MYHSR CORP SEEKS CONCEPT PROPOSALS

TO REVIVE KL-SINGAPORE HSR p4

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 t h e e d g e m a l ay s i a . c o m
ISSUE 601/2023

CEOMorningBrief
HOME: Rafizi: RM25 bil projects to be unveiled under Energy Transition Roadmap on July 27 p6
Anwar: Govt formulating anti-rent-seeking policy p6
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Temasek’s net portfolio value down by 5.2% y-o-y

to S$382 bil; reports S$7.3 bil loss
Report on Page 2.
THE EDGE FILE PHOTO

EPF: No change to
lump sum retirement
withdrawal for members
Report on Page 3.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
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Temasek’s net portfolio value down by 5.2%
y-o-y to S$382 bil; reports S$7.3 bil loss
SINGAPORE (July 11): Singapore state-
owned investment firm Temasek Holdings
has reported a net portfolio value of S$382
billion (RM1.3 trillion) for FY2023, 5.2%
lower than its previous net portfolio value
of S$403 billion in the year before.
The group reported a loss of S$7.3 bil-
lion, down from last year’s net profit of
S$10.6 billion. According to the group, this
was attributable to changes in accounting
standards, which includes mark-to-market
(MTM) gains and losses. After adjusting for
MTM, the group would’ve reported a profit
of S$14.7 billion. Under the new accounting
standards that were introduced in 2018, this
is the first time the group reported a loss,
noted chief financial officer Png Chin Yee.
Temasek’s one-year total shareholder
return (TSR) was -5.07%, while its TSR
since its inception in 1974 remained at
14%, unchanged from last year.
The group’s 20-year and 10-year TSRs
for this FY stood at 9% and 6% respectively.
Investments and geographical
breakdown
Over FY2023, Temasek invested $31 bil-
lion and divested $27 billion, resulting in a
net investment of $4 billion. According to
the group, its investment pace was slowed
due to its “cautious approach amidst glob-
al uncertainties”. Deal activity also slowed
down globally as liquidity tightened.
As at March 31, Temasek’s portfolio re-
mains anchored in Asia with a total of 63%.
In terms of geography, Singapore, China
and the Americas remained the group’s
three largest markets by underlying expo-
sure with 28%, 22% and 21% respectively.
“We continued to invest into opportuni-
ties that are aligned with long-term structural
trends, and engaged our large Singapore port-
folio companies to seek out opportunities of
the future.We also reduced certain positions
in the rebalancing of our portfolio, including
2 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
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where we see long term structural risks, in
ensuring that we continue to maintain the
strength of our balance sheet in the pursuit
of a resilient and forward-looking portfolio,”
says the group in its July 11 statement.
Over the decade, the group has invested
a total of $326 billion and divested $248
billion. As at March 31, the group’s un-
derlying exposure to developed economies,
including Singapore, North America, Eu-
rope, and Australia & New Zealand was
64%, compared to 58% in 2013.
The group has also announced plans
to open a new office in Paris in a bid to
expand its global footprint in places where
they see “the opportunity to allocate sig-
nificant capital for growth”.
Sectoral breakdown
In terms of sectors, transportation and
industrials made up the majority of Te-
masek’s portfolio at 23%, one percentage
point higher y-o-y.
Financial services, which stood on top
in the year before, fell to second place at
21%, down two percentage points y-o-y.
Telecommunications, media and technol-
ogy rounded up the top three sectors at 17%
in FY2023, down one percentage point y-o-y.
During a briefing to the media, Png not-
ed that the group has been growing its fo-
cus sectors – consumer, media & technol-
ogy, life sciences & agri-food and financial
services (non-bank) since 2011. In 2011,
the group’s focus sectors stood at $193
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billion or 5% of its portfolio compared to
2023’s $382 billion or 32% of its portfolio.
Since 2011, the group’s focus sectors
outperformed its overall portfolio by four
percentage points, Png adds.
Temasek’s unlisted assets also outper-
formed its listed assets with an internal
rate of return (IRR) of 14.4% over a 20-
year period. This is compared to the IRR
of 8.0% for its listed assets and 10.1%
for its overall assets over the same period.
Early stage investments, which are
capped at 6% of Temasek’s portfolio, have
also outperformed the group’s overall port-
folio with a seven-year IRR of 10.9% versus
its overall portfolio’s IRR of 7.8%.
As at March 31, the group’s ended the
year with net cash. Of its portfolio, liquid and
sub-20% listed assets stood at 27% while
unlisted assets made up 53% of its portfolio.
FTX
On FTX, chief investment officer Rohit
Sipahimalani said that the decision to in-
vest into the crypto firm was one that the
group was “disappointed” in, but pointed
out that it was part of their early stage in-
vesting portfolio and that the risks involved
were mitigated by the group keeping it to
less than 6% of its overall portfolio.
That said, he stressed that the group
had conducted its due diligence and that
FTX had seemed like a company that had
good tech with checks showing that they’re
compliant with regulations.
Temasek had made the decision to write
down over US$200 million ($268.3 million)
that was invested into FTX in November
2022.The group subsequently announced that
they had cut the pay of those who were respon-
sible for the investment in FTX in May due
to the “reputational hit”, says Sipahimalani.
Read the full story
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
EPF: No change
to lump sum
retirement
withdrawal for
members
BY ANIS HAZIM
theedgemalaysia.com
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11) The Em-
ployees Provident Fund has clarified that
there is no change to the current lump sum
withdrawals at age 55 and 60 for its exist-
ing members, and that the current EPF
monthly withdrawal option only applies to
members who voluntarily opt in.
The proposed mandatory monthly with-
drawal option, meanwhile, will only ap-
ply to new EPF members born in or after
2010, and registered with the EPF after
the implementation date.
“The first payout under the mandatory
option is only expected to be made when
these new members retire, some decades
in the future.
“This proposal is still being refined, and
the EPF assures that any decision regarding
the mandatory monthly withdrawal option
will only be made with careful consideration
and alignment with the EPF’s commitment
to the best future interests of its members,”
the EPF said in a statement on Tuesday.
‘Account 3’ for informal workers, allowing
flexible withdrawals proposed
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The Em-
ployees Provident Fund (EPF) is looking
to create a new account dubbed Account
3 to cater for informal workers, who will
be allowed the flexibility of making with-
drawals of any amount at any time.
“Hopefully, we will be able to address
some of the cash flow concerns that in-
formal sector workers have,” EPF chief
strategy officer Nurhisham Hussein told
a media briefing on Tuesday (July 11).
But he added that while the purpose
of Account 3 is to address cash flow is-
sues among informal sector workers,
existing members may also voluntarily
opt-in once the account is created.
“It is purely optional for the existing
members,” said Nurhisham, adding that
those who sign up will be able to transfer
their savings from Accounts 1 and 2 to
3 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
At a virtual briefing on the same day,
the EPF’s chief strategy officer Nurhish-
am Hussein said the monthly withdrawal
mechanism is in line with the EPF’s man-
date as a pension fund for the country, as
the lump sum withdrawal is not practical
in the long run.
“The intention here is going back to
our mandate because we are essentially
a retirement fund and retirement savings
is about covering your expenses in retire-
ment. That lump sum (withdrawal) just
doesn’t make sense,” he said.
According to him, only a few retirement
funds around the world still allow the full
withdrawal of members’ retirement savings
BY ANIS HAZIM
theedgemalaysia.com
Account 3 and be able to make uncondi-
tional withdrawals.
Accounts 1 and 2 are the pension fund’s
existing retirement saving accounts for
members. Account 1 comprises 70% of
members’ savings, while Account 2 com-
prises the other 30% for discretionary
withdrawals.
Nurhisham said that the creation of Ac-
count 3 is still under discussion, and could
be realised in the next two years.
The account, he said, is primarily
aimed at service and own-account work-
ers. “So basically [it will cater to] busi-
ness owners, as well as potentially those
working in creative industries as well as
professionals.”
and Malaysia is one of them. Thus, the
mandatory monthly withdrawal mecha-
nism will bring Malaysia in line with wide-
spread global practice, as the country re-
mains one of the very small minorities that
continues to allow lump sum withdrawals
and not a regular payout.
“As you can see from what we have
gathered around the world, almost nobody
allows for a lump sum withdrawal anymore
unless they actually have a corresponding
monthly payout.
“So, since we don’t have a monthly pay-
out in Malaysia, we decided to take this
step in the absence of a national pension,”
he added.
“I think we are trying to accommo-
date the needs of the informal workers.
But for [existing members who] don’t
think they have enough emergency
funds, they can transfer [their savings]
into Account 3 [from Accounts 1 and
2],” he added.
As Account 3 would serve act as an
emergency fund, Nurhisham said it will
probably offer a lower dividend com-
pared to the other two accounts.
It is worth noting that former finance
minister Lim Guan Eng had previously
proposed a special EPF account — also
dubbed as Account 3 — to be created
under the Malaysia@Work initiative that
allows for flexible withdrawal. The ac-
count was supposed to be implement-
ed in stages beginning from the second
quarter of 2020, but did not proceed.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): MyHSR
Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyHSR Corp) is
seeking concept proposals from local and
international firms and consortia to devel-
op and operate the Kuala Lumpur-Singa-
pore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) pro-
ject via a public-private partnership model.
In a statement on Tuesday (July 11),
MyHSR Corp said it is embarking on a
full-fledged request for information (RFI)
that will be opened to all these three par-
ties to submit their concept proposals.
The RFI exercise marks the govern-
ment’s initiative to reactivate the KL-SG
HSR project via new funding mechanisms
and implementation models in efforts to
further improve the rail transport infra-
structure and to invigorate the national
economy, MyHSR said.
The exercise will allow the Malaysian
government to assess the industry’s in-
terest and ability to fully fund the project
while evaluating their capabilities in devel-
oping this major infrastructure project by
looking into areas such as technical speci-
fications, project costing, commercial and
business models, as well as consortium
and governance framework.
MyHSR Corp chief executive officer
Datuk Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Ka-
mal encouraged firms and consortia with
the relevant experience to participate in the
exercise, adding the agency looks forward
to receiving strong interest and high-quality
proposals that would serve as an important
reference for the government’s decision on
the best way forward for the project.
Two highway
upgrading projects
in Johor to be
implemented
earlier, says MB
Bernama
JOHOR BAHRU (July 11): Two high-
way upgrading projects in Johor, which
are scheduled to start at the end of next
year, will be implemented earlier than orig-
inally planned, said Menteri Besar Datuk
Onn Hafiz Ghazi.
He said the project involved an overtak-
ing lane on the Senai Desaru Expressway
(SDE), which will start this November, and
the widening of the North-South Express-
way (PLUS), to start in February next year.
“Alhamdulillah, with the coordina-
tion among the Johor government, the
Ministry of Finance and the Malaysian
4 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
MyHSR Corp
seeks concept
proposals to
revive KL-
Singapore HSR
BY PRIYATHARISINY VASU
theedgemalaysia.com
“MyHSR Corp remains committed in
supporting the government to identify the
most effective solution to revive the KL-
SG HSR project. Globally, developments
of HSR have proven to be growth engines,
bringing about catalytic development and
growth as well as multiplier effects that bene-
fit all walks of life,” Mohd Nur Ismal added.
Mooted in 2010 as part of the devel-
opment of Greater KL, Malaysia and Sin-
gapore signed a legally binding bilateral
agreement in Dec 2016 for the 350km
HSR, which was to have seven stations
and shorten the travel time between Kua-
la Lumpur and Singapore to 90 times —
from a four-hour drive by car. At the time,
the railway line was envisioned to be com-
pleted in 2026.
But when the Pakatan Harapan coali-
tion took over Putrajaya in 2018, it sus-
pended the HSR project in view of the
government’s tight fiscal condition and
Johor Menteri Besar
Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi
Highway Authority (LLM), the physical
works of these two projects will be car-
ried out earlier.
“Thanks to Deputy Minister of Finance
Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan for being will-
ing to hold a meeting with the Johor gov-
ernment,” Onn Hafiz said in a post on
Facebook on Tuesday (July 11) night.
He said several matters, especially re-
garding infrastructure and economic de-
velopment for the well-being of the “Bang-
ballooning national debt. The project was
subsequently terminated in January 2021
by then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin, as Malaysia and Singapore failed to
reach an agreement over several changes
the Malaysian government had proposed.
C o n s e q u e n t l y, M a l a y s i a p a i d
RM320.27 million to Singapore as com-
pensation “for costs incurred for the de-
velopment of the HSR project, and in re-
lation to the extension of suspension of
project”, according to a statement issued
by the Economic Planning Unit of the
Prime Minister’s Department at the time.
In March this year, The Edge Malay-
sia weekly reported that the federal gov-
ernment had had meetings with five Ma-
laysian companies to gauge their interest
in pursuing the HSR, which was said to
cost about RM60 billion in 2020. Accord-
ing to the report dated March 27-April
2, the five were: Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar
Albukhary-controlled MMC Corp Bhd;
WCT Holdings Bhd, controlled by Tan Sri
Desmond Lim Siew Choon;YTL Group;
Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun-con-
trolled Berjaya Group; and Malaysian
Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB).
In a follow-up report for the week of May
8-May 14, the weekly wrote that at least two
of the five companies were having high-level
discussions for a potential partnership with
Chinese state-owned enterprises, while one
appeared inclined to partner with a Japanese
consortium. The remaining two were said
to be waiting for the government to reveal
more information on the project.
BERNAMA
sa Johor” were discussed at the meeting.
On behalf of the state government, Onn
Hafiz also thanked the federal government
for approving 496 development projects
involving a total allocation of RM4.5 bil-
lion for Johor this year.
He also expressed hope that the close
cooperation between the federal and state
governments will continue to be main-
tained, to ensure that Johor becomes a
developed state by 2030.
W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 5 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The gov-
ernment will be announcing RM25 bil-
lion worth of national projects under the
Energy Transition Roadmap, which will
be unveiled on July 27, Economy Minister
Mohd Rafizi Ramli said.
The first phase of the road map will con-
sist of 10 national flagship energy transition
projects to be developed with the participa-
tion of the private sector, as part of the gov-
ernment’s structural reforms of the economy.
Speaking to reporters at the Interna-
tional Malaysia Law Conference on Tues-
day (July 11), he said that since the Cov-
id-19 pandemic, investments in energy
transition projects have dominated the
global investment landscape.
Therefore, Rafizi is confident that the
government’s commitment to long-term
structural reforms will attract inflows back
into the country, and eventually improve
the ringgit’s performance.
“What we can do in terms of the ring-
git’s strength is ensure that our economy
graduates from where it is, to be more so-
phisticated and high-value, because these
Anwar: Govt formulating anti-rent-seeking policy
Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The
government is formulating an anti-”Ali
Baba” (rent-seeking) policy and expe-
diting the National Energy Transition
Roadmap (NETR) initiatives, said Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar, who is also the finance minis-
ter, said the Ali Baba culture had a neg-
ative impact on the economy, and the
government is serious about addressing
and eradicating this activity.
“Estimated losses reached about 1%
of gross domestic product, and it com-
prised procurement, licencing, permit
and quota issuance, and subsidy and
grant issuance aspects.
“The Ministry of Economy and At-
torney General’s Chambers, with the
participation of ministries and govern-
ment agencies, will study and draw up the
appropriate legal policies and strategies
to eradicate rent-seeking activities, and
present the proposals to the Cabinet,” he
said in a statement on Tuesday (July 11).
Besides approving the establishment
of an anti-Ali Baba policy, the Nation-
al Economic Action Council (MTEN)
on Monday also agreed to expedite the
NETR initiatives as a strategic catalyst
for turning Malaysia into a regional lead-
er in renewable energy.
6 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
SHAHRILL BASRI/THE EDGE
Rafizi: RM25 bil
projects to be
unveiled under
Energy Transition
Roadmap on
July 27
Bernama
He said the pioneer flagship projects
and NETR initiatives aim to boost indus-
try participation in the government’s new
direction in exploring sources of renewa-
ble energy and shaping market demand,
as well as identifying financial resources to
bridge the project financing gap.
Anwar said the first phase of the NETR
will highlight 10 key pioneer projects that
are strategic and of high value as measures
for implementing the National Energy Pol-
icy 2022-2040, with investments estimated
at RM25 billion.
It is expected to create 23,000
high-quality jobs, and reduce over 10,000
gigagrams of cumulative carbon dioxide
equivalent emissions.
are the kinds of growth narratives that
foreign portfolios will be interested in.
“And if we are able to do this, we will get
more investments into our capital markets, ei-
ther in bonds or equities, which will buffer the
ringgit from the differential of interest rates.
“Many of these policies will take some
time for the public to understand, but we
know that industries understand that inves-
tors have been waiting to see how quickly
Malaysian companies can move into the
green economy,” he noted.
So, the government is coming up with
policies to support the energy transition
industry in the country.
“These are the things that the govern-
ment is focusing on to realign our economy
and our companies into what can attract
foreign investments to the companies by
buying their shares, because since the last
five to six years, there has not been a com-
pelling growth narrative that our compa-
nies can offer,” he added.
Overall, he believes the government is
on track to achieve a sustainable growth
story for Malaysia.
“The NETR’s Phase 1 will be held on
July 27, followed by the second phase in
August,” the prime minister said.
Meanwhile, Anwar said the MTEN
will continue to formulate new meas-
ures and initiatives to address various
national economic challenges to ensure
governance improvement and system-
atic structural changes to enhance the
nation’s economic potential.
“The government will strive to en-
sure the country achieves the Low
Carbon Nation Aspiration 2040, and
always progresses in line with current
technological developments, and to
meet the people’s socio-economic
needs,” he added.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
H O M E
No extreme
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11):The govern-
ment has given assurances that the prices
price hikes
of essential goods, especially subsidised
items, will not see an extreme rise this year.
this year, says
Domestic Trade and Cost of Living
Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub
Salahuddin
said this includes the prices of controlled
items, such as sugar, and non-controlled
items like bottled cooking oil, which are
constantly monitored by the ministry.
“The ministry has the responsibility
to monitor the prices of essential goods
for the people on a daily basis, and so
far, our observations have shown that
the prices of subsidised items like eggs,
chicken, RON 95 petrol, and diesel have
Retail broadband
PUTRAJAYA (July 11): The reduction in
retail fixed broadband prices following the
prices can only
implementation of the Mandatory Stand-
ard on Access Pricing (MSAP) can only
be lowered once
happen once the access agreements have
been concluded between service provid-
access agreements
ers, said the Malaysian Communications
and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
concluded —
The MCMC in a statement on Tues-
day (July 11) said that currently, most ac-
MCMC
cess providers have or are in the process
of publishing their reference access offers
(RAOs).
“The negotiations of access agreements
will commence based on the published
RAOs, and are expected to be concluded
by the end of September.
“As such, a price reduction for broad-
band services can be expected to take place
thereafter,” said the MCMC in response to
an article by a technology portal that the
government had yet to implement cheaper
broadband prices subsequent to the lat-
est MSAP, which took effect on March 1.
The government launched the Pakej
Perpaduan Fixed Internet Broadband
in February to help the bottom 40% in-
come group (B40), veterans, the disabled
and the elderly. The package comes with
a 24-month subscription contract and is
7 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
LOW YEN YEING/THE EDGE
never gone up, and are unlikely to go up.
“Subsidised cooking oil in packets is
still being priced at RM2.50. Similarly,
the price of bottled cooking oil has also
seen no increase. In fact, some are selling
[at prices] lower than the ceiling price,”
he told reporters after checking out the
prices of goods at a hypermarket here on
Tuesday (July 11).
Salahuddin said his ministry had not re-
ceived any complaints regarding the prices
of consumer goods so far, hence refuting
claims by several parties about price hikes.
However, Salahuddin urged the public
to report to the ministry if they encounter
any price hikes involving essential goods
in supermarkets or grocery stores.
“Report it directly to the ministry, and
we will take immediate action,” he said,
while also advising the public not to be
easily influenced by any of the opposition’s
claims in view of the upcoming election
for six states.
On media reports about a project-
ed 20% increase in the prices of goods
in October, Salahuddin said his ministry
is aware of the matter, and will continue
Bernama monitoring the situation, especially the
prices of staples.
The 20% increase was projected due to
two main factors, namely import inflation
and the rising cost of business operations
in Malaysia.
priced at RM69 per month, providing In-
ternet speeds up to 30Mbps with unlim-
ited data.
The MCMC said the package is 22%
cheaper than existing prices for simi-
lar packages at the same speed, which is
RM89, and subscribers will enjoy RM480
savings throughout the contract period un-
der the package.
It said that thus far, 6,066 users had
signed up for the Fixed Broadband package.
The MCMC, meanwhile said the PPR/
PA @MyKabel package, targeting the Peo-
ple’s Housing Programme and B40 group
Bernama to aid their daily digital activities, was in-
troduced in April this year at RM69 a
month with a contract of 24 months, at a
speed of 100Mbps with unlimited data.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Think tank
Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Of-
fice (AMRO) is keeping its gross domes-
tic product (GDP) growth projection for
Malaysia at 4.2% this year despite global
economic challenges and uncertainty.
AMRO’s projection is in line with Bank
Negara Malaysia’s GDP growth target of
between 4% and 5% this year. Last year,
Malaysia’s economy grew by 8.7%.
Chief economist Khor Hoe Ee expects
the country’s growth to be fuelled by do-
mestic spending and a recovery in tour-
ism, which will help cushion the impact
from weaker export growth and a fall in
commodity prices.
“This [4.2% GDP growth] projection
is still a strong number because our [ini-
tial] expectation was lower, considering that
Malaysia is a major manufacturing exporter
and facing headwinds from weak demand
from the European Union (EU) and the US,
[which could lead] to a slowdown in its man-
ufacturing exports. Fortunately, domestic
spending is holding up well and is supporting
growth,” he told a virtual media briefing on
AMRO’s regional economic outlook 2023
on Tuesday (July 11).
Khor noted that Malaysia’s economy is
also benefiting from the recovery in tourism
post Covid-19 pandemic and expects the
sector to continue to improve in the coming
months, given that the number of Chinese
tourists has not fully recovered to pre-Cov-
id-19 levels yet. “There is still a lot of room
for the services sector to grow,” he adds.
Against this backdrop, AMRO is expect-
ing Malaysia’s economy to grow further at
5.2% in 2024.
Asean+3 growth momentum to remain intact as risks recede, says AMRO
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The Ase-
an+3 Macroeconomic Research Of-
fice (AMRO) said growth momentum
for Asean+3 region remains intact as
downside risks have receded, according
to its July quarterly update of the 2023
Asean+3 Regional Economic Outlook
(AREO).
AMRO has kept its economic growth
forecasts for Asean+3 region at 4.6%
this year, from 3.2% growth last year.
Asean+3 consists of 10 members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean) and China, Hong Kong, China;
Japan and Korea.
Its chief economist Hoe Ee Khor (pic)
said the risks have receded since April,
including the global commodity prices.
“Asean+3’s recovery is now riding
on resilient demand within the region,”
Khor said.
8 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
AMRO keeps
Malaysia’s 2023
GDP growth
at 4.2%, driven
by domestic
spending,
tourism recovery
BY JUSTIN LIM
theedgemalaysia.com
Khor also expects Malaysia’s inflation to
moderate to 3.1% this year and further de-
cline to 2.6% in 2024, from 3.3% in 2022.
Despite the local economy being well past
peak inflation, he sees room for further mon-
etary policy tightening as inflation is still rel-
atively higher than its historical trend.
“Inflation is still above the long-term
trend, in the sense that if we were to look
at average inflation over the years, it was
around 2% and 2.5%. So, our view is that
monetary policy should remain on hold,
although the inflation peak has come off.
We think that there is no reason to ease
monetary policy at this point of time. The
central bank should continue to keep inter-
est rates on hold, even tighten (monetary
policy) a bit more if necessary,” Hoe added.
Malaysia’s inflation eased further in
May, with the consumer price index (CPI)
BY JUSTIN LIM
theedgemalaysia.com
“Recovering labour markets and falling
inflation, along with steadily growing in-
tra-regional tourism, are helping to cushion
growth against sluggish external demand that
is dampening the region’s exports,” he added.
He said inflation has decelerated across
most of the Asean+3 economies due to
slowing to 2.8% from 3.3% in the previ-
ous month, according to the Department
of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Core inflation, which measures chang-
es in the prices of all goods and services,
excluding volatile prices of fresh food as
well as administered prices of goods by the
government, also eased to 3.5% in May,
from 3.6% in April, added DOSM.
The growth was mainly contributed by
the food and non-alcoholic beverages seg-
ment, which grew 7.1% year-on-year (y-o-y)
against 7.2% in April, as well as the restau-
rants and hotels index, which rose 6.7% y-o-y
from 6.6% in the previous month.
For 2022, core inflation grew to 3%
from 0.7% in 2021.
Let market set currency exchange rate
Khor was of the view that letting market
forces determine the direction of the ring-
git against the US dollar is the best move.
“In our view, the weak ringgit is mostly driv-
en by market forces, reflecting the spread in the
interest rate [between the US and Malaysia]
and weakness in external factors [such as weak
export demand].The [Malaysian] economy is
doing quite well. So we don’t see the need to
take measures to try to strengthen the ringgit.
“Even though, in our view, judicious in-
tervention is maybe necessary sometimes
to smooth the volatility, apart from that,
we do not think it is necessary for policy-
makers to intervene, or move the exchange
rate one way or the other,” he said.
At the time of writing, the ringgit was
trading at 4.66 against the greenback. The
local currency has declined 5% in the past
12 months.
easing global commodity prices and nor-
malising supply chains, allowing many
of the region’s central banks to pause or
ease the pace of monetary tightening.
This, in turn, is bolstering consumption.
Pent-up demand from more return-
ing Chinese tourists will also provide an
additional lift to growth.
AMRO, however, warns against sev-
eral risks lingering on the horizon. The
threat of recession in the US and Europe,
while lower now than three months ago,
cannot be fully dismissed.
“Downside risks to the region’s out-
look have receded since April, but we
are not out of the woods yet,” Khor
cautioned.
“Heightened financial stress from
tighter US monetary policy is a risk that
the Asean+3 policymakers must contin-
ue to guard against, he added.
W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 9 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Westports
Holdings Bhd’s founder and executive chair-
man Tan Sri G Gnanalingam passed away on
Tuesday (July 11) afternoon, the port oper-
ator announced.
“It is with deep sorrow that Westports an-
nounces the demise of our beloved executive
chairman, Tan Sri Gnanalingam Gunanath
Lingam, who passed away peacefully today,
at the age of 78,” the group announced in a
stock exchange filing.
“He touched our lives and the community
with his compassion, generosity and kindness.
His vision and stewardship of the company
have built and transformed Westports and
Port Klang into the preeminent gateway port
in Malaysia and one of the transhipment hubs
in Southeast Asia,” said Westports.
Gnanalingam won the concession to run a
port terminal in 1994, part of the then govern-
ment’s privatisation project, shocking many
friends and business associates as the seaport
business was alien to him.
He established the port two years later
in 1996 in Pulau Indah with 10 cranes, and
led it through leaps and bounds against all
odds, including the Asian Financial Crisis
in 1997-1998.
Westports has since grown to be one of the
largest companies on Bursa Malaysia with a
market capitalisation of RM12.04 billion and
a container handling capacity of over 13.7
million twenty-foot equivalent units.
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Regional
markets in Asia are expected to benefit from
an influx of investors seeking refuge from
the uncertainty plaguing markets globally,
as central banks continue to delay monetary
policy easing, according to Manulife Invest-
ment Management.
The investment management firm’s glob-
al macro strategy co-head Sue Trinh said
recent disinflationary trends across Asia
— where over 80% of regional economies
appeared to be on a sustained period of dis-
inflation — may open up the way for Asian
central banks to pivot to a dovish stance
ahead of its global counterparts.
“Foreign investors had really run for the
hills for quite some time, and that is actual-
ly a positive development for Asia now and
looking forward, because that means foreign
ownership of Asian equities and fixed-in-
come does have room to build from a very
low base,” Trinh said.
“Put another way, there is an asymmetric
risk to the upside, in that there are not [going
to be] a lot of drawdowns if news gets bad.
But there’s certainly a lot more upside rela-
tive to that potential downside,” she added.
Touching on Malaysia,Trinh said its eco-
nomic outlook is in the “middle-of-the-road”
among its regional peers, and that the coun-
10 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
Westports founder
Gnanalingam
passes away aged 78
BY CHESTER TAY
theedgemalaysia.com
The late Tan Sri G Gnanalingam
While many of the current generation
know him as an established port opera-
tor, the self-made billionaire first made his
mark as the marketing director of a con-
sumer-based multinational corporation in
the 1970s, and was credited with helping
to raise the money that enabled Malaysians
to watch live, for the first time, World Cup
football matches in 1982.
Manulife: Investors to seek
refuge in Asia as monetary
policy uncertainty looms
elsewhere
BY IZZUL IKRAM
theedgemalaysia.com
try’s economic growth is expected to continue
moderating — premised on a contraction in
exports, but will be shored up by domestic
demand supported by fiscal prioritisation of
low- and middle-income households.
“But it’s (Malaysia) probably the least
crowded in terms of foreign investors’ posi-
tion right now. So, ironically, from that per-
spective, it could be looking positive in the
short term, despite being expected to be a
middle-of-the-road performer in the region,
economically speaking,” she added.
Trinh noted that Malaysia joined India,
Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and Tai-
wan as the economies that recorded rising
inflows of foreign direct investment into
their industrial sector from the ongoing di-
versification from China, suggesting that a
Gnanalingam went on to successfully com-
mercialise the operations of Radio Televisyen
Malaysia (RTM). His marketing consultancy,
G-Team Consultants Sdn Bhd, helped make
the 1989 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala
Lumpur a profitable and successful event.
An earlier recognition of his success in
port business came in 2000, when then
Hong Kong richest man Li Ka-shing’s
Hutchison Whampoa took a 30% stake in
Westports, ahead of the latter’s initial public
offering in 2013.
Currently, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd
still owns a 23.55% stake in Westports via
South Port Investment Holdings Ltd.
In 2017, Gnanalingam was named The
Edge Billion Ringgit Club Value Creator:
Outstanding CEO of Malaysia.
According to Westports’ annual report,
Gnanalingam attended the Royal Military
College from 1960 until 1964, before obtain-
ing his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Univer-
siti Malaya in 1968. He is also an alumnus
of the Harvard Business School in Boston,
US, having attended the School’s Advanced
Management Programme in 1983.
Gnanalingam started his career with the
British American Tobacco group in 1968 as a
sales representative, and was later promoted
to be the group’s marketing director in 1980.
G-Team Consultants, established in 1988,
acted as the corporate consultant for the mar-
keting operations of RTM from 1988 to 2000.
potential theme would be to be overweight
on select industrial sectors.
Malaysian bonds favoured on valuations
Meanwhile, Manulife Investment Manage-
ment Asia (ex-Japan) fixed income chief in-
vestment officer Murray Collis said the firm
continues to like the Malaysian bond market
from a valuation viewpoint, but noted that
it is only neutral to slightly positive on the
ringgit over the medium term.
“From a fixed-income viewpoint, the
ringgit has certainly had a challenging per-
formance year-to-date (YTD). It is down
about 5.5%.
“I think when we look at Malaysia, it does
have relatively strong macroeconomic fun-
damentals, and we do feel that the ringgit
has depreciated excessivelyYTD,” he added.
But it is too early to call the peak of the US
dollar,Trinh said, adding that in order to get a
sustained dollar depreciation, US growth and
benchmark rate differentials would need to
narrow versus the rest of the world — which
she thinks are unlikely for the time being.
“You also have additional tailwinds for
the US dollar coming from emerging-mar-
ket central banks replenishing their deplet-
ed foreign exchange reserve buffers as well,”
she added.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Scientex
Bhd, which is in the midst of acquiring
960 acres of prime freehold land in Te-
brau, Johor from S P Setia for RM547.56
million, is buying another 550.67 acres of
land in Kulai, also in Johor, for RM299.84
million.
In a bourse filing on Tuesday (July 11),
Scientex said its indirect subsidiary Sci-
entex Lestari Sdn Bhd has inked a condi-
tional sale and purchase agreement with
Seriemas Development Sdn Bhd to ac-
quire the six parcels of land in Kulai to
increase its landbank.
Seriemas, according to Scientex, is a
wholly owned unit of PNB Development
Sdn Bhd, which is in turn wholly owned
by Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB). Sci-
entex Lestari is a joint venture between
Scientex’s wholly owned Scientex Quatari
Sdn Bhd, which holds a 70% stake, and
Datuk Azman Mahmud, who holds the
remaining 30% stake.
There was no valuation carried out
on the lands, Scientex said, and its board
could not disclose the seller’s net book
value, as it is not privy to the information.
The group plans to finance the pur-
chase using internal funds and bank bor-
rowings. It said the price tag was arrived
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Sapura
Resources Bhd is disposing of its aviation
business at the Subang Airport to Abu
Dhabi-based private jet operator RoyalJet
LLC for an undisclosed sum.
In a statement on Tuesday (July 11),
Sapura Resources said the two parties
signed a conditional heads of agreement
on June 23.
“RoyalJet intends to establish a pres-
ence in the Southeast Asian private avi-
ation market, by designating Subang In-
ternational Airport as its regional hub for
private charters and for their maintenance,
repair, and overhaul (MRO) business.This
strategic move represents RoyalJet’s geo-
graphic expansion into the Asian market,”
said the statement.
It said RoyalJet chief executive officer
(CEO) Mohammed Husain Ahmed had
expressed his interest in Sapura Resourc-
es’ growth prospects in Asia and saw the
discussion with the Malaysian company as
a solid foundation for building a stronger
presence in the region.
“We are keen to expand our business in
Asia. The ongoing discussions with Sapura
Resources’ aviation business offers prom-
ising opportunities,” he said.
Sapura Resources managing director
Datuk Shahriman Shamsuddin said he is
looking forward to the disposal discussion
with RoyalJet.
11 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
Scientex buys
more land in
Johor, this time
from PNB for
RM299.84 mil
BY SURIN MURUGIAH
theedgemalaysia.com
at after taking into consideration the plots’
strategic location, accessibility and sur-
rounding mature amenities.
Scientex Lestari plans to develop the
land into a mixed-development property,
comprising about 7,000 affordable houses.
“It is currently too preliminary to ascer-
tain the exact total gross development val-
ue, development cost, the expected com-
mencement and completion dates of the
development, and the expected profits to
be derived from the development of the
lands,” Scientex said.
The landbank expansion is also in
line with its goal to build more afforda-
Sapura Resources
to sell aviation
business in
Subang Airport
to Abu Dhabi’s
RoyalJet
BY ANIS HAZIM
theedgemalaysia.com
Datuk Shahriman Shamsuddin (left) and
Mohammed Husain Ahmed, CEO of RoyalJet
(right), at the heads of agreement signing
ceremony on June 23, 2023.
ble homes to meet the group’s objective
of completing 50,000 affordable homes
throughout the nation by 2028, it said.
“The lands are expected to provide a
steady and sustainable property develop-
ment model, as Scientex Group contin-
ues to focus on affordably priced landed
properties, where demand continues to
remain firm and resilient. The lands will
provide Scientex the opportunity to create
greater economic value and increase the
earnings potential over the medium- to
long term, as the lands have promising
development potential,” it said.
Last week, Scientex Lestari inked a
conditional sale and purchase agreement
with Pelangi Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned
unit of S P Setia, to acquire the 960 acres
of Tebrau land. In 2021, Scientex had pre-
viously attempted, via Scientex Quatari, to
buy the same plots of land for RM518.1
million. But the deal had to be aborted
in March this year, after Scientex failed
to obtain a waiver of the bumiputera eq-
uity condition imposed by the Economic
Planning Unit.
Scientex shares closed two sen or
0.58% higher at RM3.44 on Tuesday, giv-
ing it a market capitalisation of RM5.34
billion.
Both companies believe that the pro-
posed deal is in tandem with Malaysia’s
current plans to rejuvenate the private avi-
ation industry, which would benefit Se-
langor’s economic development around
Subang Airport.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd man-
aging director Datuk Iskandar Mizal
Mahmood said the potential deal com-
plements the efforts to rejuvenate Subang
Airport.
“Our focus is to position Subang Air-
port as a premium city and regional air-
port, as well as further develop the general
and business aviation sectors in Malaysia.
“The presence of RoyalJet in Subang
Airport will create momentum in attract-
ing more international aviation players into
the ecosystem,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia External Trade
Development Corp CEO Sharimahton
Mat Saleh said international players will
stand to gain many advantages from co-
operation with Malaysian MRO compa-
nies, which will boost the exports of these
high-value services in the region.
Sapura Resources is 51.03%-owned by
Sapura Holdings Sdn Bhd, which is also
a substantial shareholder of Practice Note
17 company Sapura Energy Bhd.
Shares of Sapura Resources closed un-
changed at 42 sen on Tuesday, valuing the
company at RM57.93 million.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
Main Market-
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Golf equip-
ment retail chain operator MST Golf
bound MST
Group Bhd’s initial public offering (IPO)
to raise RM184.68 million from the sale
Golf’s IPO
of new and existing shares at 81 sen apiece
has attracted an “overwhelming demand”
attracts RM924
of RM924 million orders from institution-
al investors.
mil interest from
In a statement, Malaysian Issuing
House Sdn Bhd, on behalf of MST Golf,
institutional
said total demand for the group’s 228 mil-
lion IPO shares — comprising 160 million
investors
public issue shares and 68 million shares
offered for sale by existing shareholders
— represents a subscription rate of 5.28
times, it said.
Its institutional offering of up to 178.6
million shares — comprising 110.6 million theedgemalaysia.com
issue shares and 68 million offer shares
— was subscribed by 6.39 times, said the
issuing house.
At the same time, a total of 2,603 appli-
cations for 62.73 million issue shares with a
value of RM50.81 million were received for
the 41.5 million issue shares made available
to the Malaysian public — representing a
subscription rate of 1.5 times.
“For the Bumiputera portion, a total of
1,316 applications for 15.47 million issue
shares were received, representing a sub-
Another BTM
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The hold-
er of the single-largest block of BTM Re-
substantial
sources Bhd shares, Proven Venture Capital
Plt, has exited the company by offloading
shareholder exits,
its entire 11.96% stake.
According to BTM’s bourse filing on
with 11.96%
Tuesday (July 11), Proven Venture Capital
disposed its entire block of 150.26 million
stake dump
shares via off-market transactions on July 7.
Proven Venture Capital emerged as a
substantial shareholder in BTM on Jan 10
after subscribing to 153.32 million shares
or a 12.2% stake offered under the com-
pany’s rights issue. theedgemalaysia.com
On Monday, BTM announced that its
executive director Datuk Woo Thin Choy
ceased to be a substantial shareholder on
July 7 after his vehicle Confirmed Uptrend
Sdn Bhd disposed of its entire 29.56 mil-
lion shares or a 2.35% stake, leaving him
with the 2.87% stake he holds directly.
BTM has seen various shareholding
changes of late, with KPS Consortium Bhd
controlling shareholder Koh Poh Seng and
Bioalpha Holdings Bhd founderWilliam Hon
emerging as substantial shareholders in the
logging company over the past two weeks.
On July 3, Koh purchased 136.78 mil-
lion shares in BTM, which raised his stake
in the company to 13.11% or 164.78 mil-
lion shares.
Meanwhile, Hon, who is also Bioal-
pha’s managing director and chief execu-
12 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
scription rate of 0.75 times, while 1,287
applications for 47.25 million issue shares
were received under the other Malaysian
public portion, representing a subscription
rate of 2.28 times,” the group said.
The 7.9 million issue shares made avail-
able for application by eligible persons have
also been fully subscribed, the group said.
With an enlarged share capital of 820.87
million shares at an IPO price of 81 sen,
MST Golf will have a market capitalisation
of RM664.9 million upon listing, which
values the company at about 27 times its
price-earnings ratio — based on its net
profit of RM26.65 million for the Dec 31,
2022 period.
BY HAILEY CHUNG The group has said that close to 90% of
its IPO proceeds — based on the RM129.6
million it will raise from the issuance of
new shares — will go towards funding its
expansion in Malaysia and Singapore and
into new geographical markets, followed by
2.3% for upgrading of digital technology
facilities, 2.5% for working capital, and
5.4% for listing expenses.
MST Golf is slated to be listed on the
Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on July 20.
RHB Investment Bank Bhd is the principal
adviser, sole underwriter and sole place-
ment agent for the IPO exercise.
tive officer, acquired 60.51 million shares
via off-market trades on June 30, increasing
his stake to 7.61% or 95.57 million shares.
In the same period, BTM also saw the
cessation of two other substantial share-
holders, namely its director Yong Emmy
and Modern Mode Sdn Bhd.
Yong disposed of 12.10 million shares
or a 0.96% stake in the company on July
3, leaving her with 56.27 million shares or
a 4.48% stake. Modern Mode offloaded
97.45 million shares or a 7.76% stake in
BY IZZUL IKRAM BTM on the same day, leaving it with just
500,599 shares or 0.03% equity interest.
Besides Koh and Hon, BTM’s remain-
ing substantial shareholder is the compa-
ny’s managing director and Yong family
patriarch Datuk Seri Yong Tu Sang, with
a 9.07% direct stake and 12.55% indi-
rect stake.
It was previously reported that Proven
Venture Capital is a firm jointly owned by
more than 100 limited partners comprising
high net-worth individuals and entities.
Proven Venture Capital owns a 5%
stake in little-known Johor-based elec-
tronics manufacturing services provider
Local Assembly Sdn Bhd — which is in the
midst of a reverse takeover of LTKM Bhd
— and a 4.17% stake in Apex Equity Bhd.
Shares in BTM ended half a sen or 5%
lower at 9.5 sen, giving the company a mar-
ket capitalisation of RM119.37 million.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 13 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

H O M E

PUTRAJAYA (July 11): The Court of Ap-
peal (COA) has set Aug 11 to deliver its de-
cision on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal
to disqualify lawyers from Tan Sri Tommy
Thomas’ firm from representing the former
attorney general in a suit brought against
him by the ex-prime minister.
Appellate court judge Datuk Hanipah Fari-
kullah, who led a three-member panel, said
that they need more time to consider the par-
ties’ submissions and the case authorities cited.
The others on the panel were COA judg-
es Datuk Azimah Omar and Datuk Azhahari
Kamal Ramli.
Najib’s appeal is with regard to the High
Court decision in August last year, which
dismissed his application to disqualify the
appointment of two lawyers from Messrs
Tommy Thomas — firm partners Alan Adri-
an Gomez and Mervyn Lai — to represent
the former AG in the RM1.9 million suit.
Earlier on Tuesday (July 11), the panel
heard submissions for close to two hours
from both parties.
Najib’s counsel Datuk Firoz Hussein
Ahmad Jamaluddin argued that one of the
main contentions in their application re-
volves around Rule 5 of the Legal Profes-
sion (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978,
which states that lawyers should not accept
COA sets Aug 11 to
decide on Najib’s
appeal to disqualify
Thomas’ firm in
RM1.9 mil suit
BY TARANI PALANI
theedgemalaysia.com
a brief if it is difficult to maintain profes-
sional independence.
He questioned whether the lawyers from
the firm could maintain professional inde-
pendence, and argued that members of the
same firm should not represent partners,
consultants or other lawyers in contentious
matters.
“Impartiality of [lawyers] is important
to protect the integrity of the justice system
that we have,” Firoz said.
Thomas was a founding member of the
law firm, and became a consultant in Sep-
tember 2020, following his stint as the AG
from June 2018 to February 2020.
Firoz went on to argue that Thomas, who
is a consultant at the firm, had a “pecuniary”
or monetary interest in the outcome of the
legal proceedings, because he is liable to pay
damages in the event that he loses the suit.
On this, Gomez, who represented Thom-
as, countered that the test should not be
whether Thomas had an interest in the firm,
but rather if the partners of the firm had a
pecuniary interest in the outcome of the suit.
“[The question is whether] the partners
have a direct pecuniary interest in the out-
come of the case. [They] have no interest
in the outcome of the case, and therefore
that is a non-starter,” he argued.
He also added that there was no conflict of
interest which prevented them from acting for
Thomas, as none of the partners were involved
in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)
charges at the heart of Najib’s lawsuit.
“It was purely by exercise of the then AG.
The partners played no role in that, and the
firm was not involved,” he said.
Gomez argued that throughout the var-
ious proceedings regarding this case in the
High Court, the presiding judge did not
question the professionalism of the counsels.
Read the full story

NEWS IN BRIEF

Velesto gets RM60.6 mil rig-drilling job from PTTEP

Samaiden bags RM181 mil contract
to build solar power plant in Kedah
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Samaiden
Group Bhd’s unit has secured a contract
worth RM181.34 million to develop a solar
power plant in Sungai Petani, Kedah. In a
filing to Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday (July
11), the company said its wholly owned
subsidiary Samaiden Sdn Bhd (SSB) received
the contract from Uzma Bhd’s associate
company Suria Infiniti Sdn Bhd. The project
is a large-scale solar PV (LSSPV) power plant
with a capacity of 50MWac (megawatts),
which has been approved by the Energy
Commission pursuant to the LSS4 (large-
scale solar 4) programme. The contract is
expected to contribute positively towards
the future earnings of Samaiden throughout
the duration of the project, the renewable
energy company said. The power plant will
also be owned by Uzma’s indirect wholly
owned subsidiary Uzma Kuala Muda Sdn
Bhd. — by Priyatharisiny Vasu
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Velesto Energy Bhd’s indirect wholly owned subsidiary Velesto Drilling
Sdn Bhd has secured a contract for the provision of drilling rig services for PTTEP Sabah Oil Ltd and
PTTEP Sarawak Oil Ltd worth some RM60.55 million. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday
(July 11), the group stated that Velesto Drilling, a subsidiary of Velesto Malaysian Ventures Sdn
Bhd, in turn wholly owned by Velesto, had received a letter of award from PTTEP for the provision
of one 10K jack-up drilling rig known as “Jack-Up Rig #3” for its 2022-2023 exploration drilling
programme. The contract will involve the assignment of the group’s Naga 3 for PTTEP’s drilling
programme, requiring it to drill two firm wells starting from February 2023. Naga 3 is a premium
independent-leg cantilever jack-up drilling rig with drilling depth capability of 30,000ft and a rated
operating water depth of 350ft. Velesto shares closed unchanged at 23.5 sen on Tuesday, with 6.58
million shares changing hands, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.93 billion. — by Isabelle Francis
SCIB signs MOU with IRIX to participate in submarine cable system project
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Sarawak Consolidated Industries Bhd (SCIB) has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IRIX Sdn Bhd that will pave the way for SCIB
to acquire a 30% stake in IRIX SEA H2X Sdn Bhd, pending satisfactory due diligence. SCIB
announced on Tuesday (July 11) that through its MOU with IRIX, the company would
participate in the SEA-H2X project by investing in IRIX SEA H2X, which is part of the
consortium responsible for constructing and operating the Southeast Asia Hainan-Hong Kong
express cable system. It said upon fulfillment of the MOU’s conditions precedent, SCIB is to
subscribe up to 30% of IRIX SEA H2X’s issued capital and pay a deposit sum of RM2 million for
the transaction. The transaction, it added, would be conditional upon satisfactory due diligence
conducted by SCIB. Subsequently, the parties shall execute a share subscription agreement
in respect of the proposed transaction. SCIB added the estimated value of the company’s
involvement in the project is RM250 million, saying the venture offers substantial financial
rewards and the promise of exciting growth opportunities for SCIB. — by Priyatharisiny Vasu
Read the full story
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
Muhyiddin’s four abuse of power charges
contained all necessary details,
says prosecution
BY TIMOTHY ACHARIAM
theedgemalaysia.com
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The pros-
ecution in former prime minister Tan Sri
Muhyiddin Yassin’s abuse of power trial
argued that the four charges against him
have all the necessary particulars to notify
him of his offences.
During a hearing before the High Court
on Tuesday (July 11) in Muhyiddin’s bid to
strike out the said charges, deputy public
prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said that
all four charges stated the necessary elements
under Section 23(1) of MACC Act 2009.
Muhyiddin is claiming that the charges
are an abuse of process and in breach of
Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure
Code, as it allegedly lacked particulars as
to how he had abused his position or the
Prime Minister’s Office for the purpose
of gratification, thereby violating Muhy-
iddin’s constitutional rights as enshrined
under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution.
Ahmad Akram argued against Muhyid-
din’s contention, claiming that it was prema-
ture to say that the charges were defective, as
they were complete and gave enough notice
to Muhyiddin to prepare a sufficient defence.
He said Muhyiddin’s role (as Bersatu
president and then prime minister) when
the alleged offence was committed was
clearly stated in the charge sheet, adding
that the parties who had given him the al-
leged gratification (Bukhary Equity Sdn
Bhd as well as two other companies and
an individual) were also stated.
The charges alleged Muhyiddin as hav-
ing received RM232.5 million in bribes
from corporate entities and an individual
between March 1, 2020 and Aug 20, 2021.
The charges alleged that the money was
deposited into Bersatu’s bank accounts
from Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, Nepturis
Sdn Bhd, Mamfor Sdn Bhd and Datuk
Azman Yusoff.
“There were specifics, we gave dates, key
date facts and figures to the person (accused).
What else do you want? You should know
what you did. There are no defective charg-
es,” Akram said while arguing before Sessions
Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin.
Earlier, Muhyiddin’s lawyer Datuk
Hisyam Teh Poh Teik argued that because
the charges did not contain particulars of
how Muhyiddin had committed the alleged
14 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
Muhyiddin is claiming
that the charges are
an abuse of process
and in breach of
Section 154 of the
Criminal Procedure
Code, as it allegedly
lacked particulars as
to how he had abused
his position or the
Prime Minister’s
Office for the purpose
of gratification,
thereby violating his
constitutional rights.
abuses of power, as his legal counsel, he
was unable to advise Muhyiddin on how
to mount his defence.
“A charge is a most serious document
that gives information to the accused on
what the allegations are against him so he
can advise his lawyers to make an effective
defence,” Hisyam said.
“We are unable to advise how he is to
take his defence. The particulars [we asked
for] aren’t here.These particulars, the pros-
ecution must supply for a charge of this
nature before the court,” he said.
He said that the prosecution is motivat-
ed by an “oblique motive” to cause irrepa-
rable harm to Muhyiddin by not disclosing
his offence in the charges.
“It is our submission that the respond-
ent (the prosecution) is motivated by an
oblique motive — a motive to cause irrep-
arable harm to the applicant (Muhyiddin)
by preferring four abuse of position charg-
es that do not disclose an offence and by
preferring charges without sufficient par-
ticulars to frustrate the defence,” he said.
For comparison, Hisyam cited Datuk
Seri Najib Abdul Razak and Arul Kanda
Kandasamy’s 1MDB-linked criminal cas-
es, which also contained offences under
Section 23 of the MACC Act.
He contended that particulars were giv-
en to both men in their charges.
“Why is the public prosecutor practic-
ing double standards against the applicant
(Muhyiddin)?” he asked.
After receiving arguments from both
the prosecution and defence, Muhammad
Jamil fixed Aug 15 to decide on whether
to strike out the four charges.
In two money laundering charges
against Muhyiddin, he was charged with
receiving proceeds from illegal activi-
ties amounting to RM195 million from
Bukhary Equity.
Muhyiddin, who is also Perikatan Na-
sional chairman, has maintained his in-
nocence, claiming he has never received
any of these payments personally or into
his bank account.
At the Shah Alam Sessions Court on
March 13, he also claimed trial to money
laundering involving RM5 million from
Bukhary Equity.
Bukhary Equity is a company 99%
owned by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar
Al Bukhary, while the remaining 1% is held
by his wife Syarifah Zarah Syed Kechik.
Nepturis is equally owned by Aliza Ab-
dul Malek and Mohd Rizman Akum Khan.
Mamfor is 60% owned by Shaharani
Kassim, 39% by Shahradzi Shamsuddin,
and 1% held by Faezah Kassim while Az-
man is the Malaysian Bumiputra Contrac-
tor Association president.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 15 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF

Invitation For Open Tender

Malayan Banking Berhad (Company No: 196001000142) 100 Jalan Tun Perak, 50050 Kuala Lumpur

MAYBANK MALAYSIA DATA CENTRE CO-LOCATION AND HOSTING FACILITIES

Introduction

Malayan Banking Berhad (“Maybank”) is looking to expand its Data Centre Hosting Facility space to cater for growth. We invite qualified and experienced
Data Centre Facility Hosting Provider(s)/Vendor(s) (“Tenderers”) who fulfil the requirements listed below to participate in this Tender exercise:
MAYBANK MALAYSIA DATA CENTRE CO-LOCATION AND HOSTING FACILITIES (“Tender”)

A. Mandatory Criteria

Companies/businesses with direct or partnership presence in Malaysia, with:

1. Proven experience in similar scope of works/services (Section B: High-Level Scope of Works) for the past 5 years; and

2. Minimum paid up capital of RM1,000,000

B. High-Level Scope of Works*

1. Data Centre Hosting Facility

i) The facility is/shall be certified with Uptime Institute Tier III - Tier Certification of Designed/Constructed Facility (TCDD/TCCF) or/and Tier
Certification of “Constructed Facility” for Rating 3 by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) based on its latest edition, TIA-942. i.e.
• The power supply to each rack PDU (A and B) is delivered via totally diverse routes and from two different power distribution path, each
come from two different power sub-station (preferably from two different power grid).
• Two (2) diverse, physically isolated independent telecommunication paths of entry into the facility hosting space.

ii) The facility has/shall have a minimum of 11,000 sq ft of initial hosting space, and able to expand at 17% per annum adjacent to the initial
hosting space.

2. Mechanical & Electrical of the Data Centre Hosting Facility

i) The facility has/shall be capable of supporting 1.6 MW worth of IT computing load in year 1, with ability to scale up at minimum of 17%
per annum.
ii) The facility shall deliver efficient PUE rating.

3. Security Control of the Data Centre Hosting Facility:

The facility shall be equipped with comprehensive security control coverage for Facility/Perimeter/Hosting Hall zones with multiple control/
enforcement points.

4. Location
The facility shall be located at a reasonable distance, away from high-risk areas such as petroleum/chemical processing, explosive manufacturing,
heavy machinery, research labs, chemical plants, military bases, landfills, rivers, coastlines, dams and developing township prone for disruptive
construction and road works.

* the requirements listed herein are not exhaustive. Maybank reserves the right to make changes to the requirements at its sole discretion.

C. Maybank Tenderers Registration

1. Interested Tenderers who meet the criteria set in Section A and Section B above are invited to register for an account in Maybank’s eTender portal
in order to participate in this Tender. The eTender portal is accessible via https://zsn.zycus.com/guest/genericRegister/MAY221

2. The pre-qualification documents listed below, duly certified as true copies by the Company Secretary MUST be uploaded to eTender portal via the
Tenderer’s registered account:
a) Company Profile or equivalent form
b) Registration of the company or ACRA or equivalent form (ROC Form, Form 9/13, 23, 24, 49/58)
c) Audited financial statement for the most recent 2 years

3. During online registration, Tenderer shall indicate clearly in the Supplier Declaration form item 9 by:
a) Selecting ‘With Bidding/Tender/Request for Quotation participation’
b) Inserting ‘Maybank Malaysia Data Centre Co-Location and Hosting Facilities’ into the Application status (with Job/Tender/Self Register)
Remarks

4. Registration Closing date and time: by 5:00 pm, Thursday, 20th July 2023.

5. Upon successful registration, Tenderer will be notified to submit response to the Request for Information (RFI).

D. Submission of Request for Information (RFI)

1. RFI shall be accessible in Maybank’s eTender portal on Thursday, 27th July 2023, which will be notified to the Tenderers via email registered with
Maybank in eTender Portal.

2. The response to RFI shall be duly completed and uploaded to Maybank’s eTender portal via the Tenderer’s designated account.

3. Incomplete or late submission will not be considered for further evaluation.

4. Request for Proposal (RFP) document will be issued only to the qualified Tenderers via Maybank’s eTender platform after the evaluation of RFI.

Disclaimer

This invitation does not form any legal/binding agreement between Maybank and the Tenderers. Maybank reserves the right, at its sole discretion to
accept or reject any or all responses to this Tender, and to negotiate with any or all considered Tenderers. The criteria used in the evaluation process,
is solely at the discretion of Maybank.

Enquiries

For any enquiries, please submit via email to: dcsourcing@maybank.com by 5:00 pm, Thursday, 20th July 2023, with the email subject ‘Maybank
Malaysia Data Centre Co-Location and Hosting Facilities’
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 16 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
H O M E
BERNAMA
Gabungan Patriotisme dan Perpaduan Kebangsaan (GPPK) chairman Brig Gen (R) Datuk Mohamed
Arshad Mohamed Raji (centre) at the media conference to announce the setting up of GPPK, which is a
coalition of more than 60 non-governmental organisations, here on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
Mohamed Arshad was speaking at a me-
Stop politics of dia conference to announce the setting up
of GPPK, which is a coalition of more than
hate and embrace 60 non-governmental organisations, here
on Tuesday (July 11).
love for nation, He said coalition members of GPPK
will collaborate to carry out programmes
says new NGO on education and promotion of solidarity
and harmony in the country.
coalition for He added that GPPK, with the slogan
“Gelombang Perpaduan” (Wave of Uni-
patriotism and ty), will also conduct advocacy and rebuke
those who are found to be issuing state-
harmony ments and taking actions that can threaten
harmony among races, without favouring
any political party.
Bernama “We want to state emphatically that
GPPK is not on the side of any politi-
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Gabungan cal party, nor used as a tool of [any] po-
Patriotisme dan Perpaduan Kebangsaan litical party. But this does not mean that
(GPPK) has called on all parties including we will remain silent against any political
politicians to stop the practice of politics malpractice that may occur as a result of
of hate and instead, embrace the spirit of defamation and incitement by certain par-
love for the nation. ties,” he said.
GPPK chairman Brig Gen (R) Datuk Mohamed Arshad said that Malaysia as
Mohamed Arshad Mohamed Raji said it a multi-racial country should be a model
is very sad, as there are still quarters who or example of one that successfully unites
politicise the differences among the people, its people under one identity, and one that
especially on race and religion, even though no longer fights with each other over its
the country has achieved independence for diversity.
almost 66 years. He said the people need to return to
“We are seeing how great irresponsible the principles of Rukun Negara, which
parties are at hurling slanders and creat- once succeeded in fostering the spirit of
ing incitement at their political opponents, harmony and unity among the people in
which can spark unrest among the people overcoming all the issues which are of con-
who want peace. cern among the races.
“What is even worse is that they poison “Rukun Negara is the antidote to all
and distort the minds of the people with efforts to unify the people. Meanwhile,
propaganda of hate and slanders; this is the five principles of Rukun Negara are
biggest hurdle to unite the people and it the key to racial harmony and unity that
fuels negative impacts on the country’s so- can overcome all issues that cause anxiety
cial and economic development,” he said. among the people,” he said.
Fadhlina: National
Digital Education
Policy to be
implemented soon
Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The Na-
tional Digital Education Policy has been
approved by the Cabinet for immediate
implementation to ensure digital fluency
among teachers and students, said Edu-
cation Minister Fadhlina Sidek.
She said that to ensure the success of
the policy, the ministry is now focusing
on improving infrastructure and stream-
lining the digital ecosystem in schools.
“The Education Ministry is working
with the Ministry of Communications
and Digital (KKD) to improve the in-
frastructure and digital ecosystem in
schools and for a start, some 3,600
schools have benefited from KKD’s POP
(Point of Presence) project,” she said.
She told this to reporters after open-
ing the 2002 Digital Utilisation and
Technology Awards (Duta) presenta-
tion here on Tuesday (July 11).
According to Fadhlina, the ministry
has set a high target to reduce the dig-
ital gap among schools, regardless of
religious schools, suburban schools or
under-enrolled schools.
Meanwhile, Fadhlina said schools
under the ministry had been allocated
RM70,000 each to solve the problem of
toilet maintenance and they had been
given three months to ensure the clean-
liness of their toilets.
The ministry is in the process of dis-
bursing the financial assistance to the
schools concerned, she added.
Meanwhile, at the award presenta-
tion ceremony, Sekolah Jenis Kebang-
saan (T) Ladang Voules Johor was
announced the winner of the Digital
Education Award, Gold category for the
Best Under-Enrolled School, while the
Bintulu District Education Office was
announced the winner in the Best Dis-
trict Education Office category.
Perlis was named the winner of the
State Education Department category.
The event was held by the Ministry
of Education to appreciate and give rec-
ognition to students, teachers, district
education offices and state education
departments for empowering the use of
technology in an innovative, creative and
ethical way in the teaching and learning
process, as well as to produce a compet-
itive, digitally savvy generation.
 w e d n e s d a y j u ly 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): The Uni-
ty Government Leadership Consultative
Council has finalised the distribution of
seats for the six state elections on Aug 12.
This was announced by Prime Minister
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after chairing
a meeting of the council here on Tuesday
(July 11) night.
“(Seat allocations) finalised for all states;
only one or two states (with issues) which
we discussed and settled tonight.
“We will give the dates for announce-
ment on candidates (for the polls) in two
or three days’ time,” Anwar told reporters
after the meeting at the World Trade Cen-
tre Kuala Lumpur (WTCKL).
Among the top leaders of the Unity
Government who attended the meeting
were Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman and
Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad
Zahid Hamidi; Gabungan Parti Sarawak
(GPS) chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yu-
sof and Parti Amanah Negara president
Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu.
The prime minister said parties in the
Unity Government would use the theme
“Perpaduan Demi Kestabilan dan Kemak-
muran” (Unity for Stability and Prosper-
ity)’ for facing the state polls.
SHAH ALAM (July 11): Selangor Menteri
Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari has ex-
pressed his wish to continue helming the state
government if the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and
Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition wins at the
state election next month.
The Selangor PH chairman said his wish
stems from wanting to implement the state’s
various development plans for the sustaina-
bility of its economy and the well-being of
its people.
“Although the plans involve teamwork,
I believe I have a duty to complete and dis-
charge the plans promised to the people, es-
pecially under the First Selangor Plan (RS-1).
“This wish is in line with my commitment
to defend the Sungai Tua state seat in the up-
coming elections, of which I am the incum-
bent now,” he said in an exclusive interview
with Bernama.
The Gombak Member of Parliament also
refuted rumours of plans afoot to change his
role from that of menteri besar to a federal
minister after the state poll.
“There is a lot of talk out there... some
saying I will be transferred to [the] federal
[government], from menteri besar to Cabinet
minister, but Selangor PH is keen to retain
me as menteri besar.
“So far, there has been no plan to change
my role in the discussions with PH chairman
and Prime Minister [Datuk Seri Anwar Ibra-
him],” he said, adding that, however, being a
party member, he would abide by any deci-
17 TheEdge CEO morning brief
h o m e
Anwar: Unity Govt
has settled the
seat allocations for
upcoming state
polls
Bernama
However, he said the leadership in
every state holding the polls could come
up with additional slogans and election
manifestos.
“We discussed work preparations and
strategies for facing elections in the six
states and we are satisfied. We see that the
spirit of loyal supporters can be enhanced,
and based on reports, I believe we not only
can retain three states but also have confi-
dence to capture several others,” he said.
He said the meeting also agreed that
the Unity Government should contin-
ue to be strengthened to drive economic
growth and protect the prosperity and
Amirudin says would
like to continue
helming Selangor govt
if Pakatan-Barisan
victorious in state poll
Bernama
sions of the party leadership.
Amiruddin has been the state assembly-
man for Sungai Dua (previously known as
the Batu Caves state constituency) since the
12th General Elections in 2018.
He was sworn in as menteri besar before
the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin
Idris Shah, on June 19, 2018 after Datuk Seri
Mohamed Azmin Ali relinquished the post
to become the minister of Economic Affairs.
Meanwhile, Amirudin also criticised Peri-
katan Nasional (PN), saying it did not have
the courage to name a menteri besar candi-
date despite some of its leaders, including Mo-
hamed Azmin, who is the Bukit Antarabangsa
incumbent, aggressively portraying themselves
as champions of the Selangor people.
He said this showed that PN has no con-
fidence in the former menteri besar, even
though its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin had previously announced that Ber-
well-being of the people.
“I was touched and impressed by state-
ments from leaders expressing their will-
ingness to continue strengthening (the
government) and to deflect rumours from
desperate groups recklessly using narrow
racial and religious sentiments to give the
impression that there would be a change
(of government).
“What is stated here, which represents
a big majority of members of Parliament
(MPs) is to stand firm on strengthening
the Unity Government until the end of
five years,” he said.
Anwar also said the “Jelajah Perpaduan
Madani” and the launch of the Unity ma-
chinery would continue in Kedah on July
15, followed by Penang (July 16), Kelan-
tan (July 23), Negeri Sembilan (July 27)
and Terengganu (July 28).
The meeting was also attended by
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji
Noor; Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Jo-
hari Tun Openg; Progressive Democratic
Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong
King Sing; Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah
(PBRS) president Datuk Arthur Joseph
Kurup, and PKR secretary-general Datuk
Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
satu would take up the post if the coalition,
which includes PAS and Gerakan, wins at
the state polls.
“People are still guessing about who will
be their menteri besar candidate.
“I know that PAS is also eyeing the posi-
tion and their grassroots believe a PAS can-
didate would be better qualified,” he said.
Amirudin appealed to the people to be
wise and vote for PH-BN in the upcoming
election to ensure the continuity of the ad-
ministration that has made Selangor the most
economically and socially successful state,
despite the recent Covid-19 pandemic and
global economic downturn.
The Election Commission had earlier
announced that Selangor, Kedah, Penang,
Kelantan,Terengganu and Negeri Sembilan
go to the polls on Aug 12, with nominations
set for July 29 and early voting on Aug 8.
Read also:
State polls: BN to announce candidates on
July 21, says Ahmad Zahid
Employers must allow workers to return to
hometown to vote, says deputy HR minister
Amanah may contest over 30 seats in
coming state polls, says Salahuddin
 w e d n e s d a y j u ly 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
TAIPEI/MUMBAI (July 11):Taiwan’s Fox-
conn said it intends to apply for incentives
under India’s semiconductor manufacturing
plan, a day after parting ways withVedanta on
a US$19.5 billion (RM90.91 billion) chip-
making joint venture (JV).
Foxconn withdrew from the JV with
Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedan-
ta on Monday (July 10), in a setback to
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chipmak-
ing plans for India.
The world’s largest contract electronics
maker said on Tuesday it is working towards
applying under India’s Modified Programme
for Semiconductors and Display Fab Ecosys-
tem, a US$10 billion plan offering incentives
of up to 50% of capital costs for semicon-
ductor and display manufacturing projects.
“We have been actively reviewing the
landscape for optimal partners,” it said in
a statement. “Foxconn is committed to
India, and sees the country successfully
establishing a robust semiconductor man-
ufacturing ecosystem.”
Although Foxconn will start afresh, its
break-up with Vedanta is a setback for Modi
who has made chipmaking a top priority in
pursuit of a “new era” in electronics man-
ufacturing. Modi hailed the JV last year as
an “important step” in accelerating India’s
semiconductor manufacturing ambitions.
Foxconn is in talks with several local
and international partners to make sem-
iconductors in India using mature chip
manufacturing technology for products in-
cluding EVs, two people with direct knowl-
edge of the discussions said, requesting
anonymity as the plans are confidential.
(July 11): Rice prices in Asia have surged to
the highest level in more than two years, as
importers build up stockpiles on fears that
the onset of El Niño will parch plantations
and damage crops.
A benchmark grade in the region, Thai
white rice 5% broken, has climbed about
15% in the past four months to US$535
(RM2,493.90) a ton, the strongest since
early March 2021, according to data from
the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
El Niño conditions have developed in
the tropical Pacific for the first time in sev-
en years, according to the World Meteoro-
logical Organization, threatening to bring
drought to Southeast Asia.That comes just
as three days of record global temperatures
last week increased concerns over the pace
of climate change.
While monsoon rains have brought
relief to rice fields in parts of India, the
top exporter, dry weather is threatening
crops in No 2 shipper Thailand, with the
country facing widespread drought con-
ditions from early 2024. The government
18 TheEdge CEO morning brief
w o r l d
Foxconn targets
India’s chip
scheme after
pulling plug on
US$19.5 bil JV
by Yimou Lee, Ben Blanchard
& Dhwani Pandya
Reuters
“The company will continue to be there,
just that it will find other partners,” one
of the people said.
India expects its semiconductor market
to be worth US$63 billion by 2026, but
Modi’s plan has so far floundered.
Although three companies applied for
incentives last year — Vedanta-Foxconn
JV, Singapore-based IGSS Ventures and
global consortium ISMC, which counts
Tower Semiconductor as a tech partner
— no plan has been sealed.
The US$3 billion ISMC project is stalled
because Tower is being acquired by Intel,
while another US$3 billion plan by IGSS was
also halted, because it wanted to resubmit its
application, Reuters has reported.
Venture troubles
Explaining its break-up with Vedanta, Fox-
conn said “there was recognition from both
sides that the project was not moving fast
Rice soars to two-year
high in Asia on El Niño
drought risks
by Napat Kongsawad
Bloomberg
has already asked farmers to restrict their
planting to just one crop this year.
“With El Niño, we’ll start to clearly
see the effects of dry weather later around
September and October,” said Chookiat
Ophaswongse, the honorary president of
the Thai Rice Exporters Association. “This
being said, we’ll see stockpiling continue as
El Niño looks set to drag on into next year.”
Indonesian purchases
Importers have started building inventories
at aggressive rates. Vietnam expects rice
exports this year to climb to the highest
in about a decade, with shipments surg-
enough”, and there were other “challeng-
ing gaps we were not able to smoothly over-
come”, without giving more details.
“This is not a negative,” Foxconn added.
Reuters earlier reported that deadlocked
talks on finalising European chipmaker ST-
Microelectronics as a tech partner of the Ve-
danta-Foxconn JV, and delayed incentive ap-
provals were among reasons for the pull-out.
The two sources said on Tuesday that
Indian authorities and Foxconn were both
concerned about Vedanta’s finances, which
had also contributed to the Taiwanese
firm’s decision to end the JV.
Vedanta’s London-based parent, Ve-
danta Resources, has been plagued by a
rising debt pile.
Credit rating agency Moody’s down-
graded its rating of the company in March,
and warned that ongoing debt related is-
sues expose Vedanta “to material refinanc-
ing risks and exacerbate the likelihood of a
payment default or a distressed exchange”.
There have been no defaults on the
group’s debt,Vedanta chairman Anil Agar-
wal has said.
Vedanta and India’s Information Tech-
nology Ministry did not respond to re-
quests for comment on Tuesday.
Like Foxconn, the Indian government
said the break-up of the JV had “no im-
pact” on India’s semiconductor plans,
adding that both companies are “valued
investors” in the country.
Foxconn’s Taipei listed shares closed up
0.5%, underperforming the broader mar-
ket. Vedanta shares fell as much as 2.6% in
Mumbai, before paring some losses.
ing to buyers in the Philippines, China and
Indonesia.
“The large buying from Indonesia and
the Philippines has pushed the market
higher,” said Jeremy Zwinger, the found-
er and chief executive officer of research
firm The Rice Trader. Still, “weakness will
return in the new year or even the fourth
quarter, unless politics or weather chang-
es direction”.
Global rice supplies remain exception-
ally large, Zwinger said. While the world’s
year-ending stockpiles have dropped for
two years, they are coming off a record
high, according to data from the US De-
partment of Agriculture.
Heatwaves are likely to persist in many
areas of southern China in the next few
days, with temperatures rising as high as
40°C in parts of the top rice-growing prov-
inces of Hunan and Jiangxi, according to
the China Meteorological Administration.
There’s a “high risk” that heat will force the
premature ripening of some rice in these
areas, it said.
 w e d n e s d a y j u ly 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
Australia says
Solomon Islands,
China should
publish details of
police deal
by Kirsty Needham
Reuters
SYDNEY (July 11): Australia said the
Solomon Islands and China should
“provide transparency of their inten-
tions to Australia and the region” by
immediately publishing details of a
policing deal signed in Beijing.
The police cooperation pact was
among nine deals signed after Solo-
mon Islands Prime Minister Manas-
seh Sogavare met with Chinese Pre-
mier Li Qiang in Beijing.
A spokesperson for Australian
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said
Australia was aware of reports ref-
erencing a policing implementa-
tion plan linked to a deal signed be-
tween China and Solomon Islands
in March 2022.
“We are concerned that this de-
velopment will invite further regional
contest,” the spokesperson said in a
statement.
“Solomon Islands and China
should provide transparency of their
intentions to Australia and the region
by publishing the agreement imme-
diately, so the Pacific family can col-
lectively consider the implications
for our shared security.”
Australia had expressed strong
concern at the prospect of China’s
security presence in Solomon Islands
in 2022, when a security pact was
struck between those two countries.
That deal prompted Pacific Island
nations to agree to a “Pacific fam-
ily first” approach to security, the
statement said.
Last month, Sogavare called for a
review of a 2017 security treaty with
Australia, which has historically pro-
vided policing support to the Solomon
Islands, including the rapid deploy-
ment of police in 2021 to quell riots.
China has increased its police
training in the Solomon Islands in
recent months. The deal signed in
Beijing on Monday (July 10) will al-
low for a police presence until 2025.
19 TheEdge CEO morning brief
w o r l d
China signals
more economic
aid after property
debt relief
Bloomberg
(July 11): China signalled that more eco-
nomic support measures are imminent af-
ter authorities took a small step towards
supporting the ailing property market by
extending loan relief for developers.
Top state-run financial newspapers ran
reports on Tuesday (July 11) flagging the
likely adoption of more property support-
ive policies, along with measures to boost
business confidence.
Earlier, financial regulators stepped
up pressure on banks to ease terms for
property companies by encouraging nego-
tiations to extend outstanding loans. The
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and Na-
tional Financial Regulatory Administration
(NFRA) said in a joint statement on Mon-
day that the aim is to ensure the delivery of
homes that are under construction.
Some outstanding loans — including
trust loans due by the end of 2024 — will
be given a one-year repayment extension,
it said. Previously, the more-generous loan
terms were to be applied only for loans
that were due by late May 2023, as part
of a 16-point plan unveiled late last year.
“The move signals that regulators con-
sider it’ll take a year and a half more for
developers to see their fundraising and
operations normalise,” said Liu Shui, a
research director at China Index Hold-
ings Ltd. “It means the housing market
downturn and developer risks have been
worse than they expected earlier.”
Loans due by the end of 2024 account
for about 30% to 40% of developers’ total
debts, according to Raymond Cheng, the
head of China and Hong Kong research
at CGS-CIMB Securities, adding that the
measures may help ease developers’ liquid-
ity in the short term if implemented.
China’s real estate crisis is stifling a recov-
ery in the world’s second-largest economy,
fuelling expectations for the government to
take more steps to revive demand. Home
sales resumed declines in June following a
brief rebound earlier this year, adding to
pressure on debt-laden developers.
To revive the market, regulators have
long been expected to come up with more
supportive policies. People familiar with the
matter said in June that China is considering
a new basket of measures, such as reducing
down payments in some non-core neigh-
bourhoods of major cities, lowering agent
commissions on transactions, and further re-
laxing restrictions for residential purchases.
China Securities Journal, the country’s flag-
ship securities newspaper, said on Tuesday
that China is expected to “accelerate” policy
roll-outs in order to promote the stable and
healthy development of its real estate market.
In a separate report, it also said the govern-
ment may introduce measures to boost busi-
ness confidence among private, state-owned
and foreign firms, following officials’ recent
meetings with company executives.
Meanwhile, Shanghai Securities News cited
Wang Qing, the chief macro analyst of Gold-
en Credit Rating, as saying that policymakers
may take further measures such as relaxing
property purchase and mortgage rules as
well as cutting home loan rates to achieve a
soft landing of the real estate market.
Bloomberg
China’s real estate crisis
is stifling a recovery
in the world’s second-
largest economy.
In the statement, the PBOC and NFRA
said project-based special loans provided
by commercial banks to developers before
the end of 2024 would not be classified as
higher risk. They also urged financial insti-
tutions to ramp up support to ensure the
delivery of construction projects.
“Today’s easing, which focuses on de-
veloper financing, is far from enough to
stabilise the sector,” Larry Hu, the head
of China economics at Macquarie Group
Ltd, wrote in a note to clients. “After all,
credit risk for banks would remain elevated
if the housing market stays weak.”
Still, the move may signal that more
property steps are coming, he added.
Such loosening may continue to be lim-
ited to smaller prefectures, such as in cer-
tain districts instead of in a city as a whole,
said Ethan Wang, the chief investment
strategist at Standard Chartered Bank’s
China wealth management business.
A “bazooka” package that can quickly
turn the property sector around isn’t likely,
said Nomura Holdings Inc’s chief China
economist Lu Ting.
Read the full story
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
Bank of America
to pay US$250
mil to settle US
‘junk fee’ case
BY BEN BAIN, PAIGE SMITH
& KATHERINE DOHERTY
Bloomberg
WASHINGTON (July 11): Bank of Amer-
ica Corp agreed to pay US$150 million
to regulators and US$100 million to cus-
tomers for improperly charging fees and
mismanaging accounts and rewards, the
top US consumer watchdog said.
(July 11): BlackRock Inc remains most
overweight Chinese stocks in Asia, say-
ing a recent market rout looks overdone
as the country’s corporate fundamentals
are still solid.
Investors are pricing in the “very worst-
case scenario” and the market has been
“over-punished,” said Lucy Liu, Black-
Rock’s portfolio manager for global emerg-
ing markets equities, at a briefing Tuesday
(July 11). She cited resilient earnings, more
economic stimulus and a stabilization of
US-China relations as near-term catalysts.
BlackRock, which oversees about US$9.1
trillion (RM42.4 trillion) in assets globally,
turned overweight Chinese equities in Feb-
ruary, citing short-term opportunities from
the nation’s reopening from Covid curbs.
Since then, a suite of Wall Street banks have
trimmed their expectations on the world’s
second-biggest stock market as the coun-
try’s growth recovery faltered.
The MSCI China Index has recently
fallen into a bear market after dropping
more than 20% from a January peak, while
the yuan hovered near an eight-month low
against the dollar amid worries about an
ailing economy.
China’s economic slowdown has also
shone a spotlight on its hidden local debt,
with state-owned banks offering extra lend-
ing support to ease a credit crunch. How-
ever, BlackRock said it believes the local
government debt risks are manageable.
“There is very little risk for this issue
to become a systemic risk because policy
banks and the central government have a
strong balance sheet to solve the problem
if they need,” said Liu.
In the bond universe, BlackRock fa-
vours state-owned and high-quality devel-
opers as the property crisis unfolds, saying
20 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
W O R L D
The Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau said on Tuesday that it was fining
Bank of America for “systematically dou-
ble-dipping on fees imposed on customers
with insufficient funds in their account”.
The bank also withheld promised reward
bonuses and moved to open accounts with-
out customer authorisation.
The lender agreed to pay US$90 million
of the penalty and US$60 million to the
Office of the Comptroller of the Curren-
cy. Bank of America didn’t admit or deny
the allegations as part of the settlement.
In a statement, when asked about the
case, Bank of America declined to address
the case or the allegations against the lend-
er. Instead, the firm said that it “voluntarily
reduced overdraft fees and eliminated all
non-sufficient fund fees in the first half
of 2022”.
BlackRock says
China stock rout
overdone, keeps
overweight
BY JOHN CHENG
Bloomberg
BLOOMBERG
risks may continue to weigh on distressed
builders. The yuan may also stabilise in the
second half of the year if fresh stimulus
materialises and growth picks up, said Yii
Hui Wong, BlackRock’s
Asia fixed income and credit portfolio
manager.
There are still “plenty of bottom-up op-
portunities in China markets,” Liu said,
recommending the tech sector as selected
artificial intelligence-related firms should
continue to outperform. She also sees op-
portunities in consumption recovery and
industrial automation.
There’s a risk of global investors being
“too underweight” on China, Liu said. “Any
sort of positive data points on economic
recovery or any policy stimulus can trigger
some positioning aligning or review, as well
as some short squeeze in the China market.”
BLOOMBERG
India’s
government
orders inspection
of Byju’s finances
BY SIDDHARTHA SINGH
Bloomberg
(July 11): India’s government has ordered
an inspection into the finances and ac-
counting practices of education-technol-
ogy titan Byju’s, which has been rocked
by the resignation of its auditor and three
board members last month, according to
people familiar with the matter.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs
(MCA) has sought a report in six weeks,
said the people, asking not to be named
as the information isn’t public. The in-
spection follows an internal assessment
of the company’s state of affairs and —
based on findings of this inspection —
the government will decide if the mat-
ter needs to be escalated to the Serious
Fraud Investigation Office.
The inspection would be a new head-
ache for Byju’s, valued at US$22 billion
(RM102.5 billion) in the last funding
round, as it restarts negotiations to re-
structure its US$1.2 billion term loan
after breaching certain terms of its debt
agreement. Once emblematic of India’s
booming startup scene, the company
has cut thousands of jobs and is seeking
to raise more than a billion dollars to
tide over financial difficulties.
“Byju’s has not yet received any com-
munication from the MCA,” a repre-
sentative for the company said via text
message, adding that it will cooperate
fully if any routine inspection takes place.
An email to the MCA wasn’t answered.
Deloitte Haskins & Sells resigned as
Byju’s auditor last month, citing a de-
lay in submitting financial statements.
Representatives of three influential
backers — Peak XV, Prosus NV and
the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative — quit
Byju’s board in the same week, under-
scoring a rapid erosion of trust within
the company’s ranks.
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
Global energy
demand to rise
23% by 2045,
Opec says
BY ELISHA BALA-GBOGBO
Reuters
ABUJA (July 11): Global demand
for all forms of energy is forecast to
rise by 23% through 2045, Opec sec-
retary general Haitham Al Ghais told
a Nigerian oil and gas conference on
Tuesday (July 11).
Oil executives and officials from
the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (Opec) have
repeatedly made the case for con-
tinued investment in oil, warning
that prices will otherwise spike
higher.
Al Ghais also said calls to lim-
it or stop funding new oil projects
were unrealistic and unwise. He ac-
knowledged, however, the need for
technology to tackle continued fossil
fuel emissions.
“Global primary energy demand
is forecast to increase by a signifi-
cant 23% in the period up to 2045,
which means we will need all forms
of energy,” he said.
“We will require innovative
solutions such as carbon capture
utilisation and storage, and hydro-
gen projects in addition to a cir-
cular carbon economy, which has
received a positive endorsement
from the G20.”
The global oil industry needs
US$12.1 trillion (RM56.4 trillion)
in investment during the same pe-
riod, Al Ghais said, adding the in-
dustry was not on track to reach that
level of investment yet.
Sources close to Opec have said
it will likely maintain an upbeat view
on oil demand growth for next year
when it publishes its first outlook lat-
er this month, predicting a slowdown
from this year but still an above-av-
erage increase.
Opec’s forecast for 2024 will
likely be lower than the growth
it expects for this year of 2.35
million barrels per day, or 2.4%,
an abnormally high rate as the
world moves out of the Covid-19
pandemic.
21 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
W O R L D
Thai PM Prayuth
retires from
politics, nine years
after his coup
Reuters
BANGKOK (July 11): Thailand’s Prime
Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced
on Tuesday (July 11) his retirement from
politics, nine years after he took power in
a military coup, and promised to stay in
charge only temporarily.
His announcement was widely expect-
ed after his military-backed United Thai
Nation party was thumped in a May 14
election, in which it won just 36 of the 500
house seats. He will remain caretaker pre-
mier until a new government is formed.
The former army chief, a staunch royal-
ist, led a junta until an election in 2019 and
was chosen by parliament to remain prime
IEA says critical minerals
supply could pull close to
demand by 2030
BY ERIC ONSTAD
Reuters
LONDON (July 11): Supply of minerals crit-
ical to the energy transition could move close
to levels needed to support climate pledges by
2030 after a surge in investment, the Interna-
tional Energy Agency said on Tuesday (July
11) — provided all projects go as planned.
Consultants and analysts have warned
of looming shortages due to surging de-
mand for key minerals like lithium and
cobalt used in electric vehicles, wind tur-
bines and other clean energy technologies.
But after investment in critical miner-
als production jumped 30% last year to
USUS$41 billion (RM191.1 billion), hav-
ing gained 20% in 2021, that picture is
looking brighter, the IEA said.
In key battery mineral lithium, the
IEA forecasts supply by 2030 will reach
420,000 metric tonnes — only a touch
short of demand estimated at 443,000 to
meet government pledges, though well
below the 702,000 required for net zero.
“We are happy that for a change we can
give some good news,” IEA executive direc-
tor Fatih Birol told Reuters in an interview.
“This is testimony that the markets are
minister for four more years, an outcome
his opponents insist was pre-determined.
Prayuth, 69, has denied that and on Tues-
day said he had “achieved many successes”.
“I as prime minister have worked hard
to protect the nation, religion, monarchy
for the benefit of the beloved people. The
result is currently bearing fruit for the pub-
lic,” he said in a statement.
“I have tried to strengthen the coun-
try in all areas for stability and peace and
overcame many obstacles domestically and
internationally.”
In the nine years since his coup, Prayuth
has survived multiple challenges via court
cases, house confidence votes and street
protests by opponents who saw him as an
opportunist who lacked a public mandate.
His announcement comes as the new
parliament prepares to convene on Thurs-
day to hold a vote on who will be the
next prime minister, an outcome far from
certain.
Read also: Picking PM seen as turning
point for Thai markets
buying in to the fact that the clean energy
transition is moving very fast.”
Critical mineral start-up firms raised
a record USUS$1.6 billion in 2022, up
160% from the previous year, the IEA said.
Demand for critical minerals has surged
over the past five years, including a tripling in
consumption of lithium and a jump of 70%
for cobalt, with the total critical mineral mar-
ket now worth USUS$320 billion, it said.
While the supply picture is improving,
the Paris-based energy watchdog warned
that delays and cost overruns for projects
posed a risk to the upbeat scenario.
More work is also needed to diversify from
key nations that have tight control on output
of many minerals, such as China, Indonesia
and Congo, the IEA added in a report.
The newly financed projects will help
meet rising demand for critical minerals
that the IEA has calculated will be need-
ed to meet climate pledges made by gov-
ernments, which would likely result in a
global temperature rise of 1.7C by 2100.
The agency made separate estimates
of what would be necessary to meet a net
zero-emission scenario by 2050.
Mining companies needed to make
more progress in curbing greenhouse gas
emissions and water use, the IEA said.
Twenty top miners emitted 0.18kg of
CO2 per kg of minerals in 2021, the same
as in 2020, while water use climbed to 7.9
cubic metres per metric tonne of mined
output in 2021 from 5.4 cubic metres in
2019, the IEA said.
 w e d n e s d a y j u ly 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
LONDON (July 11): A key measure of Brit-
ish wages matched its highest growth rate on
record but there were also some signs that
the inflationary heat in the labour market
is subsiding, offering the prospect of some
relief ahead for the Bank of England (BOE).
The 7.3% increase in basic earnings
in the three months to May matched the
reading in the three months to April —
which was revised up from an initial es-
timate of 7.2% — and also the second
quarter of 2021, the Office for National
Statistics (ONS) said.
Economists polled by Reuters had fore-
cast a 7.1% rise.
Sterling touched a 15-month high
against the dollar as it rose by 0.3% on
the day and also gained moderately against
the euro after the data.
But the figures also suggested that the
labour market was becoming less tight as
the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose
to 4% from 3.8% in the three months to
April and vacancies extended their run of
falls to their lowest since mid-2021.
The yields on two-year British gov-
ernment bonds, which are sensitive to
speculation about interest rates, fell by
(July 11): US small business confidence
climbed to a seven-month high in June as
pessimism about the economic outlook
diminished sharply and sales expectations
improved, but a still-tight labour market
continued to drive concerns about infla-
tion, according to a survey released on
Tuesday (July 11).
The National Federation of Independ-
ent Business (NFIB) said its Small Busi-
ness Optimism Index rose 1.6 points to 91
last month, the greatest month-to-month
improvement since August 2022.
Small businesses recorded their
least-pessimistic view of near-term eco-
nomic prospects since February 2022 as
NFIB’s general business conditions outlook
index climbed 10 points to negative 40. US
small businesses have had a net negative
view of the business climate since Decem-
ber 2020, the month after Donald Trump
lost his re-election bid as US president.
Sales expectations improved somewhat
as well. A smaller net percentage of busi-
ness owners expect weaker sales in the next
three months than in May, lifting the overall
sales outlook to the highest in four months.
Inflation remained neck-and-neck with
finding quality workers as business own-
ers’ single most important problem, though
concern about price pressures are easing
from where they were a year ago. In June,
24% percent of small business owners la-
beled inflation as their biggest headache,
down from 25% in May and 13 points low-
22 TheEdge CEO morning brief
w o r l d
UK wage growth
hits joint record
high, keeping
pressure on BOE
by William Schomberg
Reuters
around three basis points in early trade.
“The labour market became less tight
in May and there are some signs of mo-
mentum in wage growth slowing a bit,”
Ashley Webb, an economist with Capital
Economics, said.
“But with wage growth still well above
the levels consistent with the 2% inflation
target, this won’t ease the Bank of Eng-
land’s inflation fears significantly.”
The BOE is monitoring pay growth
closely as it assesses how much inflation-
ary pressure remains in Britain’s econo-
my even after its 13 back-to-back interest
rate increases.
Small business
confidence in the
US reached seven-
month high in June,
survey finds
by Safiyah Riddle
Reuters
Inflation remained
neck-and-neck with
finding quality workers as
business owners’ single
most important problem.
er than last July’s peak, which was the high-
est reading since the fourth quarter of 1979.
Overall, a seasonally adjusted 29% of
owners raised average prices, the lowest
reading since March 2021 and down three
points from May, but still an inflationary rate.
Despite the improved economic outlook,
June was the 18th straight month that the
index stayed below the 49-year average of
98. Small businesses continued to struggle
Governor Andrew Bailey said on Mon-
day (July 10) wage increases as well as prices
charged by companies were rising too fast and
he vowed to “see the job through” on fight-
ing an inflation rate that at 8.7% is running
higher than in any other big rich economy.
Samuel Tombs, with Pantheon Macroe-
conomics, said the BOE might see enough
signs of a slowdown in the data to allow
it to halt its run of rate increases soon, al-
though probably not when it makes its next
monetary policy announcement on Aug 3.
“For now, wages still are rising too
quickly for the MPC [monetary policy
committee] to tolerate on an ongoing ba-
sis,” he said. “But it always has taken a
little time for changes in labour market
slack to influence wage growth and some
leading indicators remain encouraging.”
Annual pay growth including bonuses
sped up to 6.9%, the fastest on record ex-
cluding the coronavirus pandemic period
when government job subsidies distorted
the data, the ONS said.
Read also: UK mortgage rates hit 15-year
high after surpassing ‘mini-budget’ peak
with the cost and quality of labour amidst a
slowing but still-tight job market.
The NFIB survey showed 42% of owners
reported job openings that were hard to fill,
down two points from May, but still historical-
ly high. A net 15% planned to create new jobs
in the next three months, down four points
from May.The majority of small business own-
ers who were concerned about inflation cited
labour supply as the greatest concern.
“Inflation and labour shortages contin-
ue to be great challenges for small busi-
nesses. Owners are still raising selling pric-
es at an inflationary level to try to pass
on higher inventory, labour, and energy
costs,” NFIB chief economist Bill Dun-
kelberg said in a statement.
Although hiring slowed in June, when
the Department of Labor reported the
smallest increase in nonfarm payrolls in
2-1/2 years, wage growth remained strong
at 4.4% year over year.
Government data on Wednesday is ex-
pected to show the Consumer Price Index
rose by 0.3% in June after an increase of
0.1% in May, according to a Reuters survey
of economists. In the 12 months through
June, CPI inflation is forecast to fall to
3.1% from 4.0% in May. A year ago in
June, annual inflation hit a 40-year high
of 9.1% as measured by the CPI.
Economists expect the Fed will resume
interest rate hikes in July, after skipping an
increase in June.The central bank has raised
rates by 500 basis points since March 2022.
 w e d n e s d a y j u ly 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
(July 11): Standard Chartered is ramping
up its bullish bitcoin prediction, targeting
as much as US$120,000 (RM559,500) by
the end of 2024 — almost quadruple the
current price — as increasingly cash-rich
miners reduce sales of the token.
“Increased miner profitability per BTC
mined means they can sell less while main-
taining cash inflows, reducing net BTC
supply and pushing BTC prices higher,”
Geoff Kendrick at Standard Chartered
wrote on Monday (July 10).
Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive
process in which miners use powerful com-
puters to validate transaction data on the
bitcoin blockchain, keeping the network
running and earning the token as a reward.
They profit by selling the awarded bit-
coin into the market. When bitcoin prices
are higher, miners can cover costs selling
fewer bitcoins, holding on to more in the
expectation of higher prices in the future.
Bold bitcoin price predictions are noth-
ing new. Among the most bullish is from
LONDON (July 11): Saudi Aramco, the
world’s largest oil company, has become an
unlikely beneficiary of funds earmarked for
sustainable investments, thanks to a com-
plex web of financial structures it used to
raise money from its pipelines.
Aramco doesn’t appear to have set out
to tap cash originally intended for envi-
ronmental, social and good governance
goals, when it started a process to raise
US$28 billion in 2021. But the fact that
ESG investors ended up playing a role in
the capital raise of a fossil-fuel behemoth
raises questions about a playbook that’s
increasingly being used in the Gulf.
Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Sau-
di Aramco, who declined to comment for
this story, has criticised ESG in the past.
In February, he told investors gathered
in Riyadh that ESG-driven policies that
have “an automatic bias against any and
all conventional energy projects” will re-
sult in underinvestment with serious im-
plications for the global economy, energy
affordability and energy security.
The unlikely tie-up between Aramco and
ESG began with the creation of two subsidi-
aries — the Aramco Oil Pipelines Company
and the Aramco Gas Pipelines Company.
Aramco sold 49% of the shares in each unit
to consortiums led by EIG Global Energy
Partners LLC and BlackRock Inc, respec-
tively.These investors used bridge loans from
banks to fund those transactions.
In order to generate cash to repay the
bank loans, the EIG and BlackRock con-
sortiums created two special purpose ve-
hicles: EIG Pearl Holdings and GreenSaif
Pipelines Bidco, both registered at the same
23 TheEdge CEO morning brief
w o r l d
Bitcoin set to
quadruple to
US$120,000 by
end-2024, Standard
Chartered says
by Isabelle Lee & David Pan
Bloomberg
Ark Investment Management’s Cathie
Wood, who doubled down on her predic-
tion that bitcoin will hit US$1 million by
2030 as recently as November.
Standard Chartered forecast in April that
bitcoin could reach US$100,000 per coin by
the end of next year.That underestimated the
impact higher miner profitability would have
on reducing the supply of bitcoin in the mar-
Aramco’s US$28 bil
cash injection
reveals hidden
ESG loophole
by Greg Ritchie, Matthew Martin
& Samuel Dodge
Bloomberg
Luxembourg address.These SPVs then sold
bonds, which, since they had no direct links
to the fossil-fuel industry, ended up getting
an above-average score in a widely-used JP-
Morgan Chase & Co sustainability screening
based on third-party ESG scores.
From there, the bonds made their way
into JPMorgan’s ESG indexes, which are
cumulatively tracked by about US$40 bil-
lion of assets under management. Investors
in the SPV bonds include funds managed
by UBS Group AG, Legal & General In-
vestment Management and the investment
arm of HSBC Holdings Plc.
Ulf Erlandsson, founder and chief ex-
ecutive officer of the Anthropocene Fixed
Income Institute, who has researched the
pipeline deals, says it’s likely that Aramco’s
motivation was to try to access the cheaper
capital available in opaque private markets.
But the existence of such complex finan-
cial structures creates a problem for inves-
tors who want to be sure that by investing
in an ESG fund, their money is going into
climate-friendly firms.
ketplace, they now say, and expect the price to
hit US$50,000 by the end of this year before
jumping to as much as US$120,000 in 2024.
“At recent prices, they (miners) have
been selling 100% of new BTC. At
US$50,000, we think they would sell 20%-
30%,” Kendrick wrote.
Adding to supply pressure is an upcoming
“halving” in 2024, a pre-programmed event
that will reduce the supply of bitcoin rewards
available to miners from about 900 per day to
about 450. Occurring every four years, it keeps
bitcoin below its limit of 21 million tokens.
Bitcoin, the crypto sector’s largest asset,
was trading at US$30,309 as of 1.40pm
in New York. Its 83% gain this year still
leaves it well below its record high of nearly
US$69,000 in November 2021.
Its recent jump coincided with a raft of
filings for bitcoin exchange-traded funds
(ETFs) in the US, including an application
by BlackRock Inc, which has a near-pris-
tine record of filing for and receiving ap-
proval for ETFs.
“Some ESG investors have invested in
these package deals, even though it seems
unlikely that they would have bought the
oil and gas companies’ bonds on a stand-
alone basis,” Erlandsson said.
Without intervention, even more of these
securities could soon end up in the ESG in-
dexes. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate
that the SPVs need to issue around another
US$15 billion of debt, in order to continue
financing the Aramco pipeline deals.
Spokespeople for EIG, BlackRock,
JPMorgan, LGIM and UBS declined to
comment. A spokesperson for HSBC Asset
Management confirmed the firm holds the
SPV bonds without commenting further.
Maria Lozovik, a London-based Bank of
America investment banking veteran who
founded Marsham Investment Management
in 2016, says part of the problem is that ESG
rating calculation methodologies are “often
not transparent and face data gaps, which
have to be filled by estimates”. Investors in
ESG-labelled exchange-traded funds need to
“conduct thorough due diligence into what
they’re actually investing in,” she said.
Some actively-managed ESG funds have
also bought the bonds, according to data re-
viewed by Bloomberg.They include the Black-
Rock Sustainable Asian Bond Fund, which
owns Greensaif debt, and the £1.2 billion
BlackRock Global Corporate ESG Insights
Bond fund, which holds EIG Pearl debt.
Regulators are now starting to look
more closely at holes and inconsistencies
in the ESG ratings market.
Read the full story
 w e d n e s d a y j u ly 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
LONDON (July 11): China’s looming gal-
lium export controls leave automakers with
a dilemma over whether they can continue
to rely on a metal which had been seen as
a game changer for electric vehicles (EVs).
Gallium is currently used in a wide variety
of applications, from LEDs to smaller mobile
phone adaptors. Little known to most peo-
ple, gallium in pure form can melt in your
hand — but in a couple of compounds has
become sought after for semiconductors.
Automakers are hungry for anything
that boosts EV efficiency and reduces
weight, helping them to cut costs. Galli-
um nitride does both and is far cheaper
than other semiconductor materials like
platinum or palladium.
Gallium is found in trace amounts in
zinc ores and in bauxite, and gallium met-
al is produced when processing bauxite to
make aluminium. Around 80% is produced
in China, according to the European in-
dustry association Critical Raw Materials
Alliance (CRMA).
For EVs, the compound gallium nitride
can handle a lot of power without gener-
ating heat — making it ideal for on-board
chargers and possibly inverters, which help
control the flow of electricity to and from
the battery pack.
“Gallium nitride is a huge game multipli-
er,” said Umesh Mishra, co-founder at Go-
leta, California-based Transphorm, which is
developing chips using the compound.
Transphorm uses ultra thin layers of
gallium nitride that are a micron, or one
thousandth of a millimetre thick, on its
semiconductors.
“You can either charge faster with the
(July 11): Major banks are facing one of
the biggest regulatory overhauls since the
financial crisis, setting up a clash over the
amount of capital that they have to set
aside to weather tumult.
The US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) top
banking regulator, Michael Barr, said he
wants Wall Street banks to start using a
standardised approach for estimating credit,
operational and trading risks, rather than re-
lying on their own estimates. He added that
the Fed’s annual stress tests should be rejig-
gered to better capture dangers that firms
can face.The changes stem from a months-
long review to align US rules with a set of
international standards known as Basel III.
Industry titans have long fought against
higher capital requirements, and the issue
became a political lightning rod after sev-
eral lenders including Silicon Valley Bank
(SVB) collapsed this year. Barr said his ex-
amination found that the current system
was sound, but several changes were need-
ed that will result in banks setting aside
24 TheEdge CEO morning brief
w o r l d
China gallium
curbs raise chip
questions for
future EV models
by Nick Carey
Reuters
same footprint or if you want to charge
at the same rate, you can do it in a much
smaller point,” Mishra said.
Transphorm is working with automak-
ers in the design phase for on-board charg-
ers on a wide range of EV models — which
should hit the market around 2026 — and
is in conversations with others for using
them in inverters, Mishra said.
But some mineral experts say China’s de-
cision last week to impose export controls on
gallium, along with another semiconductor
material germanium, starting next month
could force automakers to think again.
The auto industry is only now recover-
ing from a pandemic-fuelled global semi-
conductor shortage that forced automakers
to halt production of some models and
in some cases to leave unfinished vehicles
standing waiting for a single chip.
Alastair Neill, a director at the Critical
Minerals Institute, said that automakers
who are in the early stages of designing
their next generation of EVs could opt for
silicon carbide, even though gallium ni-
tride performs about 30% better, rather
Big banks face higher
capital requirements
from US regulators
by Katanga Johnson
Bloomberg
more money as a cushion to protect against
losses.The announcement arrived just days
before the largest banks begin posting their
second-quarter results.
“These changes would increase capital
requirements overall, but I want to em-
phasise that they would principally raise
capital requirements for the largest, most
complex banks,” he said in a speech at
the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washing-
ton. “We intend to consider comments
carefully and any changes would be im-
plemented with an appropriate phase-in,”
than risk a fresh supply chain headache.
“If you are already banking on gallium
nitride and designing it into your platform,
then you’re in trouble,” he said.
Automakers have responded cautious-
ly to China’s announcement, with many
saying they are monitoring the situation.
A source at a Japanese automotive sup-
plier told Reuters the company was weighing
up whether to use gallium nitride or silicon
carbide for future power semiconductors.
“Of course this factor (China’s export
controls) would be an issue if we’d use a
large quantity of these devices in the fu-
ture,” said the source, who was not au-
thorised to speak on the record.
Some chipmakers have also been reti-
cent to speak.
Germany’s Infineon announced in
March it was acquiring Canada’s GaN
Systems for US$830 million (RM3.87 bil-
lion), citing the anticipated rapid growth
in gallium nitride chips.
The company said it does not comment
on specific materials.
Transphorm’s Mishra said that, as gal-
lium metal is produced when processing
bauxite to make aluminium, he is confident
other countries will step in to replace the
China supply.
“If China completely locks it down,
there will be a blip, there will be an uptick
in prices and people will just fire up their
plants in other countries,” Mishra said.
Others are less confident.
“People have to look for other options,
but gallium nitride is hard to replace, said
the CMI’s Neill. “Coming up with an al-
ternative would take a lot of time.”
he said, adding that most banks already
have enough capital to meet the new re-
quirements.
Since taking the job last year, Barr has
signalled that he generally supports tough-
er restrictions for bigger, systemically im-
portant lenders. Faced with that prospect,
large banks sounded a relatively cautious
approach for announcing payouts after
they all passed the Fed’s annual stress test
exam last month.
Analysts such as Kathleen Shanley at
Gimme Credit have questioned the use-
fulness of the current setup of the Fed’s
stress tests because most regional banks
were exempted and the scenarios were
designed before March’s sudden swoon.
Some large regionals have already re-
strained stock buy-backs and dividends
in anticipation of new capital minimums,
she wrote in a note to clients.
Read the full story
 W E D N E S D A Y J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 3
M A R K E T S
CPO RM 3,894.00 -26.00 OIL US$ 77.82 0.13 RM/USD 4.6590 RM/SGD 3.4734 RM/AUD 3.1087 RM/GBP 6.0173 RM/EUR 5.1284
Top 20 active stocks
NAME VOLUME CHANGE CLOSE YTD MARKET
(MIL) (RM) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL)
BSL CORP BHD 265.5 0.000 0.04 -40.83 77.3
WIDAD GROUP BHD 82.90 0.005 0.420 -2.33 1234.10
SARAWAK CONSOLIDATED INDUSTRIES 81.70 0.025 0.485 234.48 310.5
JADE MARVEL GROUP BHD 78.40 0.000 0.220 -29.03 95.7
EP MANUFACTURING BHD 76.30 0.270 0.980 -1.51 215.9
REVENUE GROUP BHD 49.60 0.010 0.265 -60.74 146.5
MY EG SERVICES BHD 48.60 -0.015 0.740 -14.12 5,480.0
KNM GROUP BHD 34.80 -0.005 0.075 50.00 303.3
UEM SUNRISE BHD 29.90 -0.005 0.335 31.37 1,694.6
RGB INTERNATIONAL BHD 29.90 -0.005 0.340 88.89 523.9
ASTRO MALAYSIA HOLDINGS BHD 29.80 0.015 0.510 -21.54 2,659.4
DAGANG NEXCHANGE BHD 27.60 0.015 0.47 -7.84 1483.5
CLASSITA HOLDINGS BHD 24.50 0.005 0.100 -72.60 35.2
PESTECH INTERNATIONAL BHD 22.70 0.060 0.250 -19.35 246.1
AHMAD ZAKI RESOURCES BHD 21.00 0.020 0.255 54.55 152.1
TANCO HOLDINGS BHD 20.40 0.005 0.525 56.72 1,013.2
MALAYSIA BUILDING SOCIETY BHD 19.90 0.010 0.720 17.07 5,163.5
WCE HOLDINGS BHD 19.80 0.040 0.730 139.34 2,181.0
CATCHA DIGITAL BHD 19.60 0.070 0.365 97.30 83.2
SKYWORLD DEVELOPMENT BHD 19.60 -0.030 0.71 0.00 710
Data as compiled on Jul 11, 2023 Source: Bloomberg
Top gainers (ranked by %)
NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET
(%) (‘000) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL)
AT SYSTEMATIZATION BHD 0.010 100.00 1,093.3 -33.33 67.9
DGB ASIA BHD 0.010 100.00 1,479.0 -33.33 18.8
FINTEC GLOBAL BHD 0.010 100.00 1,817.5 0.00 59.2
PEGASUS HEIGHTS BHD 0.010 100.00 268.5 0.00 108.2
AE MULTI HOLDINGS BHD 0.015 50.00 5.0 -40.00 32.5
METRONIC GLOBAL BHD 0.015 50.00 160.7 -25.00 23.0
NEXGRAM HOLDINGS BHD 0.015 50.00 156.0 -78.57 9.7
EP MANUFACTURING BHD 0.980 38.03 76,295.4 -1.51 215.9
PESTECH INTERNATIONAL BHD 0.25 31.58 22682.7 -19.35 246.1
CATCHA DIGITAL BHD 0.365 23.73 19645.6 97.3 83.2
MAJUPERAK HOLDINGS BHD 0.285 21.28 1,866.7 14.00 81.1
SMTRACK BHD 0.03 20 439.1 -40 35.8
MQ TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.030 20.00 788.3 -40.00 41.4
ALAM MARITIM RESOURCES BHD 0.030 20.00 321.3 20.00 46.0
GOLDEN LAND BHD 0.275 19.57 43.9 -1.79 59.0
ESTHETICS INTERNATIONAL GROUP 0.375 17.19 0.1 20.97 88.9
XOX TECHNOLOGY BHD 0.04 14.29 1183.1 -11.11 35.7
NYLEX MALAYSIA BHD 0.475 13.10 17,326.7 53.23 85.2
INDUSTRONICS BHD 0.045 12.50 194.9 -40.00 31.8
PERTAMA DIGITAL BHD 3.010 11.48 5,628.1 71.02 1319.0
Data as compiled on Jul 11, 2023 Source: Bloomberg
Top gainers (ranked by RM)
NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET
(RM) (‘000) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL)
RAPID SYNERGY BHD 21.520 0.620 28.9 34.84 2,300.4
HEINEKEN MALAYSIA BHD 25.980 0.460 124.8 3.10 7,848.5
PETRONAS DAGANGAN BHD 22.400 0.440 269.2 -1.96 22,253.4
PERTAMA DIGITAL BHD 3.010 0.310 5,628.1 71.02 1,319.0
NESTLE MALAYSIA BHD 131.200 0.300 48.0 -6.29 30,766.4
EP MANUFACTURING BHD 0.980 0.270 76,295.4 -1.51 215.9
KUALA LUMPUR KEPONG BHD 22.940 0.240 1,084.9 2.59 24,739.3
CARLSBERG BREWERY MALAYSIA BHD 20.380 0.220 70.7 -10.93 6,231.1
PANASONIC MANUFACTURING M BHD 20.200 0.200 6.5 -11.79 1,227.1
KESM INDUSTRIES BHD 7.300 0.180 5.2 3.99 314.0
GREATECH TECHNOLOGY BHD 4.380 0.150 1,115.6 -9.50 5,487.4
OM HOLDINGS LTD 1.730 0.140 270.2 -16.43 1,228.8
FRONTKEN CORP BHD 3.300 0.130 2,781.0 7.14 5,189.0
IOI CORP BHD 3.880 0.110 1,234.5 -4.20 24,070.3
EG INDUSTRIES BHD 1.470 0.110 9,180.1 172.22 609.0
MALAYSIA AIRPORTS HOLDINGS BHD 6.920 0.110 6,358.2 5.49 11,546.4
BATU KAWAN BHD 20.980 0.100 51.3 -5.92 8,253.1
TELEKOM MALAYSIA BHD 4.860 0.090 3,274.9 -10.00 18,574.8
VITROX CORP BHD 8.000 0.090 645.1 4.58 7,562.2
HARRISONS HOLDINGS M BHD 9.480 0.080 3.2 42.99 649.2
Data as compiled on Jul 11, 2023 Source: Bloomberg
25 THEEDGE CEO MORNING BRIEF
World equity indices
CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE
(%) (%)
DOW JONES 33,944.40 209.52 0.62 INDONESIA 6,796.92 65.89 0.98
S&P 500 4,409.53 10.58 0.24 JAPAN 32,203.57 13.84 0.04
NASDAQ 100 15,045.64 8.79 0.06 KOREA 2,562.49 41.79 1.66
FTSE 100 7,247.49 -26.30 -0.36 PHILIPPINES 6,398.64 18.92 0.30
AUSTRALIA 7,108.85 104.82 1.50 SINGAPORE 3,163.84 14.52 0.46
CHINA 3,221.37 17.67 0.55 TAIWAN 16,898.91 246.11 1.48
HONG KONG 18,659.83 180.11 0.97 THAILAND 1,496.57 -0.32 -0.02
INDIA 65,648.40 304.23 0.47 VIETNAM 1,151.77 2.75 0.24
Data as compiled on Jul 11, 2023 Source: Bloomberg
Top losers (ranked by %)
NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET
(%) (‘000) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL)
TECHNA-X BHD 0.015 -25.00 118.1 -40.00 33.2
TWL HOLDINGS BHD 0.03 -14.29 1534.4 -14.29 125.6
FITTERS DIVERSIFIED BHD 0.035 -12.50 1,864.5 -50.00 81.9
TA WIN HOLDINGS BHD 0.035 -12.5 1140.2 -36.36 120.2
PERMAJU INDUSTRIES BHD 0.045 -10 186.9 0.00 87.4
KOMARKCORP BHD 0.050 -9.09 9,488.6 -9.09 61.8
MALAYAN UNITED INDUSTRIES BHD 0.055 -8.33 7,336.3 -26.67 177.4
CHINA OUHUA WINERY HOLDINGS 0.055 -8.33 70.0 -15.38 36.7
EA TECHNIQUE M BHD 0.170 -8.11 16,723.7 0.00 90.2
ASIA MEDIA GROUP BHD 0.120 -7.69 40.0 -20.00 28.7
SECUREMETRIC BHD 0.120 -7.69 2,863.2 20.00 69.2
GREENYIELD BHD 0.185 -7.50 16.0 -7.50 100.3
DIGISTAR CORP BHD 0.065 -7.14 263.1 -7.14 29.3
PARAGON GLOBE BHD 0.140 -6.67 662.5 -22.22 104.5
KEY ASIC BHD 0.070 -6.67 619.2 7.69 97.5
EMICO HOLDINGS BHD 0.280 -6.67 134.2 -8.20 34.9
MERIDIAN BHD 0.070 -6.67 29.6 -41.67 15.8
ADVANCE INFORMATION MARKETING 0.210 -6.67 120.0 -6.67 20.5
DFCITY GROUP BHD 0.350 -6.67 1.4 -9.09 36.9
AIRASIA X BHD 1.620 -6.36 12,592.9 184.21 724.3
Data as compiled on Jul 11, 2023 Source: Bloomberg
Top losers (ranked by RM)
NAME CLOSE CHANGE VOLUME YTD MARKET
(RM) (‘000) CHANGE CAP
(%) (RM MIL)
HEXTARTECHNOLOGIES SOLUTIONS 26.320 -0.780 193.1 54.28 3,386.0
FRASER & NEAVE HOLDINGS BHD 25.040 -0.360 54.4 16.03 9,184.1
DKSH HOLDINGS MALAYSIA BHD 4.620 -0.150 141.8 7.40 728.4
DUTCH LADY MILK INDUSTRIES BHD 20.340 -0.140 10.8 -32.74 1,301.8
AIRASIA X BHD 1.620 -0.110 12,592.9 184.21 724.3
BLD PLANTATION BHD 10.540 -0.080 2.0 2.73 985.5
TIME DOTCOM BHD 5.260 -0.080 4,260.2 19.29 9,670.9
RHONG KHEN INTERNATIONAL BHD 1.280 -0.080 6.9 -5.88 248.6
SCIENTEX PACKAGING AYER KEROH 2.210 -0.080 10.0 -7.92 774.9
HAP SENG CONSOLIDATED BHD 3.110 -0.070 3,021.5 -51.41 7,742.9
PRESS METAL ALUMINIUM HOLDINGS 4.800 -0.070 2,650.6 -1.64 39,550.2
SOLARVEST HOLDINGS BHD 1.240 -0.060 11,457.9 45.03 827.8
GUAN CHONG BHD 2.110 -0.060 906.8 -12.08 2,478.2
FACB INDUSTRIES INC BHD 1.310 -0.050 1.0 14.91 109.9
SCIENTEX PACKAGING (AYER KEROH) 2.210 -0.050 10.0 -1.34 776.1
ALLIANZ MALAYSIA BHD 14.200 -0.040 50.8 0.28 2,527.2
BURSA MALAYSIA BHD 6.360 -0.040 261.7 -4.36 5147.1
PACIFIC & ORIENT BHD 1.000 -0.040 48.2 -6.54 269.2
PWF CORP BHD 0.730 -0.040 250.3 46.00 161.3
TECK GUAN PERDANA BHD 1.650 -0.040 5.0 -6.78 66.2
Data as compiled on Jul 11, 2023 Source: Bloomberg