TheEdge 240322

SUNAK CUTS UK TAXES BY £6 BIL TO FEND OFF
INFLATION SURGE p19

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2022 w w w. t h e e d g e m a r k e t s. c o m

ISSUE 352/2022

CEOMorningBrief
HOME: Sime Darby Plantation slapped with RM1.7b suit for disposals of subsidiaries p6
Despite Petronas’ sterling performance, other O&G players still suffering, says industry group p7
Penang undersea tunnel has not provided any benefit to the state, says former project director p9

WORLD: Russian stock trading to resume after record market shutdown p17
Tencent declares ‘reckless’ era for tech is over as growth tanks p20

1Q22 corporate
earnings seen intact

despite inflation
headwind

Report on Page 3.

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 2 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 23):The Min- MoH: Ignore cancel the appointment and do not come to
istry of Health (MoH) has asked the public second booster the vaccination centre,” MoH said.
to ignore new Covid-19 vaccination appoint- appointment
ment received via the MySejahtera app if The vaccination centres have already been
they have already had their booster dose. received via informed of this technical glitch and instruct-
MySejahtera app ed to deny entry to people who fall into the
Explaining that there is a technical glitch above categories, it added. Last week, MoH
in the app, the ministry said the MySejahtera BY SYAFIQAH SALIM said appointments for booster vaccinations
technical team is working to fix it and apol- theedgemarkets.com could be made through the MySejahtera app
ogised for any inconvenience caused. starting from March 21.
and above to receive only one booster
“Since appointments are sent automat- dose for the time being. The public can select their preferred inte-
ically in the MySejahtera system, there is a grated vaccination centre along with a date
technical problem where the system sends It urged parents and guardians of chil- and time.
appointment links for booster vaccinations dren under 17, as well as people who have
to adolescents, i.e. people under 17 years already received their booster shots, to The ministry also said that those who have
of age. There were also adult individuals ignore the new appointment link. “Please not yet to receive full vaccination or booster
who had already received a booster vacci- dose, or parents who want to bring their chil-
nation, who also received an appointment dren for the first or second dose, can do so by
for a booster vaccination,” MoH said in booking an appointment at a selected centre.
a statement. Read also: Covid-19: 21,483 new cases on
March 22 Click here
The ministry stressed that its current
policy recommends individuals aged 18

Malaysia, Covid, which is now shifting towards the Covid-19 cases and vaccination
Singapore endemic phase of the outbreak. Malaysia progress in Malaysia
pledge to work and Singapore allowed visits between the
towards full travel two nations in November by air and land On March 22, 2022 28,377
resumption on a limited quota basis. Air travel initially 21,375
started with flights between Singapore and Daily vaccine doses administered
BY ANISAH SHUKRY & KYUNGHEE PARK Kuala Lumpur, while services to Penang 97.5
Bloomberg were added last week. Daily booster administered
66.0
(March 23):The health ministers of Ma- Singapore is also planning to further % of adult population received
laysia and Singapore agreed to work on re- open its borders to fully vaccinated travel- two-dose vaccination
suming travel completely between the two lers sooner than later, the country’sTrans-
countries considering the pandemic situa- port Minister S Iswaran said earlier this % of adult population received
tion has stabilised, Malaysian Health Min- month. Currently, the island city allows booster shots
ister Khairy Jamaluddin wrote onTwitter. inoculated people from 32 countries and
territories to enter without having to quar- On March 22, 2022
The two ministers agreed they can im- antine under a vaccinated travel lane pro-
mediately work on enabling full resumption gramme. Number of new cases 21,483
of air and land travel for fully vaccinated
people, Khairy said. He met with his coun- Ong also took to social mediaWednes- Local cases 21,089
terpart OngYe Kung earlierWednesday to day to talk about his meeting with Khairy,
discuss details for the border reopening, saying the pair had a “fruitful and frank Imported cases 394
Khairy said in an earlier tweet. discussion”.
Category 1 10,455
Malaysia is set to reopen its borders Singapore was Malaysia’s biggest source
to fully vaccinated travellers from April 1 of visitors in 2019 with some 10 million ar- (no symptoms) (48.67%)
after two years of restrictions to contain rivals, according to the Ministry ofTourism,
Arts and Culture Malaysia.That number Category 2 10,862
fell to 1.5 million in 2020, primarily made (mild symptoms) (50.56%)
up of visitors in the first couple of months
of the year before lockdowns. Singaporean Category 3 57
tourists also bring in the most money for
Malaysia, spending about RM20.5 billion (with pnemonia) (0.27%)
in 2019.
Category 4 46
(with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy) (0.21%)

Category 5 63
(critical and requiring assisted ventilation) (0.29%)

Number of new recoveries 32,561

Active cases 252,671

Daily Covid-19 deaths 73

Hospital bed utilisation (%) 66.40%

Source: Ministry of Health

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 3 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

HOME

1Q22 corporate earnings seen intact
despite inflation headwind

KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): Global BY JUSTIN LIM Notwithstanding that, RHB’s Chia said
inflation has been on the rise on the back of theedgemarkets.com fiscal and regulatory risks remain as higher
soaring energy and food commodity prices, oil prices continue to add to a rising fuel
exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine con- circa 10% on a y-o-y basis, dragged down subsidy bill that would impact Malaysia’s
flict. As the geopolitical risks linger, there by lower earnings from the glove players fiscal deficit target.
are certainly concerns over its impact on due to normalisation of ASP and intense
Malaysian corporate earnings. competition,” he said. The recent announcement by the
government to raise the minimum wage
Market observers generally expect most Imran expects certain sectors such as has also raised concerns over the margin
local companies to be able to protect their the plantation to surprise on the upside squeeze as raising the wage floor would
margins.With fuel subsidies, it takes time given the spike in crude palm oil (CPO) impose a damaging blow to the finances
for domestic inflation to build up. Also, price in 1Q 2022. On the other hand, in- of companies, which just bore the brunt
companies have the pricing powers to pass flationary pressures may affect earnings of the Covid-19 impact.
on the additional costs — arising from high of sectors like consumer.
commodity prices and building materials Fuel subsidies help contain inflation Nonetheless, Imran and Wong foresee
— to end consumers. MIDF’s Imran said global inflation is very a minimal impact on corporate earnings
dependent on how long the Russia-Ukraine as they believe most corporations listed on
Areca Capital Sdn Bhd CEO Danny war will last. Bursa Malaysia are already paying work-
Wong expects inflation to have a least im- ers above the minimum wage — which is
pact on Malaysia’s Jan-March quarter cor- “Presently, we are of the opinion that it set to increase to RM1,500 from May 1,
porate earnings as he has yet to see a big will not drag until the end of the year. As 2022 from the current RM1,200.
wave of rising costs due to RON 95 petrol such, we expect commodities prices and
being subsidised by the government. inflation to ease in the second half this year. Softer full-year earnings growth on
prosperity tax and declining glove
Following the encouraging earnings in “This also includes the supply chain profits
the last quarter of 2021, the momentum problem — being one of contributors to Overall, for the full year of 2022, corporate
is expected to continue in 1Q 2022, bol- inflation — which we expect will continue earnings may expand slower due to the
stered by a steady rise in economic activity. easing. Looking at the Baltic Dry Index as a high-base effect in 2021, negative impli-
proxy, it has come off its peak significantly. cations from the one-off prosperity tax as
“As economic reopening progresses Nevertheless, we are cognizant that supply well as a downtrend in the glove sector’s
well, by and large, I do not see any rea- chain disruptions may occur now and then earnings.
son for the March quarter results to be throughout the year, especially contributed
disappointing,” RHB Investment Bank by China’s zero-Covid policy that will see Rakuten’s Yee is forecasting a 7%
head of equity research Alexander Chia intermittent short lockdowns,” he added. rise in corporate earnings, driven by the
told The Edge. plantations, banking and gaming sectors,
Areca’s Wong believes the government compared to 60% growth posted in 2021
While Covid-19 cases are rising due to can continue to subsidise the petrol from — from the low base in 2020 due to pan-
the ongoing Omicront variant flare-up, he the windfall tax revenue collection as well demic.
said things are getting better and moving as bumpy dividends from Petronas result-
in the right direction underpinned by the ing from high crude oil prices. He sees the consumer and glove sectors
country’s mass vaccination drive. lagging behind this year on the back of
“However, if the Ukraine crisis contin- rising costs and lower ASPs, respectively.
Rakuten Trade head of research Ken- ues, we may see a slowdown in recovery
ny Yee concurred, saying the anticipated in corporate earnings as surging costs will RHB’s Chia projected KLCI’s corpo-
stronger earnings will also be supported by affect corporate earnings,” he warned. rate earnings to contract between 2% and
the low-base effect when businesses were 2.5% after taking the prosperity tax and
hard hit by the pandemic and lockdown lower glove earnings into consideration.
a year ago. Excluding the two factors, he said cor-
porate earnings could see double-digit
MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd growth.
research head Imran Yassin Yusof, how-
ever, cautioned that corporate earnings “The prosperity tax alone has taken six
could see a year-on-year (y-o-y) contrac- percentage points of earnings growth. Ex-
tion, dragged by rubber gloves on expected cluding the prosperity tax, we shall see an
downtrend in glove’s average selling price earnings per share growth of about 4%
(ASP). On a quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) to 5%.”
basis, he is optimistic that corporate earn-
ings will chart positive growth. Similarly, Imran projected a 2% decline
in corporate earnings this year.
“The recent 4Q 2021 results saw cor-
porates performing mainly within our ex- Sector-wise, plantation, oil & gas, bank-
pectations as actual aggregate corporate ing, gaming, technology and automotive
earnings were 0.8% higher than our expec- are expected to perform well this year, ac-
tations. As for 1Q 2022, we are expecting cording to Imran.
a better sequential quarter performance,
forecasting growth of circa 6%. Wong added that consumer and tour-
ism-related industries are set to benefit
“However, we are expecting a decline of from the reopening of borders.

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 4 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 23):The gov- Govt to prepare Corporation (MPC) be given the respon-
ernment will provide an insurance protec- insurance sibility to lead the Working Committee
tion plan for poor households who have on Modernising Subsidies to Increase
lost their source of income due to the protection plan for Productivity,” said Ismail Sabri.
death of the head of the household with poor households
an allocation of RM13.4 million a year. He said the measures decided in the
who lost their meeting would help strengthen the so-
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail breadwinners cial protection agenda to achieve the gov-
SabriYaakob said it would involve about ernment’s target of zero hardcore poor
268,000 poor families registered with — PM by 2025.
eKasih.
Bernama “The Covid-19 pandemic has made
“Each household will receive all parties aware of the weaknesses of the
RM10,000, with an allocation of RM13.4 social protection system in most countries
million a year,” he said in a statement is- around the world, including Malaysia.
sued after chairing the Malaysia Social
Protection Council (MySPC) meeting in “Therefore, the government through
the Parliament building here on Wednes- MySPC has identified a social protec-
day (March 23). tion mechanism that is more dynamic,
flexible and able to respond to any risks
Ismail Sabri said it was agreed in the faced by members of the Malaysian Fam-
meeting that the socio-economic level of ily,” he said.
the Malaysian Family be increased by
giving added value and focusing on the Earlier, Ismail Sabri launched Social
programmes to increase the income of Protection Database (PDPS) Phase 1:
the heads of households of the poor and Social Assistance (Federal), a single gate-
hardcore poor registered with eKasih. way and the main reference for social
protection programmes.
He said the other thing that was agreed
upon was to strengthen the social pro- It involves 167 programmes by 17
tection agenda up to the administrative ministries or agencies comprising 13.7
district level through the State Social Pro- million beneficiaries’ profile data up to
tection Technical Committee (JTPSNg) 2020.
to coordinate Phase 2 of the Programme
Mapping and Social Protection Profile. “Full access to this system will be
made available to the public and all stake-
“Besides that, it was also agreed in holders once the Social Insurance and
the meeting that Malaysia Productivity Labor Market Intervention Module is
completed after 2023,” he said.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): CGS- CGS-CIMB billion, with the rest put towards paring
CIMB Research said withdrawals under projects special debt or savings.
the special EPF scheme are expected to EPF withdrawals
be milder compared to past programmes to be between He said this means that private con-
as most members are unlikely to have a sumption could grow by an additional
sufficient amount left for a full withdrawal. RM15b and 78bps y-o-y in 2022.
RM20b
In an Economics Update onWednesday, “Meanwhile, the additional impact on
CGS-CIMB economist Nazmi Idrus said BY SURIN MURUGIAH GDP growth could be around +45bps,
that in addition, the public has less need theedgemarkets.com assuming all else constant,” he said.
for financial support, with expectations of
good investment returns in the future giv- Long-term implications
en the strong EPF performance in 2021. Nazmi said that to rebuild savings, all subse-
quent EPF contributions will go intoAccount
Nazmi said the special EPF withdrawal 1 until the amount withdrawn is replaced.
was unexpected. Past measures coincided
with lockdowns, while the current with- He said that further, the setback in
drawal is amidst an economic rebound. achieving full basic savings might mean
that the country may not be able to ade-
He projected lower withdrawals of quately prepare for the impending ‘silver
RM15 billion-RM20 billion due to limit- tsunami’.
ed available funds by members, but added
this could still add 45 basis points (bps) to “As a result, the government may need
year-on-year (y-o-y) gross domestic prod- to raise the retirement age to continue re-
uct (GDP) growth. building members’ savings and reduce the
cost of government support for the elderly.
“Long term, higher savings to rebuild
buffers could affect future consumption. “Failure to do so will see the govern-
A worsening retirement crisis could see an ment facing a higher debt-to-GDP ratio.
increase in retirement age,” he said.
“Consequently, there is also risk of ero-
Nazmi said assuming RM20 billion in sion of trust towards EPF as the lack of
total withdrawals and a marginal propen- ring-fencing of funds against political in-
sity to consume of 0.35, the direct impact fluences may be seen as a weakness in the
on consumption could be around RM7 organisation, which may have further im-
plications for the financial market,” he said.

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 5 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 6 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

HOME

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Sime Dar- Sime Darby defendant), a bourse filing by Sime Darby
by Plantation Bhd and five of its subsidiaries Plantation Plantation said.
are being sued for 5.88 trillion rupiah (ap- slapped with
proximately RM1.72 billion) over the dis- RM1.7b suit for The plaintiff alleged it had paid a down
posals of two plantation units. disposals payment and had an agreement with the
of subsidiaries fourth and fifth defendants for the purchases
A civil claim has been filed by Indone- of LSI and SHE.
sian company PT Asa Karya Multi Pratama BY ADAM AZIZ
(AKMP), which had wanted to acquire PT theedgemarkets.com However, the down payment was returned
Ladangrumpun Suburabadi (LSI) and PT and a conditional sale and purchase agree-
Sajang Heulang (SHE) from Sime Darby The plaintiff’s suit was filed against Sime ment scheduled for Sept 1, 2021 was not
Plantation’s units for 1.65 trillion (approx- Darby Plantation, Guthrie International In- executed, AKMP said.
imately RM483 million). vestments (L) Ltd (second defendant), Mul-
ligan International BV (third defendant), AKMP further alleged that the fourth and
The plaintiff, AKMP, alleged that Sime PT Anugerah Sumbermakmur (fourth de- fifth defendants “acted in bad faith by de-
Darby Plantation had snubbed the deal and fendant) and PT Minamas Gemilang (fifth nying the existence of an agreement for the
“unlawfully offered” shares in the two sub- sale and purchase of shares”.
sidiaries to a third party.
As a result, AKMP is seeking a material
Sime Darby Plantation said its lawyers ad- compensation of 882.5 billion rupiah (ap-
vised that all the defendants “have sufficient proximately RM258 million) and imma-
legal basis and merits” to defend the claim. terial compensation of five trillion rupiah
(RM1.46 billion) for loss of reputation and
Sime Darby Plantation said the claim was efforts spent, among others.
also misdirected at it because, among others,
it did not have any contractual relationship At market close, shares of Sime Darby
with the plaintiff. Plantation slipped two sen to RM5.05, giving
it a market capitalisation of RM34.92 billion.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Investment IHH Healthcare’s tion of 20-31x EV/EBITDA multiple — as
analysts believe that IHH Healthcare Bhd’s RM5.67b such, we deem the price tag as fair,” they said.
RM5.67 billion offer price to buy Ramsay Sime
Darby Healthcare Sdn Bhd (RSDH) is fair offer for Ramsay Maintain ‘buy’ call for IHH
and reasonable. Sime Darby seems UOB maintained its ‘buy’ recommendation
on IHH, with a sum-of-total-parts based tar-
IHH on Tuesday (March 22) submitted fair, reasonable get price (TP) of RM7.60. It said the stock’s
a confidential, conditional, non-binding and — analysts valuations look attractive given IHH’s robust
indicative offer to acquire 100% of RSDH but defensive three-year earnings with an av-
on a cash-free and debt-free basis. RSDH, an BY SYAFIQAH SALIM erage annual growth rate of 8.5% and solid
Asian joint venture equally owned by Ramsay theedgemarkets.com track record.
Health Care and Sime Darby Holdings Bhd,
has agreed to a four-week exclusivity period group’s net gearing could increase from -0.02 “Earnings drag arising from its North Asia
to allow IHH to conduct due diligence and times to -0.20 times, which is still very robust. operations has largely diminished while Aci-
negotiate a purchase agreement. badem’s operations are being increasingly der-
RHB Research analyst Sean Chew believes isked with an increasing proportion of foreign
PhilipWong, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian the acquisition is fair, in line with IHH’s pre- patients.The diminished risks and attractive
Research, said IHH’s offer price appears rea- vious acquisition multiples and selected trans- valuations far exceed the uncertainty revolving
sonable at this stage, but requires more infor- action multiples in the market, though with around Fortis and IHH’s initial 31% stake that
mation, particularly on its operations in In- negative views. has been brought into question,” saidWong.
donesia which could operate under difficult
macroeconomic conditions. “However, we expect potential negative RHB also kept its “buy” recommenda-
earnings contribution in the immediate term, tion with a TP of RM7.50 as the discussion
RSDH has four hospitals in Malaysia, should the deal materialise, given the higher is still preliminary at this point. “Valuation
three hospitals in Indonesia and an outpa- associated financing cost offsetting its existing remains undemanding as IHH is currently
tient surgery facility in Hong Kong.The en- earnings base — assuming it will be funded trading at 14x FY22F EV/EBITDA (-1SD
tire Asia-focused portfolio consists of near- fully by debt, with gearing ratio expected to from its 5-year mean).We ascribe a 0% ESG
ly 1,600 licensed beds, Wong said in a note rise to 0.5x (from 0.2x currently),” said Chew. discount/premium to our intrinsic value as its
Wednesday (March 23). ESG score stands in line with the country me-
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research dian,” said Chew.
He said RSDH’s four hospitals in Malaysia analysts Sophie Chua Siu Li and DanielWong,
could fit into IHH’s cluster strategy in key geo- on the other hand, said the development is not Analysts at HLIB also maintained a “buy”
graphic regions for Malaysia (in KlangValley) a big surprise as they expect more mergers and rating on IHH, with an unchanged sum-of-
and represents IHH’s maiden entry into Indo- acquisitions (M&As) in the healthcare sector. parts derived TP of RM7.75.They continue
nesia.Apart from this, IHH could achieve fur- to like the stock for its refreshed strategy that
ther synergies in procurement and the hospitals “Based on our estimates, the valuation im- will support its sustainable growth over the
in Indonesia could serve as feeders to IHH’s plies an EV/EBITDA multiple of 25.2x.We longer term.
highly specialised hospitals in Singapore.This highlight that M&A deals in the healthcare
potential acquisition is consistent with IHH’s space in recent years typically fetch a valua- At 5pm, IHH shares closed up three sen
goal of acquiring bite-sized, mature assets that or 0.46% to RM6.54, with some 2.97 million
are immediately earnings accretive. shares traded.The group is valued at RM57.57
billion.
If the proposal is approved,Wong said, the
acquisition could boost IHH’s EBITDA earn- The stock has risen 22.47% from when it
ings by about 5% in 2022. Meanwhile, the was trading at RM5.31 on March 23 last year.

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 7 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Petro- Despite there are defaults or delays in payments,
liam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) announce- Petronas’ sterling they would have to face legal suits from
ment of a sterling 2021 performance has financial institutions, suppliers and prin-
caused “confusion and dissatisfaction” in performance, cipals.
the oil & gas (O&G) industry, as it showed other O&G
a great disparity between the financial per- players still These SMEs, which are subsidising or
formances of the national oil company suffering, says financing the main contractors and clients,
and other firms in the supply chain, said industry group are now facing financial difficulties and legal
the Malaysian Oil & Gas Services Council implications, despite completing their work.
(MOGSC). BY AHMAD NAQIB IDRIS
theedgemarkets.com To shed light on the issue, MOGSC or-
The industry group said that while Pe- ganised the SME Round Table Forum on
tronas had been resilient in overcoming 60% of the industry — were the worst hit, March 23, attended by representatives of
the crisis and even recorded one of its best despite them providing services to the main over 70 participants, which inked a mem-
quarterly performances, the public-listed contractors that are contracted with Petro- orandum highlighting the issues faced by
O&G companies, on the other hand, had nas or other oil producers. the SMEs in the industry.
been showing negative performances.
MOGSC said some of these SMEs had “These include protecting the local
“Compounding this, most of the small to take up financing facilities from finan- companies in Malaysia in order to con-
and medium enterprises (SMEs) which cial institutions to continue providing their tinue being an integral part of the ecosys-
became subcontractors and vendors to services to the main contractors, and when tem, addressing current liquidity issues in
the larger companies are now facing se- the market, establishment of a responsible
vere financial conditions with most of them contracting strategy to protect the supply
having negative cash flow and losses,” said chain, vendor development programmes
MOGSC in a statement. and financing assistance to the SME com-
panies,” the industry group said.
“The ecosystem of the O&G industry in
Malaysia is not in a healthy state, despite “We hope with this memorandum, the
Petronas’ performance,” added the council. stakeholders, mainly the government, will
take action on the suggestions put forth
It said the SMEs — which account for by the SME companies,” said MOGSC.

Petronas inks PSCs, to attract RM600m worth of exploration activities

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Petro- BY SHAZNI ONG “Petronas is committed to reducing
liam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has signed theedgemarkets.com carbon emissions from our operations
production sharing contracts (PSCs) for with technologies such as carbon cap-
five offshore exploration blocks, which “The reduction in global exploration ture and storage. We look forward to
would attract a capital commitment of drilling over the past two years has pres- working together with our partners to
about RM600 million in exploration ac- sured the industry to resolve current sup- provide safe and reliable energy to the
tivities in Malaysia. ply shortages. As global economies have market,” he said.
started to recover post-pandemic, the in-
In a statement onWednesday (March dustry needs to ensure exploration activi- The PSC signing ceremony took
23), the national oil company said the ties continue to sustain production. place on Tuesday (March 22) at the
blocks comprise SB412, 2W and X lo- Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
cated off the coast of Sabah, and SK439/ during the Malaysia Bid Round (MBR)
SK440 located off the coast of Sarawak. 2021.

Block SB412 in Sabah was signed The MBR is an annual Malaysia li-
between Petronas, PTTEP HK Off- censing round hosted by MPM with di-
shore Ltd and SapuraOMV Upstream verse upstream opportunities, including
(M) Sdn Bhd, while the PSCs for ul- exploration acreages, discovered re-
tra-deepwater Blocks 2W and X were source opportunities and late life pro-
signed between Petronas, Sabah Shell ducing assets. Petronas, through MPM,
Petroleum Company Ltd (SSPC), Shell manages petroleum arrangements in
Sabah Selatan Sdn Bhd (SSS) and Pet- Malaysia and provides stewardship on
ronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB). upstream petroleum activities.

Meanwhile, the PSC for Sarawak’s In a separate statement, Shell exec-
Block SK439/SK440 was signed be- utive vice president for conventional
tween Petronas, Sarawak Shell Bhd O&G upstream Peter Costello said the
(SSB) and Petroleum Sarawak Explo- signing of these PSCs marks another
ration & Production Sdn Bhd (PSEP). growth milestone for Shell in Malaysia.

After signing the PSCs on behalf of “Our long partnership with Petronas
the company, Petronas senior vice pres- in Malaysia continues, as together we
ident of Malaysia Petroleum Manage- seek to provide the energy of today while
ment (MPM) Mohamed Firouz Asnan funding the energy of tomorrow. I look
said this will reflect the attractiveness forward to further successful collabo-
of the country’s hydrocarbon resourc- ration on growing a sustainable energy
es potential. industry in Malaysia,” he said.

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 8 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

Pioneering App Improves
Housing for Plantation Workers

PETALING JAYA

Thanks to a tech-savvy line designated system which management in Selangor, the unexpected interest
has direct access to and which triggers in his idea has been not only
manager, sustainable palm oil giant action almost immediately. gratifying, but also inspiring.
Sime Darby Plantation (SDP) has
rolled out a pioneering app to improve Previously, management kept track of The 34-year-old said: “I came up with
housing conditions for plantation repairs and maintenance issues this idea after realising the difficulty in
workers in its Malaysia operations. The manually, something that often led to maintaining multiple logbooks across
Oil Palm Pal was introduced delays through insufficient monitoring several locations in my operating
company-wide in December – meeting or incorrect procedures. unit, as we have a few outlying
with an approval rate of more than 95% divisions with workers’ houses.
from employees. “Now we have this ability to
immediately monitor and track “Because I’ve always liked using
Adrianudin Raj Azman, SDP’s maintenance issues,” said Adrianudin IT-based apps to enhance or simplify
Regional CEO in Sabah, Malaysia Raj Azman. “The app is also something my workload, I decided to try
said: “We believe this is a first for the the management at a higher level can something similar to improve the
industry and it has been a tremendous follow so, naturally, the response time efficiency of housing repair requests
success.” to complaints has been much quicker.

It was last November that assistant
manager Muhamad Hazwan Bin
Azman quietly digitalised the
maintenance process for workers at his
operating unit in SDP’s Flemington
estate, hoping to improve efficiency
and cut waiting times for repairs.

However, head office soon learned
of his efforts and bosses were so
impressed that they took his idea and
ran with it.

Adrianudin Raj Azman explained: “Anything related to our workers’ using a simple web-based app tool
“Someone told me about an app they housing whether it’s minor repairs available online.
were using at one of our operating units needed, such as a broken window pane,
and I contacted the assistant manager or something bigger such as the locks “I was then very delighted that a simple
whose idea it was and asked him to on the house not functioning or idea managed to generate so much
give us a simple presentation. disruption to water supplies, gets interest from management, and my
logged almost immediately into the idea went on to become an official
“We were impressed. The app was system and we can alert the handyman reporting system for the company.
straight forward and user friendly and we on site to fix the problem.
decided to expand on the concept. So, we “I’m now looking forward to
brought in our digital athletes to further “Before, we quite often outsourced the contributing more ideas to enhance
refine and enhance the application and we repairs to external contractors, which digitalisation into our plantation
now use it at all our plantations.” brought more delays, whereas now, operations.”
every one of our operating units has a
The Oil Palm Pal app was introduced handyman on site.”
throughout the company in December.
Via a QR code, now tacked to the front For assistant manager Muhamad
of all the company's 20,400 houses in Hazwan Bin Azman, from Kajang
Malaysia, workers can lodge any
complaints or requests for repairs on a

THURSDAY MARCH 24, 2022 9 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

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Penang undersea tunnel has not
provided any benefit to the state,

says former project director

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): A former BY IZZUL IKRAM — progress of works for Package 2 stood
project director told the Sessions Court theedgemarkets.com only at 9%.
here onWednesday (March 23) the Penang
undersea tunnel project has yet to benefit ing and had to restructure its management “The detailed design of Package 2 has
the state government and rakyat. team for the project. been completed, and the construction of
utility for Section 1 has begun. However,
Datuk Yeoh Lean Huat, who was the “Other than that, the detailed design the construction of the physical structure
project director of the Air Itam-Tun Dr which was sent by CZCSB prior to this for has yet to begin.
Lim Chong Eu Expressway bypass (Pack- approval was restudied (amended) by the
age 2), described the project as mired with project’s new management team. “Additionally, construction of the pro-
purported woes and troubles and that the ject (Package 2) has not been approved as
physical construction had yet to begin. “This caused delays from the perspec- a whole,” he added.
tive of progress works because there was a
Package 2 is one of the four packages of need to put the detailed design study on He also said that to his knowledge, upon
Penang’s three major roads and an under- hold. An issue involving the exchange of his retirement as Package 2 project direc-
sea tunnel project — collectively referred to land also surfaced when the new detailed tor on Dec 31, 2021, there had been no
as the Penang undersea tunnel project — design was studied, as changes relating to payments made to the contractor although
which was awarded to Consortium Zenith the size of land transferred by the [Penang] it is claiming a sum of RM6.9 million as
Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) in Sep- state government were needed,” he said in interim payment.
tember 2013, with the alleged help of for- reply to Deputy Public Prosecutor Mahadi
mer Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng. Jumaat’s questions. “However, the payment is not made,
due to the Penang government agreeing
Yeoh, who was the project director of Progress of works for Package 2 at 9% the payment in kind was to be made via
Package 2 from October 2019 to Dec 31, in December 2021 the land swap as agreed in the sub-agree-
2021, testified that the project had pro- In response to the delay,Yeoh, 62, said he had ment for Package 2,”Yeoh said.
gressed slowly, and that he was not satisfied issued letters warning the contractor of its
with CZCSB based on its progress thus far. sluggish progress, and recommended certain Lim is on trial as he is accused of having
actions to be taken to overcome the delay. corruptly solicited gratification to help a com-
“The progress of works for Section 1 was pany Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd
as much as 6.8%, whereby it was 1.49% “Among them is holding monthly site secure the undersea tunnel project.This was
for the whole of Package 2. At this time, meetings where the project director would when he was the then Penang chief minister.
this project has not provided any benefit to monitor and resolve matters arising on site.
the [Penang] state government and rakyat,” In addition, theTechnicalWork Committee He is alleged to have sought 10% of the
Yeoh, who is the 24th prosecution witness, would also convene each month to mon- profit to be made by the company from
added. itor and resolve issues faced by CZCSB’s Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, who is
consultants related to the detailed design,” the company director, nearbyThe Gardens
He noted that Section 1 of Package 2 the witness elaborated. hotel, MidValley City, Lingkaran Syed Pu-
spanned a distance of 1.069km, while the tra here in March 2011.
entirety of Package 2 — comprising a to- In response to questions during exami-
tal of six sections — stretched over 6km. nation-in-chief by Mahadi,Yeoh noted that On Aug 10, the former DAP secre-
according to the latest progress report he tary-general was charged in the Butterworth
He testified that CZCSB had reasoned received — dated end-December 2021 Sessions Court with using his position as
that the delay was due to the company hav- the then chief minister of Penang to solicit
ing undergone changes in major sharehold- RM3.3 million in gratification for himself as
an inducement for helping the company to
secure the project, valued at RM6.3 billion.

On Sept 11, the Bagan member of Par-
liament was charged in the same court
with two counts of causing two plots of
land belonging to the Penang government
worth RM208.8 million to be disposed of
to two companies, which were linked to
the state’s undersea tunnel project.

The offences were allegedly commit-
ted at the Penang Land and Mines Office,
Level 21, KOMTAR, on Feb 17, 2015 and
March 22, 2017 respectively.

Lim pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

Read also: Late Ewein founder said Guan
Eng no longer ‘untouchable’ after collapse
of PH govt Click here

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Daman- Tony Pua dismisses the sale of 1MDB assets (that have been
sara member of Parliament (MP)Tony Pua Najib’s explanation used to resolve other 1MDB debts prior
has slammed Pekan lawmaker Datuk Seri to 2017),” said Pua.
Najib Razak’s explanation concerning his behind claim
claim that 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s 1MDB principal Earlier this month, Finance Minister
(1MDB) principal debt has not been re- debt not repaid Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul
paid as an “afterthought”. as afterthought, Aziz explained that the allegation that the
attempt to mislead principal debt of 1MDB has not been paid
Najib had written a letter explaining his until now is baseless as it will only mature
claims made in the lower house three weeks Speaker between 2022 and 2039.
ago to Dewan Rakyat SpeakerTan Sri Azhar
Azizan Harun, who is considering whether BY SHAZNI ONG Tengku Zafrul in Parliament on March
or not to allow Pua’s motion referring the theedgemarkets.com 3 said that until the end of February 2022,
former prime minister to the Rights and 1MDB’s total debt was about RM38.8 bil-
Privileges Committee for making mislead- Pua added that the former premier had lion, comprising RM32.3 billion in prin-
ing statements that could be construed as not tried to correct his statement since his cipal debt and RM6.5 billion in interest.
insulting while debating 1MDB. speech was widely reported three weeks
ago, either through official means or “Clearly, YB Pekan has shown he in-
Azhar had shared the Pekan MP’s re- through his Facebook account, where he tends to confuse the Dewan Rakyat. In
sponse with Pua, who then wrote a five- actively discusses matters related to 1MDB. fact,YB Pekan has doubled his offence by
page letter responding to Azhar dated trying to confuseTan Sri in his explanation
March 22. “What is more shocking is the wayYB to Tan Sri,” said Pua.
Pekan wants to continue confusing Tan
In his letter, he cited Najib’s state- Sri [Azhar] with his explanation that the Pua added that Najib did not attempt
ment in the Dewan Rakyat: “In this au- debt repayments in 2017 and 2018 were to show calculations proving how 1MDB
gust house, let us not give the excuse that ‘from the sale of 1MDB assets such as saved up to RM50 billion by taking over
1MDB debts have destroyed the coun- Edra Energy... and also Tun Razak Ex- independent power producers (IPPs).
try’s finances. The fact is, not one sen of change project sites’.
1MDB’s principal debt has been repaid.” According to him, the excerpts of me-
“This is another false claim. Just as ex- dia reports Najib had used to explain his
According to Pua, Najib had directly plained in the Finance Minister’s letter to statement do not have any causal relation-
admitted in his explanation to the Speak- Tan Sri, the debt repayment on behalf of ship with his claims.
er that 1MDB’s principal debt was repaid 1MDB of RM6.47 billion in 2017 and
in 2017 and 2018 while he was finance RM1.65 billion in 2018 was made ‘through Pua said Najib did not explain how the
minister. the Ministry of Finance and the Minister acquisition of the IPPs had boosted Pet-
of Finance, Inc (MKD)’ and not through ronas’ cash reserves by RM30 billion to
“YB Pekan [Najib] tried to give the ex- RM176 billion in 2018.
cuse that he was only referring to the re-
payment of debt after the Pakatan Harapan The DAP lawmaker also said Najib had
government was formed. This excuse is admitted that the RM140 billion value as-
clearly an afterthought,” said Pua, adding cribed to Bandar Malaysia’s land assets
that no one who read his speech would that were previously owned by 1MDB
arrive at the same conclusion. “YB Pe- referred to its gross development value
kan statement in the Dewan is an abso- (GDV) and not the value of the land itself.
lute claim.” Click here to read the full story

(March 23):A Federal Bureau of Investiga- Ex-Goldman for his role in the plot, and directed that
tion (FBI) agent told a jury how he traced banker’s 1MDB loot Ng be paid US$35.1 million from an ac-
US$35 million siphoned from 1MDB, di- bought US$20,000 count controlled by Leissner’s former wife,
verted to a Goldman Sachs banker and Judy Chan.
used to buy a US$20,000 gold-plated hourglass,
hourglass and US$300,000 in diamond diamonds Fern said he tracked how, in the weeks af-
jewellery. ter the first 1MDB bond deal closed in May
BY PATRICIA HURTADO 2012, at least US$24.4 million was directed
Testifying onTuesday (March 22) in the Bloomberg from Judy Chan’s account to an offshore
foreign-bribery trial of ex-Goldman Sachs account controlled by Ng’s mother-in-law,
Group Inc banker Roger Ng, Agent Sean sia and Abu Dhabi as well as kickbacks to Tan Kim Chin. Two more transactions in
Fern said he was able to track the funds Goldman bankers who helped him. Gold- 2013 sent US$10.7 million from accounts
prosecutors say Ng got as part of a glob- man arranged the bond deals. under Judy Chan’s control to the offshore
al scheme to steal billions of dollars from account Tan controlled, he testified.
sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Devel- Ng is accused of conspiring with his
opment Bhd (1MDB). former boss Tim Leissner and Jho Low Fern told the jurors that some of
in the scam. Leissner, who has pleaded the 1MDB money was used to buy
As the US begins to wrap up its case guilty and testified for the government, US$300,500 in diamond jewellery, in-
after five weeks of testimony, prosecutors said he earned more than US$60 million cluding a six-carat ring, and a US$20,000
called Fern to describe how Malaysian fi- gold-plated hourglass.
nancier LowTaek Jho (Jho Low) — the al-
leged mastermind of the scheme and now Neither Lim nor her mother was
a fugitive in the case — drew off hundreds charged in the case.
of millions of dollars from 1MDB bond
deals to pay bribes to officials in Malay- The case is US v. LowTaek Jho, 18-cr-
538, US District Court, Eastern District
of NewYork (Brooklyn).

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The Dewan Rakyat 2012, with the first five-year extension ap-
Dewan Rakyat onWednesday (March 23) rejects extension proved in 2017.
rejected a motion to extend the effective
period of subsection 4(5) of the Securi- of SOSMA “Based on my discussion with the Roy-
ty Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 28-day detention al Malaysia Police (PDRM), in fact, this
(SOSMA) — which grants the police spe- 28-day period is not sufficient because the
cial powers to hold individuals arrested and BY SHAZNI ONG cases investigated are very complicated and
detained under the Act for up to 28 days theedgemarkets.com complex...involving terrorist groups and
— for another five years. organised crime that have wide networks,”
motion in the Dewan Rakyat to extend the he said.
The results of a bloc vote showed only effective period of subsection 4(5) of the
84 members of Parliament were in favour SOSMA for another five years from July Meanwhile, Hamzah denied that SOS-
of the motion, with 86 MPs voting against 31 this year, with 19 MPs also debating MA is an oppressive law, asserting that
it. Another 50 MPs were not present. the motion afterwards. subsection 4(3) provides that no person
may be arrested and detained under this
Prior to that, deputy Dewan Rakyat “The provisions of subsection 4(5) section solely for political beliefs or polit-
Speaker Datuk Ramli Mohd Nor decid- of SOSMA should be extended and the ical activities.
ed that the motion was to be held by a detention period of 28 days maintained
bloc vote after Teluk Intan MP Nga Kor to give sufficient time to the police to Hamzah further noted that since 2016
Ming stood up to ask for a bloc vote, in complete the investigation of security to January 2022, a total of 3,717 individ-
accordance with Standing Order 46 (4). offence cases which are complex,” said uals were detained under this Act.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah
Following that, the Dewan Rakyat sit- Zainudin. “A total of 400 individuals were de-
ting was adjourned for 10 minutes after tained for involvement with elements of
the bell rang for two minutes, before the “Furthermore, the investigation of cases terrorist groups, 321 were involved in hu-
vote was conducted. involving security offences, especially ter- man trafficking syndicates, 1,838 for hu-
rorism and organised crime is complex and man trafficking offences and 1,030 under
When the Dewan Rakyat came back takes time to complete, to obtain evidence offences for organised crime,” he said.
into session, SpeakerTan Sri Azhar Azizan from detainees during the collection of rel-
Harun who had taken over from Ramli evant evidence for prosecution purposes, “Without subsection 4(5) being extend-
initiated the vote-counting session. It also including tracking down accomplices who ed and if the total detention of 28 days is
enabled Ramli, who is also the Cameron could still be at large,” he said when sub- not maintained, it is feared that the quality
Highlands MP, to participate in the vote. mitting a motion related to SOSMA in the of police investigations will be affected.
Dewan Rakyat.
The voting session was also a bit cha- “[This is] because it is made in a hurry,
otic when a number of Opposition MPs It was the second time an extension of having only 24 hours to conduct investiga-
raised protests against some government the 28-day detention provision was sought tions, prepare and complete the investiga-
MPs who entered the House late, after the since the Act came into force on July 31, tion papers, and subsequently submit them
voting session began. to the deputy public prosecutor (DPP)
for further instructions,” added Hamzah.
Azhar then ruled that the votes of MPs Read also: SOSMA motion bloc vote has
who came in after the voting session start- nullifed MoU between Govt and Oppo-
ed were not going to be counted. sition — Annuar Click here

Earlier in the day, the government,
through the Home Ministry, had tabled a

KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): Former 1MDB board would hide from him the fact that 1MDB
1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) di- did not know of would have to take a US$500 million loss.
rector Tan Sri Ismee Ismail said the com- US$500 mil loss
pany’s previous board did not know that on investment It was reported previously that 1MDB
PetroSaudi International executivesTarek had remitted the US$1 billion to the joint
Obaid and Patrick Mahony and fugitive in 1MDB- venture, 1MDB PetroSaudi, on Sept 29,
financier Jho Low were planning to con- PetroSaudi JV, 2009, of which US$700 million was illegally
ceal a US$500 million loss to 1MDB after diverted to Jho Low’s company Good Star
they had poured US$1 billion into a joint says Ismee Ltd.The joint venture was on shaky grounds
venture company. and Jho Low and his partners were seeking
BY TIMOTHY ACHARIAM another US$500 million from 1MDB.
Testifying in the MDB trial at the High theedgemarkets.com
Court on Wednesday (March 24), Ismee Replying to Shafee onWednesday, Ismee
said the board at the time did not know men to meet then Prime Minister Najib said the then 1MDB board had the impres-
anything about the loss that 1MDB would to discuss the joint venture. sion that the US$500 million was for an in-
have to incur. vestment in the so called“Suez Project”which
In the email exchange, the three men was an independent power producer, from
Former premier Datuk Seri Najib were exchanging ideas on how to explain the PetroSaudi International for US$2.5 billion.
Razak’s lawyer, Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, situation to Najib. It was decided that they
had asked Ismee about this purported loss, Shafee, however, suggested to Ismee
citing an article from June 18, 2018 edition that this was a “complete sham” in retro-
of The Edge Malaysia weekly. spect and that the money was actually a
loan to the joint venture to cover up for the
In the article, The Edge had obtained losses it had incurred because of Jho Low.
an email exchange from Mahoney, Obaid Click here to read the full story
and Low about a meeting in August
2010, where the plan was for the three

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SC registers two ments, among others, to verify the issuer’s MRT Corp
initial exchange digital value proposition, review the issuer’s clarifies it has
offering operators proposal and disclosures in its whitepaper, nothing to do
and undertake a comprehensive due dili- with ongoing
BY SYAFIQAH SALIM gence on the issuer and its token offering, MACC probe
theedgemarkets.com prior to hosting the issuer’s digital token on
their platform. BY SHAZNI ONG
KUALA LUMPUR (March 23):The Secu- theedgemarkets.com
rities Commission Malaysia (SC) has reg- “In addition, they will be given up to nine
istered two initial exchange offering (IEO) months to comply with all the regulatory re- KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Mass
operators to promote responsible innovation quirements before commencing operations, Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT
in the digital space. and these include putting in place a robust Corp) on Wednesday said that an investi-
and effective Anti-Money Laundering/Com- gation currently being carried out by the
The two IEO operators are Kapital DX bating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/ Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission
Sdn Bhd and Pitch Platforms Sdn Bhd, ac- CFT) process to mitigate Money Laundering (MACC) into alleged corruption by two
cording to the SC’s statement onWednesday and Terrorism Financing (ML/TF) risks,” engineering firms involved in an Mass Rap-
(March 23). it explained. id Transit (MRT) project is not related to
MRT Corp or any of its staff.
The registered IEO operators will provide Furthermore, the SC reminded members
an alternative avenue for eligible companies of the public that they are not permitted to “If requested, MRT Corp is ready to
to raise funds via the issuance of digital to- offer, issue or distribute any digital assets — extend its full cooperation to the authorities
kens in Malaysia, said the regulator. which have been prescribed as securities in in the investigation into this case.
Malaysia — without obtaining a registration
An issuer may raise funds up to RM100 or authorisation from the SC. “MRT Corp wishes to remind all its
million from retail, sophisticated, as well as business partners, contractors and subcon-
angel investors, subject to the investment “In this regard, a person convicted may be tractors that it will not tolerate any form of
limits provided in the SC’s Guidelines on liable to a fine not exceeding RM10 million corruption within its project ecosystems.
Digital Assets. or imprisonment for a term not exceeding
10 years or both. “Due action, such as contract termi-
The SC said these new operators will be nation and/or blacklisting, will be taken
required to carry out the necessary assess- “Members of the public are also advised against any company found to be involved
to be mindful of the risks related to investing in corruption,” MRT Corp said in a brief
in digital assets, including risks of investing statement following media reports of the
on platforms not registered with the SC,” MACC investigation.
it added.
On Tuesday (March 22), Bernama re-
KUALA LUMPUR (March 23):Bursa Ma- Bursa seeks ported that three directors and two former
laysia Securities Bhd onWednesday (March public feedback directors of an engineering firm had been
23) issued a public consultation paper on detained by MACC to assist in a corrup-
proposed amendments to the Main Mar- on proposed tion case involving over RM650 million
ket Listing Requirements (Main LR) and enhanced related to the MRT project.
ACE Market Listing Requirements (ACE
LR) with the aim of elevating sustainability sustainability Citing MACC sources, the news agency
practices and disclosures of listed issuers. reporting said four men, including one with the title
“Datuk”, and a woman, all aged between
For the Main Market, Bursa Malaysia is BY SULHI KHALID 43 and 63, were detained when they turned
proposing to require the disclosure of pre- theedgemarkets.com up to give their statements at the MACC
scribed sustainability matters and indicators headquarters here on Monday (March 21).
that are deemed material for listed issuers For the ACE Market, the exchange pro-
across all sectors (proposed common sus- poses that listed corporations disclose the The sources added that the two former
tainability matters). prescribed sustainability information cur- company directors were believed to have re-
rently stipulated for Main Market listed ceived RM27 million in bribes from another
It also proposing that all listed issuers issuers, as well as the proposed common engineering firm as kickback to be appoint-
have to provide climate change related dis- sustainability matters, enhanced quan- ed as a consultant for the project in 2017.
closures that are aligned with theTask Force titative information, and a statement of
on Climate-related Financial Disclosures assurance. The case is being investigated under
(TCFD) Recommendations. Section 16 of the MACC Act for soliciting
“In addition, the Exchange proposes and accepting bribes.
Other key proposals include: the disclosure of a basic plan to facilitate
i. prescribing disclosure of prescribed sus- ACE Market-listed corporations in con-
sidering climate change risks and oppor-
tainability matters and indicators that tunities when transitioning towards a low
are deemed material for listed issuers carbon economy,” said Bursa Malaysia in
in specified sectors; a statement.
ii. requiring disclosure of data for at least
three financial years and performance
targets, for each reported indicator (en-
hanced quantitative information); and
iii. requiring a statement whether the sus-
tainability disclosures have been assured
and if so, the scope of such assurance
(statement of assurance).

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KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Gamuda Strong property its full-year sales target of RM4 billion,
Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter end- sales push which is 38% more than last year’s RM2.9
ed Jan 31, 2022 (2QFY22) rose 43.72% to billion sales,” it said.
RM177.13 million from RM123.24 mil- Gamuda’s 2Q
lion a year ago, as gains from property and profit up 43% Revenue for 1HFY22 rose 22.66%
construction divisions more than offset the to RM2.04 billion from RM1.66 billion,
weaker concession business. BY ADAM AZIZ mainly from higher property sales, while
theedgemarkets.com both the construction and concession busi-
Gamuda recorded higher joint venture ness continued to underperform.
contribution in the quarter, its filing showed.
Group earnings per share rose to 7.05 sen, Concurrently, property sales and the
from 4.9 sen per share in 2QFY21. MRT Putrajaya Line 2 is expected to drive
Gamuda’s performance. The group has
Revenue in the quarter rose 43.88% unbilled sales of RM5.2 billion, it said.
to RM1.29 billion, as property division
revenue more than doubled to offset the Gamuda’s construction order book has
slightly weaker construction division, while tripled to RM10.4 billion following its suc-
the concession revenue also climbed. cessful bids for the A$2.16 billion (RM6.82
billion) Sydney MetroWest-WesternTun-
For the six-month period ended Jan nelling Package in Australia and the S$467
31 (1HFY22), Gamuda’s net profit rose million (RM1.45 billion) Defu station and
41.08% to RM329.5 million or 13.11 sen tunnel projects in Singapore.
per share, from RM233.55 million or 9.29
sen per share, as contribution from the prop- Shares of Gamuda have risen by 18%
erty segment quadrupled, while earnings since the start of the year. The counter
from its construction business rose 50%. rose 3 sen or 0.89% to close at RM3.39,
giving it a market capitalisation of RM
The group said property sales jumped 8.66 billion.
27% to RM1.9 billion in 1HFY22 as over- Read also: Gamuda revises upwards mini-
seas projects, especially in Vietnam and mum wage for foreign workers and graduate
Singapore contributed almost 60% of total entry effective May 1 Click here
property sales, whilst local sales doubled.

“Gamuda Land is on track to achieve

NEWS IN BRIEF

LYC Healthcare ventures into dental industry Ranhill’s largest shareholder
Hamdan Mohamad pares stake
LYC Healthcare Bhd said it is venturing into the dental industry through the acquisitions
of three dental clinics in the Klang Valley for a total of RM3.18 million. In a statement filed Ranhill Utilities Bhd’s major shareholder
with Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, the healthcare service provider said its wholly-owned and executive chairman, Tan Sri Hamdan
subsidiary, LYC Dental Group Sdn Bhd, has signed agreements with Dr Beh Wee Ren to Mohamad, has pared his equity interest
acquire the KL Dental outlets in Kiara 163 and SS15 Courtyard. LYC Dental signed another in the utility group to 34.26%, after
agreement with Dr Beh and Dr Andy Ooi Yet Lee to acquire the KL Dental outlet in Taman disposing of a 9.07% stake in an off-
Connaught, the group said. — by Shazni Ong market transaction. Lambang Optima
Sdn Bhd, in which Hamdan has deemed

SMTrack purchases Bombardier TH Heavy chairman resigns after interest, disposed of the 9.07% stake
Challenger aircraft for US$1.8 serving for less than a year comprising 116.63 million shares on
million TH Heavy Engineering Bhd’s independent March 18, according to a bourse filing.
With this, Lambang Optima ceased to be

SMTrack Bhd is purchasing a non-executive chairman Datuk Abd Aziz a substantial shareholder of Ranhill, with

Bombardier Challenger 601-3A aircraft Sheikh Fadzir has resigned from the post its stake reduced to 2.87% or 37.4 million

for US$1.8 million (RM7.6 million) as after serving for less than a year. He resigned shares. The ultimate purchaser of the

part of its move to venture into cargo due to a “personal commitment”, according 9.07% stake is not immediately known.

carriage services. In a filing with the to the group’s filing with Bursa Malaysia. The Ranhill stated the registered holder as

bourse, the company said it has entered 58-year-old former UMNO lawmaker was UOB Kay Hian Nominees (Asing) Sdn Bhd

into an aircraft purchase agreement appointed as TH Heavy chairman on May 25 Exempt AN for UOB Kay Hian Pte Ltd. —

with Fairway Logistic (M) Sdn Bhd for the last year. — by Seah Eu Hen by Adam Aziz

purchase of the aircraft, together with all

installed parts, including auxiliary power AirAsia announces new board, appointment of four directors
unit and landing gear, major avionics,
cabin interior, wheels and brakes. It will AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd (AAAGL), the airline holding company under Capital A Bhd,
fund the acquisition using proceeds announced Wednesday (March 23) the formation of a new board of directors along with
from the issuance of redeemable four fresh appointments. The appointment follows its recent announcement of Tan Sri
convertible notes, which was approved Jamaludin Ibrahim as its independent non-executive chairman. Its new board of directors
by the shareholders at the company’s are 58-year-old Thai national Suvabha Charoenying, 62-year-old Singaporean Lim Serh
extraordinary general meeting held on Ghee, 67-year-old Filipino Francisco Ed. Lim and 55-year-old Malaysian Tan Sri Mohamad
Dec 28, 2020. — by Ahmad Naqib Idris Norza Zakaria.— by Tan Siew Mung

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MOHR: 265 currently only applies to the categories BLOOMBERG
Amendment to of employees specified in the First Sched-
employment bill ule, namely those earning RM2,000 and Cost of
seeks to expand below per month, and workers involved Indonesian maid
existing provisions in manual labour, operation of motor ve- recruitment set at
to all workers hicles, supervising of manual labour, as RM7,800, Dewan
well as domestic workers, irrespective of
BY AHMAD NAQIB IDRIS the amount of monthly wages. Rakyat told
theedgemarkets.com
“With this extension, any of the exist- Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The ing provisions of Act 265 involving the
Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR) salary limits of employees should be re- KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The
has tabled the Employment (Amendment) pealed, namely Sections 44A, 69B, 69C, cost of bringing in Indonesian domes-
Bill 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat, which in- 69E and 81G. tic workers is set at RM7,800 with
cludes the extension of the Employment RM6,000 on the part of Malaysia and
Act (Act 265) to include all employees “Follow-up amendments must be made RM1,800 on the Indonesian side, the
regardless of salary limits, subject to cer- to the First Schedule of Act 265 through Dewan Rakyat was told on Wednesday
tain conditions. an order in accordance with the powers of (March 23).
the MOHR under Subsection 2(2) of Act
In a statement, the ministry said Act 265 to enable all workers in the country to Deputy Human Resources Minister
receive the minimum benefits and protec- Datuk Awang Hashim said the cost was
tions prescribed under Act 265,” it said. set in the previous Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between Ma-
MOHR said it has prepared a draft laysia and Indonesia.
order to amend the First Schedule and
assured that the order will be enforced “The memorandum has set the cost
simultaneously on the effective date of the which is RM7,800, if there are charges
Employment (Amendment) Bill 2021 on or fees in excess as stipulated, you can
a date to be determined later. make a report to the Department of
Labour,” he said.
LTAT confirms the incorporation of KWAP in 2007, the
it returned powers, functions, activities, assets and He was replying to P Kasthuriraani
government liabilities of the PensionTrust Fund have (PH-Batu Kawan) who had wanted to
been vested with KWAP,” it said. know the costs paid by the applicants to
contributions to the Indonesian domestic recruitment
KWAP, to refer to “In view of the AG’s (Auditor Gener- agents before the Covid-19 outbreak
MOF for future al) findings that both KWAP and Con- and the number of agencies involved
solidated Funds are government entities in the recruitment of migrant workers
contributions under the purview of the Ministry of Fi- from Bangladesh.
nance (MOF), LTAT has sought guid-
BY AHMAD NAQIB IDRIS ance from the MOF with regard to any On the recruitment of migrant work-
theedgemarkets.com future payment of government contri- ers from Bangladesh, Awang said the
butions,” added LTAT. Cabinet meeting on Dec 10, 2021 had
KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Lem- agreed that it would be made through
bagaTabung AngkatanTentera (LTAT) The AG’s report, which was released 275 Bangladeshi employment agencies.
said it has returned all government con- onTuesday (March 22), said that an au-
tributions, including RM695.05 million dit review found that LTAT had not re- To prevent corruption and exploita-
for the years 2018 to 2020, to Retirement turned contributions to the Consolidated tion of migrant workers, he said that
Fund Inc (KWAP) rather than the Con- Fund, but returned it to KWAP instead. among the measures taken was through
solidated Fund. an MoU on the employment of foreign
The report said the funds should have workers with the source country.
Its statement was made in response been returned to the Consolidated Fund
to the findings of the Auditor General’s as stated in Paragraph 9(3)(c) Act 101. “Only private employment agencies
Report 2021, which stated that LTAT registered under the Private Employ-
had not returned government contribu- The effect of LTAT’s failure to re- ment Agencies Act 1981 [Act 246] are
tions from 2018 to 2020 to the Consol- turn the contributions to the Consoli- allowed to assist employers in managing
idated Fund. dated Fund had resulted in a RM695.05 all matters relating to placement of for-
million decrease in the federal govern- eign workers in the country,” he said.
“Since LTAT’s inception in 1973, all ment’s revenue from 2018 to 2020, said
government contributions have always the report.
been returned to KumpulanWang Aman-
ah Pencen (Pension Trust Fund). With

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PUTRAJAYA (March 23): The Court of June 22 decision garding equality that bars gender discrimina-
Appeal onWednesday fixed June 22 to de- for Govt appeal tion cannot be applied to citizenship issues.
liver its verdict over the Home Ministry, against citizenship
National Registration Department (NRD) The senior federal counsel referred to
and the Government’s appeal over a land- for overseas- a Parliament Hansard quoting the then
mark High Court decision last year that born children of de-facto Law Minister,Tan Sri RaisYatim,
allowed citizenship to be granted to chil- Malaysian mums about this.
dren born overseas to Malaysian mothers
with foreign spouses. with foreign He further said that there are four is-
spouses sues requiring additional approval from the
The three-member bench led by Justice Conference of Rulers besides the go-ahead
Datuk Wira Kamaludin Md Said delayed BY HAFIZ YATIM from Parliament — and these concern the
delivering its decision onWednesday after- theedgemarkets.com exclusive rights of the Malays, the sover-
noon, after hearing submissions to appeals eignty of the Malay Rulers, citizenship is-
by the Government in relation to the citi- Constitution were clear in putting father sue and also the national language, namely
zenship case, while also hearing the appeal only in the Federal Constitution, and the Bahasa Melayu.
of a Malaysian mother seeking citizenship amendment made to Article 8 in 2001 re-
for her underage child. “This follows the May 13, 1969 racial
riots and is considered part of the social
The other two members were Justic- contract that besides requiring Parliament
es Datuk Azizah Nawawi and Datuk ES approval, the go-ahead from the Conference
Nantha Balan. of Rulers is required,” he said.

Senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin As such, Liew told the appellate bench
representing the NRD, Ministry and gov- that High Court judge Justice Datuk Akhtar
ernment said the High Court judge had Tahir, who made the decision had, had in
erred in deciding that Article 8 of the Fed- effect re-written the Constitution and actu-
eral Constitution, which outlawed gender ally changed the government’s policy. Liew
discrimination, also applied to citizenship argued that the court cannot do this.
sought by Malaysian mothers whose chil-
dren are born overseas. “The word ‘father’ in the Constitution
is not meant to include ‘mother’. It was not
Prior to the landmark High Court de- considered discriminatory when the Consti-
cision last year, overseas children born to tution was drafted in 1959,” he said, adding
Malaysian fathers were allowed to apply for this is entrenched and there was no need
Malaysian citizenship, but this did not apply to comply.
to Malaysian mothers. Click here to read the full story

Liew explained that the framers of the

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): The Beng Hock’s tor-General of Police on Sept 3, 2021.
parents of the late Teoh Beng Hock have parents file According to the applicants, the in-
filed a legal action over the Royal Malay- legal action over
sian Police’s (PDRM) alleged failure to incomplete probe vestigation papers had been repeatedly
complete the investigation into their son’s into son’s death returned to the first, second and third
death almost 13 years ago. respondents by the Attorney-General’s
Bernama Chambers for further investigation.
Teoh Leong Hwee, 74, and his wife,
Teng Shuw Hoi, 69, filed a leave appli- the Federal Constitution, in addition to Beng Hock was found sprawled on the
cation for a judicial review at the High applying for a mandamus order for the first fifth floor landing of Plaza Masalam in
Court, here, on Jan 4 through Messrs respondent (Inspector General of Police) Shah Alam on the morning of July 16,
Karpal Singh & Co by naming the In- to complete the investigation into Beng 2009, after giving a statement at the Ma-
spector-General of Police, the Criminal Hock’s death within a month’s time from laysian Anti-Corruption Commission of-
Investigation Department director, PDRM the date the verdict is delivered. fice located on the 14th floor of the build-
and the Malaysian government as the first ing.
to fourth respondents. The application was filed on the
grounds that although three special task He was the political secretary to the
The court has fixed June 16 to hear the forces were set up to investigate the cause then Selangor State Executive Council-
application before Judge Datuk Noorin of their son’s death, the investigation was lor Ean Yong Hian Wah, who is also Seri
Badaruddin. found to be incomplete, based on a letter Kembangan assemblyman.
from the second respondent dated Sept
In the application, Beng Hock’s parents 21, 2021, which stated that the Attor- On Jan 5, 2011, the Shah Alam Coro-
are seeking a declaration that the failure of ney-General’s Chambers had returned ner’s Court ruled that Beng Hock’s death
the first, second and third respondents to the investigation papers to the Inspec- in 2009 was not due to suicide or murder
complete the investigation into the death or third party involvement, while the Royal
of their son within a reasonable time pe- Commission of Inquiry into Beng Hock’s
riod had violated Section 20 (3) of the death on July 21, 2011, established that
Police Act 1967. he had committed suicide.

They also seek a declaration that the On Sept 5, 2014, the Court of Appeal
police had committed negligence and at- overturned the open verdict on the death
tempted to deny the applicants’ constitu- of Beng Hock and ruled that the death re-
tional rights as stated under Article 8 of sulted from an unlawful act by a person
or persons unknown.

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LONDON/DUBAI (March 23): Russia Russian stock “The very limited reopening will make
will restart trading in some local equities, trading to resume little difference to foreigners who cannot
ending the nation’s record long shutdown sell and remain trapped, assuming they
that was meant to shield domestic investors after record have not already marked down local hold-
from the impact of tough sanctions over its market shutdown ings to zero,” said Hasnain Malik, a strat-
invasion of Ukraine. egist at Tellimer in Dubai.
BY SAGARIKA JAISINGHANI
The Moscow Exchange will resume & FARAH ELBAHRAWY Foreign investors
trading in 33 Russian equities, including Bloomberg Foreign holdings of Russian stocks stood
some of the biggest companies such as at US$86 billion at the end of last year,
Gazprom PJSC and Sberbank PJSC, on BLOOMBERG according to data from the Moscow Ex-
March 24 between 9.50am and 2pm local change.
time, the Bank of Russia said in a state- ed and global index providers removed the
ment. A ban on short selling these shares nation’s shares from their indexes. “With foreigners from unfriendly geog-
will apply, it said, adding to an earlier re- raphies at bay, the pain will be less severe,”
striction on foreigners exiting local equi- To shield the economy and markets said Luis Saenz, head of international dis-
ties. Moscow stock trading has been halted from steep losses, the Bank of Russia earlier tribution at Sinara in London.
from Feb 28, marking the longest closure banned brokers from selling securities held
in the country’s modern history. by foreigners on the Moscow Exchange. The Moscow Exchange will resume
trading in 33 stocks out of 50 listed in
Even with the ban on short selling, lo- the benchmark index. Yandex NV, TCS
cal traders and strategists are bracing for Group Holding plc, Ozon Holdings plc
a sell-off, as international sanctions hit were among the stocks that will not be
everything from Russia’s ability to access resuming their trading on Thursday.
foreign reserves to the SWIFT bank-mes-
saging system. The MOEX Russia Index Earlier this month, Russia said it
slumped as much as 45%, the most on re- planned to deploy up to US$10 billion
cord, on the day the invasion started.The from its sovereign wealth fund to buy up
ruble is among the world’s worst perform- battered local stocks.This compares with
ers this year, although it has edged higher the US$650 billion market capitalisation
over the past week as peace negotiations of the companies on the MOEX Index
continued between Russia and Ukraine. before the rout began on Feb 21.

In a sign of what may happen when local On Monday, the nation’s local bonds
stocks trading reopens, European compa- slumped as trading resumed for the first
nies with business exposure to the country time in three weeks.At the same time, bond
have lost more than US$100 billion in mar- holder concerns eased after Russia avoided
ket value since the war risks surged, Rus- triggering the first foreign default in more
sian companies’ global depositary receipts than 100 years after US$117 million of
slumped more than 95% before being halt- interest payments started to reach inter-
national investors on Friday.

JAKARTA (March 23): Russian President Putin gets an “important member” of the G20.
Vladimir Putin plans to attend the next Chinese backing The G20 is a group that needs to find
G20 summit in Indonesia later this year
and received valuable backing from Bei- to stay in G20 answers to critical issues, such as econom-
jing on Wednesday in a pushback to sug- ic recovery from the Covid-19 pandem-
gestions by some members that Russia BY ANGIE TEO & STANLEY WIDIANTO ic, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman
could be barred from the group. Reuters Wang Wenbin said.

The United States and its Western al- he wants to,” Ambassador Lyudmila Vo- “No member has the right to remove
lies are assessing whether Russia should robieva told a news conference. another country as a member. The G20
remain within the Group of Twenty ma- should implement real multilateralism,
jor economies following its invasion of Asked about suggestions Russia could strengthen unity and cooperation,” he
Ukraine, sources involved in the discus- be kicked out of the G20, she said it was told a news briefing.
sions told Reuters. a forum to discuss economic issues and Click here to read the full story
not a crisis like Ukraine. Read also:
But any move to exclude Russia would Russia’s Chubais resigns as Putin’s special
probably be vetoed by others in the group, “Of course expulsion of Russia from representative due to war — sources
raising the prospect of some countries in- this kind of forum will not help these eco- Click here
stead skipping G20 meetings, the sourc- nomic problems to be resolved. On the Ukraine’s central bank asks SWIFT
es said. contrary, without Russia it would be dif- to disconnect Russia’s central bank
ficult to do so.” Click here
Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia,
which currently holds the rotating G20 China,which has not condemned Russia’s
chair, said Putin intended to travel to the invasion and criticisedWestern sanctions, de-
Indonesian resort island of Bali for the fended Moscow onWednesday,calling Russia
G20 summit in November.

“It will depend on many, many things,
including the Covid situation, which is
getting better. So far, his intention is...

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WASHINGTON (March 23): President Biden heads to on Russia, Biden will work with US allies to
Joe Biden departed for Brussels onWednes- Europe with tighten existing sanctions to “crack down
day for emergency talks with European on evasion and to ensure robust enforce-
leaders about the war in Ukraine, carry- more sanctions ment,” Sullivan said.
ing with him plans for more sanctions that for Russia
sources said include members of the Rus- In recent days, Russia andWestern gov-
sian Parliament. BY NATALIA ZINETS, NATALIE THOMAS ernments have traded accusations over the
& VITALII HNIDIY possibility of a chemical weapons attack
Biden’s trip includes talks in Brussels in Ukraine without producing evidence to
with NATO and European leaders and a theedgemarkets.com back their concerns.
visit toWarsaw for consultations with Pol-
ish President Andrzej Duda. we will sanction and how many we will Biden has vowed not to engage in di-
sanction.” rect conflict with Russia but has pledged
Western leaders have grown increas- the United States will defend all NATO
ingly concerned that Russian President “We will have additional sanctions meas- territory. He has ordered more US troops
Vladimir Putin will use chemical weapons ures to announce that will rolled out in to NATO’s eastern flank to reassure edgy
or otherwise escalate tactics four weeks conjunction with our allies on Thursday allies.
into an invasion where his troops have when the president has the opportunity to
failed to capture a single major Ukrain- speak with them,” the official said. During his visit to Poland, a NATO
ian city. member, Biden will visit US troops and
On Thursday, Biden will attend an meet with experts involved in the human-
Leaving the White House on Wednes- emergency NATO summit, meet with G7 itarian response to helping hundreds of
day, Biden said Russia’s use of chemical leaders and address the 27 leaders of the thousands of Ukrainians who have fled
weapons in Ukraine is a risk. European Union at a session of the Euro- their country and those who remain.
pean Council, White House national se- Read also:
“I think it’s a real threat,” he said. curity adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters China-Europe rail lines become supply
Biden and his team have been develop- on Tuesday. chain’s latest problem Click here
ing plans to impose sanctions on members
of the Duma, Russia’s parliament, in re- He said Biden will coordinate on the War is raging, but Russia is still paying
taliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, next phase of military assistance to Ukraine. Ukraine for gas flows Click here
according to two sources familiar with the
situation.The sanctions are expected to be In addition to imposing fresh sanctions
announced on Thursday.
A White House spokesperson said “no
final decisions have been made about who

NEW DELHI (March 23): China’s For- Chinese Foreign refers to its actions as a “special military op-
eign Minister will visit New Delhi for talks Minister to make eration”, counts both China and India as
on Friday, an Indian official said, though highest-level visit friendly powers, having cultivated diplomatic
neither side has formally announced what and economic ties since the ColdWar era.
would be the highest-level visit since bor- to India since
der clashes soured relations two years ago. 2020 clash China and India fought a brief but
bloody border war in 1962. Relations be-
Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended BY KRISHNA N DAS came fraught again in June 2020, when
a conference of the Organization of Is- Reuters 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were
lamic Cooperation in Pakistan, a close killed during a high-altitude clash in a dis-
China ally, this week and is also set to sides to meet each other half way and puted section of the western Himalayas.
visit Nepal on Friday as part of a tour properly handle the differences.”
of South Asia. India has restricted many Chinese firms
Neither China nor India has condemned from operating in the country since then.
The Indian government source, who Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia, which
requested anonymity, said Wang was ex- Wang said at an annual news briefing in
pected to meet Indian Foreign Minister Beijing this month that Asia’s two largest
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National nations should help each other accomplish
Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and while the goals, instead of “draining each others’
agenda was unclear, talks on the Ukraine energies”.
conflict were expected.
Without naming anyone, he said that
India’s Foreign Ministry declined to “some forces” had tried to create conflict
comment. A Chinese Foreign Ministry and division between the two countries.
spokesperson said at a daily news brief-
ing on Wednesday that he had no infor- Aside from the tensions in the Himala-
mation to offer. yas, India’s mistrust of China stems from
Beijing’s support of old foe Pakistan, the
In a quarterly booklet on Indo-Chinese competition for influence in Nepal, and
ties that the Chinese ambassador to In- concern over China’s economic clout in
dia shared on Twitter on Wednesday, Sun Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Weidong said Beijing was keen to reset
relations with New Delhi. In recent weeks, India has received a
flurry of visits and phone calls from senior
“China has shown the willingness and officials from Australia, Britain, Japan and
taken actions to improve the bilateral re- the United States, while China has also
lations,” he wrote. “And, it needs both stepped up diplomatic activity to set out
its position over the conflict in Ukraine.

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(March 23): Rishi Sunak announced a Sunak cuts the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic,
6-billion pound (US$7.9 billion) tax cut UK taxes by £6 and now face further upward pressure as
for workers and signaled a future cut in billion to fend off a result of the war in Ukraine. Before the
income tax as he sought to shield ordinary inflation surge statement, he promised to would deliver
Britons from a squeeze on living standards “security for working families as we help
that’s been worsened by the war in Ukraine. BY DAVID GOODMAN with the cost of living.”
Bloomberg
“My tax plan delivers the biggest net The forecasts, from the Office of Budget
cut to personal taxes in over a quarter of a REUTERS Responsibility, showed growth will be 1.8%
century,” Sunak told the House of Com- in 2023 and 2.1% in 2024, from estimates
mons on Wednesday as he delivered his • Promised to cut taxes for business in- of 2.1% and 1.3% in October. Inflation will
Spring Statement. vestment in the fall average 7.4% this year, Sunak said. Debt
Sunak is trying to balance his oft-stated interest costs are forecast to hit a record
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said 83 billion pounds this fiscal year, he said.
the conflict in Ukraine poses a risk to the desire to bring order to the public financ-
economic recovery, causing UK inflation es with pledges to begin cutting taxes and The fiscal update comes on the day Brit-
to soar and growth to slow in 2022. He increasing demands from across the po- ain’s inflation rate surged to a new 30-year
downgraded official forecasts for expected litical spectrum to help ordinary Britons high of 6.2%, staying on an upward trajec-
growth this year to 3.8%, from a previous struggling to cope with surging inflation. tory that some economists predict could see
estimate of 6%. the measure hit double digits later this year.
The chancellor faces calls to protect The surge in prices has exceeded the fore-
Painful spike households and firms from energy and casts of the Bank of England andTreasury,
To address rising costs, Sunak: food bills, which were already soaring in fanning concerns that shortages of workers
• Increased the threshold at which Brit- following the end of the pandemic, along
with the war in Ukraine, will lead to infla-
ons start paying National Insurance, a tion spiraling further upward.
payroll tax, by 3,000 pounds — rather
than the planned 300 pounds. He said The inflation figures are also raising
the tax cut would help 30 million people speculation that the Bank of England will
• Said he would cut the basic rate of in- drive up interest rates more in the coming
come tax to 19% from 20% by 2024, months, further tightening budgets for mil-
A reduction worth 5 billion pounds a lions of households. Money markets are
year, and the first reduction in 16 years betting the key rate, now at 0.75%, will
• Pledged to cut fuel duty by 5 pence a hit 2% by the end of this year.
liter until March 2023 — the biggest Read also:
ever cut in the levy UK sees inflation hitting highest since
• Scrapped sales tax on domestic energy Falklands War in 1982 Click here
efficiency measures such as insulation,
solar panels and heat pumps Japan eyes fresh spending package to
• Doubled to 1 billion pounds a program cushion blow from fuel spike Click here
of grants for struggling Britons
• Raised the employment allowance to
5,000 pounds, representing a tax cut
for half a million small businesses

NEWYORK/LONDON (March 23): Oil Oil extends gains imports, though some member states in-
pushed higher after a government report as US stockpiles cluding Germany have opposed such a
showed US crude inventories dropped fall, vital terminal move. Many buyers, however, are already
while storm damage to a vital Black Sea shunning the nation’s oil, withTotalEner-
export terminal compounded supply risks. shut gies SE saying it will stop purchases by the
end of the year, while Japanese refiner Ene-
WestTexas Intermediate (WTI) futures BY JULIA FANZERES & RAKTEEM KATAKEY os Holdings Inc will halt new shipments.
topped US$114 a barrel on Wednesday. Bloomberg
Markets rallied on news that a major Black The Caspian Pipeline Consortium sea
Sea oil export terminal halted loadings to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ahead of terminal said on its website that two out of
and faced weeks of disruption. Exports the meetings,White House National Secu- three moorings sustained significant dam-
could be curtailed by one million barrels a rity Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US age in recent bad weather. Russia, which
day, further depriving the European mar- and its allies will impose further sanctions sends some crude through the terminal,
ket. Further bullish signals came as US on Moscow. said onTuesday that exports could be cur-
crude stockpiles fell 2.51 million barrels tailed by one million barrels a day, but the
last week, according to an Energy Informa- With the conflict dragging on, the EU is disruption could be bigger if all shipments
tion Administration report onWednesday. weighing a possible ban on Russian crude through the terminal were stopped. Rus-
sian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander
Meanwhile, European Union and Novak said the repairs could take up to
North Atlantic Treaty Organization two months.
(NATO) leaders are set to gather in Brus-
sels onThursday to beef up their response CONTINUES ON PAGE 20

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HONG KONG (March 23): Tencent REUTERS government’s efforts, saying it was better
Holdings Ltd has pledged to embrace Chi- in the long run to curb the excesses of the
na’s new paradigm of stricter government Tencent declares past that have led to disorderly competi-
oversight after reporting its slowest growth ‘reckless’ era for tion in areas like ride-hailing, e-commerce,
on record, declaring the end of an era that tech is over as and food delivery. Alibaba and Meituan
nurtured some of the world’s largest and were two of the more prominent compa-
most profitable corporations. growth tanks nies fined for monopolistic practices over
the past year.
Co-founder Pony Ma and president BY ZHEPING HUANG
Martin Lau led executives in endorsing Bei- Bloomberg “For several years, industry participants
jing’s year-long crackdown on everything have overemphasised zero-sum competition,
from gaming to online commerce. They curbs on playtime for minors have sapped aggressive marketing, reckless expansion,
pointed out it mirrored a backlash against Tencent’s biggest division. short-term growth, and corporate benefits,
the enormous power of internet giants glob- overlooking the most important elements of
ally and argued more regulation will lead Revenue rose just 8% to 144.2 billion sustainable growth,” Lau said. “As a result,
to healthier growth in the long run. yuan (US$22.6 billion) in the quarter ver- the industry’s growth has become frothy and
sus the 145.3 billion yuan average forecast unhealthy.”
“We are proactively embracing changes — the first time that quarterly sales grew
to better align ourselves with the new in- by single digits. Net income rose to 95 bil- Investors are recalibrating their approach
dustry paradigm,” Lau said on a conference lion yuan, surpassing the 31.5 billion yuan to the market after Xi Jinping and his deputy
call after the results. “We have a long term projected, but only because of a big one- Liu He pledged to support the economy and
oriented corporate culture that focuses on time gain.Yet non-IFRS profit dropped a markets and finish the clampdown on the
user value, social responsibility, technology worse-than-feared 25%, and gross margins tech sector “as soon as possible” — triggering
innovations, and compliance, the key ele- narrowed under an international expansion. a historic rally in Chinese stocks last week.
ments for sustainable and healthy growth.”
Shares in Naspers Ltd, which as Ten- But for Tencent, several unresolved is-
The company also waved aside specu- cent’s biggest external shareholder is re- sues remain.
lation it will embark on a share buy-back garded as a proxy for the company, fell 6%.
programme like rival Alibaba Group Hold- “Macro and regulatory headwinds
ing Ltd announced this week, saying it will Tencent has lost more than US$470 bil- aside,Tencent is having its own challeng-
focus instead on core businesses like in- lion from its peak in 2021, even though it es,” said ShawnYang, analyst at Blue Lotus
ternational games, cloud services, and its has largely escaped Beijing’s direct scrutiny. Capital Advisors. “It has yet to create its
WeChat messaging service, developing new The company has studiously endorsed the next gaming hits, and advertising sales were
games for its pipeline when the regulatory affected by ByteDance’s Douyin a lot.”
environment stabilises later in 2022.
Regulators were considering requiring
Tencent joins Alibaba and other rivals Tencent to fold itsWeChat Pay service into
in recognising a new phase of cautious ex- a newly established financial holding com-
pansion, more than a year after the start of pany, Bloomberg reported last week, part of
a bruising crackdown that eventually en- an overhaul of its giant fintech arm that
gulfed every internet sphere from e-com- could undermine the appeal of its entire
merce to online gaming and education. social media business. OnWednesday, Lau
Tencent followed Alibaba in reporting its said the company remains in talks with reg-
slowest pace of quarterly growth on re- ulators on restructuring requirements, add-
cord as online advertising sales missed ana- ingTencent will comply with all regulations.
lysts’ projections after they declined for the Read also: China tech stocks jump as share
first time on record. And domestic gaming buy-backs by Xiaomi, Alibaba lift senti-
revenue grew a mere 1% — reflecting a ment Click here
months-long licensing halt that along with

FROM PAGE 19 With many buyers avoiding Russian the war in Europe coincides with re-
crude, the country’s flagship Urals grade silient demand from people keen to
“Prices are ticking higher with focus on has plunged, while some April-loading ship- travel after the virus, according to
tomorrow’s EU and NATO meeting, not ments were cancelled.That is adding to the veteran commodities trader Doug
least considering the potential bullish mar- signs of increased pressure on the nation’s King.
ket impact should the EU decide to embar- oil market. • Russia will demand that “unfriend-
go oil and fuel products from Russia,” said ly” countries pay for natural gas in
Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy Nevertheless, some Russian flows are still rubles, PresidentVladimir Putin said
at Saxo Bank A/S.The CPC disruption “is finding takers. India’s refiners have grabbed onWednesday, causing European fu-
the last thing the market needs right now”. multiple cargoes of Urals crude this month, tures to jump. Click here to read
while China’s private processors are thought • Increasingly tight balance of supply
Prices to be targeting favoured grades from the and demand will mean oil prices are
• WTI for May delivery rose US$4.82 east of Russia. going to keep going up, according to
Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading
to US$114.09 a barrel at 10.32am in Related news and commentary at Trafigura.
NewYork. • Brent oil will likely hit US$150 a bar-
• Brent for the May settlement increased
US$5.47 to US$120.95 a barrel. rel this year as the supply shock from

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Nickel’s wild Toshiba’s
moves continue US$4b elevator
as LME futures unit attracted
interest from
jump by 15%
limit Midea, Otis
— sources
BY MARK BURTON, JACK FARCHY Wednesday’s surge extends a period of
& ALFRED CANG unprecedented turmoil in the nickel mar- BY MANUEL BAIGORRI & RUTH DAVID
Bloomberg ket, after LME prices soared 250% over two Bloomberg
trading sessions in early March, touching a
(March 23): Nickel surged by the 15% dai- record US$101,365 a ton during a short BLOOMBERG
ly limit on the London Metal Exchange, squeeze focused on China’sTsingshan Hold-
adding to a string of sharp price moves as ing Group Co.The exchange intervened to (March 23):A potential sale ofToshi-
the market attempts to reset following a suspend trading for a week and cancel bil- ba Corp’s elevator business has attract-
massive short squeeze. lions of dollars of trades.The market plunged ed preliminary interest from industry
when it reopened, and is now down about players including Chinese conglom-
Nickel futures were locked limit-up at 70% from the record high, but up more than erate Midea Group Co and US giant
US$32,380 a ton by early afternoon in Lon- 30% from the start of the month. Otis Worldwide Corp, according to
don, in the first day of gains since the mar- people familiar with the matter.
ket reopened on March 16 with new price Other base metals also jumped on the
restrictions aimed at preventing a repeat of LME, with zinc surging as much as 5.1% to Kone Oyj, which owns 19.9% of
this month’s chaos. Prices plunged by the the highest since March 9, while aluminum Toshiba’s elevator unit, is interested in
limits with very little volume in the first four gained 2.4%.Trading is becoming increas- acquiring the rest of the operation, the
days of trading, before reaching a level on ingly illiquid on the LME, with many inves- people said.TK Elevator GmbH, the
Tuesday where buyers finally returned to tors looking to liquidate their positions in the German company owned by buyout
the market. wake of the metal’s unprecedented volatility. firms Advent International and Cin-
Click here to read the full story ven, would also be a suitor ifToshiba
Futures in Shanghai also jumped when goes ahead with a sale, according to
trading resumed for the evening session, the people, who asked not to be iden-
rising as much as 11%. tified because the matter is private.

SHANGHAI (March 23): Geely Auto- China’s Geely Toshiba’s elevator business could
mobile Holdings Ltd expects rising raw Automobile fetch about US$4 billion (about
material prices and global chip shortag- flags costs, chip RM16.89 billion) in a sale, the peo-
es to pressure its profitability and sales shortage after ple said. Considerations are in an early
this year, the Chinese company said on 12% drop in 2021 stage andToshiba hadn’t kicked off any
Wednesday, after posting a 12% fall in formal sale process, they said. Share-
2021 profit. profit holders will vote onThursday (March
24) onToshiba’s plan to split into two
The world’s highest-profile Chinese au- BY BRENDA GOH companies and sell non-core assets,
tomaker, thanks to its investments in Vol- Reuters including the elevator operations.
vo Cars and Daimler AG , posted 2021
profit of 4.85 billion yuan ($761.64 mil- payment of a final dividend of HK$0.21 The Japanese conglomerate and
lion), compared with 5.53 billion yuan in per ordinary share. Kone have been collaborating in are-
the previous year. Revenue rose 10% to as including the supply and procure-
101.6 billion yuan. China’s auto sales grew last year, helped ment of parts since 1998.The partner-
by surging sales of new energy vehicles, ship could give the Finnish company
“The intensified competition in Chi- but industry executives have warned about an edge over other potential rivals, the
na, the rise in raw material prices, other the impact of a global shortage of semi- people said.
pandemic-related disruptions and global conductors and rising raw material prices,
shortages of chip supply have showed no which have been exacerbated by supply Shares inToshiba rose as much as
signs of subsiding and should continue to chain disruptions following Russia’s in- 3% and touched a three-week high
put pressure on the sales performance and vasion of Ukraine. in earlyWednesday trading inTokyo.
profitability of the Group in 2022,” Geely
Automobile said in a statement. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a
“special operation”.
Geely Automobile is targeting to sell
24% more vehicles this year, at 1.65 mil-
lion vehicles, saying it would look to fur-
ther expand its export sales to new markets
in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and
western Europe.

The company also recommended

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BANGKOK (March 23):Thailand will bar Thailand crisis, the BOT will not be able to provide
the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of bans use of assistance to various financial institutions in
payments for goods and services, saying the cryptocurrencies forms other than the baht, it said.
wider use of digital assets threatens the na- as a method of
tion’s financial system and economy. payment CBDC pilot
Thai regulators recognise the benefits of
Business operators — including crypto BY SUTTINEE YUVEJWATTANA technologies such as blockchain and was
exchanges — must not provide such pay- & THOMAS KUTTY ABRAHAM one of the first countries in the world to en-
ment services, and are barred from acting act a law to support digital assets business,
in a manner that promotes the use of digital Bloomberg the SEC said.The BOT is on course to be-
assets to pay for goods or services, the Se- gin a pilot project for its planned retail digital
curities and Exchange Commission (SEC) limit for banks in fintech businesses. The currency in the fourth quarter.
said in a statement onWednesday. However, rules may become effective by the middle
the new regulation will not affect trading or of this year after the central bank incorpo- BOT governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarue-
investments in digital assets, the agency said. rates feedback from various stakeholders, put has touted the central bank digital cur-
BOT said. rency (CBDC) as more effective in achiev-
While the restrictions on the use of digital ing financial inclusion inThailand without
currencies for transactions will be effective The development of any unit of pricing imperiling the financial system stability.The
starting April 1, companies in Southeast other than the Thai baht will increase the monetary authority’s experiment with a
Asia’s second-largest economy will have cost of economic activities and reduce the wholesale CBDC had already helped lower
until the end of April to comply with the efficiency of monetary policy transmission, cross-border transaction costs and increase
new rules, the regulator said. It said the the regulator said. In the event of a liquidity efficiency, he said in December.
curbs on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin
for commercial transactions are in line with Under the new rules, digital-asset service
regulations in Europe, the UK, South Ko- providers are required to halt advertising,
rea, and Malaysia. soliciting or establishing a system to facili-
tate payment of goods and services via dig-
Thailand’s crackdown on digital assets ital wallets. Business operators must warn
comes as individuals — especially young clients against the use of digital assets for
investors — boost their crypto trading in payments and may cancel their accounts if
search of better returns amid the country’s they are found breaching the rules, it said.
economic slowdown.The central bank on
Wednesday proposed to cap investment by The value of digital assets held byThais
commercial banks in digital assets to 3% had soared to 114.5 billion baht (US$3.4
of their capital while advising them against billion) from 9.6 billion baht a couple of
making such investments directly. years ago, the government said in January.
The average daily turnover has jumped to
The cap will help shield the confidence 4.8 billion baht from 240 million baht, with
of depositors in lenders and the financial the number of active trading accounts swell-
system, Bank of Thailand (BOT) assistant ing to 1.98 million from 170,000 before the
governor Roong Mallikamas said, adding pandemic.
the central bank will lift a 3% investment

(March 23): European Central Bank (ECB) Lagarde says As ofTuesday, the combined trading vol-
president Christine Lagarde said there are crypto being used ume of rouble-denominated Bitcoin and the
signs that some Russians are attempting to to evade Russian dollar-pegged USDT stablecoin was less
bypass sanctions over the war in Ukraine by than US$9 million (about RM37.98 mil-
converting roubles into cryptocurrencies and sanctions lion) across crypto exchanges, according to
stablecoins. data firm Kaiko.That’s a fraction of Bitcoin’s
BY CAROLYNN LOOK global volume, which averages US$20 billion
“When you see the volumes of roubles Bloomberg to US$40 billion.
into stable, into cryptos, at the moment it
is the highest level that we have seen since circumvent those sanctions. ECB executive board member Fabio Pan-
maybe 2021,” Lagarde told a virtual event As of last week, there was no evidence etta warned that crypto could represent a
onTuesday (March 22). “major loophole” at the heart of the finan-
of Russia or PresidentVladimir Putin using cial system.
Crypto assets “are certainly being used, as cryptocurrencies to evade curbs, according
we speak, as a way to try to circumvent the to Jonathan Levin, a co-founder of block- “The risk of misuse of crypto assets to
sanctions that have been decided by many chain-analytics firm Chainalysis. circumvent the sanctions against Russia
countries around the world against Russia”, ‘Major loophole’ is an important reminder that these mar-
she said. He and several industry experts told the US kets must be required to comply with the
Senate Banking Committee that the crypto strictest standards, including as regards
Measures announced by the US and Eu- market is too small to facilitate any large-scale know-your-customer, anti-money launder-
ropean Union aim to limit Russia’s ability to sanction evasion by Russians. ing and disclosure requirements,” he said
do business in dollars and other international on Tuesday.
currencies.They include penalties on major Read also: Fed’s Powell says digital dol-
banks and restrictions on the country’s elite. lar must ensure privacy, identification
Click here
That’s led to speculation that crypto
— which is touted as an alternative to tra-
ditional financial systems — could serve
as a tool wealthy Russians might use to

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NEW DELHI (March 23): India has fro- India mothballs dian stocks have been rattled by Russia’s
zen plans to allow local firms to list over- plan to let local invasion of Ukraine, and the volatility has
seas as it seeks to bolster its own capital firms list overseas delayed IPO plans.
markets, government officials and indus-
try sources said, in a blow to foreign funds BY AFTAB AHMED, ADITI SHAH But the outlook for such listings
and stock exchanges seeking to tap into the & ADITYA KALRA dimmed after digital payments app Paytm,
country’s tech boom. Reuters backed by China’s Alibaba and Ant and
Japan’s Softbank, plunged on its debut in
New Delhi’s decision marks a sudden enthusiastic retail investors and a pandem- November, raising questions about valu-
reversal in policy after officials said late ic-induced flood of easy money pushed ations. Its shares have slumped 75% from
last year that the new rules for overseas prices to record highs, encouraging a slew its issue price.
listings would be announced in February. of Indian tech founders to go local with
their initial public offerings (IPOs). Even before Paytm’s rout, US venture
Three senior government officials with capitalists such as Tiger Global and Se-
direct knowledge of the decision told Reu- More than 60 companies made their quoia Capital had lobbied Prime Minister
ters the plan had been put on hold as In- market debut in India in 2021 and raised a Narendra Modi to allow Indian firms to
dia believes there is enough depth in local total of more than US$13.7 billion, which list abroad to achieve better valuations,
capital markets for firms to raise funds was more than the previous three years Reuters has reported.
and get good valuations. They declined combined. Like other global markets, In-
to be named as the move has not been A second government official said the
made public. overseas listing rules were now in “limbo”
and both the officials cited the stock mar-
India’s Finance Ministry did not re- ket debut of food-delivery giant Zomato,
spond to a request for comment. which clocked a high valuation, as con-
tributing to the change of view.
Indian equity markets have boomed as
When Zomato went public on Mum-
bai’s exchange in July, its offer was 38 times
oversubscribed and its stock jumped 66%.
And Indian cosmetics-to-fashion platform
Nykaa surged 96% on its debut, achieving
a valuation of nearly US$14 billion.

Both have given up much of those gains
in recent months.

Two industry sources briefed by gov-
ernment officials also said they had been
told the plan was on hold, which also
marks a setback for exchanges in New
York and London, which had been vying
for a slice of India’s rapidly growing start-
up economy.
Click here to read the full story

(March 23): Investors of China Evergrande Evergrande cash is small in the context of the broader
Group are still in the dark over just how investors left restructuring, it raises questions over the
US$2.1 billion (about RM8.86 billion) of baffled by US$2.1b reliability of the financial accounts of the
deposits at its property services unit came in seized cash services unit “if the group plans to sell it
to be used as security for pledge guarantees at a good price to achieve maximum re-
and seized by banks. BY REBECCA CHOONG WILKINS covery for creditors”, Chan said.
Bloomberg
In a call with investors late on Tuesday Representatives of Evergrande didn’t
(March 22), the developer’s officials reit- BLOOMBERG immediately respond to a request for com-
erated comments from earlier filings that ment about the call.
they were investigating the matter without
sharing fresh details, according to people Evergrande creditors are keeping a close
who attended and asked not to be iden- eye on the beleaguered developer as it em-
tified. The third-party pledge guarantee barks on a debt restructuring that’s like-
wipes out most of Evergrande Property ly to be among China’s largest and most
Services Group Ltd’s cash holdings. complex.Worries over transparency have
surfaced repeatedly as Chinese develop-
“It’s peculiar because investors expect ers struggle to cope with a credit crunch
that Evergrande’s management should be that’s swept the sector as Beijing clamps
aware of where the cash went rather than down on excessive borrowing.
instead setting up an investigation commit- Read also: Kaisa becomes latest China de-
tee to find out,” said Bloomberg Intelligence veloper to delay earnings results; shares
analyst Andrew Chan. slide Click here

While the 13.4 billion yuan (US$2.1
billion or about RM8.86 billion) in seized

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(March 23): Global bond markets have suf- This is now the The Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis
fered unprecedented losses since peaking last worst drawdown points last week, and Chair Jerome Powell
year, as Central Banks including the Feder- said this week it is prepared to increase them
al Reserve look to tighten policy to combat on record for by a half percentage-point at its next meet-
surging inflation. global fixed ing if needed. His hawkish tone prompted
traders to rapidly ratchet up estimates for
The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, income how aggressively the Fed will tighten mon-
a benchmark for government and corporate etary policy this year, with money markets
debt total returns, has fallen 11% from a BY GREG RITCHIE & FINBARR FLYNN pricing in the equivalent of seven more quar-
high in January 2021.That’s the biggest de- Bloomberg ter-point hikes by the end of 2022.
cline from a peak in data stretching back to
1990, surpassing a 10.8% drawdown dur- ies have been undermined when one adds “The headwinds for fixed income re-
ing the financial crisis in 2008. It equates to duration risk to the equation,” saidWinson main heavy,” said Todd Schubert, head of
a drop in the index market value of about Phoon, head of fixed income research at fixed-income research at Bank of Singapore.
US$2.6 trillion, worse than about US$2 Maybank Securites Pte Ltd. “Investors will need to recalibrate return ex-
trillion in 2008. pectations and be nimble to exploit market
That’s a blow to money managers ac- dislocations.”
While there were signs the brutal selloff customed to years of consistent gains, back-
was easing onWednesday, rising inflationary stopped by loose monetary policy. The The yield on 10-yearTreasuries slipped
pressure around the world is fueling con- slump also poses a particular threat to the two basis points to 2.36% as of 6.28am in
cerns about the ability of the global economy expanding elderly population in many major NewYork on Wednesday, after surging to
to weather any sustained period of higher economies, given retirees are often heavily the highest level since 2019. Spanish and
financing costs. For investors, it means the reliant on fixed-income investments. Italian bonds led the advance in Europe,
allure of holding debt — even safe govern- with their benchmark rates falling three
ment bonds — is diminishing given how basis points.
sensitive valuations are to interest rates, a Click here to read the full story
measure referred to as duration.

“The safe haven attributes of Treasur-

NEWS IN BRIEF

Singapore Feb headline prices rise Temasek-backed Validus acquires Volkswagen plans to open Spanish
4.3%, fastest in nine years Citigroup’s CitiBusiness loan battery plant near Valencia in 2026
portfolio in Singapore BARCELONA (March 23): Volkswagen has
SINGAPORE (March 23): Singapore’s picked a site near Valencia for a planned
February headline prices rose by their fastest KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Temasek- battery cell plant in Spain and will invest
pace in nine years due to higher private backed Singapore fintech startup Validus has €7 billion (US$7.7 billion) in electrifying
transport costs, while core prices eased for entered into an agreement with Citigroup in production in the country provided it gets
the first time since June last year, official data Singapore (Citi) to acquire its CitiBusiness government funds, it said on Wednesday.
showed on Wednesday. Headline inflation loan portfolio in Singapore. In a statement on “The timeline is tight,” the German
rose by 4.3%, exceeding economists’ median Tuesday (March 22), Validus said the move will carmaker said — it aims to begin series
forecast of 4.2%, according to a statement bolster its top line revenue, customer base, production at the 40 gigawatt-hour (GWh)
from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and expand its growing loan book. It added this plant by 2026, meaning construction
(MAS). That is the most it has risen since is the first time a fintech in Southeast Asia is would need to start this year. Spain,
February 2013. The core inflation rate — the acquiring an established bank’s loan portfolio Europe’s largest carmaker after Germany,
central bank’s favoured price measure — and customer base. Validus Co-founder last week launched a bidding process
rose to 2.2% in February on a year-on-year and Executive Chairman Vikas Nahata said for around €3 billion (US$3.3 billion) —
basis, a slight ease from the 2.4% in the the opportunity to acquire the CitiBusiness around half in grants — to promote electric
prior month. The slight ease in core prices loan portfolio is a complementary fit for the vehicle production, with Volkswagen
in February was due to lower inflation for startup’s existing business and will enable it and its Spanish unit SEAT among the
services, food and electricity and gas, the to rapidly expand it’s customer base and loan bidders. Winners will be chosen this year.
MAS statement said. — Reuters book. — by Surin Murugiah Automakers are racing to build battery
plants to power their growing electric
Kioxia plans new flash memory chip venture in Japan with Western Digital fleets, with a focus among European
carmakers on boosting local capacity and
TOKYO (March 23): Kioxia Holdings Corp said on Wednesday (March 23) it plans to jointly reducing dependence on suppliers in Asia,
build with Western Digital Corp a new flash memory fabrication facility in its plant in northern currently responsible for 90% of global
Japan which, a source said, may entail an investment of some ¥1 trillion (US$8.3 billion or about production. Volkswagen has set a target
RM34.86 billion). The construction of the new earthquake-resistant facility at its Kitakami to build six large battery factories across
plant in the Iwate prefecture is scheduled to commence in April 2022 and is expected to be Europe with partners by the end of the
completed in 2023, the Japanese chipmaker said in a statement. It did not give investment decade. — Reuters
details and a company spokesperson declined to comment further. Kioxia and Western Digital
already jointly produce flash memory chips in Japan. Toshiba Corp, which owns a 40.6% stake Read also: Stellantis’ battery plans take shape
in Kioxia, said last month that it continues to look at the possibility of a sale of its stake in Kioxia, in Italy, Canada Click here
and has asked Kioxia to conduct an initial public offering as soon as possible. — Reuters

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(March 23): China’s top steel-making city Chinese steel- Tangshan produced 131.11 million
Tangshan implemented a temporary lock- making hub tonnes of crude steel in 2021, accounting
down onTuesday (March 22) to avoid more Tangshan enters for nearly 13% of China’s total produc-
cases of Covid-19 as infections surged, the lockdown as tion, surpassing the world’s second-biggest
local government said in a statement. Covid-19 cases rise steel maker India, which made 118 million
tonnes of the metal last year.
Residents should not leave their houses BY MIN ZHANG & TWINNIE SIU
or buildings except for tests or emergen- Reuters Prices of steel-making ingredients fell
cies pending further announcement, the during the night session on Tuesday af-
government said. REUTERS ter the lockdown notice was issued, with
benchmark Dalian iron ore and coke both
Tangshan reported 15 confirmed lo- down around 3%, while coking coal prices
cally transmitted cases from March 19 to fell nearly 4%.Those markets were range-
22, and 79 asymptomatic cases, while the bound on Wednesday.
Hebei province, whereTangshan is located, Read also:
had 331 confirmed cases and 2,454 asymp- Hong Kong hopes to ‘resolve’
tomatic cases as of March 22, data from Covid-19 flight ban rule as cases ease
the provincial health authority showed. Click here

The city has halted public transpor- Moderna’s Covid shot bolsters
tation since March 19 and implemented immune response in kids under 6
traffic controls on March 20. Click here

China is maintaining a “dynamic clear-
ance” approach which aims to cut Cov-
id-19 transmission as soon as possible us-
ing stringent measures such as short and
targeted shutdowns and quick testing
schemes where cases are found.

WUZHOU, China (March 23): Chinese One black box also damaged to some extent, are relatively
emergency workers found on Wednesday from crashed complete,” CAAC official Zhu Tao said.
one of two black boxes from a China East- China jet found;
ern Airlines plane that crashed this week with US invited to The black box is being sent to an in-
132 people onboard, and the United States investigation stitute in Beijing for decoding, although
said its investigators had been invited to the how long that takes would depend on the
crash site. BY MARTIN QUIN POLLARD extent of the damage, Zhu said.
Reuters
The black box device recovered is the Weather along the flight path on Mon-
plane’s cockpit voice recorder, based on an termined. Most of the jet appears to have day did not pose any danger to the air-
early assessment, a Civil Aviation Admin- disintegrated upon impact, although some craft and air controllers had communica-
istration of China (CAAC) official told a debris and human remains have been found. tion with it after take-off and prior to its
media briefing, adding that the recording rapid descent, said MaoYanfeng, head of
material appeared to have survived impact “An initial inspection showed that the aircraft investigation at CAAC.
in relatively good shape. exterior of the recorder has been severe-
ly damaged, but the storage units, while USTransportation Secretary Pete Butt-
Flight MU5735 was en route from the igieg saidWednesday that Chinese author-
southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou ities had invited the US National Trans-
on the coast on Monday when the Boeing portation Safety Board to take part in the
737-800 jet suddenly plunged from cruising investigation of the crash, adding that he
altitude at about the time when it should have was very encouraged by the invitation to
started its descent before landing. be on the ground in China.

The cause of the crash has yet to be de- The Chinese authorities have said the
plane, which did not respond to repeated
calls during its descent, met airworthiness
standards before take-off and all three pi-
lots — one more than normally required
on a 737 — were in good health.

The captain, hired in January 2018, had
6,709 hours flying experience, while the
first and second officers had 31,769 hours
and 556 hours, respectively, a China East-
ern official said. “From what we know, the
performance of the three pilots had been
good and their family life relatively harmo-
nious,” the official said.

One co-pilot was an observer to build
up experience, the airline said.

One of two black boxes found from crashed China Eastern jet. Click here to read the full story

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Hedge fund up 3,000% in five years
can’t buy enough China stocks

(March 23): Just as worries from the fallout Bloomberg eventually subside, according to Liao.
of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and surging By sticking to areas supported by the
Covid cases pummel Chinese stocks, a local support down the road.”
hedge fund that jumped almost 30 times His comments were borne out last week, government and steering clear of those in
over the past five years by picking under- the cross-hairs of regulators, Zhengyuan has
valued shares is ready to dive in. when Beijing pledged to stabilize markets, avoided “land mines” from real estate de-
a move that triggered the biggest two-day velopers to internet platforms, which have
Guangdong Zhengyuan Private Fund rally in Chinese stocks since 1998. Policy imposed huge losses on investors in the past
Investment Management Co., which saw makers are now expected to loosen mone- two years.
its assets surge fivefold from the start of last tary policy and ease up on technology and
year to about 14 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) property industry crackdowns. For the same reason, the company has
now, is planning to raise money again next shunned once-hot stocks like liquor makers
month as stock valuations become increas- Liao favors middle- and downstream that mutual funds were heavily exposed to,
ingly attractive, founder and fund manager firms in emerging strategic industries as well as gaming industry shares -- even as
Liao Maolin said. like batteries and new-energy vehicle those could perform well.
parts, he said, declining to name spe-
“With the market having fallen to this cific targets. Such companies now suf- ‘Positive energy’
level, there are so many stocks that I want fering from soaring raw material costs “What we buy is full of positive energy -- we
to buy now but we have no more money” will only benefit when commodity prices walk in the sunshine,” Liao said.“Therefore
as the company is already fully invested, he it’s very unlikely for us to step on policy or
said in a March 8 phone interview from ethical mines.”
Guangzhou, where the company is based.
The firm’s Zhengyuan No. 1 fund, which
While that sounds like a risky bet, Liao manages more than 1 billion yuan, gained
has built a solid track record after his funds more than 160% last year by focusing on
returned a whopping 2,944% since 2017, upstream plays like rare earths, industrial
topping five-year rankings for stock hedge silicon and raw materials for new-energy
funds at Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment vehicles -- areas that benefited from the lo-
& Management Co. cal economy’s rebound from that stage of
the pandemic.
His rationale is simple: all the gloom out
there -- from the war in Ukraine to mon- This year, Liao said he’s focusing instead
etary tightening in the U.S. and economic more on downstream firms, in industries
headwinds at home -- reinforces the possi- including new energy infrastructure such
bility that policy makers will refrain from as charging piles for electric vehicles, da-
pricking more bubbles and move faster to tabase construction, information security
spur encouraged areas like new infrastruc- and environmental protection. He reckons
ture and digital transformation. depressed valuations due to high costs will
translate into profits when their performance
“Everything you see this year could be rebounds. “The surge in commodity prices
bad news and uncertainty, but the govern- clearly can’t be sustained,” he said.
ment will likely take counter-cyclical meas-
ures,” Liao, 37, said. “The negative news When tensions in Ukraine escalated
you see has been mostly priced in and we ahead of Russia’s invasion, Zhengyuan add-
would instead see more unexpected policy ed to its photovoltaic holdings in anticipa-
tion that higher costs of traditional energy
like natural gas would fuel demand for solar
power in Europe, Liao said, declining to
provide details. Such investments returned
about 40% last year, he said.

Zhengyuan targets undervalued stocks
that are expected to show substantial im-
provements within a year to attract other
investors, providing it with opportunities to
realize profits, Liao said. It borrows leverage
less than 30% but doesn’t short.

While stock prices and economic growth
fluctuate, the key for long-term returns at
Zhengyuan is picking the right industries
and companies.

“The structure is really important these
days,” Liao said. “When you get it right,
it feels good every time. When you get it
wrong, it can really hurt.”

T H U R S D A Y M A R C H 2 4 , 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

MARKETS

CPO RM 5,989.00-78.00 OIL US$ 102.314.29 RM/USD 4.1950 RM/SGD 3.0939 RM/AUD 3.0733 RM/GBP 5.5285 RM/EUR 4.6329

Top 20 active stocks

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

CSH ALLIANCE BHD 479.7 0.005 0.17 73.68 124.3

FITTERS DIVERSIFIED BHD 142.0 -0.020 0.15 -52.38 84.3

SAPURA ENERGY BHD 105.9 -0.005 0.03 -40 479.4

XOX BHD 85.0 0.000 0.02 -33.33 97.5

PASUKHAS GROUP BHD 81.3 0.000 0.02 -20 34.3

AT SYSTEMATIZATION BHD 67.9 0.005 0.03 -16.67 144.5

DAGANG NEXCHANGE BHD 66.8 0.000 1.03 35.53 3250.4

FARM FRESH BHD 53.7 -0.020 1.70 0 3158.5

LKL INTERNATIONAL BHD 50.7 0.005 0.080 14.29 64.7 World equity indices

SIAB HOLDINGS BHD 47.8 0.030 0.215 -30.65 102.5

EDUSPEC HOLDINGS BHD 44.0 0.000 0.02 0 45.7 CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE

ATA IMS BHD 43.2 0.040 0.440 -27.87 529.3 (%) (%)
DOW JONES 34,807.46 254.47 0.74 INDONESIA 6,996.12 -4.71 -0.07
WIDAD GROUP BHD 34.6 0.010 0.37 0.00 1,004.7

MY EG SERVICES BHD 32.8 0.000 0.97 -9.35 7164 S&P 500 4,511.61 50.43 1.13 JAPAN 28,040.16 816.05 3.00

NWP HOLDINGS BHD 31.8 -0.010 0.25 0 129 NASDAQ 100 14,654.33 278.24 1.94 KOREA 2,735.05 25.05 0.92

BERJAYA CORP BHD 31.2 0.005 0.24 -6.00 1,206.9 FTSE 100 7,495.37 18.65 0.25 PHILIPPINES 7,009.43 0.49 0.01

TWL HOLDINGS BHD 28.4 0.005 0.06 0 146.7 AUSTRALIA 7,377.87 36.77 0.50 SINGAPORE 3,364.26 14.09 0.42

AHB HOLDINGS BHD 25.7 -0.015 0.165 26.92 61.7 CHINA 3,271.03 11.17 0.34 TAIWAN 17,731.37 171.66 0.98

VELESTO ENERGY BHD 24.1 -0.005 0.11 -12.5 862.6 HONG KONG 22,154.08 264.80 1.21 THAILAND 1,677.95 0.08 0.00

TAFI INDUSTRIES BHD 23.3 0.050 0.77 5 292.2 INDIA 57,682.57 -306.73 -0.53 VIETNAM 1,502.34 -1.44 -0.10

Data as compiled on Mar 23, 2022 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Mar 23, 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)

KEY ALLIANCE GROUP BHD 0.015 50 811.8 0 46 DGB ASIA BHD 0.015 -25.00 151 -50 24.3

VSOLAR GROUP BHD 0.015 50 683.2 0 72.5 TOP BUILDERS CAPITAL BHD 0.015 -25.00 4.0 -57.14 10.6

EA HOLDINGS BHD 0.015 50 352 -25 96.8 MNC WIRELESS BHD 0.02 -20.00 158.0 33.33 45.7

COMPUGATES HOLDINGS BHD 0.015 50 110 0 68.8 SANICHI TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.025 -16.67 940.0 0 35.1

NEXGRAM HOLDINGS BHD 0.015 50 71.2 50 66.3 SAPURA ENERGY BHD 0.030 -14.29 105,894.9 -40 479.4

HO WAH GENTING BHD 0.135 35 15368.8 -34.15 86.2 MAGNA PRIMA BHD 0.410 -12.77 0.2 0 163.7

CHINA AUTOMOBILE PARTS 0.02 33.3 3,891 0 20.4 FITTERS DIVERSIFIED BHD 0.15 -11.76 141,998.9 -52.38 84.3

AT SYSTEMATIZATION BHD 0.03 25 67943.8 -16.67 144.5 SCOMI ENERGY SERVICES BHD 0.04 -11.11 66.5 -27.27 18.7

LAMBO GROUP BHD 0.07 16.67 2522.1 -17.65 107.8 CME GROUP BHD 0.050 -9.09 584.0 -16.67 48.4

MARINE & GENERAL BHD 0.07 16.67 2 27.27 50.7 AHB HOLDINGS BHD 0.165 -8.33 25,748.0 26.92 61.7

SIAB HOLDINGS BHD 0.215 16.22 47.8 -30.65 102.5 BINA DARULAMAN BHD 0.69 -8 4,591.2 18.97 209.7

TRADEPLUS NYSE FANG+ DAILY (2X) 12 14.29 6 19.46 3 VERSATILE CREATIVE BHD 0.53 -7.83 24.6 -21.48 148.5

IDIMENSION CONSOLIDATED BHD 0.9 12.5 85.9 -30.77 24.5 FAST ENERGY HOLDINGS BHD 0.06 -7.69 840.1 -36.84 34.8

VINVEST CAPITAL HOLDINGS BHD 0.23 12.2 19991.9 -50 222.9 CATCHA DIGITAL BHD 0.125 -7.41 20.0 -21.88 16.8

KUMPULAN H&L HIGH-TECH BHD 1.15 11.65 2062.4 -19.01 126.2 CHINA OUHUA WINERY HOLDINGS 0.07 -7.14 350.0 -45.83 43.4

MQ TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.05 11.11 6484.3 0 44.7 BARAKAH OFFSHORE PETROLEUM 0.065 -7.14 62.0 -18.75 65.2

DIGISTAR CORP BHD 0.05 11.11 353 -16.67 39.1 PINEHILL PACIFIC BHD 0.43 -6.52 12.5 -17.31 64.4

HANDAL ENERGY BHD 0.15 11.11 10.9 -25 34.6 LIEN HOE CORP BHD 0.360 -6.49 3.0 -1.37 119.7

PROLEXUS BHD 0.515 10.75 14920.6 27.16 137.6 LION POSIM BHD 0.51 -6.48 2.0 -9.82 115.1

NI HSIN GROUP BHD 0.105 10.53 3050 -12.5 50.8 SMIS CORP BHD 0.59 -5.65 49.2 0.86 24.7

Data as compiled on Mar 23, 2022 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Mar 23, 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)

MALAYSIAN PACIFIC INDUSTRIES 38.00 1.90 894.8 -23.01 7558.1 KUALA LUMPUR KEPONG BHD 25.50 -0.20 1943.5 17.08 27493.0

TRADEPLUS NYSE FANG+ DAILY (2X) 12 14.29 6 19.46 3 FRASER & NEAVE HOLDINGS BHD 21.60 -0.12 106.80 -12.69 7922.4

PETRONAS DAGANGAN BHD 21.50 0.46 283.5 4.37 21359.3 SHL CONSOLIDATED BHD 1.89 -0.11 7.8 -4.55 457.6

CARLSBERG BREWERY MALAYSIA 21.46 0.36 220.2 6.87 6561.4 NESTLE MALAYSIA BHD 135.40 -0.10 39.2 0.89 31751.3

HONG LEONG BANK BHD 20.50 0.34 1822.2 10.10 44438.2 PIE INDUSTRIAL BHD 2.96 -0.10 1733.6 -22.11 1136.8

SAM ENGINEERING & EQUIPMENT 4.88 0.30 579.6 -12.86 2642 UMS HOLDINGS BHD 1.91 -0.09 2.5 -4.50 77.7

BINTULU PORT HOLDINGS BHD 5.20 0.29 0.1 8.33 2392.0 PMB TECHNOLOGY BHD 17.28 -0.08 72.5 40.72 4040.1

VITROX CORP BHD 8.10 0.29 2681.4 -18.67 7651.0 PETRONAS GAS BHD 16.76 -0.08 524.5 -6.34 33163.5

PANASONIC MANUFACTURING 28.00 0.28 4.4 -3.11 1700.9 UNITED MALACCA BHD 5.42 -0.08 19.1 5.04 1136.9

D&O GREEN TECHNOLOGIES BHD 4.76 0.27 11053.3 -19.32 5888.8 PECCA GROUP BHD 3.00 -0.08 323.0 -12.28 577.3

GREATECH TECHNOLOGY BHD 4.70 0.27 11782.2 -30.16 5885.0 CYCLE & CARRIAGE BINTANG BHD 2.41 -0.07 58.4 12.62 242.8

KESM INDUSTRIES BHD 8.92 0.26 107.5 -27.36 383.7 YINSON HOLDINGS BHD 4.88 -0.07 1568.7 -18.67 5196.1

BATU KAWAN BHD 26.32 0.24 22.2 15.95 10364.1 BINA DARULAMAN BHD 0.69 -0.06 4591.2 18.97 209.7

KOBAY TECHNOLOGY BHD 4.45 0.23 7855.5 -26.20 1442.6 MAGNA PRIMA BHD 0.41 -0.06 0.2 0 163.7

PENTAMASTER CORP BHD 4.08 0.21 7167.8 -26.49 2902.2 VERSATILE CREATIVE BHD 0.53 -0.05 24.6 -21.48 148.5

IMASPRO CORP BHD 2.68 0.18 69.5 8.06 214.4 DIGI.COM BHD 3.97 0.04 1473.3 -2.46 30877

TA ANN HOLDINGS BHD 5.04 0.17 1187.1 43.59 2219.9 BERJAYA FOOD BHD 3.42 -0.04 3295 59.07 13333

NEGRI SEMBILAN OIL PALMS BHD 3.70 0.170 41.0 20.13 259.7 SUNGEI BAGAN RUBBER CO MALAYA 3.22 -0.04 3.9 -0.62 213.6

SYARIKAT TAKAFUL MALAYSIA 3.57 0.17 5157.6 -3.51 2983.2 AME ELITE CONSORTIUM BHD 1.60 -0.04 655.0 -13.98 10300

UNISEM M BHD 3.25 0.16 6588.2 -20.34 5242.5 PARAGON UNION BHD 1.73 -0.04 36.0 15.33 143.6

Data as compiled on Mar 23, 2022 Source: Bloomberg Data as compiled on Mar 23, 2022 Source: Bloomberg