☕️ Turn country's annual floods into "volunteer tourism" - former tourism minister Nazri Aziz

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

Do you feel like visiting 12 of the happiest places on earth? It will set you back USD109,995 (RM484K) as Disney is offering the travel package called Disney Parks Around the World: A Private Jet Adventure. The 24-day tour includes private jet travel to all of 12 of the company’s parks around the world, plus stops at a few manmade wonders.

Google’s weapon to tackle TikTok, YouTube Shorts, is showing early signs of success as YouTube announced there are 1.5 billion logged-in users monthly who have viewed YouTube Shorts.

USD19 mil (RM83.6 mil) — the price paid by a wealthy person to eat lunch with Warren Buffett. The billionaire businessman auctioned a private lunch to benefit a San Francisco charity, Glide. Glide helps the poor, homeless or those battling substance abuse. This is the 21st and the final time this private lunch auction will be organised. Buffett has raised USD53.2 mil for the charity in these 21 auctions.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. Malaysian actress-singer Adibah Noor, who played the role of Kak Yam in Sepet and Nor in Nasi Lemak 2.0, passed away over the weekend on June 18. It is believed that Adibah was suffering from ovarian cancer. May she rest in peace.

2. The majority of Malaysians might not get 5G if the Big Four telco players in Malaysia — Celcom, Digi, Maxis and UMobile — refuse to purchase a stake in Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and sign up for 5G network contracts by June 30. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) will not extend the June 30 deadline. The big four have insisted on holding a controlling 51% stake in DNB. Communications and Multimedia Ministry is weighing other options, such as issuing licences to new players. Thus far, only Telekom Malaysia Bhd and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YES) have opted to take an equity stake with DNB. First world aspiration, third world execution.

3. Meanwhile, Axiata Group Bhd and Digi.com Bhd’s merger longstop date has been pushed back to Dec 31, 2022, as both parties need more time to fulfil conditions that have been set out in the conditional share purchase agreement (SPA). A longstop date is the date where parties to a merger should meet all of the conditions set in the agreement, failing which the merger would fall through.

4. A havoc weekend of politics:

   1. Muhyiddin Yassin’s name was mentioned in court as among the recipients of financial contributions given by Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB). Witness mentioned Muhyiddin received RM1.3 million in 2018.

   2. Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz said the annual floods in the country can become a “tourism attraction” — voluntary tourism — in an interview with Sinar Daily. 🤮

   3. Three weeks ago, Zuraida Kamaruddin said she would discuss her resignation from the Cabinet with the PM. And just yesterday, she hoped her position in the Cabinet would be retained.

5. The Human Resources Ministry has come under fire recently for selecting only 25 companies for the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. HR Minister M. Saravanan was caught in crossfires saying that both Bangladesh and Malaysia agreed on the 25 companies — Malaysian MPs questioned why and the Bangladeshi government refuted the statement. To quell the fire, Human Resources Ministry has agreed to accredit another 250 companies to assist in bringing in Bangladeshi workers.

6. Caely Holdings Bhd has retracted the appointment of Jovian Mandagie and Sandraruben Neelamagham just after three days they were appointed. The announcement came after Jovian clarified that he did not accept the appointment as the executive vice-chairman of Caely, claiming Caely allegedly made the false announcement to Bursa Malaysia last week.

7. airasia Super App now has an e-wallet feature called “airasia pocket”. The e-wallet enables users to reload and make payments for all the products and services on the app while being rewarded at the same time. Upon activation, users can receive an extra 10% off all AirAsia flight bookings and 10x airasia points with every airasia food order on weekends. Uh, what’s going to happen to BigPay?

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. Russia-Ukraine conflict updates:

   1. President Putin made an appearance at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum and addressed rumours about his health and paraphrased Mark Twain: “the rumours about my death were greatly exaggerated”. Apple’s Steve Job pulled off the same quote in 2008. This quote, however, is a popular misquote attributed to Twain. 

   2. During the forum, Putin accused the West of colonial arrogance and slammed the sanctions, calling them “stupid” that amounted to an economic “blitzkrieg”

   3. US miscalculated their moves - officials in President Joe Biden’s administration have acknowledged that their sanctions have brought economic suffering to the US. The administration earlier predicted the impact of the sanctions would be minimal on the US. Unfortunately, inflation in the US hit a 40-year high.

2. The Colombian army released images of one of the world’s most valuable shipwrecks, often called the “holy grail of shipwrecks”. The nearly three-century-old shipwreck was discovered by the Colombian navy in 2015, but its location remains a secret.The ship carried at least 200 tons of treasure including gold coins, silver coins, Chinese ceramics and emeralds worth an estimated USD17 bil at today’s price. Finders keepers do not work in this case as the ownership of the treasure is highly contested as covered by The Economist. Colombia has claimed the wreck and the treasures as its own as it was recovered in its waters, whilst Spain also staked a claim as the ship was theirs. Complicating the matters further, many of the valuables were plundered from South American countries also giving them a claim on a portion of the treasures.

3. An organised pulled off the “biggest heist” at a Mexican port, taking away 20 shipping containers loaded with gold, silver ore and televisions earlier this month, but was only disclosed last week. Over a dozen fully-armed thieve broke into a private freight yard, gagged the guards and took 8 hours to pick out the high-value shipping containers and knew cranes and gears in the location. The port is situated in Colima, dominated by the Jalisco Cartel, a semi-militarised group of criminals led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a drug trafficker on Mexico’s and the US’ most-wanted list.

4. Washington DC renamed the street in front of Saudi Arabia’s US embassy to “Jamal Khashoggi Way”, trolling the kingdom over its brutal murder of the Washington Post journalist in 2018, , Jamal Khashoggi, who was critical of Saudi Arabia. He was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkiy and his body was dismembered.

5. Troubled cruise operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd sold 2 cruise ships via an auction for USD128 mil to a new owner believed to be a London-based entity. The ships have been under arrest after failing to pay for fuel in Bahamian waters. Whilst the HK business is imploding, its same owner Genting owner and billionaire Lim Kok Thay started a new cruise business in Singapore called Resorts Worlds Cruises Pte Ltd.

6. The Luna collapse is starting to have a contagion effect in the cryptocurrency industry. A wild week it was for crypto — after crypto lender, Celsius halted withdrawals, Babel Finance followed suit. One of the largest crypto hedge funds, 3 Arrows Capital, is said to face issues with meeting margin calls and is considering a bailout by another firm, WSJ reported. At its peak, it had USD18 bil in assets under management. Another large crypto lender BlockFi was rumoured to be facing issues with exposure to Celsius and 3AC too but recently issued a statement to ease fears on this matter. A margin call is when collateral against a loan has diminished in value, exceeds a threshold and the lender calls for more collateral to be added. In the event the borrower fails to meet the margin call, the lender will sell off the asset to readjust the threshold and lower the loan amount. During a sell-down, unmet margin calls exacerbate the sell-down, worsening the bloodbath. Read more here on a margin call.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. An unknown Malaysian sent a “message” via a bomb against Russian soldiers to return their deed against MAS MH-17. For USD40, you can write a message on artillery shells which Ukrainian soldiers will fire at Russian troops. This unique fundraising method by a Ukrainian student has raised USD18,000 and the process has been verified to be real by Business Insider.

2. President Biden fell from a bike after his foot got caught in the pedal. Now waiting for Donald Trump to mock Biden on this incident. 

3. On 15 June, Microsoft retires the Internet Explorer browser after 26 years. A South Korean engineer built a grave for IE, telling AFP that his life is in misery now without the browser as his work is heavily reliant on it. In Japan, half of businesses still rely on IE despite a 6-year heads up.