting a
net loss of RM1.77 billion for AmBank
-7.61 Hong Leong Bank and no dividends from the group in the
financial year ending March 31, 2021
-23.29 CIMB due to the RM2.83 billion provision for
the 1MDB settlement
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5
CGS-CIMB reiterated its ‘reduce’ call
As at March 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg for AmBank shares due to the 1MDB
settlement and lowered its target price
to RM2.67 from RM2.76 previously.

THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 6 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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• Automate the process of receiving



THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 8 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

HOME

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): The cur- Paramount sets projects launched.The fear now is not being
rent low interest rate environment bodes higher property able to launch the targeted RM1.2 billion
well for the property market due to lower sales target of worth of new launches if we don’t get the
borrowing costs, says Paramount Corp Bhd RM1b for 2021, approvals from the government on time.
group chief executive officer Jeffrey Chew. sees low interest
“Buyers now buy properties because
Against this backdrop, coupled with the environment they like something new and with good
fact that the local economy is widely ex- as a boon features, compared to getting an old unit
pected to recover in 2021, he is hopeful as the latter still requires re-furnishing and
that the property market this year will be BY JUSTIN LIM it is costly to do so,” he noted.
better than the last two years. theedgemarkets.com
Chew is hopeful that the government
“Interest rates have come down and Chew said the group has achieved a total will recognise the need to help property
hopefully will stay low, prompting peo- sales of nearly RM100 million for the first developers by accelerating the process of
ple to start buying properties,” Chew to- two months of 2021, double the RM48 mil- approval from all the authorities, so the
day told a virtual media briefing on Para- lion sales achieved in the same period last property players can help the economy to
mount’s financial results for the year ended year, before the pandemic hit the country. recover faster post-pandemic.
Dec 31, 2020 (FY20).
On the back of this optimism, Para- LastThursday (Feb 25), Paramount saw
The property developer achieved total mount is setting a property sales target of its FY20 net profit quadruple to RM486.66
property sales of RM770 million in FY20, RM1 billion for FY21, with RM1.2 billion million from RM104.95 million in the pre-
11% higher than the RM692 million re- worth of new launches planned — 44% vious year, thanks to a one-off gain recog-
corded in FY19 despite the fallout from higher than last year’s new launches. nised on the disposal of the pre-tertiary
the Covid-19 pandemic. It is worth noting education business of RM462.7 million.
that Bank Negara Malaysia has slashed its Chew said the group is not too con-
key interest rates four times last year by a cerned about market sentiments, but more Excluding the gain on disposal, full-year
total of 125 basis points, to a record low about not launching enough products to pre-tax profit from continuing operations
of 1.75% since the floor was set in 2004. meet market demands. came in at RM51.8 million, compared with
RM88.8 million for FY19, mainly attrib-
Chew said Paramount saw sales grow “I am confident that we will be able to hit utable to the lower contribution from the
year-on-year (y-o-y) in every quarter last that RM1 billion sales target if we get all the property division but was mitigated by low-
year — except in 2QFY20 when it fell by er non-recurring expenses and interest ex-
61% y-o-y due to the impact of the Move- pense in the investment and others division.
ment Control Order (MCO) that started
on March 18, 2020. Revenue, however, was down 15.92% to
RM593.56 million in FY20 from RM705.97
This was despite the group having million in FY19. At 2.30pm, Paramount
scaled back its property launches in FY20 shares were unchanged at 81 sen, bringing
to just RM834 million, from its RM1.2 bil- it a market capitalisation of RM498 million.
lion original planned launches for the year. There were 277,700 shares traded.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Lembaga Tabung Haji RM352 million, and Islamic money market
Tabung Haji’s (TH) financial position re- financially healthy, instruments contributing RM318 million,”
mains stable with total assets exceeding total said Nik Mohd Hasyudeen.
liabilities by RM3.68 billion for the financial aims for stable
year ended Dec 31, 2020 (FY20). profit distribution For this year, he said,TH expects a more
challenging operating environment where
Total assets stood at RM81.85 billion and — CEO investors will be pressured to look for higher
total liabilities were RM78.17 billion, the returns amid a soft economy.
pilgrims fund board said today. Bernama
“However, the efforts by various coun-
Group managing director and chief ex- TH’s financial performance and FY20 profit tries, including Malaysia, to ensure the
ecutive officer Datuk Nik Mohd Hasyudeen distribution. population is vaccinated against Covid-19
Yusoff said TH aimed to provide a stable should support the continuing initiatives to-
profit distribution to depositors in line with TH announced a profit distribution of ward economic recovery,” added Nik Mohd
its mandate to manage the funds of Muslims 3.10% (after zakat) for FY20.The distribu- Hasyudeen.
planning to fulfil the hajj obligation. tion involves a total amount of RM2.24 bil-
lion compared with RM2.14 billion for 2019. He noted that 51% ofTH’s asset alloca-
He said a more sustainable distribution tion was invested in sukuk fixed and recur-
rate was crucial for TH because pilgrims “TH recorded an improved financial ring incomes.
would need to wait for their turn for the performance (unaudited) for 2020 with
hajj pilgrimage due to a quota set by the net profit after zakat rising 22% or RM397 This was in line with the board’s strategic
Saudi Arabian government. million to RM2.23 billion. asset allocation exercise which emphasised
long-term investments with tolerable risk
“This is our most important responsi- “The performance was supported by levels, he said.
bility. We have to ensure that TH contin- its fixed-income investments that gener-
ues to operate for more than a century to ated RM1.9 billion, equity investments of TH will also continue its efforts to re-
allow our pilgrims to complete their reli- RM430 million, property investments with balance its investment portfolio especially
gious obligations. in replacing low-yielding assets with those
that can provide better returns to depositors.
“This means the safety of our investments
is paramount andTH cannot afford to take This included providing more focus on
on investments that are too risky,” Nik Mohd overseas investments and ESG-based (en-
Hasyudeen said in a statement to announce vironmental, social and governance) invest-
ments, added Nik Mohd Hasyudeen.

THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2021 9 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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NEWS IN BRIEF

MyEG 4Q net profit up 6.74% to Datasonic taps local partner to bid for Vietnam projects
RM75.5m, helped by revenue from
Covid-19 screenings KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Datasonic Group Bhd has teamed up with a Vietnamese
company to bid for various e-passport and other information and communications
KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): MyEG technology (ICT) projects in Vietnam. In a bourse filing, the group said that it was
Services Bhd said net profit rose 6.74% teaming up with Pham Gia Ecocon Plus Vietnam Co Ltd (PEPV) to work together in
to RM75.51 million in the fourth quarter proposing e-passport and other ICT projects to the Vietnamese Ministry of Public
ended Dec 31, 2021 from RM70.74 in the Security. Under the agreement, Datasonic will be PEPV’s ICT technology partner for
preceding quarter, boosted by revenue from any technology projects. PEPV will be Datasonic’s exclusive partner in Vietnam.
Covid-19 health screenings, and online — by Arjuna Chandran Shankar/theedgemarkets.com
motorcycle insurance and road tax renewal
service. Quarterly revenue increased Greatech to centralise Kedah MISC completes maiden ethane
10.13% to RM149.89 million from manufacturing operations in Penang cargo delivery
RM136.10 million previously, as the group
witnessed increased revenue contribution KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Greatech KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): MISC Bhd,
from its screening and accommodation Technology Bhd is erecting a second which is a 51%-owned subsidiary of
arrangement service for inbound travellers. factory building at Batu Kawan Petroliam Nasional Bhd, has completed
There were no comparisons on year-on- Industrial Park to relocate its Kedah its maiden ethane cargo delivery, which
year numbers due to a change in the group’s manufacturing and assembly operations is also the largest to-date in the history of
financial year-end from Sept 30 to Dec to a single location at Batu Kawan ethane shipping at over 51,000 tonnes. In
31, the group said in a filing with Bursa Industrial Park (BK II) in Pulau Pinang. a statement today, MISC said its first very
Malaysia. MyEG declared a final dividend of In a statement today, the automation large ethane carrier (VLEC) Seri Everest
1.7 sen per share. For the full-year period, solutions provider said its wholly-owned has completed the cargo discharge at
MyEG reported a net profit of RM268.16 subsidiary Greatech Integration (M) Sdn Lianyungang port, Jiangsu province, China
million, on revenue of RM532.06 million. Bhd has awarded the letter of award for on Feb 28. The cargo was loaded from Orbit
The group said it is cautiously optimistic on the construction of the main building Terminal, Nederland in the US last October
its long-term outlook, and remains upbeat works today. “The group intends to where Seri Everest was the first VLEC to call
as it continues to introduce innovative relocate all the operations in Lunas and on the new terminal, it added. Seri Everest is
services in Malaysia and other countries, Kulim, Kedah to Batu Kawan, Penang, chartered to Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical
where it has regional presence. — by Sulhi bringing closer together the current Co Ltd for a period of 15 years, alongside
Khalid/theedgemarkets.com two location sites to a single location at five other VLECs. MISC also took delivery
Batu Kawan,” it added. — by Adam Aziz/ of a second VLEC Seri Erlang in January this
Jaycorp temporarily shuts down JV theedgemarkets.com year. It is expected to take delivery of the
ops at Batu Pahat for 10 days as 28 remaining four VLECs within the first half of
workers test positive for Covid-19 2021. — by Adam Aziz/theedgemarkets.com

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Furniture MCMC develops fast track process to resolve access issues in high priority areas
maker Jaycorp Bhd has announced that it has
voluntarily decided to halt operations at its KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
60%-owned joint-venture company Honsoar (MCMC) has developed a fast track process to resolve access issues in high priority areas
Jaycorp Cabinetry Sdn Bhd (HJCSB) for in ensuring better services to the citizens. According to a statement today, this process is
10 days for sanitisation purposes. This was undertaken following the recent complaints received from consumers that communication
after 28 employees were tested positive for services in some high priority areas were delayed due to prolonged commercial
Covid-19, from 137 employees screened negotiations among service providers. The high impact areas identified are the federal
in Kawasan Perindustrian Sri Gading, Batu and state government administration centres; transportation hubs and the transportation
Pahat, Johor, according to its filing with lines; high economic impact areas; identified government projects under RMK-12 (the 12th
Bursa Malaysia today. This is the second time Malaysia Plan); JENDELA (National Digital Network) projects; high priority areas identified
the company has conducted an RTK-Antigen for 5G deployment; and areas where there are exclusive providers. MCMC has instructed
Test for its entire workforce. Those that service providers to promptly resolve commercial negotiations in high-priority areas within
tested positive have been quarantined in the 10 business days. — by Wong Ee Lin/theedgemarkets.com
premises approved by the Ministry of Health
(MoH) officials, said Jaycorp. Jaycorp said its
management does not expect any material
impact to its financial performance. — by
Wong Ee Lin/theedgemarkets.com

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): The ad- Additional cess ing Countries, which is an international or-
ditional cess of RM2 per tonne imposed on palm oil ganisation for palm oil-producing countries.
on crude palm oil and crude palm kernel
oil came into force on March 1, and will products to be It will also be used to fund new technol-
be used to support the establishment of a used to fund ogies through research and development,
new consortium platform to boost mech- mechanisation, and market promotion activities by the
anisation and automation in the industry, says minister Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) as
the government said today. well as for the Malaysian Sustainable Palm
BY ARJUNA CHANDRAN SHANKAR Oil (MSPO) certification programme.
Following the increase, the cess levied theedgemarkets.com
on each tonne of the palm oil products now Khairuddin reiterated that the proceeds
stands at RM16, from RM14 previously. of up to RM30 million from the addition-
al cess will be complemented by a RM30
Plantation Industries and Commodi- million matching grant as announced by
ties Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Khairud- the government in Budget 2021.
din Aman Razali said the establishment of
the Mechanisation and Automation Re- The minister pointed out that the ex-
search Consortium of Oil Palm (MAR- ecution of increases in the cess was done
COP) will involve the participation of the in a phased manner with a RM1 increase
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and starting Jan 1, 2020, the proceeds of which
industry players. were channelled to the Malaysian Palm
Oil Green Conservation Foundation for
He said the new platform will step up conservation efforts to combat anti-palm
the use of technology and equipment to oil campaigns.
optimise operational efficiency and in-
crease productivity, while also addressing Khairuddin had signed a federal gazette
the manpower shortage in the industry. on Feb 15 detailing the latest increase, via
an amendment to the Malaysian Palm Oil
“Mechanisation and automation in the Board (Cess) Order 2019, after consulting
plantation sector will receive special focus the finance minister.
that is in line with proposals from the in-
dustry,” he said in a statement. The cess, which is stipulated under the
Malaysian Palm Oil Board Act 1998, is a
Khairuddin said the cess will be used for fee levied by the government to support
payments to the Council of Palm Oil Produc- the industry.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): CGS- CGS-CIMB On another note, it said the trends in
CIMB Research has reiterated its “over- reiterates the leading loan indicators also weakened
weight” call on Malaysia’s banking sector, as the growth in loan applications mod-
underpinned by the expected decline in loan ‘overweight’ call erated from 12.3% y-o-y in Dec 2020
loss provisioning (LLP) and turnaround in on banking sector, to 9.7% y-o-y in January, while the con-
net interest income growth in 2021. traction in loan approvals widened from
underpinned 0.1% y-o-y to 3.5% y-o-y in the period
The research house said the industry’s by loan loss under review.
loan growth picked up from 3.4% year- provisioning
on-year (y-o-y) at end-December 2020 “This does not bode well for banks’
to 3.8% y-o-y at end-January 2021, the decline loan growth in the next one to two
improvement primarily came from the months,” CGS-CIMB said.
business loan segment, which expanded Bernama
by 1.5% y-o-y. The sector also saw the industry’s
gross impaired loan (GIL) ratio rose in
“The growth in household loans Jan 2021, but the quantum of increase
inched down from 5.0% y-o-y at end-Dec was manageable at only four basis points
2020 to 4.9% y-o-y in January this year. month-on-month from 1.56% end-Dec
2020 to 1.6% at end-Jan 2021.
“However, we lower our projected
loan growth for 2021 from 4.0% to 5.0% This was in line with our expectation of
previously to 2.0% to 3.0%, in line with an uptrend in the GIL ratio.We estimate a
our downward revision of gross domes- GIL ratio of 2.0 at end-Dec 2021, it said.
tic product growth from 7.5% previous-
ly to 5.0% on Feb 9, 2021,” it said in a “We reiterate sector ‘overweight’ as
research note on Wednesday. we expect banks’ net profit in 2021 to
be catalysed by a recovery in net inter-
CGS-CIMB feels that the Movement est income growth and a decline in LLP,
Control Order (MCO) 2.0 would have an which are the potential re-rating catalysts
indirect negative impact on banks’ loan for the sector.
growth as it has disrupted some busi-
ness activities and dampened business “Despite the cut in loan growth, we
sentiment. expected banks’ net interest income to
increase in 2021 due to wider net inter-
In addition, it said auto sales have est margin.
also weakened in January this year,
which would be detrimental for auto “Our top picks for the sector are Pub-
loan growth. lic Bank, Hong Leong Bank and RHB
Bank,” it added.

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RAM Ratings: Negative rating actions
dominated 2020, negative bias remains

in the next few quarters but overall
credit quality ‘still resilient’

BY TAN SIEW MUNG
theedgemarkets.com

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): RAM Rat- Although half of the “Although half of the companies list-
ings said today that negative rating actions companies listed ed on Bursa Malaysia still reported weak-
dominated in 2020 amid the Covid-19 on Bursa Malaysia er earnings in 3Q20 (-0.8% year-on-year
pandemic and the negative bias in rating compared with -33% in 2Q20), their debt
actions is expected to remain through the still reported weaker protection metrics remained intact,” it said.
next few quarters, but overall credit quality earnings in 3Q20, their
is still resilient. debt protection metrics For 3Q20, it said, the median gearing
ratio averaged 0.22 times (ASEAN: 0.38
The rating agency said in a statement, remained intact. times) while debt servicing capacity —
the overarching theme of rating actions was measured by the pre-tax earnings-to-debt
negative last year as the various lockdowns The bond/sukuk pipeline spiked up in ratio — averaged 0.34 times (ASEAN-6:
started to strain some issuers’ finances. the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20) as com- 0.23 times).
panies took the opportunity to refinance
In total (counting downgrades and out- or lock in cheap funding, it said. “The average Malaysian firm had
look revisions), it took negative rating ac- enough cash to support 3.5 months’ op-
tions on 17 issuers (9.5% of RAM’s rated In view of Movement Control Order erating expenses. Relative to RAM’s bench-
portfolio) in 2020. 2.0 (MCO 2.0), RAM is currently under- marks and ASEAN peers, these metrics
taking another portfolio-wide assessment are not considered aggressive.
“Of these, the ratings of six issuers were which will be released soon.
downgraded (2019:three) as opposed to four “Moreover, recent sample data for
upgrades (2.2% of rated portfolio),” it said. “The preliminary results indicate limit- 4Q20 results indicate improvements in
ed near-term rating pressure on our port- these measures for both Malaysia and
At the same time, it said, the number folio,” it said. ASEAN-6,” it said.
of issuers on negative outlook climbed up Malaysian firms have stronger debt
to 7.8%, from 0.6% in 2019. protection metrics than ASEAN peers RAM also highlighted that the path to
RAM’s broader analysis of corporates in full recovery will remain uneven and fragile
According to RAM, issuers affected by ASEAN-6 (ASEAN-5 +Vietnam) also re- in 2021, depending much on the success
negative rating actions included those from vealed that Malaysian firms have stronger of the country’s vaccination programme
the tourism/hospitality and travel/aviation debt protection metrics than their ASE- and the global outlook.
sectors, which have been hard hit by move- AN peers.
ment restrictions. “Swift execution of the inoculation re-
gime and no further outbreaks may lend
“Following these negative actions, the upside to Malaysia’s economic recovery
rating drift (defined as upgrades net of and RAM’s GDP (gross domestic product)
downgrades and defaults) ended 2020 in growth forecast, which currently stands at
negative territory.There were, however, no 5% for this year,” it said.
defaults during the year,” it said.

RAM expects the negative bias in rat-
ing actions to remain through the next few
quarters, as 14 RAM-rated entities still
carried a negative outlook as at end-De-
cember 2020.

“That said, we expect the overall rated
credits to withstand near-term pressure
because over 80% of our portfolio is an-
chored by financial institutions and project
finance companies with strong capitalisa-
tion, robust liquidity buffers and healthy
cash flows,” it said.

Overall, the domestic corporate bond
market kept up its momentum in 2020,
with RM104.6 billion of gross bond/sukuk
issuance — at par with the preceding year’s
RM105.3 billion, underpinned by higher
government allocation for big-ticket in-
frastructure projects and record low in-
terest rates.

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Federal Court dismisses bid by
16 ex-members to dissolve Umno

KUALA LUMPUR (March 3):The Fed- BY EMIR ZAINUL court. Later, the Court of Appeal upheld
eral Court has today dismissed the appeal theedgemarkets.com the ruling.
by 16 former Umno members to declare
the political party illegal and have it dis- with no order of costs. We affirm the de- In their lawsuit, the 16 applicants
solved for not conducting internal party cision of the Court of Appeal,” Azahar named the ROS and Umno’s working
elections within the stipulated time. read the judgement, which was a unani- secretary Abdul Rauf Yusoh, who is be-
mous decision. ing sued in his capacity as Umno’s public
Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Aza- officer, as respondents.
har Mohamed, who was leading the The other members of the bench are
five-member Federal Court bench, said Federal Court judges Datuk Abdul Rah- The 16 former Umno members are
the general principle is that the court will man Sebli, Datuk Seri Hasnah Moham- Salihudin Ahmad Khalid, Noorhalimi
not interfere with the internal affairs of med Hashim, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Yahya, Mariam Mohd Ishak, Mohd Ha-
political parties as it is the domestic con- Suan and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang. fami Hanif, Saharudin Tukiman, Azaid
cern of the parties and their members. Jani, Normalawati Hassan, Radiana Abd
The 16 former Umno members were Manaf, Mohd Rafeek Rahim, Nurul Han-
Furthermore, he ruled that the dis- seeking the courts’ intervention over a de- na Mohd Suhot, Kamarul Abd Wahid,
pute has become academic as Umno had cision made by the Registrar of Societies Mohd Hikamal Md Hassim, Muzamzamir
already conducted party elections since (ROS) to allow Umno to postpone its par- AbdWahab, Norizam Jamaludin, Rohani
the filing of the legal action. ty elections in 2018. Ahmad and Muhamad Hafizi Hashim.

“Two preliminary points were raised at They claim that the extension, which They have all been expelled from
the offset of the appeal, namely the locus was already the second time it was given Umno for violating clause 20.7 of the
standi issue and the academic point. All to Umno, did not comply with Umno’s party constitution, which stipulates that
the issues of locus standi and the relief own constitution. any member who goes to court over par-
sought under judicial review application ty matters would automatically lose their
has become academic as raised by Re- On April 27, 2018, the Kuala Lum- membership.
spondent 2, we see merit in this argument. pur High Court had dismissed their ju- Read also: Hearing of Zaid’s injunction
dicial review leave application against application, striking-out suit by former
“In these circumstances, based on the the ROS. law firm fixed for May 10 Click here
academic ground, we see no necessity to
answer the two questions posed before The High Court had ruled that Section
us. Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal 18C of the Societies Act applied, where
members cannot bring party disputes to

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 3): Malaysia Malaysia cases has fallen further to 24,025.
posted 1,745 new Covid-19 infections to- posts 1,745 Dr Noor Hisham said Selangor ac-
day, the third straight day with less than new Covid-19
2,000 cases but higher than the 1,555 cases and seven counted for 640 of today’s new cases, of
reported yesterday. deaths today which 503 or 78.6% were from existing
and new clusters, as well as close contacts
This brought the cumulative confirmed BY SYAFIQAH SALIM of Covid-19 patients.
infections in the country to 305,880, from theedgemarkets.com
115,078 as of Jan 1. This pushed total cases in the country’s
most populous state to 101,658, he said
Seven more Covid-19-related fatalities in a statement.
were recorded, raising the national death toll
to 1,148, said Health director-generalTan Sri Johor registered 376 new cases, followed
Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. Another 2,276 by Sarawak (139), Perak (136), Sabah (95),
Covid-19 patients were reported to have re- Kuala Lumpur (92), Penang (90), Kedah
covered, bringing total recoveries to 280,707. (40), Melaka (36), Pahang (36), Kelantan
(33), Negeri Sembilan (24), Terengganu
With new recoveries continuing to sur- (five) and Putrajaya (three).
pass new infections, the number of active
Meanwhile, Labuan and Perlis did not
Malaysia’s coronavirus curve shows signs of flattening report new infections today.

6000 Daily new cases 7-day moving average All but two of Malaysia’s new cases were
local transmissions. “Among the 1,743 lo-
5000 cally-transmitted cases, 1,037 or 59.5%
involved Malaysians, while 706 or 40.5%
4000 were foreigners,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

3000 Of the latest seven fatalities, one person
was a foreigner. Two of the deaths were
2000 2,015 reported in Kuala Lumpur and one each
1000 1,745 in Selangor, Sabah, Sarawak, Johor and
Kelantan.
0 March 3, 2021 Read also: Eleven new Covid-19 clus-
Sept 1, 2020 ters detected, nine linked to workplaces
Click here

PUTRAJAYA (March 3): The order to Order to wear thorities to impose penalties under Act
wear a tracking device is among the five tracking device 342 for “any offence not stated in it”.
new provisions under the Emergency
(Prevention and Control of Infectious among new This new subsection will determine
Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, provisions under any action which is a violation as an of-
which will come into force on March fence, which provides a fine not exceed-
11, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Emergency ing RM50,000, or imprisonment of not
Adham Baba. Ordinance — more than six months, or both.
Health Minister
He said the high-tech device in the “Legal action is not merely a form of
form of a wristband, aimed at controlling Bernama punishment but a preventive measure to
movement is mandatory for three cat- end the spread of Covid-19 in the coun-
egories, namely individuals who tested ment infection prevention and control try,” said Dr Adham.
positive for Covid-19, persons under measures.
investigation (PUI) or close contacts of Meanwhile, Takiyuddin said some
Covid-19 patients, and persons under Another new provision is Part IV A 4,000 personnel from the local authori-
surveillance (PUS). on enforcement which enables powers ties (PBT) and the Road Transport De-
of investigation to provide information partment (RTD) would be mobilised to
“The device is to be worn for 10 in relation to the prevention and control assist the police to monitor the stand-
days,” he told a press conference in of infectious diseases, he said. ard operating procedures (SOPs) set by
the presence of Minister in the Prime the National Security Council and the
Minister’s Department (Parliament and Section 22A of the new provision will Malaysian Ministry of Health are being
Law) Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, enable corporate bodies to be charged complied with.
at the Health Ministry (MOH) here, with offences under the Prevention and
today. Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 “The PBT and RTD staff have the
(Act 342). authority to issue compounds as well as
Dr Adham said a penalty will be im- advise those who do not adhere to the
posed if the tracking device is destroyed, A new Section 31 empowers the au- SOPs. A guideline on the issuance of
damaged, lost or altered. compounds will be given to the author-
ities,” he said.
In addition, he said, a new provi- Read also: Covid-19 smart vaccination
sion included under the ordinance was certificate on the cards, says Dr Adham
Section 21A to allow the Health direc- Click here
tor-general to issue general or specific
instructions to any individual to imple-

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 3):The Association ASEAN economic Being a major disruptor, Mohamad Azmin
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economic ministers propose said the pandemic has also brought to light
ministers has proposed a common digital vaccine common digital existing gaps in the GVCs resulting from un-
certificate to speed up the reopening of hard- vaccine certificate, expected extreme fluctuations in demand and
est-hit sectors such as tourism, Senior Minister supply of essential products.
cum InternationalTrade and Industry Minister says Azmin Ali
Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said. On the possibility of getting India to reconsider
Bernama joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic
However,he said there was no specific timeline Partnership (RCEP), Malaysia as the country
set when the common digital vaccine certificate dum of understanding on the implementation of coordinator forASEAN-India economic relations
would be introduced, as the matter would be non-tariff measures on essential goods under the would first discuss the ASEAN-India Trade in
brought up to the health ministers level meeting. Hanoi Plan of Action on Strengthening ASEAN Goods Agreement (AITIGA) Review.
Economic Cooperation and Supply Chain Con-
“This is a new proposal, I was informed nectivity in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic “AITIGA has been implemented for 10
(about it) by Brunei as chairman. that was signed in November 2020. years and it is time for us to review some pro-
visions.We are waiting for feedback from India,
“There is no timeline imposed on this par- “With regard to the proposed number of prod- and once received, we will initiate a committee
ticular proposal, but I believe if it can be final- ucts being considered for the expanded list, I sug- to review AITIGA.
ised in the near future, it will definitely help fa- gested that we should be realistic on the quantum
cilitate movements among ASEAN members,” as the current number is a little too ambitious. “At the same time, I believe we will be able
he said after the 27th ASEAN Economic Min- to persuade India to revisit and review the de-
isters Retreat here Wednesday. “The ministers also concurred on the need cision not to join RCEP taken last year,” Mo-
to further deepen ASEAN’s participation in hamad Azmin said.
MohamadAzmin said during the meeting,the global value chains (GVCs) to boost intra-ASE-
ASEAN Economic Ministers also discussed the AN trade and investment which would enable On another note, he said Singapore has as-
progress of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recov- greater businesses and job opportunities, es- sured Malaysia that the suspension of the Recip-
ery Framework implementation as the region’s pecially for ASEAN to build back regional re- rocal Green Lane (RGL) between both countries,
recovery tool. He said the ministers pledged to silience during this global reordering,” he said. which is causing much difficulty for businesses on
work intensively to explore all avenues to deep- both sides of the border, is temporary.
en and broaden regional integration in various
areas of mutual interest that would contribute to He said his Singapore counterpart, Chan
the sustainability of livelihoods, as well as region- Chun Sing, said the RGL arrangement will
al economic resilience in ASEAN and beyond. resume once the Covid-19 situation improves,
and the republic’s vaccination programme
The retreat also looked into the expansion of would also include Malaysians who are resid-
the list of essential goods under the memoran- ing and working there.

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REUTERS

Exxon to cut
7% of Singapore
workforce amid
‘unprecedented

market
conditions’

BY FLORENCE TAN & SHRUTI SONAL
Reuters

SINGAPORE (March 3): Exxon Mobil Exxon’s announcement also follows to improve our company’s competitive-
Corp plans to cut its workforce in Sin- European major Royal Dutch Shell’s ness and strengthen the foundation of
gapore, home to its largest oil refining decision in November to cut 500 staff our business for future success,” said
and petrochemical complex, by about and halve its crude processing capacity Geraldine Chin, chairman and manag-
7% amid the “unprecedented market in Singapore as part of a global strategy ing director, ExxonMobil Asia Pacific
conditions” resulting from the Covid-19 to reduce carbon emissions. Pte Ltd.
pandemic, it said on Wednesday.
Exxon Mobil’s Singapore complex Last year, Exxon said it remained
About 300 positions out of 4,000 cur- has the capacity to refine about 592,000 committed to a multibillion-dollar ex-
rent jobs will be impacted by the end of barrels per day of oil and includes its pansion at the Singapore complex amid
2021, the company said in a statement. biggest integrated petrochemical pro- an ongoing review of its projects globally.
duction site. Read also: Exxon pitches investors on div-
The Singapore lay-offs come weeks af- idend growth, debt reduction Click here
ter Exxon announced its plan to close its The city state will remain a strategic
72-year-old Altona refinery in Australia location for the company, it said.
and convert it to an import terminal.The
top US oil producer, once America’s most “This is a difficult but necessary step
valuable company, posted a historic an-
nual loss for 2020 after the coronavirus
pandemic slashed energy demand.

LONDON (March 3): OPEC and other OPEC+ tainties in the physical markets and macro
oil producers, a group known as OPEC+, considers oil sentiment, including risks from COVID-19
are considering rolling over production output roll over mutations that are still on the rise”.
cuts into April instead of raising output as
a recovery in oil demand remains fragile for April, It said a recent oil price rally might have
due to the coronavirus crisis, three OPEC+ sources say been caused more by financial players than
sources told Reuters. improvements in market fundamentals.
BY RANIA EL GAMAL, AHMAD GHADDAR
OPEC+ ministers hold a full meeting & ALEX LAWLER OPEC expects global oil demand in
on Thursday. Reuters 2021 to grow by 5.8 million bpd to about
96 million bpd.That would still be lower
The market has been expecting OPEC+ than demand in 2019 which was about
to ease production cuts by around 500,000 100 million bpd.
barrels per day (bpd) from April.
Russia has been widely expected to push
OPEC leader Saudi Arabia has also for more increases. But in February it failed
been expected to end its voluntary pro- to raise output despite being allowed to do
duction cut of an additional 1 million bpd. so by OPEC+ as harsh winter weather hit
output at mature fields.
But three OPEC+ sources said on
Wednesday some key OPEC members JP Morgan, which said it spoke to Rus-
had suggested keeping OPEC+ output sia’s representative on the OPEC+ techni-
unchanged. cal committee Denis Deryushkin, reported
that Russia saw some rationale in raising
It was not immediately clear whether output as the oil market was in a 500,000
Saudi Arabia would end its voluntary cuts bpd deficit.
or extend them, they said.
“Russia believes that if output is main-
Oil prices jumped by about US$1 per tained at current levels, the market would
barrel on the news to trade near US$64 move into an even more severe deficit,” the
per barrel. bank said. “As such, production needs to
be restored, but the speed and amount are
On Tuesday, a document by OPEC+ yet to be decided.”
experts, seen by Reuters, called for “cau-
tious optimism” citing “underlying uncer-

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UK’s Sunak extends COVID rescue plan
but moves to bring in more tax

LONDON (March 3): Finance minister BY DAVID MILLIKEN, WILLIAM SCHOMBERG “The UK is thus to become the first ma-
Rishi Sunak extended costly emergen- & ANDY BRUCE jor economy to consider such measures.”
cy programmes to see Britain’s econo- Reuters
my through the COVID-19 crisis but an- Britain has suffered the biggest COV-
nounced a future tax squeeze on businesses ris Johnson hopes he will have lifted most ID-19 death toll in Europe and its econo-
and individuals as he began to focus on the COVID-19 restrictions. my has been the worst hit among big rich
huge hole in the public finances. countries, shrinking by 10% last year, its
An existing tax break for home-buyers worst slump in three centuries.
Delivering an annual budget speech will also now run until June 30 and will
on Wednesday, Sunak said the economy then apply for cheaper homes until the Many companies are also under strain
will regain its pre-pandemic size in mid- end of September. from Brexit after Britain left the European
2022, six months earlier than previously Union’s single market on Jan. 1, and the
forecast, helped by Europe’s fastest vac- Sunak will borrow significantly more in government faces the challenge of huge
cination programme. the coming financial year than thought just investment to meet its promise to create a
a few months ago — 234 billion pounds, net zero carbon economy by 2050.
But it will remain 3% smaller in five or 10.3% of gross domestic product, com-
years’ time than it would have been with- pared with a previous estimate of 164.2 UK early mover on tax hikes
out the health shock and extra support is billion pounds, or 7.4% of GDP. Announcing forecasts by the Office for
needed now as the country remains under Budgetary Responsibility (OBR), Sunak
coronavirus restrictions, he said. British government bond prices fell said the economy was likely to grow 4%
sharply, with 10-year gilt yields rising more in 2021, slower than a forecast of 5.5%
“First, we will continue doing whatever than 8 basis points.The Debt Management made in November, reflecting the current
it takes to support the British people and Office said it planned to sell 296 billion lockdown which began in January.
businesses through this moment of crisis,” pounds of gilts over the coming year, well
Sunak told parliament. above the 247 billion pounds markets had Looking further ahead, the OBR fore-
expected in a Reuters poll. cast GDP would grow by 7.3%, 1.7% and
“Second, once we are on the way to 1.6% in 2022, 2023 and 2024 respective-
recovery, we will need to begin fixing the To bring borrowing under control, Su- ly. In November, the OBR had forecast
public finances — and I want to be hon- nak announced future tax rises that will growth in those years of 6.6%, 2.3% and
est today about our plans to do that. And, 1.7%.
third, in today’s Budget we begin the increase the tax burden to
work of building our future economy.” its highest level since the Sunak promised to do “whatever it
1960s, rising from 34 takes” to steer the economy through what
Among new support measures to 35% of GDP by the he hopes will be the final months of pan-
were a five-month extension of Brit- middle of this decade. demic restrictions.
ain’s huge jobs rescue plan and more “Chancellor Sunak
help for the self-employed, the con- confirmed earlier re- He has already racked up Britain’s high-
tinuation of an emergency increase ports that the govern- est borrowing since World War Two, with
in welfare payments, and an extend- ment will start introduc- the deficit reaching an estimated 17% of
ed VAT cut for the hospitality sector. ing some fiscal austerity GDP in the 2020/21 financial year that
measures in an attempt ends in April and set to fall to a still his-
A business rates exemption for torically high 10.3% in 2021/22.
retail, hospitality and leisure to boost the UK fiscal out-
businesses was ex- look,” Valentin Marinov, In a first move towards higher taxes,
tended until the Sunak announced he would raise corpo-
end of June, by head of G10 foreign ration tax to 25% from 19% from 2023,
when Prime exchange research by which time the crisis should be over.
Minister Bo- at Credit Agri-
cole, said. “Even after this change the UK will still
have the lowest corporation tax rate in the
REUTERS G7 — lower than the United States, Can-
ada, Italy, Japan, Germany and France,”
he said.

Businesses with profits of 50,000
pounds or less would pay a new Small
Profits Rate, maintained at the current
rate of 19%.

To offset the hit, Sunak increased in-
centives for investment in items such as
new equipment over the next two years.
“This will be the biggest business tax cut
in modern British history,” he said.

Sunak also said he would freeze in a
year’s time amount of money that people
can earn tax-free and the threshold for
the higher rate of income tax until 2026.

T H U R S D A Y M A R C H 4 , 2 0 2 1 17 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

SEA LTD

Sea injects
US$1b into new
investment arm
led by David Ma

BY BEI HU & YOOLIM LEE
Bloomberg

(March 3): Sea Ltd is injecting US$1 billion companies that share our vision of bettering to make private investments. In 2016, it
into a new unit that will manage bets on the lives of consumers and small businesses backed Zoox Inc, a California-based start-
fledgling technology companies, marking through technology,” Sea Chief Executive up working on self-driving cars. It sold its
an entry by Southeast Asia’s largest com- Officer Forrest Li said during a conference stake in Sea in the third quarter last year,
pany into the crowded field of investment. call late yesterday, adding the new unit will according to a US regulatory filing. It be-
help support Sea’s long-term growth strat- gan to return client money last year ahead
It hired former Hillhouse Capital part- egies. Sea itself was backed by Tencent. of yesterday’s announcement.
ner David Ma to lead the newly formed
Sea Capital, and acquired full ownership Ma’s Composite team, a high profile Ma’s team will strengthen Sea’s “in-
of Ma’s Hong Kong-based hedge fund firm hedge fund started in 2016, oversaw near- vestment and capital allocation capabil-
Composite Capital Management (HK) Ltd. ly US$2 billion last year. Ma spent seven ity,” Yanjun Wang, Sea’s chief corporate
years with Hillhouse, the asset manager officer, said during the conference call.
Sea is following in the footsteps of in- led byYale University endowment alumnus “We think it’s very important for a global
ternet behemoths SoftBank Group Corp Zhang Lei. Hillhouse invests in both listed internet company to have that capabilities
and Tencent Holdings Ltd by creating a and private companies, making its name in the longer run.”
corporate investment arm as the compa- with bets including Tencent and JD.com Read also: Sea predicts sales doubling as
ny aims to deepen its offerings in gam- Inc. It has in recent years gravitated toward online shopping boom persists Click here
ing, e-commerce and digital financial venture capital and private equity business.
services as well as look for new areas of
growth.Tech giants are increasingly active Composite prides itself on the ability
in backing companies for better returns
and generating synergy between portfo-
lios and their main operations.

“Sea Capital will focus on identifying,
partnering with, and investing in technology

REUTERS

Samsung
considering four

sites in US for
US$17 billion
chip plant —
documents

BY JOYCE LEE the city of Austin, up from the US$805.5 filed with Texas state officials.
Reuters million previously mentioned. Samsung already has a chip plant in

SEOUL (March 3): Samsung Electronics Samsung is in talks with the sites at Austin, which due to shutdowns caused
Co Ltd is considering two sites in Arizona Arizona and NewYork, with each offering by a winter storm last month is expected
and another one in NewYork in addition property tax abatement and “significant to need some weeks to resume production.
to Austin,Texas for a new US$17 billion grants and/or refundable tax credits” to
chip plant, according to documents filed fund infrastructure improvements, the Samsung’s US customers for its con-
with Texas state officials. documents said. tract manufacturing chip business include
Tesla Inc, Qualcomm Inc, and Nvidia.
The documents dated Feb 26 also es- The new plant Samsung plans to build
timated tax abatements concerning the would produce “advanced logic devices” Samsung is considering a number
plant will be about US$1.48 billion over for Samsung’s chip contract manufac- of possibilities in terms of expansion, a
20 years from Travis County in Texas and turing business, and could create 1,800 spokesman for the South Korean firm
jobs, according to previous documents told Reuters on Wednesday, without elab-
orating.

T H U R S D A Y M A R C H 4 , 2 0 2 1 18 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

Intel told to pay US$2.18b
after losing patent trial

REUTERS

BY SUSAN DECKER & MATTHEW BULTMAN
Bloomberg

(March 3): Intel Corp was told to pay VLSI, founded four “Operating companies are going to be
VLSI Technology LLC US$2.18 billion years ago, has no disturbed by not only the size of the award
by a federal jury inTexas after losing a pat- but also the damages theory,” said Mi-
ent-infringement trial over technology re- products and its only chael Tomasulo, a Winston Strawn law-
lated to chip-making, one of the largest potential revenue yer who attended the trial. “They more
patent-damages award in US history. Intel is this lawsuit, said or less seemed to have bought the entire
pledged to appeal. VLSI case.”
Intel lawyer William
Intel infringed two patents owned by Lee of WilmerHale. The damage award is about half of In-
closely held VLSI, the jury in Waco, Tex- tel’s fourth-quarter profit. The company
as, said Tuesday. The jury found US$1.5 to see if it was using someone else’s in- has dominated the US$400 billion chip
billion for infringement of one patent and ventions, he said. He accused the Santa industry for most of the past 30 years,
US$675 million for infringement of the Clara, California-based company of “will- though it’s struggling to maintain that
second.The jury rejected Intel’s denial of ful blindness.” position.
infringing either of the patents and its ar-
gument that one patent was invalid be- The jury said there was no willful in- The verdict is smaller than the US$2.5
cause it claimed to cover work done by fringement. A finding otherwise would billion verdict won by Merck & Co over a
Intel engineers. have enabled District Court Judge Alan hepatitis C treatment. It was later thrown
Albright to increase the award even fur- out. Last year, Cisco Systems Inc was told
The patents had been owned by Dutch ther, to up to three times the amount set by a federal judge inVirginia to pay US$1.9
chipmaker NXP Semiconductors Inc, by the jury. billion to a small cybersecurity compa-
which would get a cut of any damage nies that accused it of copying a feature
award, Intel lawyer William Lee of Wil- “We are very pleased that the jury rec- to steal away government contracts. Cisco
merHale told jurors in closing arguments ognized the value of the innovations as has asked the judge for a new trial.
Monday.VLSI, founded four years ago, has reflected in the patents and are extreme-
no products and its only potential revenue ly happy with the jury verdict,” Michael The case is among the few in-person
is this lawsuit, he said. Stolarski, chief executive of VLSI, said in patent trials in recent months, with many
an e-mailed statement. courts pressing pause amid the coronavirus
VLSI “took two patents off the shelf pandemic. It was delayed a week because
that hadn’t been used for 10 years and Officials with NXP couldn’t immedi- of the winter storm that wreaked havoc
said, ‘We’d like US$2 billion,”’ Lee told the ately be reached for comment. across much of Texas.
jury. The “outrageous” demand by VLSI
“would tax the true innovators.” The damage request isn’t so high when Intel had sought to postpone the case
the billions of chips sold by Intel are tak- because of the pandemic, but was rejected
He had argued that VLSI was entitled en into account, Chu said. Intel paid by Albright, a former patent litigator and
to no more than US$2.2 million. MicroUnity Systems Engineering Corp magistrate who was sworn in as a federal
US$300 million in 2005 and in 2011 paid judge in 2018 and has quickly turned his
“Intel strongly disagrees with today’s Nvidia Corp US$1.5 billion even though courtroom into one of the most popular
jury verdict,” the company said in a state- a settlement in that case involved a cross for patent owners to file suit.
ment. “We intend to appeal and are con- license of technology, he said.
fident that we will prevail.” The case is VLSI Technology LLC v
Intel Corp, 21-57, US District Court for
Intel fell 2.6% to US$61.24 in New the Western District of Texas (Waco).
York trading. The stock is up 23% since
the beginning of the year.

One of the patents was originally issued
in 2012 to Freescale Semiconductor Inc
and the other in 2010 to SigmaTel Inc.
Freescale bought SigmaTel and was in turn
bought by NXP in 2015. The two pat-
ents in this case were transferred to VLSI
in 2019, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg Law.

VLSI lawyer Morgan Chu of Irell &
Manella said the patents cover inventions
that increase the power and speed of pro-
cessors, a key issue for competition.

‘Willful blindness’
Federal law doesn’t require someone to
know of a patent to be found to have in-
fringed it, and Intel purposely didn’t look

T H U R S D A Y M A R C H 4 , 2 0 2 1 19 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

WASHINGTON (Mar 3): The United US gets ‘C-,’ faces levees, public parks, roads, schools, storm-
States faces a $2.59 trillion shortfall in in- US$2.59 trillion water, transit, and wastewater.” The re-
frastructure needs that requires a massive in infrastructure port cited incremental gains in aviation,
jump in government spending to address drinking water, energy, inland waterways,
crumbling roads, bridges and other pro- needs over and ports.
grams, according to an assessment by an 10 years: report
engineers group issued on Wednesday. The infrastructure gap rose by US$359
BY DAVID SHEPARDSON billion over 2017.
The 170-page report by the American Reuters
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) comes Biden plans to meet with lawmakers on
as President Joe Biden plans to seek a dra- REUTERS Thursday to discuss infrastructure along
matic jump on infrastructure spending in withTransportation Secretary Pete Butti-
the coming weeks — after his predecessors The report gave the United States a “C-” gieg, who said the report card documents
Donald Trump and Barack Obama failed overall — up from a D+ in 2017. “what Americans already know: failure
to win approval for a major funding effort. to fully invest in our infrastructure over
billion and schools US$380 billion in the years is now catching up to us. Con-
The report, published once every four funding gaps. sequences are appearing nationwide, in
years, gave the United States a “C-” overall the form of dangerously degraded roads,
— up from a D+ in 2017 — and marked In total, 11 of 17 categories reviewed bridges, and other assets.”
the first time in two decades the country merited “D” range grades — “aviation,
received a “C” range grade — but found dams, hazardous waste, inland waterways, Biden wants a big jump in spending
the country is spending just over half of on U.S. surface transportation, airports,
what is required, labeling overall U.S. in- transit systems, as well addressing high-
frastructure in “mediocre condition.” speed broadband, electrical grids and wa-
ter systems and boosting electric vehicles
The report urges the United States to charging and high-speed rail.
increase investment from all levels of gov-
ernment and the private sector to 3.5% Congress has not boosted the
from 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic prod- 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax
uct by 2025. since 1993, which is now worth 10.2 cents
after adjusting for inflation. It remains un-
The study graded 17 categories of in- clear how Biden or Congress will fund new
frastructure, ranging from a “B” for rail infrastructure spending.
to a “D-” for transit.
The report said that without a signif-
“We risk significant economic losses, icant infrastructure hike, by 2039 the
higher costs to consumers, businesses and U.S. economy will lose US$10 trillion in
manufacturers — and our quality of life growth, exports will decline by US$2.4
— if we don’t act urgently,” said ASCE trillion and 3 million jobs will be lost.
Executive Director Thomas Smith in a
statement. The report praised state and local
governments for boosting infrastructure
The biggest projected gap is in sur- spending. Since 2010, 37 U.S. states raised
face transportation, which faces US$1.2 gas taxes to fund transportation and U.S.
trillion in projected unmet needs over 10 voters approved 98% of local infrastructure
years, while water systems face US$434 ballot initiatives in November.

BEIJING/MANILA (March 3): Chinese China steel rebar Prices of steelmaking raw materials also
steel rebar futures surged more than 5% on hits near 10-year gained.
Wednesday to their highest level in about a high on output
decade, as the country’s plan to take more Benchmark iron ore futures on the Da-
environmental-protection measures stoked cut fears lian Commodity Exchange rose 1.8% to
worries about a cut in production. 1,154 yuan a tonne.
BY MIN ZHANG & ENRICO DELA CRUZ
Besides the industry ministry’s pledge Reuters Dalian coking coal surged 6.2% to
to cut crude steel output this year, heavy 1,525 yuan per tonne and coke increased
pollution alerts issued in Hebei province as much as 5.6% to the highest level since 0.8% to 2,520 yuan per tonne.
and the upcoming annual parliament meet- August 2011 earlier in the session.
ing will also affect steel products’ output Stainless steel futures on the Shanghai
in the short term, SinoSteel Futures said China’s trading volume for steel prod- exchange fell 2.1% to 14,685 yuan a tonne.
in a note. ucts used in construction stood at 196,800
tonnes onTuesday, the highest daily trans- Fundamentals
Seven blast furnaces in the top actions since Jan.4, according to Mysteel • China’s yuan inched up against a weaker
steel-making city of Tangshan were re- consultancy.
quired to be shut down by March 10, dollar onWednesday, with market senti-
which might likely lower pig iron output Hot-rolled coil futures, used in cars and ment recovering from comments made
by 5,000 tonnes a day, according to GF home appliances, jumped 3.5% at close to by a top banking regulator a day earlier
Futures. hit a record high of 5,026 yuan per tonne. about managing capital inflows.
• China’s top steelmaker Baowu Steel
The most-actively traded rebar contract Group and regional producer Fujian San-
on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, for gang Group have signed agreements to
May delivery, closed up 3.9% to 4,842 invest 20 billion yuan in two separate steel
yuan (US$749.11) per tonne. It surged projects in the southeastern Fujian prov-
ince, local media reported on Tuesday.

T H U R S D A Y M A R C H 4 , 2 0 2 1 20 T H E E D G E C E O M O R N I N G B R I E F

WORLD

European telcos cash in on tower assets
as high-cost 5G investment looms

MADRID/STOCKHOLM (March 3): Eu- BY ISLA BINNIE & SUPANTHA MUKHERJEE Plumstead said American Tower had
ropean telecoms firms are cashing in on Reuters managed to beef up its portfolio - from
the money-making power of masts, as tow- an admittedly low base — in Europe this
er companies line up to pay multi-billion Upgrading networks, year despite restrictions on movement.
dollar price tags for antennas buzzing with including towers, for
ever more data ahead of the advent of 5G. 5G — which promises “Getting people into the field has not
an age of self-driving been as easy... but we’ve built more tow-
Faced with straitened revenue growth cars and brain surgery ers this year than in Europe last year and
and stubbornly high debt built up during we’ll plan to do the same again this year.”
the last network upgrade, telecoms compa- performed at a
nies are relishing the quick cash injections distance — will soak Towers are prized assets partly because
they can get from selling these portfolios, contracts to use them are like an “infinite mar-
or future income from spin-offs. up some US$890 riage” in which operators pay steady rates for
billion between 2020 decades, in the words of one industry expert.
Upgrading networks, including tow- and 2025, the GSMA
ers, for 5G — which promises an age of industry body says. Shares of both American Tower and
self-driving cars and brain surgery per- Cellnex touched record highs last year dur-
formed at a distance — will soak up some with the sale to American Tower of sites ing the pandemic after more than doubling
US$890 billion between 2020 and 2025, it had already hived off into a separate and more than tripling respectively in value
the GSMA industry body says. unit in 2016. in the last half decade.

European operators are increasingly “We fully understand the interest of the Towering over Europe
willing to exploit assets to help finance operators in going for this two-stage ap- Deal-making has been concentrated in
those build-outs.While selling towers out- proach,” Cellnex Deputy Chief Executive Western Europe until now, but regional
right brings piles of cash, many are also Alex Mestre told Reuters. “There is reval- leader Cellnex and AmericanTower, whose
looking to create separate tower units or orization of the asset ... and the operators buy fromTelefonica increased its presence
launch joint ventures with independent can seize that.” in Europe sevenfold, are both now looking
companies as a way to keep a chunk of further east and in Scandinavia.
potential future growth.
“We are looking at a wider geographic
So far this year,Vodafone has lined up its scope,” Cellnex’s Mestre said. “We have
towers business for the European sector’s started also in the Nordics, we have start-
biggest listing since 2014, while Orange ed in Poland and in all those areas in our
created a separate towers unit. core geographies where we believe there are
still a lot of towers yet to be outsourced.”
Independent tower companies have
proved hungry to buy, snapping up more Almost all European operators are now
than 14 billion euros (US$16.9 billion) discussing what they should do with their
worth of assets so far this year to access tower assets, industry executives say.
the steady, inflation-linked returns anten-
na-topped towers generate. High multiples paid for recent deals have
piqued their interest. AmericanTower paid
But around 66% of sites in Europe are Telefonica around 30x its tower unit’s most
still wholly or partially owned by phone recent core earnings for the assets, accord-
companies, Barclays estimates, compared ing to analysts at Moody’s.
with less than 10% in the United States.
Operators willing to part with their tow-
“The market is unlocking,” said Julian ers have commanded average valuations
Plumstead, Chief Executive for Europe 22.1 times higher than the assets’ core earn-
at American Tower, which bought more ings since mid-2018, Moody’s also said.
than 30,000 towers from Spain’sTelefon- Cellnex clinched the lowest price among
ica in January. recent deals, paying 16x earnings for a port-
folio from Poland’s Play last October.
Compared to the United States, Plum-
stead told Reuters, “We are still in the early “If you conclude that it’s not really a
to middle ages of our industrial develop- competitive advantage to own the towers,
ment, but looking forward I think the trend then you should dispose of them because
will continue and possibly accelerate.” the multiple arbitrage is high,” said Nikos
Stathopoulos, chairman of mobile operator
Gradually relinquishing United Group, which owns 6,000 towers
In cases where operators and tower com- in Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia.
panies have signed joint ventures, the tower
companies say they usually have the option to Sweden’sTelia is also considering wring-
buy out the operators after a number of years. ing money out of its more than 9,000 tow-
ers by partnering with external investors, a
This means some are gradually relin- spokeswoman told Reuters, whileTelenor is
quishing these unlikely trophies in stages. also aiming to generate value from its tower
Telefonica netted more than US$9 billion portfolio, a representative said.

T H U R S D A Y M A R C H 4 , 2 0 2 1 21 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 3,663.0021.00 OIL US$ 62.68-0.02 RM/USD 4.0515 RM/SGD 3.0453 RM/AUD 3.1694 RM/GBP 5.6565 RM/EUR 4.8922

Top 20 active stocks

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

XOX BHD 416.1 -0.005 0.080 -27.27 301.4

PARKSON HOLDINGS BHD 332.0 0.005 0.195 -2.50 208.1

SEALINK INTERNATIONAL BHD 308.6 0.025 0.205 7.89 102.5

EA HOLDINGS BHD 286.4 -0.005 0.035 16.67 177.5

DAGANG NEXCHANGE BHD 272.7 -0.050 0.615 173.33 1325.8

KANGER INTERNATIONAL BHD 245.7 0.000 0.105 -27.59 264.0

BORNEO OIL BHD 183.6 0.005 0.040 0.00 257.4

RADIANT GLOBALTECH LTD 154.6 -0.015 0.365 1.39 191.7

GRAND-FLO BHD 145.3 -0.155 0.425 30.77 224.8 World equity indices

KOMARKCORP BHD 131.4 -0.155 0.555 4.06 267.0

DYNACIATE GROUP BHD 130.0 0.005 0.140 7.69 83.7 CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE

MESTRON HOLDINGS BHD 128.1 -0.010 0.260 18.18 229.5 (%) (%)
DOW JONES 31,391.52 -143.99 -0.46 INDONESIA 6,376.76 17.55 0.28
AT SYSTEMATIZATION BHD 127.6 0.010 0.125 -32.43 528.6

DPS RESOURCES BHD 123.5 0.000 0.125 -3.85 88.2 S&P 500 3,870.29 -31.53 -0.81 JAPAN 29,559.10 150.93 0.51

METRONIC GLOBAL BHD 122.3 0.005 0.065 -35.00 104.6 NASDAQ 100 13,059.95 -223.00 -1.68 KOREA 3,082.99 39.12 1.29

ANZO HOLDINGS BHD 107.1 -0.005 0.070 -17.65 78.1 FTSE 100 6,695.34 81.59 1.23 PHILIPPINES 6,942.76 23.22 0.34

CNI HOLDINGS BHD 104.6 0.020 0.235 161.11 167.5 AUSTRALIA 6,817.98 55.71 0.82 SINGAPORE 2,996.50 22.63 0.76

AMMB HOLDINGS BHD 101.8 -0.360 2.800 -23.29 8426.9 CHINA 3,576.91 68.31 1.95 TAIWAN 16,211.73 264.85 1.66

ICON OFFSHORE BHD 92.4 -0.005 0.115 0.00 310.9 HONG KONG 29,880.42 784.56 2.70 THAILAND 1,536.67 33.31 2.22

SMTRACK BHD 82.5 -0.030 0.155 -13.89 67.4 INDIA 51,194.03 897.14 1.78 VIETNAM 1,186.95 0.34 0.03

Data as compiled on Mar 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Mar 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg

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

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

ASDION BHD 0.545 32.93 2392.2 165.85 69.7 GRAND-FLO BHD 0.425 -26.72 145342.5 30.77 224.8

DATAPREP HOLDINGS BHD 1.840 29.58 65764.5 922.22 1108.8 KOMARKCORP BHD 0.555 -21.83 131375.2 4.06 267.0

HLT GLOBAL BHD 0.995 19.88 64715.5 -12.72 613.7 LAMBO GROUP BHD 0.020 -20.00 2802.8 -33.33 97.9

BINTAI KINDEN CORP BHD 0.510 18.60 69691.5 -17.07 194.4 ARK RESOURCES HOLDINGS BHD 0.315 -18.18 15.5 8.62 19.9

CAREPLUS GROUP BHD 1.790 18.54 40875.0 -13.53 984.6 ABLEGROUP BHD 0.135 -18.18 22141.3 12.50 35.6

RUBBEREX CORP M BHD 1.280 17.43 76169.4 -8.57 1061.7 SMTRACK BHD 0.155 -16.22 82470.6 -13.89 67.4

MINDA GLOBAL BHD 0.070 16.67 16676.4 16.67 86.8 SCOMI GROUP BHD 0.030 -14.29 5942.8 0.00 28.8

TH HEAVY ENGINEERING BHD 0.110 15.79 51035.2 22.22 244.3 ADVANCE INFORMATION 0.255 -13.56 110.1 -3.77 61.7

PARKWOOD HOLDINGS BHD 0.305 15.09 509.3 -6.15 42.0 EA HOLDINGS BHD 0.035 -12.50 286361.8 16.67 177.5

TURIYA BHD 0.345 15.00 3267.0 38.00 78.9 MCLEAN TECHNOLOGIES BHD 0.465 -12.26 15150.2 132.50 91.7

BORNEO OIL BHD 0.040 14.29 183589.2 0.00 257.4 INDUSTRONICS BHD 0.470 -12.15 21267.1 161.11 62.7

COMFORT GLOVE BHD 2.170 14.21 22139.5 -27.42 1265.0 AMMB HOLDINGS BHD 2.800 -11.39 101765.9 -23.29 8426.9

SEALINK INTERNATIONAL BHD 0.205 13.89 308646.2 7.89 102.5 PASUKHAS GROUP BHD 0.040 -11.11 8014.6 -42.86 59.8

SUPERMAX CORP BHD 4.660 13.38 70160.7 -22.46 12198.2 MTOUCHE TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.040 -11.11 3376.2 -46.67 53.0

LIEN HOE CORP BHD 0.395 12.86 1184.2 51.92 131.3 COMINTEL CORP BHD 0.165 -10.81 669.6 26.92 23.1

HPP HOLDINGS BHD 0.580 12.62 4181.7 0.00 225.3 PROGRESSIVE IMPACT CORP BHD 0.135 -10.00 14120.7 22.73 88.5

STAR MEDIA GROUP BHD 0.405 12.50 23212.4 15.71 293.5 INNITY CORP BHD 0.550 -9.84 254.3 42.86 76.5

GFM SERVICES BHD 0.315 12.50 54279.8 75.00 164.1 ASIA POLY HOLDINGS BHD 0.280 -9.68 20957.8 3.70 223.2

ELSOFT RESEARCH BHD 0.740 11.28 3905.2 -6.92 497.4 MANAGEPAY SYSTEMS BHD 0.195 -9.30 52355.7 30.00 140.6

MACPIE BHD 0.445 11.25 15138.3 -6.32 204.5 M3 TECHNOLOGIES ASIA BHD 0.050 -9.09 11300.5 -23.08 38.6

Data as compiled on Mar 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Mar 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg

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

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

NESTLE MALAYSIA BHD 138.000 1.600 86.4 -0.65 32361.0 CARLSBERG BREWERY MALAYSIA 23.080 -0.600 276.4 -0.69 7056.7

SUPERMAX CORP BHD 4.660 0.550 70160.7 -22.46 12198.2 AMMB HOLDINGS BHD 2.800 -0.360 101765.9 -23.29 8426.9

LPI CAPITAL BHD 13.800 0.460 143.6 0.58 5497.7 RAPID SYNERGY BHD 6.860 -0.290 439.6 3.94 733.3

HARTALEGA HOLDINGS BHD 9.850 0.440 14190.0 -18.86 33761.9 GREATECH TECHNOLOGY BHD 5.770 -0.230 5548.3 26.81 7224.0

DATAPREP HOLDINGS BHD 1.840 0.420 65764.5 922.22 1108.8 HAP SENG CONSOLIDATED BHD 8.070 -0.210 793.6 -6.16 20091.6

TOP GLOVE CORP BHD 5.090 0.340 74033.5 -16.83 40725.1 MALAYSIAN PACIFIC INDUSTRIES 41.800 -0.200 827.0 61.02 8313.9

PRESS METAL ALUMINIUM 10.000 0.300 6334.4 19.19 40381.1 PHARMANIAGA BHD 3.900 -0.190 2018.6 -22.00 1020.7

CAREPLUS GROUP BHD 1.790 0.280 40875.0 -13.53 984.6 ADVANCED PACKAGING 2.300 -0.180 10.0 2.22 44.0

HONG LEONG INDUSTRIES BHD 9.080 0.280 190.2 2.14 2900.8 UNISEM M BHD 8.800 -0.180 1078.8 42.39 7038.2

COMFORT GLOVE BHD 2.170 0.270 22139.5 -27.42 1265.0 HONG LEONG CAPITAL BHD 5.980 -0.160 1255.0 -3.39 1476.4

PIE INDUSTRIAL BHD 3.750 0.240 7745.5 54.96 1440.2 GRAND-FLO BHD 0.425 -0.155 145342.5 30.77 224.8

PETRONAS CHEMICALS GROUP BHD 7.740 0.210 6091.5 4.17 61920.0 KOMARKCORP BHD 0.555 -0.155 131375.2 4.06 267.0

KELINGTON GROUP BHD 2.440 0.210 4789.8 44.38 784.2 PIMPINAN EHSAN BHD 2.050 -0.130 1001.6 192.86 141.7

DUTCH LADY MILK INDUSTRIES BHD 34.980 0.200 5.7 -6.72 2238.7 INARI AMERTRON BHD 3.590 -0.110 19382.8 30.07 11903.2

GUAN CHONG BHD 3.020 0.200 4651.8 13.11 3123.6 SAM ENGINEERING & EQUIPMENT 6.900 -0.100 52.0 -6.38 932.7

RUBBEREX CORP M BHD 1.280 0.190 76169.4 -8.57 1061.7 CHIN TECK PLANTATIONS BHD 6.700 -0.100 3.0 0.14 612.1

KOSSAN RUBBER INDUSTRIES 3.840 0.190 13145.3 -14.67 9804.0 CENTRAL GLOBAL BHD 1.010 -0.100 2344.4 184.51 90.9

SERN KOU RESOURCE BHD 2.380 0.180 3886.3 33.71 623.8 KPOWER BHD 1.940 -0.100 10033.0 7.33 877.5

FORMOSA PROSONIC INDUSTRIES 2.770 0.170 2892.2 22.03 685.2 YNH PROPERTY BHD 2.720 -0.100 48.5 -1.45 1437.5

MICROLINK SOLUTIONS BHD 2.620 0.170 794.7 18.02 632.0 PETRONAS DAGANGAN BHD 19.620 -0.080 605.7 -8.32 19491.6

Data as compiled on Mar 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Mar 3, 2021 Source: Bloomberg