☕️ Najib House Arrest - PMX rattled, but will he be toppled?

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

27 mil viewers tuned in to watch Beyoncé’s halftime performance (watch here) during the Ravens-Texans game, part of Netflix’s “NFL Christmas Gameday Live” event. The nearly nine-hour telecast, which began with the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and continued with the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans, attracted a significant audience worldwide. According to Nielsen data, the Ravens-Texans game averaged 24.3 mil viewers, while the earlier Chiefs-Steelers game drew 24.1 mil viewers, demonstrating the event’s broad appeal across more than 200 countries.

473 mil children, or more than one in six, are estimated to live in conflict areas worldwide, according to UNICEF. This marks one of the worst years on record for children in conflict, with almost 19% of children globally now living in such areas, up from 10% in the 1990s. In the ongoing war in Gaza, at least 17,492 children have been killed in nearly 15 months of conflict, which has devastated much of the region. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell highlighted the severe impact of these conflicts on children’s lives.

It took eight years for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to settle their divorce, despite being married for just two years. The prolonged process was due to a particularly messy and complicated divorce, involving bitter legal disputes over custody of their children and a French vineyard they had bought together. Initially, the focus was on custody battles, but in recent years, the conflict shifted to the winery, becoming the central issue in their ongoing legal struggles.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

PM Anwar will be rattled, but will not be toppled
During a panel discussion organised by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, Malaysian politicians from different sides of the political aisle — PH MP Wong Chen and PN MP Saifuddin Abdullah gave their views on the former PM Najib Razak's bid for house arrest. Wong Chen stated that the planned January 6 rally outside the court during Najib’s trial was the last chance for the opposition to topple the government and having survived that, he thinks the PM Anwar-led government will complete its full term, given that the economy continues to grow. On the other hand, Saifuddin refuted Wong’s statement by saying that Najib’s house arrest issue was the start of the so-called ‘last chance’ to topple the government. So, will PM Anwar complete his term before the next GE?

Concerning the house arrest matter, PM Anwar stated that Putrajaya did not sorok any document relating to jailed former premier Najib Razak's home detention. PM Anwar added that the document was sent to the attorney general and not to him or any other member of the Pardons Board. The royal addendum was then forwarded to the palace when there was a change of King, as it is the King who chairs the Pardons Board.

Another key member of the coalition government, UMNO information chief Azalina Othman urged the party members to stop any speculation regarding the royal addendum. Azalina said that let the court decide the outcome of the matter as the legality of the royal addendum will be decided by the Kuala Lumpur High Court soon. Previously, the Appellate Court only confirmed the existence of the document.

Gamuda on fire

• To invest RM7.1 bil in Vietnam
  The property arm of Gamuda Bhd, Gamuda Land is planning to invest RM7.1 bil in Vietnam for the next five years with the aim of generating RM14.3 bil in terms of gross development value (GDV). According to Gamuda Land Vietnam chairman Angus Liew, Vietnam has three times the population of Malaysia but only churns out half of the residential house supply compared to Malaysia. Liew added that last year in Ho Chi Ming City, 24% of all new condominium units built and 46% of all landed properties launched were delivered by Gamuda Land. Moving forward, Vietnam will continue to account for 60% of Gamuda Land’s international sales.

• 158 hectares to be built in Negeri Sembilan
  Gamuda Berhad’s data centre arm, Gamuda DC Infrastructure Sdn Bhd has forked out RM424.4 mil to acquire 157.71 hectares of land in Port Dickson to build cloud-related data centre infrastructure. Gamuda’s facility will be a part of Malaysian Vision Valley 2.0 (MVV 2.0). Recently, Port Dickson’s Data Centre Infrastructure Hub was recently launched by Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun, which will support the development of MVV 2.0.

• Gamuda to gain from RM8bil Penang LRT
  CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd predicted that Gamuda will dominate the lion's share of the RM8 bil Penang Mutiara Line LRT Project. Previously, the Gamuda-led consortium, SRS Consortium secured the first package (Mutiara Line civil infrastructure works) under a single-sourcing request for proposal last March. Gamuda is also expected to bid for the upcoming systems package.

Gamuda’s share price had a good run in the past year, appreciating by 100% from RM2.50 to RM5, giving the company a market cap RM28.5 bil.

Putrajaya is mulling over asbestos ban soon
Environment Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad stated that the government is reviewing a proposal to fully ban the use of asbestos, a material still widely used in the country despite its harmful effects on human health. Nik Nazmi said the Environment Department is currently studying the use of industrial asbestos and its impact on the environment and health. We thought that the use of asbestos had already been banned. Dear Putrajaya, what study are you still conducting as globally, multiple studies have already concluded towards the fact that asbestos is nasty. We really hope they didn’t engage management consultants to review this proposal. Never know.

According to the UK Government, annually, asbestos kills around 5,000 people, more than the number of people killed on the road. Asbestos is dangerous as fibres released from the material can lead to cancer. As of October 2022, asbestos has been banned in 69 countries including Finland, Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan and Thailand. Asbestos is normally used as roofing material.

Shorts

1. Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf announced that seven district and land office workers in Selangor have been arrested in its ongoing probe into illegal land transfers. Ramli said that a total of seven cases have been linked to this illegal cartel, amounting to RM7.1 mil of losses from the illegal transfers of 8.49 hectares of land. The police figured out the modus operandi of the cartel - identifying dormant properties and using insiders in the district office to change ownership before selling it to other buyers. Netflix produced a series recently called Tokyo Swindlers based on such crime (watch the trailer here)

2. After a seven-year hiatus, the National Service Training Programme (PLKN) finally restarts again with the first batch of 130 volunteer trainees commencing their 45-day PLKN programs at the 515th Territorial Army Regiment Camp and the 505th Territorial Army Regiment Camp in Pekan, Pahang. The next phase of the programme will be conducted at 13 Territorial Army camps, 20 public universities, 33 polytechnics, 27 teacher training institutes and several public skill/industrial training institutes. Back then, at the height of the PLKN programs, 85,000 to 95,000 trainees were trained annually, with an average expenditure of RM600 mil per annum.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

LA inferno continues to blaze
The massive LA wildfire continued to burn yesterday, with the death toll rising to 16 and evacuation orders throughout the Los Angeles area now cover 153,000 residents, with 57,000 structures at risk.

13 people were estimated missing, and the death toll is expected to rise once firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches. The two big fires, Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, combined had consumed more than 36,000 acres (14,500 hectares), or 56 square miles (145.6sq km) – 2.5 times the land area of Manhattan.

Residents were warned of potential worsening weather conditions over the coming days that could further stoke the blaze.

Meanwhile, health officials have declared a public health emergency and warned people in LA to stay indoors due to the thick smoke blanketing the areas. The fire had pumped toxic clouds into the air, with choking fumes that are hazardous and can cause health complications.

Private forecaster AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic loss at USD135 bil to USD150 bil at the time of writing, and President Joe Biden had announced that the US government would reimburse 100% of the recovery for the next six months.

Trump taking office

• Trump spared from jail days before inauguration
  US President-elect Donald Trump has succeeded in walking away from any legal penalty over his recent conviction related to hush money paid to a porn star, despite being sentenced by the judge as guilty on permanent record. He will now be the first president to take office with a criminal conviction, but will not need to serve any punishment such as custody, a fine or probation. This makes him the first president to be a sentenced felon.

  In 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, charged Trump, a Republican, with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen's USD 130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump, who denied it.

  The six-week trial last year played out against the extraordinary backdrop of Trump's successful campaign to retake the White House. The sentencing marks the culmination of the first-ever criminal case brought against a US president, past or present.

• Donald Trump reverses pledge to end Ukraine war in 24 hours as special envoy sets 100-day timeline
  Trump had previously pledged that he would end the Ukraine war within 24 hours after taking office, but apparently it is no longer the case. Trump’s special peace envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg had said that an end to the war in Ukraine could happen within 100 days of him taking office. Although speculation is that the new US administration may force Ukraine to give up land to Russia in return for peace, Kellogg has iterated that Trump does not intend to give something to Putin or to the Russians. He added that he would look to broker a "solid and sustainable" agreement to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine by May.

Aviation

• Jeju Air black box data missing from crucial 4 minutes before crash, South Korea ministry says
  Investigators of the Jeju Air 7C2216 crash discovered that the aircraft’s black box had stopped recording about four minutes before the accident after the pilot reported a bird strike. The plane belly-landed and overshot the regional airport's runway on Dec 29, exploding into flames after hitting an embankment, killing 179 people on board. A former transport ministry accident investigator said the discovery of the missing data from the budget airline's Boeing 737-800 jet's crucial final minutes was surprising and suggests all power, including backup, may have been cut, which is rare.

• Family of Thai tycoon brings USD 2.7 bil claim against helicopter company Leonardo
  The family of Thai mogul Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who died in a helicopter crash in 2018 has brought legal action against Italian helicopter manufacturer Leonardo SpA in a London court valued at USD2.65 bil. It became the largest fatal accident claim in English history. The helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff outside Leicester City's King Power Stadium following a Premier League match. Srivaddhanaprabha is a Thai billionaire businessman and the founder and owner of Thai travel retail group King Power, who also owned Leicester City football club, buying the central England side in 2010. Leicester won the English Premier League in 2016 under his ownership.

Shorts

1. Video editing app Captions looking to leverage on TikTok and CapCut’s uncertainty in US

   Uncertainties around TikTok and CapCut's future in the US may become a good opportunity for Captions, a video editing app that is looking to fill in the gap if CapCut gets banned. The app used to be a paid-only app until now, where the free tier includes basic video editing tools with features like adding subtitles and a teleprompter for recording, voiceovers, and more. Its AI features stay in the paid tier. CapCut has been downloaded over 1.3 bil times in the past 2 years, with 51.2 mil daily active users (DAU) on average and earned over USD460 mil in in-app purchases - big, big gap to fill there.

2. Dozens of people injured in ‘brutal’ tram collision in France’

   Dozens were injured on Saturday after a rare tram collision occurred in a tunnel of the eastern French city of Strasbourg. The minister of transport said that “probably” 36 people were injured, but firefighters put that figure at around 50. It happened near Strasbourg’s main train station, one of the busiest in France outside of Paris. Strasbourg saw a similar incident in 1998 when one tram collided with another in the same tunnel, wounding 17 people. We hope they won’t have to experience a Tajuddin incident. 

3. Tesla expecting USD1 bil in Europe by “helping” rivals meet emission targets

   EV giant Tesla is banding together with major competitors, including Ford, Stellantis, and Toyota, to help them meet European emissions targets, in a deal UBS analysts estimated could net the company as much as USD1 bil. By doing this, Tesla is effectively selling regulatory credits to these rivals who are lagging behind on EV sales - a highly lucrative business for Tesla, who has been making USD 739 mil from the practice in the third quarter of 2024. That’s some cool ancillary income.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Mr Beast is trying to win some social credit after recent controversies.

2. Pakistan International Airlines announced its resumption of flights to Europe after a 4-year safety ban with the below image posted on its social media accounts. We would rate it 9 out of 11 for creativity.

3. Mr Money’s Raw Thought on skyrocketing insurance premium