☕️ Foreign Minister: Malaysia only abide to sanctions passed by UN, no unilateral sanctions, maintained stand of non-alignment

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

More than 500 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside a shipment of coffee beans were seized by the Swiss police at a Nespresso plant. The shipment reportedly originated in Brazil. The drugs are estimated to have a street value of USD50 mil.

5% of global card transactions in 2020 went through Apple Pay, according to Bernstein, with the forecast it might reach 10% by 2025. European Commission thinks Apple is abusing its power in the market for smartphone payments because Apple Pay does not allow third-party software to use the phone’s Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip.

USD9.28 mil — the price of the jersey that football legend Diego Maradona wore when he scored the “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Malaysia has maintained its stand of non-alignment to any side and does not recognise any unilateral sanctions on any country unless the sanctions are passed and adopted by the UN General Assembly, commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

2. The Malaysian Bar and DAP deputy chairman Gobind Singh are urging the Attorney General’s Chamber (AGC) to explain its decision to only compound oil and gas company Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd (SD) and its top 4 executives but not proceed with prosecuting them, which is allowed by the law and if convicted, they could face up to 10 years of jail sentencing. It has been 28 days since the decision was made, yet no justification was given by the AGC. SD will resume trading this morning after being suspended since 27 Oct 2021. An unnamed brokerage house has imposed trading restrictions on this counter. If you are a shareholder, brace for impact.The US FBI estimates that white-collar crimes (i.e., financial crimes) cost its victim USD300 bil annually. Read here to understand more about white-collar crimes.

3. UMNO x PAS - its neverending love-hate relationship. UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the cooperation between both parties would be put aside in the upcoming GE15 as UMNO has given enough space to PAS, but nothing materialised. Meanwhile, Selangor UMNO chief Noh Omar said Selangor UMNO and PAS would cooperate to avoid clashing seats and win Selangor away from PH.

4. On water infrastructure:

   1. How does Redang Island been getting its fresh treated water? Through a 23km, 25-year old, undersea pipeline. Terengganu state government will allocate RM120 mil to repair and replace the underwater pipeline as it has been suffering unscheduled water supply disruptions.

   2. Selangor state government is spending RM300 mil on four projects to provide an alternative water supply network in pollution incidents. The project is expected to be completed by year-end, ending frequent water disruptions in Selangor. On Tuesday, the most recent incident occurred when odour pollution was detected, causing water disruption to 463 areas for over 12 hours.

5. The Health Ministry is increasing monitoring for acute hepatitis cases after the WHO reported a global spike in severe acute hepatitis of unknown origin among children. Common symptoms: jaundice, appetite loss, fever, nausea and vomiting. Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver. Know your (hepatitis) alphabet in the video below.

6. Optical retailer Focus Point Holdings Bhd has proposed to transfer its listing from ACE Market to the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia. The company said it has met the requirements as set out by Bursa Malaysia:Fun fact: Focus Point also owns the home-grown Japanese concept bakery, Komugi. It currently has 11 outlets and plans to open 3-4 more. Focus Point’s F&B business contributed RM19.11 mil in revenue in FY2020.

   1. Uninterrupted profit of 3 to 5 full financial years

   2. An aggregate profit after tax (PAT) of at least RM20 mil and PAT of at least RM6 mil in the most recent financial year.

   3. A public shareholding of at least 25%.

7. The debate between opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and former PM Najib Razak, primarily on troubled oil and gas company Sapura Energy will be held at Malaysia Tourism Centre (Matic) at 9.00 pm on May 12. It will be broadcast live on social media.

8. The King of Fruits is expected to be at least 30% costlier this year as weather patterns has led to trees producing 30% of last year’s amount and fertiliser cost nearly doubling. Musang King, which used to average RM45-48 will now be about RM60.

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4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said evil has returned to Ukraine as he gave an emotional address for Victory Day — the day Europe commemorates the formal surrender of Germany to the Allies in World War II. Luhansk governor, Serhiy Haidai, believed a Russian air raid on a school sheltering civilians has killed 60 civilians.

2. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the son of former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is the frontrunner in the Philippines’ presidential election today. Watchdogs are worried about the searches for the family’s illegally-amassed wealth — as much as UDS10 bil — would be dropped. Marcos Jr., also known as Bongbong, was 33% points ahead of his closest competitor, Leni Robredo.Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang believes if Bongbong wins the election today, it could be an indicator of the power of social media and fake news as Marcos Jr been falsely painting the Marcos era in the 1980s as the Filipino “golden era”.

3. John Lee Ka-chiu (centre, in the picture below) has been elected as Hong Kong’s next leader, but he isn’t exactly well-liked. He only garnered 34.8 points out of 100 in a recent popularity survey. His rise to power is widely seen as a move by the Chinese government to tighten its grip on the city.

4. The Chinese government has ordered its agencies and state-back corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers (PCs) with domestic alternatives (both hardware and software) within two years. The exercise is likely to eventually replace at least 50 million PCs on a central-government level alone. What about the semiconductor shortages? 

5. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) consultants will be able to sleep for two weeks annually after the company announced on Friday that it would close its US and Mexico offices for two weeks a year to give consultants time to recharge. The two-week shutdown is in addition to workers’ paid vacation, which averages between three to four weeks a year. Is our corporate culture there yet? Isn’t it nice not having to worry about work for two weeks?

6. G-III Apparel Group Ltd, which owns brands including DKNY and Jessica Howard, has agreed to acquire the remaining 81% stake in Karl Lagerfeld for USD210 million in cash, becoming the sole owner of the Parisian fashion brand. G-III expects the acquisition would add USD200 million in initial annual sales.

7. Patreon announced the results of its first creator census — well, most creators don’t want to receive payments in cryptocurrencies. All in all, 43% of creators on the platform are firmly against crypto payments. Sorry, crypto broskis. 40% of creators’ income came from Patreon through contributions by their supporters. Maybe, you can support us as well here. :D

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. How much do you need for retirement? Check out Malaysiakini’s retirement calculator.

2. Affirmative policy gone wrong.

3. White sugar vs brown sugar — which is better? Brown sugar is no healthier than white.