☕️ Democracy isn't a destination

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

FIFA revealed to officials that it earned a record-breaking USD7.5 bil in revenue through 4 years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup, which is USD1 bil more than the previous 2018 World Cup in Russia. The football body organises its accounts in 4-year cycles around each World Cup. It’s expected to hit USD10 bil revenue in its next cycle thanks to a new strategy for women’s football and the expanded World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, which will see 48 teams competing for the first time - up 50% from the current 32 teams.

UK restaurants are closing at a faster rate than during the Covid-19 pandemic. A study by advisory firm Mazars revealed 1,567 insolvencies over 2021-22, 60% more than that of 2020-21. Why? Three main factors — surging energy costs, staff shortages and falling bookings. Industry lobby groups believe a third of hospitality businesses could go bust by early 2023.

23.9 times — the average number of tweets per day sent by Elon Musk after he acquired the social media platform - that’s one per hour. The majority of the tweets are replies — 73.5% of them.

***We had mistakenly reported in yesterday’s newsletter that the RM2.76 bil market cap wiped off KLCI on Monday — the figure only represents gaming and breweries counters. A cumulative RM7.32 bil of value was wiped off post-GE15 on Monday. We apologise for the mistake.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

After 72 hours, we are not getting anywhere closer to knowing our 10th PMTuesday morning started with a meeting between Barisan Nasional (BN) top leadership to discuss the coalition's future. BN surprised everyone and announced that they would remain ‘neutral’ and would not support either Pakatan Harapan (PH) or Perikatan Nasional (PN) in forming the next federal government. Well, that basically screwed both PH and PN plans, as both need BN support to form a government.

After the 2 pm deadline passed, Yang di-Pertuan Agong said no coalition garnered enough support to form a government. So, the King summoned both PH and PN leaders, Anwar Ibrahim and Muhyiddin Yassin, respectively, to Istana Negara at 4.30 pm. While Muhyiddin was seen storming out of the castle after the meeting with the King concluded, Anwar made time to address the media that camped outside the palace and he stated that the King had not made his decision yet on who will be the next PM.

Afterwards, Muhyiddin gave a statement from his official residence that the King suggested that both PH and PN should form a unity government together; however, he rejected it. Muhyiddin also stated that he had enough support to form a government, evidently with the documents he was holding at that time. The tweet below summarised the mood of the country.

The King will meet the 30 MPs from BN today to help him decide who will be the next PM. However, it has been reported that the 30 MPs want to postpone the meeting with the King. At this rate, we better turn this whole political chaos into a Netflix reality show, as the whole thing drips pure entertainment.

Police IGP warns against racially provocative content on social mediaAgainst the backdrop of rising malicious content on social media platforms such as Tik Tok, specifically related to the 13 May 1969 racial riots, Inspector-General of Police  Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani told the public to stop posting provocative content or risk receiving stern actions under the Communication and Multimedia Acts and Penal Code. Why not immediately take action against those who have committed the crime instead of just a warning?

The former chief editor of The Edge acquittedAzam Aris, the former chief editor of The Edge, has been discharged of criminally defaming several parties. He faced the charges after he published news reports on the manipulation of penny stocks in 2020 and 2021. Of the two charges Azam faced, he was given acquittal and discharge (AND) for the first charge and discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) for the other. All of these happened after the prosecution received instructions from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to withdraw the case.

Another multi-billion military procurement scandal is on the horizonMalaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is understood to have opened an investigation paper on the procurement of an RM4bil contract to supply 18 light combat aircraft (LCA) to the air force after a complaint was submitted by one of the unsuccessful bidders due to a discrepancy in the whole international open tender process. According to sources quoted by The Edge, the caretaker government allegedly to have sped up the procurement process in favour of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)’s FA-50 Block 20. Uh-oh.

60-year-old housewife lost about half a million Ringgit to scammersA housewife in Port Dickson has been scammed of about RM480,000 by scammers that claimed to provide an online savings scheme. The scammers contacted the victim via Facebook Messenger, which eventually duped her into transferring her savings plus borrowed cash from relatives into bank accounts belonging to the scammers. This case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years, whipping and a fine upon conviction.

The sine graph in the Telco sector:

1. UP: TIME dotCom Bhd’s stock rose as much as 6.88% to an intraday high of RM4.97 after the company announced that they will utilise up to 50% of the RM2 bil proceeds received from the divestment of the company holdings in its data centre business AIMS Group, to pay a special dividend to its shareholders.

2. DOWN: Telekom Malaysia announced that its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2022 (3QFY22) dropped by 2.2% to RM265.2mil, compared to the same period last year, due to foreign exchange loss on borrowings and the impact of the one-off Cukai Makmur.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

China securing its liquefied natural gas flow for decades to comeChina reached a USD60 billion agreement with Qatar to secure LNG flows. Qatar Energy will send its Chinese counterpart Sinopec 4 mil tons of LNG per year starting in 2026 for 27 years. The massive LNG deal comes as the market remains tight. Europe has pivoted toward greater dependence on LNG due to the Ukraine-Russia war, but no European customers have made any LNG deals with Qatar.

Ant Group to face a giant fineAccording to Reuters, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) is set to impose a fine of more than USD1 bil on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, setting the stage for ending the fintech company's two-year-long regulatory overhaul. The fine could help pave the way for Ant Group to secure a long-awaited financial holding company license and eventually revive its plans for a public market debut.

Millions of lives in Ukraine are at stake this coming winterThe lives of millions are under threat in Ukraine this coming winter as half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure is either damaged or destroyed, according to Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe. Temperatures are predicted to plummet as low as -20C (-4F) in some areas. Ukraine’s health system is also threatened as hundreds of hospitals and healthcare facilities were “no longer fully operational, lacking fuel, water and electricity to meet basic needs”.

Italy’s right-wing government eyeing a windfall taxItaly’s cabinet approved a budget law to increase the tax rate on additional profits made by selling energy to 35% from the current 25% until mid-2023, according to the budget presented by PM Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing administration. The additional profits will be used to expand aid to families and businesses hit by higher prices. However, the budget law approved by the cabinet is likely to change before final approval before the parliament.

Genesis denies bankruptcy plansThe cryptocurrency lender denied it is close to declaring bankruptcy after Bloomberg News reported Genesis was having difficulty raising new capital. Binance is said to be a potential white knight, but no comments from Binance thus far. Genesis’s lending arm froze redemptions last week after a separate unit revealed it had USD175 million locked in its FTX trading account. The implosion of FTX created FUD and prompted users to withdraw from cryptocurrency exchanges, causing liquidity shortages.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, his parents and senior executives of FTX bought at least 19 properties worth nearly USD121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years, official property records show.

There is some cash in FTX’s tank — an FTX Group bankruptcy filing showed that the group has a combined cash balance of USD1.24 bil, more than debtors had identified a few days ago.

Shorts

1. Layoffs across the tech industry are impacting the workers in the US who are on visas like the H-1B — a non-immigrant visa. Many will have to return to their home country if they don’t find another job within 60 days.

2. Elon Musk told his employees that Twitter 2.0 is on the way — expect video and voice calling features and secure direct messaging to be made available on the social media platform. Musk wants to provide security to its users without being concerned about their privacy.

3. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Europe could be hit the hardest in a global slowdown. OECD thinks there will be no recession next year but a sharp slowdown. OECD forecasts that world economic growth will be 2.2% next year.

4. In Southern Thailand, a car filled with explosives exploded inside a police compound, killing at least one person and injuring 29. Straits Times reported no one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. There was another unexploded bomb discovered nearby by a police bomb disposal team. So-called “double-tap” attacks are a hallmark of southern insurgents in Thailand.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. How much did Qatar spend for the 2022 World Cup relative to other hosts?

1. Japanese fans clean up their areas after a football match. Not for likes, just being a decent human being.