☕️ Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's Yayasan Akalbudi trial postponed again, defence team submitted letter of representation

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

43,019 secondary school students out of 1.3 mil (3.3%) were found to be smokers during a screening under the Oral Health Tobacco-Free (KOTAK) programme by the Health Ministry. Among primary school students, fortunately, only 341 out of 2 mil screened were found to be smokers.

India, the home to 70% of the world’s tigers, saw its tiger population climb to 3,167 in 2022 in the latest census released, which has been conducted every four years since 2006. From 2006 to 2018, tiger numbers almost doubled to 2,967 and now have exceeded the 3,000 threshold. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this as the nation celebrates 50 years of the tiger conservation project. PM Modi also launched the International Big Cat Alliance to focus on protecting and conservating 7 big cat species: tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah.

Son Heung-min became the first Asian to reach 100 Premier League goals (only one penalty) after scoring a screamer against Brighton & Hove Albion over the weekend. The 30-year-old South Korean joined Tottenham Hotspur from Bayern Leverkusen in Aug 2015 and, over the years, has grown to be one of the world’s best players. See a compilation of his 100 Premier League goals here - many were jaw-dropping. Nikkei Asia published an interview with Son back in Mar, sharing his journey to the top.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says that RM7.2bil worth of Jana Wibawa projects will be retenderedThe Deputy PM said that RM7.2bil worth of Jana Wibawa projects involving the Rural and Regional Development Ministry had been cancelled by the Finance Ministry. Worry not, as the projects will be retendered according to the relevant rules and regulations. Zahid assured that the projects would be completed within the specified period.

Individuals should have been given the option to work beyond the age of 60Malaysian Association of Social Protection Contributors' Advisory Services (SPCAAM) stated that individuals should have been given the option to work until the age of 65, citing reasons such as longer life expectancy and insufficient savings to sustain life after the normal retirement of 60 years old. Although the topic of retirement age extension is still in the discussion stage in Malaysia, however, this topic can be a sensitive one in some countries. Last month, more than one mil French took to the streets to demonstrate against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.

Ups and downs the staircase of justice

• In Syed Saddiq’s RM1.12 mil criminal breach of trust case, his counsel Gobind Singh Deo told the High Court that the RM1 mil in funds withdrawn from Bersatu’s account was used for the welfare of the people such as to assist with Covid-19, Ramadan, Raya and other welfare assistance. Gobind even said that at no point in time that the money was used for the personal benefit of the Muar MP.

• Now we turn to Deputy PM Zahid Hamidi’s alleged criminal breach of trust of RM31 mil of his Yayasan Akalbudi’s fund. The trial for the case has been postponed yet again as the defence team had submitted a 200-page long letter of representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) as they had found new evidence. A letter of representation is normally sent by lawyers to either ask for a reduction or a withdrawal of charges for their client. Apart from that, deputy prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob informed the court that he had instructions from above not to object to the application. How nice.

• Prosecutors had brought down the charges to former Perlis Menteri Besar Azlan Man for allegedly submitting false claims for flight tickets, accommodation and transportation to Kuala London the UK, to the tune of RM1.185mil. If found guilty, Azlan can be behind bars for up to 20 years and fined for not less than five times the sum of the false claims.

Over 200 migrant workers rescued from hellish transit homeWhile a group of workers in Kelantan enjoyed the T20 Raya treatment by their employer, the tale was not the same for over 200 migrant workers living in ‘hell on Earth’ transit home in Nilai. The 226 workers are part of the 1,719 migrant workers approved for three janitorial service companies and one manufacturing company. However, the workers were not being placed at their supposed jobs and were stuck at the transit home for 40 days without any pay given. For 40 days, the migrant workers from Bangladesh and Nepal had to live in cramped conditions where about 60 of them were squeezed on each floor of the building. Fortunately, Human Resources Ministry officials rescued them and now they are being placed in nearby Centralised Labour Quarters, where they will be provided with proper food and shelter.

Business news

• PM Anwar Ibrahim said that the appointment of former Baling MP Abdul Azeez as the chairman of the Kedah Regional Development Authority (Keda) is under review. Previously, it was PM Anwar’s deputy, Zahid Hamidi, that announced the appointment of Abdul Azeez. We think that this U-turn may indicate that an internal rift between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) is brewing and we foresee that the next acid test for this Unity Government is during the upcoming state elections. Here’s the list of political appointees as of 6 Apr 2023.

• UMW Holdings Bhd had inked a second deal from Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc worth RM1 bil for the manufacturing of rear cases for Rolls-Royce’s Trent 1000 and Trent 7000 aircraft engines. UMW Holdings, via its wholly-owned subsidiary, UMW Aerospace Sdn Bhd, will invest up to RM65 mil to build the appropriate machinery to support the 15-year contract.

• SKYE UMDP Exploration Berhad secured the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for Block PM340 from Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas). Block PM340 situated in the Malay Basin, off Kelantan’s coast, is a 16,404-square-kilometre asset with a combined 400bil cubic feet of gas and a potential reserve of up to 669 mil barrels of oil equivalent.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Profitability: ByteDance > Tencent, AlibabaTikTok and Douyin parent ByteDance Ltd’s profit soared last year to a record high despite growing losses at TikTok, surpassing that of Alibaba and Tencent, the Financial Times reported. To be clear, the ‘profit’ measured here is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which measures the cash flow generated by the business and is not entirely net of all expenses. ByteDance’s EBITDA shot up 79% to about USD25 bil in 2022, surpassing Tencent’s USD23.9 bil and Alibaba’s USD22.7 bil. 

Last week, Bloomberg reported ByteDance’s FY2022 revenue surged 30% to USD85 bil, nearly matching that of Tencent. ByteDance’s international business, which includes TikTok, contributed USD15 bil to its revenue and the balance of USD70 bil comes from China. 

Tesla doubles down in ChinaAlready established a Gigafactory in Shanghai in 2019 to build EVs, Tesla will now open a factory to grow its energy business, set to start production in Q2 2024 to produce 10,000 Megapacks with 40-gigawatt hours of energy storage. The investment costs were not disclosed. Tesla’s Megapack is a powerful battery that provides energy storage and support to help stabilise the grid. As Apple ‘decouples’ and diversifies its supply chain away from China, Tesla is moving in the opposite direction to leverage China’s world-leading battery supply chain. 

Following severe blackouts in Mar 2016 in South Australia, Elon Musk made a bet with the state of South Australia to build the world’s largest ever lithium-ion battery in 100 days, all up and running from the contract being signed or the USD50 mil system would be free - Musk won the bet.

Meanwhile, Tesla has started recruiting in Malaysia — check out the vacancies here.

Deals:

• Uber Technologies Inc will sell a 50.03% stake in its super-app spin-out in the Middle East to Emirates Telecommunications Group for USD400 mil. This super app was developed following Uber’s acquisition of ride-hailing startup Careem in 2020. 

• Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek announced it would acquire an additional 41% stake for USD2 bil in India’s largest hospital chain Manipal Health Enterprises, boosting its stake to 59%. This transaction values the hospital chain operator at USD4.87 bil. The hospital serves over five mil patients a year through 29 hospitals in 16 cities with 4,000 doctors. 

Shorts:

1. The Dalai Lama issued an apology after a video showed him asking a boy to ‘suck my tongue’ triggered a backlash on social media. In the apology, the post said the Dalai Lama often teases people he meets “in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras”. Watch the incident here.

1. Following a 3-day military drill in an encirclement practice of Taiwan, the Chinese army released a video showing how a full-scale attack on Taiwan from China if war to break out. The video shows the possible trajectory of missiles landing on Taiwan and how its military forces could invade Taiwan. 

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. The PM after PMX found

2. We added more context (e.g. associated companies and other interesting facts) to the 18 Malaysians who made it to Forbes 2023 World Billionaire List.

3. How much helium does it take to lift a person? A lot.