☕️ Inflation > GE15 - PM Sabri's priority

1. MARKET SUMMARY

Dedollarisation in the making — Yuan-Ruble trading volumes surged 10x since the Ukraine invasion, hitting a monthly volume of USD4 bil.

Oil hits a 2-month high after the EU agreed to ban most Russian crude imports.

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

RM88 bil — total deposits at Lembaga Tabung Haji as of May 2022 contributed by 8.5 mil TH depositors. The pilgrimage fund targets a RM100 bil deposit under the HURAH24 Strategic Transformation Plan.

6.6 mil EVs — sales of electric vehicles in 2021, doubling from the previous year, making a new record high, accounting for 10% of global car sales

15 mil rupiah (RM4,500) — the amount a stone magpie won for its owner for the past four years by singing. Hundreds of songbird contests occur across Indonesia every year as Indonesians have come to regard songbirds as a “social and financial asset”.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. In an interview with Nikkei Asia in Tokyo, PM Ismail Sabri said the election should not be held until the issue of inflation and rising living costs facing the nation is addressed (but no problem with having state elections deep in the middle of a pandemic?). He added that the government is keen to revive the goods and services tax (GST) to expand its revenue base.

2. Jonathan Laidlaw — a name that will soon be famous in Malaysia. The British lawyer and Queen’s Counsel is applying to be admitted as a lawyer in Malaysia to represent former PM Najib Razak’s final appeal in the RM42 mil SRC International Sdn Bhd case. To recap, Najib’s appeal has been set for a 10-day hearing in August. We will know in a few months whether Najib will find a new residence, or perhaps, there might be another yellow game card at play. Check out the QC’s Linkedin profile - his past cases are listed there.

3. PKR’s party election committee will decide in the coming week whether to initiate a forensic audit on the party’s recent polls. The committee said a few hundred complaints from candidates were received over issues like vote-counting irregularities (i.e. vote counting in the absence of third parties or candidates’ representatives). This comes after Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, who lost to Selangor Menteri Besar Amiruddin Shari for the Gombak division chief position, said he has strong evidence to justify the call for a forensic audit. 

4. 9 basketball players from the NS Matrix Agong Cup basketball team were awarded an apartment each worth RM320,000 from public listed property developer Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd founder Lee Tian Hock after the team won the national championship for the third consecutive time. In their first victory, the team received a car worth RM70k and RM10k each from Lee and the next victory saw each player being rewarded RM100k. Next up, if they can bag a fourth consecutive win - an apartment worth RM350k in KL. Lee will also be rewarding the national basketball team RM50k each if they win the gold medal at the next SEA Games. With proper incentives, the greater the hunger to win. To up the game across the league, Lee should offer these incentives to all teams.

5. Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd reported its third consecutive and largest quarterly net loss to date of RM434.19 mil for its Q3 FY2022 ended 31 Mar 2022. Despite revenue improving to RM205.48 mil from RM126.74 mil in the preceding quarter, the company recorded losses under “corporate expenses and consolidation elimination” — the company did not provide any explanation on this item. Also, Petronas renewed SB’s license for another year to continue offering supplies and services to Petronas and its contractors. SB doesn’t have to dispose of Petronas’ company stamp anymore.Unlike SB, the national O&G giant’s quarterly performance was stellar - Petronas reported a net profit of RM23.44 bil on revenue of RM78.75 bil. 

6. National utility company Tenaga Nasional Bhd has entered into an agreement to import USD3 bil of coal from Indonesia for three years. The contract value saw a sharp increase from an initial value of USD2.3 bil last year. TNB relies on Indonesia for 65% of its coal requirement and also imports from Russia and South Africa. 

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. European Union’s (EU) leaders have agreed to ban Russian oil transported via sea, which accounts for two-thirds of Russian oil imports, by the end of the year. Poland and Germany’s pledges to stop importing pipeline oil will raise coverage of the ban to 90% of Russian imports. Consequently, this will have a huge impact on the financial machinery of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

1. Justin Trudeau, Canadian PM, announced new legislation, Bill C-21, to restrict and reduce gun circulation in the country. “The fewer the guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be.” said the PM, and mentioned that recent mass shootings in Canada and the US during the past decade are reasons to enforce the new gun control measure. The legislation includes “freezing” the buying and selling of handguns in Canada.

2. GoTo Group, a merger between Indonesia’s Gojek and Tokopedia, reported gross revenue of US$357 million, an increase of 53%, whilst reporting a net loss of US$444million. Even with rising interest rates and the war happening in Ukraine, GoTo raised USD1.1 billion in one of the world’s largest IPO in 2022. GoTo’s market cap of USD25 bil is more than twice of Grab’s USD10 bil.

3. Mohala Tech, the parent company of ShareChat, a social media giant in the short-video space clearly most of us haven’t heard of from India, has raised nearly USD300 million from Google, Times Group and Temasek Holdings, valuing it at USD5 bil. ShareChat has 180 mil monthly active users and, along with Mohalla’s recent acquisition of MX TakTak has a combined user base of 300 mil. Fun fact: the company counts Twitter and Snap amongst its investors. If Elon Musk successfully takes over Twitter, he will indirectly have a 6-8% stake in Mohalla.

4. Singapore’s Deputy PM, Heng Swee Keat, warned retail investors to stay clear from cryptocurrencies with the recent crypto market crash and continues to promote against digital asset trading. Instead, the Singapore government would like to explore other services that Web 3.0 can offer and are open “to work with blockchain and digital asset players to encourage innovation” whilst setting up rules to ensure a safe adoption in the financial sector. 

5. Japan plans to require all companies with more than 300 employees to disclose the wage gap between male and female employees to follow other developed nations in achieving gender pay equality. The government envisions the disclosure will help pay to keep up with rising costs and hopes it would result in the gap narrowing by increasing female employees’ wages instead of cutting men’s to achieve equality. The rule is likely to be approved by the cabinet early June and will be applied by this summer.

6. China decides to scold the UN Human Rights chief, Michelle Bachelet and urges her to check on the USA’s recent mass shootings instead of making up allegations of the abuse the people in the Xinjiang region face. China perceives the domestic issues in the US should be more of a human rights issue as it poses a risk of the US “increasing its external aggression”. It’s funny how the table has turned.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. ‘Women are not born to be a leader’. ‘For women right, I think everyone should have the rights’. This was said by Nurulhidayah, the daughter of ex-DPM Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in an interview with Sinar Harian. Lady, I am confused.

2. Cool animated paper art