☕️ Scorpene submarine scandal back in the spotlight

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

From 2018 to last year, Malaysia lost up to RM3.4 bil due to electricity theft for cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) mining, according to Deputy Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir. These thefts harm Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and the nation, as miners bypass meters, believing their activities undetectable. Fun fact — Malaysia is among the world’s top 10 Bitcoin mining countries, ranking at 7th and contributing 2.5% to the Bitcoin network hashrate.

Almost 1.8 mil people in the UK now owe at least GBP50,000 in student debt, with over 61,000 having balances exceeding GBP100,000 and 50 people owing upwards of GBP200,000, according to data obtained by BBC News from the Student Loans Company (SLC). And this is in a region where there is a maximum fee of GBP9,250 per year since 2017. No wonder people are questioning the value of “the” certificate — would one just be better off doing their own gig?

The appointment of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing as the 2024 Visit Melaka ambassador involved a sponsorship amounting to RM498,347. However, the state government contributed only RM77,850, or 16% of the total cost, with the remaining amount covered by several companies, according to State Tourism, Heritage, Art and Culture Committee chairman Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman. The statesman added that there were almost 1.2 bil searches about Fan Bingbing during the three days she was in Melaka and the searches for Malacca alone reached 445 mil. It's a pretty decent ROI. When she’s getting her Datukship?

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3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

More Mr G's intervention in the digital space

• Deputy PM Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has reiterated the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission's (MCMC) earlier announcement that all social media platforms need to apply for an Application Service Provider Class Licence, which the lot was exempted from before this. Putrajaya mandated the move to create a safe internet environment, especially for the use by children and families. Failure by the social media companies to do so before the Jan 1, 2025 deadline will lead to the end of their operations in the country.

• After the international concert’s ‘kill switch’, the Government plans to do a 1975 to social media companies to enhance cyber security. The bill on the ‘kill switch’ will be tabled in the Parliament this October. According to Law Minister Azalina Othman, the future implementation of the ‘kill switch’ will put more burden of responsibilities towards the social media companies to play their role and be accountable in tackling online crimes such as online scams, cyberbullying, dissemination of child sexual abuse materials, as well as harassment and sexual extortion.

Scorpene in the spotlight again for the wrong reasons
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is currently receiving new information regarding an alleged discrepancy in the acquisition of the Scorpene-class submarines from France back in 2002. The purchase of the submarines was overseen by the incarcerated Najib Razak, who was the defence minister at the time. Based on the new leads obtained, RM42 mil was allegedly misappropriated by companies belonging to family members of the owner of the said company that received the RM530 mil contract for support services concerning the purchase of the submarine. The company that received the RM530 mil contract was Perimekar Sdn Bhd, a company that was only set up in 2001, a few months before the submarines were purchased, and had no relevant experience or expertise in managing submarines. Recap on this Scorpene scandal here by Malaysiakini.

Jubilee for Sarawakians

• Niah Caves in Sarawak is now listed as a Unesco World Heritage site and will be the second site in Sarawak to be given the status after Gunung Mulu National Park in 2000. Apart from being a bird’s nest harvesting site by the native communities, Niah Caves is also home to some of the oldest human remains discovered, including a 40,000-year-old skull unearthed by an archaeological team led by Tom Harrison in 1958. Take a quick tour here of the cave.

• Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg said that the plan to provide free education to qualified Sarawakians at its tertiary learning institutions by 2026 is on track. Based on Abang Johari, the free education package will be merit-based, regardless if the students are from poor, rural families or from rich backgrounds living in the cities. The tertiary institutions that the Sarawak state owns are - Curtin University Malaysia, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, University Technology Sarawak (UTS) and I-CATS University College.

• Deputy PM and Petra Jaya MP Fadillah Yusof said that the Federal Government has approved a RM316 mil allocation to implement the Sarawak coastal erosion and flood mitigation project. Given that the project is successful, in the future, it will protect 45,000 coastal residents, 6,000 hectares of agricultural land and 300 hectares of industrial areas from flooding and coastal erosion. The project will kick start in 2025 and involve putting up protective measures along a 40km coastline.

Shorts

1. Malaysia’s intention to join BRICS received a boost after the chairman of the organisation, Russia paid a visit to the country via its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. During Lavrov’s meeting with PM Anwar Ibrahim, the duo also discussed a possible visit by the latter to Russia soon. A lot of countries including Malaysia are wary of making an official trip to Russia as it may upset their respective Western allies. Only time will tell how PM Anwar Ibrahim intends to move his pieces in this geopolitical chess match.

2. More visibility now on 99 Speedmart’s IPO - coming soon this Q3 2024. 99 Speed Mart Retail Holding Bhd aims to list on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia and had just signed an underwriting agreement with CIMB Investment Bank Bhd, Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd and RHB Investment Bank Bhd. We did a breakdown of its prospectus when its IPO was first announced. Check it out below.

3. The first animation studio listed on Bursa Malaysia, Kucingko Bhd had a stellar IPO, opening at 80.5 sen, 168% higher than its 30 sen IPO price. Of the RM30 mil proceeds from the new shares of Kucingko, RM17.77 mil for capacity expansion, RM4.38 mil to set up a sales office in the US, RM4.26 mil for working capital, and the remaining RM3.6 mil for listing expenses.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Paris Olympics - here for the sports, stay for the drama

• French rail operator sabotaged
  A “co-ordinated malicious acts” through three arson attacks caused a quarter of all Eurostar trains to be cancelled last Friday ahead of the opening of the Olympics in France. The attacks were said to be designed to paralyse high-speed lines running to and from Paris. The rail operator which runs international services said some 800,000 customers were affected by the disruption. Repairs have been completed and full service will resume on Monday 

• Convicted sex offender participated in Olympic games
  Convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde made his Olympic beach volleyball debut for the Netherlands to a mixed of cheers and boos from the crowd. The man was sentenced to 4 years in prison in 2016 after admitting to 3 counts of rape against a 12-year-old British girl. An online petition with 90,000 signatures has called for the 29-year-old to be banned from the Olympics and his inclusion in the Dutch team has been criticised by women’s and safeguarding groups. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the selection of athletes for the games was the responsibility of individual committees, and the Dutch Olympic Committee said he had met guidelines by the Dutch Volleyball Federation to resume competing after conviction. 

• Drone spying scandal
  FIFA deducted 6 points from Canada in the Olympics women’s football game and banned 3 coaches for one year each in a drone spying incident. Two assistant coaches were caught using drones to spy on opponent New Zealand’s training before their opening game on Wednesday.  Canada won the match 2-1. 

• Confusion over South vs North Korea
  Olympic organisers have issued a deep apology after South Korea’s athletes were mistakenly introduced as North Korea at the opening ceremony. Both French and English announcers introduced South Korea as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” - the official name of North Korea and the same name was correctly used when North Korea’s delegation sailed past, South Korea is not letting it slide and is demanding a meeting with the Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and plans to lodge a strong complaint with France on a government level.

It’s official OpenAI is coming for Google’s lunch
The ChatGPT creator announced on Thursday its early version of a search product called “SearchGPT”. In its blog post, OpenAI said it is currently testing SearchGPT, a “temporary prototype of new AI features”, taking it one step closer to launching a search product. OpenAIl will launch it to a small group of users for feedback (you can try reserving a spot by joining the waitlist on its site). OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a video (watch below) of SearchGPT, which looks similar to the Google Search experience with some key differences. 

What’s at stake for Google? A lot. A big threat to its main monetisation model that generated USD175 bil in 2023. For the longest time, Google Search had a stranglehold on the search market share, dominating about 90% of the market. Microsoft (a massive OpenAI backer) Bing only has a 5.5% share of the search market. 

Biggest IPO in 2024 so far - cold-storage business
Lineage, the largest temperature-controlled warehouse real estate investment trust (REIT) in the world successfully raised USD4.4 bil on Nasdaq, implying a market cap of USD18 bil. This is the largest public offering so far after SoftBank’s chip designing firm Arm’s USD4.8 bil listing last September. Started in 2008, the company now operates 480 warehouses across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific region largely due to its aggressive acquisition strategy in the past decade, having done 116 acquisitions. Cold storage has grown in demand due to the increase in popularity of fresh foods and also the obsolescence of many older facilities, View its financial highlights and prospectus here. 

Shorts

1. Robert Downey Jr is back to Marvel - as a supervillain
   Marvel unveiled RDJ at the Comic Con event in San Diego as Dr Victor Von Doom, a prominent villain in the comic books. RDJ will appear in Avengers: Doomsday, which is due to be released in May 2025 and a further instalment called Secret Wars a year later. RDJ was instrumental in launching the Marvel movie universe, starring in the first Iron Man film in 2008, Watch the crowd go wild here when RDJ removed his Dr Doom mask to reveal himself, saying “new mask, same task”.

2. Olympics Sponsor - LVMH
   The Olympics got a luxury brand sponsor for the first time in its history. In fact, it got the whole mothership - luxury conglomerate LVMH has sponsored USD160 mil towards the games after a year of negotiations. Amongst its brands are Louis Vuitton, Celine, Dior, Tiffany, TAG Heuer and Dom Perignon. Chaumet is the first jeweller in Olympic and Paralympic Games history to design the medals, Louis Vuitton to provide the trunk to house the medals, company Moet Hennessy wins and spirits will be served on in the hospitality suites and the French teams uniform was designed by Berluti - view here. After all, LVMH is established and HQ in Paris. 

3. Kamala Harris gets Obama’s endorsement finally
   The speculation is over as Barack Obama officially endorsed VP Kamala Haris to be the Democratic presidential nominee. Previously when commenting on President Joe Biden exiting the presidential race, Obama stopped short of endorsing Harris. Harris has already secured the support of a majority of the Democratic delegates, and this sets her on course to be their official nominee at the party convention in August.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Badminton legend Lee Chong Wei shared a funny tale of how he was motivated by the badminton team’s psychologist during his Olympic debut in 2004 against a Hong Kong player. Read caption below.

2. A short documentary by Free Malaysia Today on the extraordinary discovery of a 1,200-year-old lifesize Buddha statue last month in Bukit Choras, Kedah, believed to predate even Angkor Wat.