☕️ Political chess moves: PAS vs Bersatu, Anwar vs Rafizi

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

USD645 bil (RM2.57 tril) – Singapore is now officially Southeast Asia’s largest stock market with its market capitalisation reaching that amount on the back of investor endorsement of the city-state’s market reforms. At the same time, Indonesia, the previous largest market, fell well over 30% from a peak in January to USD618 bil. Analysts believe the strong Singapore dollar, together with the government’s initiatives to revive the market, will drive funds towards the city-state.

156 outlets – Local shoe retailer Shellys Marketing Sdn Bhd, which owns homegrown brand XES Shoes, recently opened its 156th outlet in Sungai Siput, Perak. The firm, which was founded in 2002, now sells more than 1,000 products across mass-market, lifestyle, and activewear segments. Another recent development is the acquisition of a controlling stake by Malaysia’s state-owned private equity firm, Ekuinas. Ekuinas believes the shoe retailer has “significant headroom” to expand into underpenetrated states. Deal value not disclosed. 

10 consecutive loss-making quarters – Berjaya Food Bhd reported another loss-making quarter, marking a 10th consecutive quarter in the red, though the latest quarter saw losses narrow to RM37.19 mil due to cost control and store closures. Revenue for the latest quarter rose to RM119.14 mil, largely driven by overseas operations. Although costs and expenses continue to outpace the group’s marginal revenue growth, Berjaya Food is optimistic on its prospects. The group runs Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Paris Baguette in Malaysia.

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3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Political chess moves are being made

PAS to review its partnership with Bersatu
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang announced that PAS will review its relationship with Bersatu following several disagreements within Perikatan Nasional (PN). Apparently, Bersatu blocked the inclusion of other Malay-Muslim parties and non-extremist non-Muslim parties into PN, which upsets PAS. Hadi also concurred that PAS will not go solo in GE16 as they are the chairman of PN; however, the party may review Bersatu’s membership status in PN in the period leading up to the general election. Hadi also revealed that during previous state elections and by-elections, Bersatu demanded many seats despite lacking sufficient machinery on the ground. In the end, PAS members did all the work.

Anwar vs Rafizi
Acknowledging the threat of his former deputy, Rafizi Ramli, PM Anwar has said that he has taken over Pandan as his adopted parliamentary constituency following the departure of its former MP, Rafizi, from the party. Additionally, PM Anwar’s senior political adviser, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, has been appointed as PKR’s monitoring officer for the Pandan constituency. This is not the first time PKR has experienced incumbent MPs leaving the party, as Azmin Ali and Zuraida Kamaruddin did the same previously, for the Gombak and Ampang constituencies, respectively.

Rafizi’s Bersama is using Johor as its testing ground
We can safely say Barisan Nasional (BN) will win the Johor state elections by a landslide, as Rafizi Ramli’s Malaysian United Party (Bersama) has announced the creation of a pro-tem committee, ahead of the Johor state election. Previously, when BN announced it would go lone ranger for the state election, it was predicted that PH might assemble an honourable fight. But, with Bersama in the mix, PH and Bersama will be splitting the same voters’ pool, while BN will run away with the win. Johor Bersama joint interim committee chairman Abd Hamid Ali said the state has recorded more than 2,800 new members from various backgrounds following the party’s establishment last week, where the majority of the members were from PKR. Bersama Johor stated that the party is prepared to contest in all 56 Johor state constituencies. Who is funding Bersama? It is not cheap to contest in elections, as according to the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), a party spends an average of RM1 mil during an election period. At the scale of a state election, you definitely need 50x that.

Urban B40 are at the brink of a crisis
According to Think City’s ‘From Roof to Resilience’ report, which polled 2,884 people across 10 public housing communities in the Klang Valley, the report revealed that almost 75% are vulnerable to economic shocks - nearly 20% of households surveyed said they had no savings at all, while 56% said they had enough savings to last only one to three months. While the public housing dubbed PPR is meant as an interim measure for the urban poor to stay while they climb the income ladder, the current reality may lead PPR to turn from a temporary shelter into a permanent one. 

The situation has led to multigenerational households, where grandparents, parents and children live under the same roof, with most respondents saying they have lived in public housing for over 30 years. To make matters worse, living conditions for most PPR residents surveyed appeared to have either stagnated or further declined since the Covid-19 pandemic. 3 out of 4 people surveyed said that their stress levels had either not improved or had worsened since the pandemic. The suicide rates at the PPRs were more than three times the national average, where the PPRs reported 20 cases per 100,000 people annually.

Shorts

1. KWAP is the new substantial shareholder of AEON Co

   Kumpulan Wang Persaraan Diperbadankan (KWAP) recently spent RM1.82 mil to increase its stake in AEON Co (M) Bhd to 3.08%. KWAP is not the only government-linked investment company (GLIC) that invested in AEON Co, as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Lembaga Tabung Haji also hold substantial stakes in the company, with 7.61% and 5.09% respectively. AEON Co reported a net profit of RM83.7 mil for 1QFY2026 against a RM1.24 bil revenue, up 23% from RM68.1 mil a year earlier, thanks to higher sales of better-margin products and higher income from its property management services segment.

2. Farm Fresh to acquire another ice cream brand

   After acquiring a controlling stake in two ice cream makers, Sin Wah and Inside Scoop, Farm Fresh announced the acquisition of a Sabah ice cream company that produces ice cream under the Amelia brand. The deal will provide immediate access to a distribution network comprising 25 trucks and about 3,500 freezers across Kota Kinabalu, Tawau and Inanam. On top of that, Farm Fresh also plans to utilise the space in the Amelia factory to run a pasteurised line for the East Malaysia and Brunei markets. The plan by Farm Fresh is clear: to go downstream, to dominate the domestic ice cream market via strategic M&As. So, bye-bye Nestle and Wall’s soon?

3. Age verification needed for social media soon

   Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching announced that social media users will need to upload official government-issued documents (IC or passport) for age verification, starting June 1. The move was decided to prevent users under the age of 16 from opening social media accounts. However, Putrajaya will provide a reasonable period for social media platforms to implement the age verification process for existing accounts before enforcement action is taken.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

US-Iran war: Seems like a real deal is coming

What US is saying: Trump announced on Saturday that a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran will come soon, with various media in the US and Iran saying that it could yield a phased framework for ending months of fighting, reopening of the strategic waterway and lifting a US blockade on Iran. Also, plans for Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Washington has insisted it give up, would be negotiated within 30 to 60 days.

What Iran is saying: Looks like the messaging is finally consistent between the US and Iran. Iran’s Fars news agency said yesterday that the draft agreement also stipulates that the US and its allies will not attack Iran or its allies. In return, Iran pledges not to launch any preemptive attacks on the US or its allies.

But damage done: Nevertheless, while the deal would bring relief to markets, it would not immediately quell a global energy crisis, which has driven up the costs of fuel, fertiliser and plastics. According to the head of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil firm, Adnoc, even if the war ended now, full oil flows through the strait would not return before the first or second quarter of 2027.

Airbus, Air France guilty of manslaughter in 2009 crash
A French appeals court has found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter in the 2009 Rio de Janeiro-Paris crash that killed 228 people – the worst aviation disaster in the country’s history. The court ordered a payment of EUR 225,000 for each passenger (at least EUR51.3 mil in total), the maximum fine possible for such charges. Although the penalties are largely symbolic, they capped an eight-week trial that victims’ families saw as a last chance to find justice two years after a lower court acquitted Airbus and Air France. The crash happened in June 2009, when flight AF447 disappeared from radar screens as it headed from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Investigators found the pilots had pushed the jet into a climb as it struggled with sensors blocked with ice during a mid-Atlantic storm. The plane stalled and crashed into the ocean. A deep-sea search has finally uncovered the plane’s black boxes - but only two years later. Both companies have repeatedly denied all charges.
Learn: What is the difference between manslaughter vs murder? 

Alberta: Should I stay or should I go?
A restless independence movement has been growing in the oil-rich province of Alberta in Canada, built on a long-held sense that Alberta is overlooked by decision-makers in Ottawa. Premier Danielle Smith has announced that the province will hold a referendum on whether it should remain in Canada or move ahead with a second binding vote on separation, marking the first significant test of the country’s unity in decades. It came after a citizen-led petition calling for separation gathered more than 300,000 signatures early this year, and a separate petition advocating that Alberta stay gathered more than 400,000. It’s not the first time that Canada’s unity has come under pressure - Quebec has voted twice against independence, the last time in 1995, which ended with a razor-thin 50.58% to 49.22% “no” vote.

Learn: Did you know that Catalonia in Spain and California in the US also attempted to separate? Catalonia is one of Spain’s wealthiest and most productive regions, with a history of 1,000 years, while there have been at least 220 attempts to break up California since it became the 31st state of the US in 1850.

Who knows, might happen with certain states in Malaysia too, anything is possible.

Shorts

1. 10 countries ‘at risk’ of Ebola outbreak

   The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Saturday that 10 African nations are “at risk” of the Ebola virus disease outbreak, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The countries include Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Zambia - all these countries border the DR Congo and Uganda, except Ethiopia. A funding appeal for over USD 314 mil has been made to finance response interventions, largely intended for Congo and Uganda, for treatment, surveillance, and prevention of the epidemic. The WHO has raised the alert level to “very high”.

2. White House suspected gunman shot dead

   The White House, with Donald Trump inside, was sent into lockdown as a gunman reportedly approached the security checkpoint and began opening fire at security officers on Saturday. The gunman was shot dead shortly after, and a bystander was reportedly shot during the shooting. The shooting came nearly a month after an attempted assassination of the president on Apr 25 as he attended the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at a Washington hotel. Watch incident here.

3. Uber proposes Delivery Hero takeover at USD 11.6 bil valuation

   Uber Technologies Inc has offered to take over German company Delivery Hero SE, in a deal that would value the delivery company at about EUR 10 bil (USD 11.6 bil) as it seeks to ramp up competition with DoorDash Inc outside the US. Analysts say that Delivery Hero could fetch between USD 15 bil and USD 18 bil from the deal, and such a takeover would sharply expand Uber’s footprint in emerging markets, strengthening the US company’s global position.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Animals - the wild side, the beautiful side

1. Jumanji. Two one-horned rhinos were filmed fighting on a public road at the edge of Chitwan National Park, Nepal.

2. Two elephants clashed at India’s Dubare Elephant Camp, leading to the death of a tourist, raising concerns over wildlife tourism.

3. A beautiful moment captured - humpback whale giving birth.