☕️ Najib Razak's semi-pardon summary

We apologise for the MIA content under the “For Your Eyes'' section last Friday. A bug robbed us from delivering the content, which we have shared again in the same section today! Please bear with us as we are still managing minor hiccups post-migration. If you are experiencing any issues, reply to this email and let us know.

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

SGDMYR = RM2.1772 — 18 years ago. On Friday, the MYR hit an all-time low of RM3.5418 against the SGD. The MYR has lost 38.5% of its value against the SGD since then. We wonder if the Najib news affected the MYR. Hmm.

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

In 2023, football clubs worldwide spent a record-breaking USD9.63 bil (RM45.4 bil) on international transfers, as per FIFA's Global Transfer Report. This figure marks a surge of nearly 50% compared to the previous year and is also more than USD2 bil higher than the previous record set in 2019. Notably, English clubs emerged as the highest spenders with a new high of USD2.96 bil. Guess which league took the second spot? Saudi Pro League — having spent USD970 mil in 2023.
Read: Global Transfer Report

USD700 mil (RM3.3 bil) — Alphabet’s budget for severance costs for 1Q2024, according to the company’s earnings report released last month. For 2023, the company spent USD2.1 bil (RM9.91 bil)on severance and related charges. When Google laid off 12,000 employees in January of 2023, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company hired for a different economic reality than the one it was facing. The rut isn’t over.

The fastest product on TikTok Shop Malaysia to hit RM1.2 mil in sales is Khairul Amin’s latest delicacy — Dendeng Nyet Berapi. It took only 3 minutes and 39 seconds for the product to finish selling. Khairul Amin shared the breakdown of his sales here.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Najib Razak’s semi-pardon summary
Regarding former PM Najib Razak’s punishment for his SRC International case, the Pardons Board decided to halve his corruption jail term from 12 years to six and reduced the RM210 mil fine to RM50 mil. Najib Razak’s daughter, Nooryana Najib, said that during her visit to the Kajang Prison after the Pardons Board’s decision, her father said, ‘Disappointed, very, very disappointed’. She added that her father had been very hopeful about the outcome of the Pardons Board’s decision five days before the official announcement. Let us share a Gen Z term with you — Delulu. An example of use, “Bijan is delulu.”

The Pardons Board meeting that decided on Najib’s pardon application was chaired by the former King, Sultan Abdullah. Under the Federal Constitution, the King chairs the meetings of the Pardons Board for the federal territories, which comprises the attorney general, the Federal Territories minister, and a maximum of three other members appointed by the King. Dr Zaliha Mustafa, the Federal Territories Minister who also sits on the Pardons Board, reiterated that the decision to commute the prison sentence for Najib was a collective decision. Whatever the decision was, Malaysia deserves an explanation, but little is known why Najib got a discount on his sentencing, though this did not surprise many.

Former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) special operations director Bahri Mohd Zin, who was the key person in the SRC International probe, was shocked by the Pardons Board’s decision. Bahri questioned how the public would feel towards the judiciary system when Najib Razak still has four criminal cases pending trial in court. Another unhappy individual who criticised the Pardon Board’s decision, Tony Pua, is under investigation by the police. The former Damansara MP will be probed under the Sedition Act 1948 regarding his Facebook posts expressing his dissatisfaction with Najib’s prison time reduction.

Obviously, the one party that is happy with what is happening is UMNO, albeit not wholeheartedly. According to UMNO Secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, he stated all division chiefs are satisfied with the explanation given on why Najib Razak did not get a full pardon during the closed-door session chaired by UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. It is unclear what Zahid told the division chiefs. On the other hand, UMNO's supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam said that although the party respected the decision made by the Pardons Board, UMNO will still proceed to kickstart a nationwide signature campaign to appeal to the new King so that Najib will get a full pardon.

Klang is not another Colombia
Despite the surge in criminal activities and police operations in the area, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain clarified that Klang is not Colombia (view on the map here). Previously, netizens and media outlets kept likening Klang to the state of Colombia, both allegedly being infested with crime. However, Razarudin stated that while Klang has the worst reputation, Gombak has the highest crime rate this year, followed by Kajang and Petaling Jaya. If Pablo Escobar’s name is familiar to you, well, he was from Colombia.

One interesting fact — do you know that Klang is the royal town of Selangor, which houses Istana Alam Shah, the official palace for any functions involving Sultan Selangor? Apart from the Istana Alam Shah, Istana Darul Ehsan in Putrajaya is also one of the official residences of Sultan Selangor, which was believed to be a gift from the Federal Government to the Sultan Selangor for giving away land to build Putrajaya as an administrative centre.

Misbehaving police giving PDRM a bad name
Five police officers were detained in Penang for allegedly extorting RM4,500 from a factory worker in Permatang Tinggi. Penang state police chief Khaw Kok Chin reassured the public that the police would be investigated like any other suspected criminal.

From Penang, we go down to Selangor where an internal police investigation was initiated after a traffic policeman was found carrying RM3,313 in cash while on duty. Unless he got that money from his ‘duit kutu’ friends, Selangor state police chief Hussein Omar Khan said that the officer may be involved in corruption as the traffic policeman was among the many involved in an anti-drink driving operation on February 4. Hussein added that the policeman involved has been removed from enforcement departments until the investigation concludes.

Previously, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain identified that low salaries and individual attitudes are among the factors why police officers are involved in corruption. However, Razarudin stated that he would not compromise on corruption within the police force. Razarudin also reminded his men that they were members of the Royal Malaysia Police and not ‘police, Raja di Malaysia’ (royalties in the country) when discharging their duties and responsibilities.

Health Ministry to commence its jihad against ‘energy stick’
Health Minister Dr Zulkefly Ahmad said that his ministry will take action against the rising trend of selling ‘energy sticks’ that purposely target children. This is after the ministry has received multiple complaints from social media regarding the matter. The ‘energy stick’ is a two-pronged nasal inhaler filled with oils, mint, or camphor and is being sold at a price as low as RM2.50. According to Public Health Malaysia, using such ‘energy sticks’ can lead to a high risk of mucosal damage inside your nose, apart from allergic reactions.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

The Zuck Special: Facebook turns 20, Meta’s massive USD197 bil pump.
20 years ago, 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates at Harvard University launched “TheFacebook” and have grown to 3.03 bil users. Its other two major apps, WhatsApp and Instagram, both have at least two bil users each. Read the summary of its beginning until its journey today here. 

20 years later, Zuck is still winning big. Though he had a bad week getting grilled by Congress on online child safety, financially, Zuck and his company, Meta, won big last week. Facebook parent reported 25% growth in revenue to USD40.1 bil and a tripling of profits year-on-year to USD14 bil (a sweet net margin of 34.9%!), sending its stock up by 20% to an all-time high (ATH) of USD474.99. Meta set a new history of adding the largest market capitalisation in a single day of USD197 bil, giving the company a market cap of USD1.2 tril. On top of this stellar performance, Facebook announced an additional USD50 bil of share buy-backs and also its first-ever quarterly dividend of 50 cents.
View: Meta Earnings Presentation Q4 2023

What did this mean for Zuck?
This is a huge comeback for Zuck, who saw his net worth surged by USD28.1 bil to USD170.5 bil, the richest he’s ever been, overtaking Bill Gates to move into the fourth spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Not too long ago, he was worth just USD35 bil in late 2022 as tech stocks collapsed in the face of inflation and rising interest rates. With the newly announced dividend policy, Zuck’s is at least receiving USD175 mil cash in the bank, or USD700 mil a year. 

The dividend and share buybacks could be perceived as an attempt to appease investors with Zuck’s obsession with the metaverse. Although its metaverse division, Reality Labs, brought in more than USD1 bil for the first time in the fourth quarter, the unit continues to burn money, recording an operating loss of USD4.65 bil, bringing the total loss to more than USD42 bil since the end of 2020. 

With losses accumulating and little hype on its metaverse project, Apple is giving Meta a run for its money with its recently launched Vision Pro, which has been getting rave reviews (watch here and here), though a common complaint is its weight. It’s not known how much Apple has spent on developing its Vision Pro, but between 2018 and 2022, Apple spent USD97.37 bil on research and development (R&D). Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about Vision Pro’s steep price tag of USD3,499, Cook said the headset’s technology included 5,000 patents. There are 600 apps and games available so far on the Vision Pro, including the full suite of Microsoft Office.

Suspected Chinese pigeon spy released
The fear of China has grown to a new level. Back in May 2023, a pigeon was detained in India by police over suspicions that it was a spy bird for China. The bird was caught at a port in Mumbai with rings tied to its legs and illegible Chinese characters written on its wings. Fortunately for the pigeon, it has secured its freedom, not with the help of a royal pardon, but through the animal activist organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The pigeon was later discovered to be a racing bird from Taiwan that escaped and flew to India. According to Google, the distance between Taipei and Mumbai is 5,032 km. India’s fear is understandable - in 2016, a pigeon was taken into custody after it was found in Kashmir with a note that threatened Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Fun fact: In another case, a carrier pigeon helped the House of Rothschild to make a killing when it delivered the news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, crucial information is known ahead of everyone and allowed them to take a long position in the market when the market was expecting an opposite outcome, for the British to be defeated. 

Shorts

1. foodpanda sale is still ongoing
   Business Times reported that the deal between Grab and German food delivery group Delivery Hero to acquire the latter’s foodpanda business in Southeast Asia has collapsed due to issues concerning pricing, as the price demanded for foodpanda is deemed ‘sky-high’. This sent the share price of Delivery Hero down as much as 13%, but it recovered some losses after it clarified that the potential sale is still ongoing. Bloomberg previously reported that China’s Meituan is also exploring a potential acquisition of foodpanda. 

2. UOB chairman emirutas passed away
   Wee Cho Yaw, chairman emirates of United Overseas Bank, has passed away at 95. Wee is synonymous with the bank his father, Kheng Chiang founded in 1935 in Sarawak, back then known as United Chinese Bank and has now grown into Singapore’s third-largest by asset with a market cap of USD35.90 bil. Here is a quick history here on how Wee turned UOB into the banking behemoth it is today here. Forbes listed Wee’s net worth at USD7.1 bil.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Welcome to 2024 — where productivity goes into overdrive. Apple’s Vision Pro meets Tesla’s Cybertruck.

2. As Malaysia awaits an announcement from the Pardons Board, Douglas Lim’s Pandans Board is drafting an announcement for an altogether different issue.

3. Malaysian students did not fare well in the 2022 PISA education assessment. What’s happening with our current education system?

4. This is impressive — Coldplay performed Yellow with sign language interpreters, providing accessibility to their performance to hearing-impaired concert-goers in Singapore!