Archive for category Finance
Bursa losses at RM91 billion since last Monday
By Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 09, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Malaysia’s benchmark index regained some ground today but still fell 1.66 per cent as regional markets struggled to halt their slide on European and US debt crises fears.
The index recovered from its early morning low of 1,423.47 to end the day at 1,472.14, down 24.85 points from the start of trading. Losers continued to outpace gainers 828 to 159, with 179 counters unchanged.
The broad-based Emas index meanwhile rebounded to 10,048.74 at market close after losing as much as 490.12 points, or 1.75 per cent, earlier.
The Kuala Lumpur share market is down an estimated RM91 billion from last Monday following last week’s rout on Wall Street, the worst since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
Will Idris Jala please return the millions?
— Gomen man
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 08, 2011
AUG 8 — So the turnaround specialist, or best thing to happen to Malaysia Airlines, did not do such a good job after all.
But Datuk Seri Idris Jala pocketed a few million short of RM20 million when he left Malaysia Airlines to become the Najib administration’s transformation czar.
This money was either a bonus or compensation for his glorious achievement of “turning things around” at MAS. I am sure major shareholders at MAS — Khazanah Nasional and EPF — will be happy to enlighten Malaysians on this reward scheme.
That is the problem with us Malaysians; we are so quick to praise people and put them on a pedestal. We called Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a reformer early on and look how that turned out. We still didn’t learn. Read the rest of this entry »
Bursa bleeds another RM31b in global carnage
By Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 08, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Malaysian stocks continued tumbling today with an estimated RM31 billion in value shed from Bursa Malaysia, as jittery investors spooked by concerns about the global economic outlook continued to dump shares.
After the sustained sell-off today, sparked by concerns over Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the United States’ credit rating and Europe’s persistent debt woes, the KL share market is down an estimated RM65 billion in value from last Monday.
Losers overwhelmed gainers 1,051 to 67 today while the broad-based Emas index shed 2.39 per cent to settle at 10,227.95 — a five-month low.
The benchmark FBMKLCI slipped 1.8 per cent to 1496.99, also a five-month low. Read the rest of this entry »
The wrong worries
— Paul Krugman
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 06, 2011
AUGUST 6 — In case you had any doubts, Thursday’s more than 500-point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the drop in interest rates to near-record lows confirmed it: The economy is not recovering, and Washington has been worrying about the wrong things.
It is not just that the threat of a double-dip recession has become very real. It is now impossible to deny the obvious, which is that we are currently not and have never been on the road to recovery.
For two years, officials at the Federal Reserve, international organisations and, sad to say, within the Obama administration have insisted that the economy was on the mend. Read the rest of this entry »
Bursa firms shed RM26b amid global markets bloodbath
By Lee Wei Lian
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 05, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Today’s global market sell-off wiped an estimated RM26 billion from the KL stock exchange as investors took the cue from the regional meltdown following the rout on Wall Street yesterday.
Trader terminals were a sea of red today as losers vastly outnumbered gainers 934 to 60 while the broad-based Emas index shed 1.89 per cent to hit 10,478, a level not seen since May.
The benchmark FBMKLCI slipped 1.45 per cent to 1524, also its lowest level since May.
“If the Dow has another down day, things won’t look too good,” said Chris Eng, head of research at OSK Research. Read the rest of this entry »
Explain disparity between ‘actual’ and ‘approved’ FDIs, DAP tells Putrajaya
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 29, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — The Najib administration must explain the wide disparity between approved foreign direct investments (FDIs) and actual investment figures, the DAP said.
DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua told reporters that a written reply by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) revealed that from 1996 to 2010 only RM179.8 billion out of the RM289.9 billion of approved investments had been realised.
“A shocking RM199.1 billion of declared FDI had disappeared without a trace,” he said in a statement today. Read the rest of this entry »
Maybank, CIMB call off RHBCap takeover plan
by Izwan Idris
The Sun
23 June 2011
LUMPUR (June 23, 2011): Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and CIMB Group have announced separately that they have aborted plans to take over RHB Capital Bhd.
“In light of recent developments and following further deliberations, the board of directors of Maybank has decided not to pursue the possible merger at this juncture,” Maybank said in a short statement to Bursa Malaysia today.
Maybank and its biggest local rival CIMB Group had obtained Bank Negara Malaysia’s approval last month to start merger talks with RHB Capital.
The announcement from Maybank was released after trading on Bursa Malaysia ended for the day. Read the rest of this entry »
British joint-venture gets Kelana LRT job for RM670m
Posted by Kit in Finance, Good Governance on Tuesday, 21 June 2011
June 21, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — A Malaysia-British joint-venture has won the coveted Kelana Jaya light rail transit extension project for RM670 million, operator Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad said today.
Prasarana said it issued the Letter of Award to CMC-Colas-Uniway (CCU) to undertake works worth RM673, 920, 651.04.
“The job entails the engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of system works for the Kelana Jaya Line Extension project,” Prasarana said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
Bank Negara’s conditions tripping Abu Dhabi’s RHB sale
Posted by Kit in Finance, Good Governance on Sunday, 19 June 2011
By Jahabar Sadiq
Editor
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 19, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Several new Bank Negara conditions are threatening the RM5.9 billion sale of a 25 per cent stake in RHB Capital Bhd between two Abu Dhabi sister firms, including the requirement that the new shareholder must support a possible merger with another Malaysian bank.
Two other puzzling requirements by the central bank is the request for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and new RHB shareholder Abu Dhabi investment fund Aabar Investments to adjust the sale price if the merger price is lower than the RM10.80 per share price agreed by both companies and the merger must not deviate too far from the market price so as to weaken the merged entity.
The Malaysian Insider understands that after the deal was signed on Friday, Bank Negara sent a series of harsh emails to to ADCB telling them to state the conditions imposed by the central bank in their press releases, which some bankers say is an aggresive and unusual intervention for such a matter. Read the rest of this entry »
RM63.9m spent on consultants and ETP, GTP open days
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 15, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — A total of RM63.9 million was spent to hire consultants for Pemandu and to organise three open days for Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) initiatives, the government said today.
Minister in the prime minister’s department Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon said that the government had paid RM36.3 million to various consultants, while RM27.6 million was used for the open days in Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, and Kota Kinabalu last year.
In two written replies to DAP’s Liew Chin Tong, Koh said that the costs were justified as they were far lower than the allocated budget. Read the rest of this entry »
Guan Eng: RM13b bloated spending shows IPPs protected
Posted by Kit in Energy, Finance, Good Governance on Wednesday, 15 June 2011
By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 15, 2011
Lim: The only losers are 27 million ordinary consumers who are not IPPs.
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The Najib administration’s attempt to increase its 2011 budget by RM13 billion is proof of its failure to control spending even after slashing subsidies on daily essentials, DAP’s Lim Guan Eng said today.
The Penang Chief Minister blamed Barisan Nasional’s (BN) “bad governance” for the increasing cost of living in Malaysia, adding that the public was now experiencing “the worst of both worlds”.
“By reducing subsidies, there are inflationary pressure causing prices to rise and hurting the poor. And yet, cuts do not improve efficiency and competitiveness nor cut down budget expenditure as the IPPs (independent power producers) are still allowed to enjoy gas subsidies.
“The only losers are 27 million ordinary consumers who are not IPPs,” he said in a statement today.
Putrajaya tabled a RM13,186,713,000 supplementary supply bill in Parliament yesterday, seeking additional spending in the first half of this year. The amount is an 8 per cent addition to Budget 2011’s RM162,805,323,000, which was tabled last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Tourism Ministry: RM1.8 million spent on Facebook pages
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
June 14, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — A whopping RM1,758,432 was spent on developing six Facebook pages to promote Malaysian tourism, the Tourism Ministry said today.
Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit said this today in reply to a question from Anthony Loke (Rasah-DAP).
Each Facebook page cost RM293,072 — Cuti-Cuti 1 Malaysia, Citrawarna 1Malaysia, Karnival Jualan Mega 1 Malaysia, Festival Pelancongan Seni Kontemporari 1 Malaysia, Kempen 1 Malaysia Bersih and Fabulous Food 1 Malaysia.
Read the rest of this entry »
RHB mega-merger: ‘Najib must be accountable’
Jun 12, 11 | MalaysiaKini
DAP has asked Prime Minister Najib Razak to explain why Bank Negara is pushing hard for the RHB merger with one of Malaysia’s two largest banks when the move would lead to foreign exchange outflow and an unhealthy monopoly.
“Najib should present ministerial statement in Parliament tomorrow on the rationale and status of Bank Negara’s (approved) merger between RHB Capital with (either) Maybank or CIMB Group to create Southeast Asia’s biggest bank,” said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in a statement today.
“Basic principles and questions about Bank Negara’s push for the country’s largest corporate merger need to asked and clarified,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
What is the rationale and status of Bank Negara’s proposed merger between RHB Capital with Maybank or CIMB Group to create Southeast Asia’s biggest bank?
As Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should present a ministerial statement in Parliament tomorrow on the rationale and status of Bank Negara’s proposed merger between RHB Capital with Maybank or CIMB Group to create Southeast Asia’s biggest bank.
The top regional banks in Asean include three Singapore banks DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) with market capitalisation of US$27.7bil, US$25.7bil and US$24.5bil respectively.
While in terms of asset size, the Singapore banks remain at the top, a Maybank-RHB Cap merger could overtake DBS Group in terms of combined market capitalisation with US$28.8bil.
The potential merger of CIMB-RHB, on the other hand, would see a combined market capitalisation of US$27.3bil, just marginally below DBS but would overtake both OCBC and UOB. In terms of asset size, DBS, OCBC and UOB stand at US$238bil, US$198.4bil and US$178.8bil respectively. Read the rest of this entry »
Choosing the IMF’s next leader
Posted by Kit in Finance, globalisation on Sunday, 5 June 2011
By Joseph E Stiglitz
June 5, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today
NEW YORK: Sooner than expected, the International Monetary Fund will have a new managing director. For more than a decade, I have criticized the Fund’s governance, symbolized by the way its leader is chosen.
By gentlemen’s agreement among the majority shareholders – the G-8 – the managing director is to be a European, with Americans in the number two post and at the head of the World Bank.
The Europeans typically picked their nominee behind the scenes, as did the Americans, after only cursory consultation with developing countries. The outcome, however, was often not good for the IMF, the World Bank, or the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Khazanah MD ‘frustrated’ in regulated industries, reports FT
Posted by Kit in Economics, Finance, Good Governance on Tuesday, 31 May 2011
By Yow Hong ChiehMay 30, 2011 | The Malaysia Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar has admitted to being disappointed by his inability to trim fat from the portfolio he inherited in 2004 due to political interference, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
“We have had our frustrations, and there have been areas, mostly in the regulated sectors such as electricity, automobiles and aviation, where value has stagnated or even declined,” Azman (picture) told the international financial daily.
The Financial Times said that despite scoring a “crushing victory” in a US$3.6 billion (RM10.8 billion) takeover battle with India’s Fortis for Singapore healthcare group Parkway Holdings, Khazanah was still struggling to turn around companies in its legacy portfolio, which includes national carmaker Proton and Malaysia Airlines.
“Big questions remain about Khazanah’s ability to deal equally decisively with the rest of its portfolio, not least because of government opposition to radical surgery on any of its significant companies,” the report said. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the GST be another nail in the coffin?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Finance, Najib Razak on Monday, 23 May 2011
Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 22, 2011
MAY 22 — A long time ago, I wrote about the government’s plan to implement goods and services tax (GST). I am not going to bother looking at what I wrote. Maybe what I wrote then did not make sense at all.
But to me, the plan to implement the GST will be another nail in the coffin for the Barisan Nasional government. In almost all cases where the GST was introduced, it has raised a lot of discontent. Governments have fallen because of the GST and finance ministers have resigned.
Remember this: Governments have fallen, finance ministers have quit.
I hope, the government’s tax package is not an attempt to trick workers into thinking that they will be better off after the proposed tax cuts. I also hope it will not trick people on government benefits that they will be better off after the so-called “compensation”, despite the introduction of a GST.
Consider this. Our tax base is perhaps only 15 per cent, i.e. only about 15 percent of the population pays taxes. The balance do not pay taxes — kampong people, self-employed, ordinary folks outside the tax bracket. Now, all are caught in the tax trawler net and will pay consumption tax. Never mind, says the government, we will compensate the ordinary people. Read the rest of this entry »
Opium and walking stick
Lim Sue Goan
The Malaysian Insider
May 19, 2011
MAY 19 — For the very first time, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak described the fuel subsidy as opium. His remarks were shocking as the people have been enjoying subsidies over the past few decades and would it mean that they have taken opium for decades?
Long-term opium use would cause irreversible damage to health and even death. The Chinese used to be called “The Sick Man of East Asia” during the Qing Dynasty as opium taking was a trend at that time.
If subsidies are opium to the national economy, the country must then first go through a painful process of rehabilitation before it can recover. And whether it would succeed, it all depends on the people’s determination. Read the rest of this entry »
M’sia lost RM135.3 bil in illicit outflow
Posted by Kit in Finance, Financial Scandals, Parliament on Thursday, 10 March 2011
Malaysiakini
Mar 10, 11
Malaysia recorded RM135.3 billion in errors and omissions (E&O) in its outflow funds for the period 2000 to 2009.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said considering the huge amount of trade transactions with the rest of the world as well as the lack of data for specific goods due to statistical errors or unrecorded transfer of funds, there was bound to be E&O in the balance of payments.
“Malaysia’s financial and economic trading with the world outside is seen in the balance of payments statistics, which is prepared according to a methodology set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said in his written reply to a question from Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.
Lim wanted to know the measures taken by the government in the light of a report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) which stated that Malaysia saw illicit money outflows amounting to RM889 billion from 2000 to 2008 due to corruption and mismanagement. Read the rest of this entry »
Mukhriz’ “bizarre” dismissal of GFI report Malaysia lost RM888 billion in 9 years in illicit capital outflows – a pre-emptive Mahathir strike to forestall full inquiry into corruption and financial scandals under his premiership?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Finance, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 26 January 2011
International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Datuk Mukriz Mahathir said today that the government will not look into claims by international financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) that Malaysia had suffered illicit financial outflows in excess of RM888 billion or US$291 billion due to corruption and mismanagement between 2000 and 2008.
He categorically dismissed the GFI report listing Malaysia as the world’s top-fifth country with illicit financial outlays in the past decade due to corruption and bad governance as bizarre.
Mukhriz told a press conference after launching Google Malaysia’s new office in Kuala Lumpur:
“We do not see the need to look into it. If you go through the report, they have made quite a few bizarre claims against several countries.
“Going by Bank Negara’s figures, we know how much exactly is going out so you can hardly consider those figures (from GFI) as factual.”
Who is this “we” – Mukhriz and Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak or Mukhriz and his father, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohhamad? Read the rest of this entry »
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