☕️ MIC in Perikatan: Real or not?

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

EUR30 mil (RM135.21 mil) – That’s the amount Italy (yes, the government) paid to buy a painting by Caravaggio, a Baroque master from the late 16th century and early 17th century. This is also one of the largest sums Italy has ever paid for an artwork. The painting is a portrait of the cleric Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, who later became Pope Urban VIII. The purchase is part of an initiative by the Italian government to prevent major artworks from being bought by private collectors.

USD14.6 mil (RM57.2 mil) – That is the price paid for the most expensive guitar ever sold, according to auction house Christie’s. The guitar in question is a 1969 Fender Stratocaster, nicknamed the ‘Black Strat’, and David Gilmour used it on six of Pink Floyd’s albums, all between 1970 and 1983. The initial estimate was for the guitar to fetch between USD2 mil and USD4 mil. Another notable item sold at the same auction was a piano owned by John Lennon of the Beatles for USD3.2 mil, believed to be the highest price ever paid for Beatles memorabilia. Check out the guitar here and the piano here.

1.46 mil – Blackpink’s latest mini-album, Deadline, sold that number of copies on its first day, setting a new record for the K-pop girl group and breaking its personal best sales record. The mini album marked the group’s highly anticipated return after a three-year hiatus. The group’s comeback saw Deadline top the iTunes charts in 32 countries and regions.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

MIC joins Perikatan: Real or not?
Perikatan Nasional says it has officially accepted MIC as a component party, offering the veteran ethnic-Indian party a bigger role within the coalition. Secretary-General Takiyuddin Hassan said MIC’s acceptance was first decided in Dec 2025 and confirmed at the coalition’s Mar 14, 2026 meeting. An official letter will be issued, as Takiyuddin and MIC president S.A. Vigneswaran are set to meet to clarify the move. With MIC joining, Perikatan will have five component parties alongside Bersatu, PAS, Gerakan and MIPP. Takiyuddin added that several other parties have applied to join, though no decisions have been made, and that membership is grouped into component parties, affiliate members and associate members.

MIC: No, we didn’t!
However, MIC has clarified that it has not joined Perikatan Nasional and remains a component of Barisan Nasional for now. Deputy president M. Saravanan said the party has not made any decision to leave Barisan, noting that such a move would require approval from the Central Working Committee.

Biz
TPG launches One Aged Care for Malaysia and Singapore
TPG has set up a new senior care platform, One Aged Care, bringing together three operators in Malaysia and Singapore to meet growing demand from an ageing population. The platform combines ECON Healthcare, Orange Valley Nursing Homes, and Ambulance Medical Service under one group, while retaining their brands, and starting with 16 nursing homes offering over 2,400 beds, along with ambulance and medical transport services. The move comes as ageing accelerates across the region, with Malaysia already considered an ageing society, with 7% of its population aged 65 and above, while Singapore is higher at about 21%. Backed by TPG’s Asia midmarket growth fund, the focus is on scaling services through shared resources and more consistent care standards.
Looking for business ideas? Perhaps you might want to consider the silver economy. 

CompAsia targets 2027 IPO, expands second-hand tech business
CompAsia Sdn Bhd, a leading refurbished tech company in Malaysia, plans a Main Market IPO on Bursa Malaysia in the first half of 2027 to raise RM400-500 mil, valuing the company at around RM2 bil. The funds will be used to expand its ReNewNGo device subscription plan, grow its retail stores from about 70 currently to 150 by end-2026, and support working capital. The company made RM20 mil pre-tax profit in 2025, up from RM12 mil in 2024, with revenue rising to RM180 mil and a 2026 target of RM400 mil, helped by ReNewNGo, which currently has 20,000 subscribers, aiming for 100,000 by 2027. CompAsia has also expanded into Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, focusing on Southeast Asia’s growing demand for refurbished devices, while preventing hundreds of tonnes of e-waste and cutting up to 240,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, making second-hand gadgets a sustainable and trusted choice. Check out its site here.

Sunway Healthcare’s big quarter, IPO-ing today
Sunway Healthcare Bhd is heading into its Main Market debut on Bursa Malaysia today with a solid fourth-quarter performance. For 4QFY2025, net profit jumped 43.3% to RM112.39 mil from RM78.4 mil a year earlier, while revenue rose 21.3% to RM614.64 mil, boosted by higher patient volumes and favourable tax treatment.

For the full FY2025, net profit slipped slightly by 2.1% to RM252.21 mil despite revenue rising 18.8% to RM2.2 bil, driven by higher administrative and other expenses. The group is aiming to raise RM2.86 bil from its IPO at RM1.45 per share, with RM834 mil earmarked for hospital expansion and sukuk redemption.

Some interesting highlights:

1. Inpatient admissions up 8% to 114,425.

2. Revenue per inpatient admission rose 7% to RM11,614, reflecting more complex cases and a stronger foreign patient mix.

3. Foreign patient revenue surged 38% to RM304.7 mil, mainly from Indonesia, China and Cambodia.

4. Newly opened hospitals: SMC Damansara and SMC Ipoh both achieved early EBITDA-positive milestones.

5. Licensed bed capacity expanded to 1,777 by end-2025, up from 1,396 previously.

6. Overall bed occupancy was 69% based on operating beds; established hospitals 73%.

7. Longer-term target: more than 3,400 beds by 2032, including new tertiary hospitals in Seremban, Putrajaya and Iskandar Puteri.

Shorts

1. 87 umrah operators probed for price-fixing
   Deputy Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Dr Fuziah Salleh said 87 umrah operators are under investigation for allegedly fixing prices, following a probe by the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC). She explained that such cartel activity prevents consumers from getting the best deals, highlighting MyCC’s role in curbing price-fixing.

2. Half-price tolls for Hari Raya travel
   Good news for those heading home for Hari Raya Aidilfitri - the government is offering a 50% toll discount. Discount runs from 12:01am on Mar 18 to 11:59pm on Mar 19, helping travellers save on their journey back home. However, there’s no such thing as free lunch. The government is covering RM21.03 mil.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Amnesty International holds the US accountable for Minab school attack
In a new investigation, Amnesty International said that the US is responsible for an attack on an Iranian primary school in Minab that killed at least 170 people, mostly children, on Feb 28. The rights group said that the US-manufactured Tomahawk missile was likely used in the attack. Amnesty said that the investigation showed the school was “directly struck” alongside a dozen other structures in an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound, based on its analysis using satellite imagery, video footage, and interviews with experts. US forces could have taken feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm in carrying out the attack, but they apparently failed to do so, which means that it is a serious breach of international humanitarian law. Rights advocates have pointed to the Minab attack as evidence of potential war crimes being committed by Israel and the US in their war on Iran.

UAE hammered hard by Iran
The UAE continued to be hammered by missiles and drones on Monday, killing one civilian in the midst of the attacks. The slew of attacks came a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that US bases in the Middle East had been used to launch air raids and that missiles had been fired from the UAE to strike Iran’s Kharg Island - a claim UAE officials have denied.

Since the start of the conflict, Iran has targeted US assets in the UAE with more than 1,900 missiles and drones - the highest number directed at any single country by Tehran. The country reported seven deaths since the war began. The attacks have upended travel plans in the financial hub, piling economic pressure on the oil-rich country, which also serves as a hub for international travel.

China will send humanitarian assistance to Middle Eastern nations caught in war
China said it will provide humanitarian assistance to Middle Eastern countries Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq to help alleviate the humanitarian plight faced by local populations amid the Iran war. Beijing is a close partner of Iran and has urged the US and Israel to cease their attacks on the country, while also criticising Tehran’s strikes against Gulf states housing US military bases. The country has sought to mediate in the war, with its special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, urging de-escalation when he recently met Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister for talks.

Iran seeks to move World Cup matches from the US to Mexico
Iran’s football federation is negotiating with FIFA to move its ⁠World Cup 2026 matches from the US to co-host country Mexico due to concerns ⁠about the safety of players, following Trump’s statement that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team playing on US soil. Iran became the first Asian nation to qualify for the World Cup and is scheduled to play two ‌group ‌matches in Los Angeles and one in Seattle during the tournament in June 2026.

Tech:
SK Group: Chip wafer shortage to last until 2030
South Korea’s SK Group recently announced that the global chip wafer shortage is likely to persist until 2030, as demand driven by artificial intelligence continues to outpace supply. SK Hynix, the main high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supplier to Nvidia, ranks No.1 in the HBM market with a 57% share and holds 32% of the global Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) market, making it the second largest player. The company is also reviewing a potential US ADR listing to broaden its global investor base and try to stabilise DRAM chip prices. The company added that tensions in the Middle East had created a lot of difficulties due to higher energy prices, pushing the group to seek other available energy sources.

Trillion-dollar forecast and array of new products from Nvidia
Nvidia Corp has unveiled a variety of new products during NVIDIA GTC 2026, and
predicted that its flagship AI processors would help generate USD1 tril (RM3.92 tril) in sales through 2027. It said that the company will push deeper into central processing units (CPU) and introduce semiconductors made with technology acquired from startup Groq, designed to boost the responsiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The company even said it was developing chips for data centres in outer space, as well as making new and expanded pacts with companies such as International Business Machines Corp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co and Adobe Inc. It has also strengthened ties with Uber Technologies Inc, saying it was planning a fleet of Nvidia software-driven autonomous vehicles by 2028.

With the above 2 news, more legs for the AI bull to run?

Anthropic seeks weapons experts to stop 'misuse'
Anthropic is reportedly searching for chemical weapons and high-yield explosives experts to help it prevent its software from being used to make chemical or radioactive weapons. These experts are tasked with ensuring guardrails are robust enough to prevent “catastrophic misuse”. However, some experts are concerned and have warned that it gives AI tools information about weapons, even if they have been instructed not to use it. Anthropic has taken legal action against the US Department of Defence, which designated it a supply chain risk when the firm insisted its systems must not be used in either fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of Americans. Anthropic's AI assistant Claude has not yet been phased out and is currently embedded in systems provided by Palantir and being deployed by the US in the Iran war.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Why the ocean appear blue? Not because it reflects the sky.

2. How Shazam ‘listens’ and identifies a song, even in noisy places.

3. Interesting discussion of the day - what’s the best SOP for dads to take their daughters to the washroom.