1. business and industrial
2. energy
3. oil

FBM KLCI 1818.42
0.68
KLCI FUTURES 1816.00
2.00
STI 3431.59
12.57
RM/USD 3.6570
CPO RM2194.00
27.00
OIL US$58.75
2.27
GOLD US$1209.80
PP 9974/08/2013 (032820)
PENINSULAR MALAYSIA RM1.50
FRIDAY MARCH 27, 2015 ISSUE 1927/2015
FINANCIAL
DAILY
MAKE
BETTER
DECISIONS
www.theedgemarkets.com
Recordings show co-pilot
deliberately crashed plane
26 W O R L D
6 HOME BUSINESS
No delay to T4 power
plant construction,
says Malakoff
8 HOME BUSINESS
Merger with Sime
Darby property unit
mere speculation —
S P Setia
9 HOME BUSINESS
IMF: Malaysia needs
to overcome dip in
economic growth
23 F E AT U R E
Phaseout of PPSMI
runs to 2021
20 P R O P E R
RT
TY
28 BLVD registers
62% take-up rate
by
u
o
y
o
t
t
h
g
u
o
r
b
s
i
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p
o
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This digi
12.80
FBM KLCI 1818.42
0.68
KLCI FUTURES 1816.00
2.00
STI 3431.59
12.57
RM/USD 3.6570
CPO RM2194.00
27.00
OIL US$58.75
2.27
GOLD US$1209.80
PP 9974/08/2013 (032820)
PENINSULAR MALAYSIA RM1.50
FRIDAY MARCH 27, 2015 ISSUE 1927/2015
FINANCIAL
DAILY
MAKE
BETTER
DECISIONS
www.theedgemarkets.com
6 HOME BUSINESS
No delay to T4 power
plant construction,
says Malakoff
8 HOME BUSINESS
Merger with Sime
Darby property unit
mere speculation —
S P Setia
9 HOME BUSINESS
IMF: Malaysia needs
to overcome dip in
economic growth
23 F E AT U R E
Phaseout of PPSMI
runs to 2021
20 P R O P E RT Y
28 BLVD registers
62% take-up rate
Recordings show co-pilot
deliberately crashed plane
26 W O R L D
12.80
2
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
For breaking news updates go to
www.theedgemarkets.com
ON EDGE T V
www.theedgemarkets.com
Sushi King operator
banks on expansion
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SP Setia expects
better sales after GST
implementation
George Kent eyes
RM9billion LRT3 PDP
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KPMG International denies
any connection to 1MDB
Its counsel says no one at headquarters responsible for fellow franchise holders
KUALA LUMPUR: KPMG International has denied any relationship
or connection to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) following recent allegations by whistle-blower
site Sarawak Report that the audit
firm “cooked the books” when auditing the debt-laden state investment firm.
Sarawak Report on Tuesday revealed that Tom Wethered, the
general counsel for KPMG International Cooperative global chairman John Veihmeyer, stated that
the corporate headquarters had no
involvement in the matter because
the KPMG network represented
nothing more than a “Swiss cooperative of happy Helvetic-brand
sharers”.
He explained that no one at the
headquarters was responsible for
what their fellow franchise holders
were up to, and they were just there
to help and advise when required.
“Member firms of the KPMG
network of independent firms are
affiliated with KPMG International. KPMG International provides
no client services.
“No member firm has any authority to obligate or bind KPMG
International or any other member firm vis-à-vis third parties, nor
does KPMG International have any
such authority to bind or obligate
any member firm.
“KPMG International does not
have any relationship with — or
connection to — 1MDB,” Wethered
wrote in an email to Ganesh Sahathevan, a Sydney-based Malaysian investigative financial journal-
ist, who challenged Veihmeyer to
give his response to the allegations.
Ganesh asked whether KPMG
International was aware of any of
the transactions relating to 1MDB
outlined in the expose.
“Much of what reported was in
the public domain since at least
2014. Hence, there is also the question of why the global board took
no action despite that fact?” he
wrote in an email addressed to
Veihmeyer.
Last week, Sarawak Report
exposed 1MDB’s annual report
ended March 31, 2010, and email
transactions that indicated how
1MDB allegedly concealed the
loss of US$700 million, which was
the sum siphoned out of its joint
venture with the little-known oil
company PetroSaudi.
The firms that gave 1MDB clean
bills of health were the Malaysian
offices of global accounting firms
Deloitte and KPMG.
Sarawak Report said those
who assume that accreditation
by KPMG represents some form of
guarantee of high standards, quality control, centralised monitoring
and disciplinary process to ensure
high standards of accountancy
practices must therefore stand
disappointed.
“According to KPMG’s top legal
eagle, theirs is a form of franchise
that has its cake and eats it at the
same time. Name bearers get to
carry the brand but without any
form of accountability.
“If KPMG Malaysia assists in the
cover-up of a billion-dollar heist
of public money, it turns out that
their global headquarters in Amsterdam merely refers you to the
cantons of Switzerland and their
company’s new corporate structure — which is accountability
free,” the site said.
Lack of clear accountability
Sarawak Report cited that the
KPMG website and numerous articles made reference to the guarantee of quality that its brand lent
to its affiliates across the world.
“The KPMG Global website concedes that its head officers provide policies, even regulations.
But there is no mention of enforcement.
“The global board is the principal governance and oversight
body. The key responsibilities of
the board include approving longterm strategies, protecting and
enhancing the KPMG brand, and
approving policies and regulations.
“There is no single line of accountability within the organisation ... although there is a deluge of
information about the values and
quality that this network of affiliated firms is striving to achieve,
there seems to be a lack of clear
accountability within the structure
of the organisation.
“Without accountability and
enforcement structures, the high
values and claims of integrity that
pack out KPMG’s corporate messaging are surely effectively meaningless? What better example than
this latest abdication of responsibility over the scandal of 1MDB?”
Sarawak Report asked.
The site also highlighted how
former KPMG global head Michael
Andrew spoke about the company
upholding its “duty to the broader
community” during an interview
he gave to The Star.
Andrew was quoted as saying
that the KPMG brand is “all about
being independent and objective
because the firm and its employees
have a public interest of responsibility to the broader community”.
He said: “If we don’t meet
the governance standards, people won’t have confidence in our
business. Integrity is at the heart
of everything we do.
“This is ensuring that we understand that our duty is to the
broader community than just to
any particular client or particular
transaction. Because if we do some
work, which turns out to be incorrect, it’ll affect our global brand.”
Despite KPMG’s commitment to
the broader community, Sarawak
Report said the public was never
informed about the siphoning of
US$700 million in public funds
— out of the fund in the case of
1MDB.
“And now it turns out that
KPMG Global regards itself as
having no responsibility at all in
the matter.
“If it’s more widely recognised
that KPMG Global exerts so little
quality control over its branches,
the reputation on which this ‘cooperative’ relies might very well
lose a lot of its lustre,” the site said.
— The Malaysian Insider
Perak Corp seeks legal opinion on
letter of demand by Integrax’s Amin
BY CHARLOTTE C HO NG
KUALA LUMPUR: Perak Corp Bhd
said it is currently seeking legal advice
on the letter of demand (LOD) sent
by Integrax Bhd’s co-founder Amin
Halim Rasip over claims that the former should seek a minimum price
offer of RM3.66 per Integrax share.
In a statement with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Perak Corp confirmed
that the company and its directors
have received an LoD dated March
24 from Amin on “immediate steps
to be taken to invite and procure offers of no less favourable terms and
price”. Amin owns a 24.61% stake in
Integrax.
Perak Corp (fundamental: 1.90;
valuation: 2.40) said, “The company
is currently seeking legal advice on
the LOD and will take appropriate
steps to address the issue.”
This was after Perak Corp board of
directors’ recent decision to reaffirm
its stance to seek approval from the
group’s shareholders to vote in favour
of disposing of its 15.74% stake in Integrax (fundamental: 1.65; valuation:
1.20) to Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB)
(fundamental: 1.30; valuation: 1.80)
for RM3.25 per share at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) today.
Perak Corp’s board had announced that it was of the view
that TNB’s offer for its entire stake
was “superior”.
Perak Corp also said in the same
announcement yesterday that it
could not grant Amin’s request on
having an additional resolution during the EGM today, “as the proposed
modification and proposed addition
of resolution would tantamount to a
new business”.
It also noted that for a business to
be transacted at an EGM, due notice
to the shareholders of the company
must be given at least 14 days before
the meeting.
Under the proposed additional
resolution, Perak Corp is required
to invite further offers from TNB or
any other party and seek a minimum
price offer of RM3.66 per Integrax
share. TNB held a 24.82% stake in
Integrax as at March 19.
State-owned Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Perak is the single largest shareholder of Perak Corp with
an effective equity interest of 52.9%,
while Sime Darby Property Bhd has
a 6.12% stake in Perak Corp.
Perak Corp shares dropped 0.35%
to close at RM2.84 yesterday, with a
market capitalisation of RM284 million, while Integrax’s counter closed
unchanged at RM3.17, bringing a
market cap of RM953.55 million.
TNB’s share price also closed 0.28%
lower at RM14.46, with a market cap
of RM81.6 billion.
Amin had sent a letter of demand dated
March 24 to Perak Corp Bhd. The Edge
file photo
The Edge Research’s fundamental
score reflects a company’s profitability
and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The
valuation score determines if a stock is
attractively valued or not, also based
on historical numbers. A score of 3
suggests strong fundamentals and
attractive valuations. Go to www.
theedgemarkets.com for more details
on a company’s financial dashboard.
4 HOME BUSINESS
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Oil surges on Saudi air
strikes in Yemen
Analysts say impact on O&G counters to be short-lived
BY Y EN N E FOO & YIM IE YONG
KUALA LUMPUR: The rise in crude
oil prices, after Saudi Arabia started
military operations against Iranian
backed-Houthi rebels in Yemen,
and its impact on local oil and gas
(O&G)-related stocks is likely to be
temporary, analysts say.
At the time of writing, Brent crude
oil had advanced 4.34% or US$2.45
(RM9) to US$58.94 per barrel, while
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was
up US$2.32 or 4.71% to US$51.53.
MIDF Research analyst Aaron
Tan told The Edge Financial Daily,
“Every time there is a new geopolitical conflict in the Middle East,
the first reaction would always be
a spike in crude oil price. The concern is always whether there is oil
supply disruption.”
“When it comes to crude oil
supply disruption, the question
is whether there is a disruption
in production oilfields itself or an
interruption in the transportation
of oil,” he explained.
Tan pointed out that the full impact of the new Middle East tension
on crude oil price would only be
known once the damage of the assault on oil-related facilities is known.
“Once the details of the attack
are known, oil traders would start
to assess the situation and see if oil
facilities were actually damaged, the
extent of the damage and cost, and
how much they stand to lose from the
supply disruption, if any,” said Tan.
Singapore’s OCBC Investment
Research Pte Ltd analyst Low Pei
Han raised the point that Yemen’s
location along the oil shipping route
in the Middle East could disrupt
delivery of the commodity.
“While shipping routes to Asia
may not be immediately affected,
shipping lanes to Europe could be.
Arab producers have to pass Yemen’s coastlines via the Gulf of Aden
to get to Europe,” she said.
While Yemen is not a major oil
producer — producing less than
0.2% of the world’s oil output, according to Bloomberg — it shares
a border with Saudi Arabia, the
world’s biggest crude oil exporter.
Furthermore, it is strategically
located along the route used by
oil tankers from the Persian Gulf
to the west.
Locally, trading interest appears
to be returning to O&G-related
stocks. Yesterday, smaller capitalised O&G-related stocks such as
Sumatec Resources Bhd and Perisai
Petroleum Teknologi Bhd saw their
trading volumes and prices increase.
Sumatec (fundamental: 2.4; valuation: 0.3) closed one sen or 4.55%
higher at 23 sen, with 105.8 million
shares traded. It reached an intraday high of 24 sen.
Perisai (fundamental: 0.45; valuation: 1.2), which is an upstream
services provider of O&G vessels
and facilities, hit 59 sen during the
day, before closing at 58.5 sen, up
4.5 sen or 8.33%. A total of 62.73
million shares were done.
Meanwhile, larger O&G counters
such as KNM Group Bhd, UMW
Oil & Gas Corp Bhd (UMWOG)
and Barakah Offshore Petroleum
Bhd were among the gainers on
Brent Crude Oil
USD($)
120
Vol (mil)
0.5
0.4
100
0.3
80
0.2
$58.96
60
0.1
40
0
Mar 26, 2014
Mar 26, 2015
the local bourse yesterday.
KNM (fundamental: 0.85; valuation: 2.4) surged 8.53% or 5.5 sen
to close at 70 sen, UMWOG (fundamental:1.05 ; valuation: 0.6) rose
6.08% or 13 sen to RM2.27, while
Barakah (fundamental: 2.1; valuation:1.8) rose 5.06% to 93.5 sen.
Meanwhile, integrated O&G
services provider SapuraKencana
Petroleum Bhd (fundamental: 1.3;
valuation: 1.8) rose eight sen or
3.45% to close at RM2.40, with 18.46
million shares done for a market
capitalisation of RM13.9 billion.
Bumi Armada Bhd (fundamental: 1.05; valuation: 1.2), a global
floating production, storage and
offloading (FPSO) player traded
to RM1.07 during the day, before
closing three sen or 2.94% higher at
RM1.05, for a market capitalisation
of RM6.16 billion.
FPSO player Yinson Holdings
Bhd (fundamental: 1.5; valuation:
1.5) closed just two sen or 0.74%
higher at RM2.81, but volume
reached 4.7 million shares.
Despite that, head of research at
M&A Securities Rosnani Rasul said
that conflict’s influence on local
O&G stock prices would be limited
as the underlying landscape of the
global O&G remains unchanged.
“With Saudi Arabia being the
largest oil producer in the world,
any news about them will cause
an oil price shock. The air strike in
Yemen is a localised conflict and the
fundamental issues within the global O&G sector is the same. There
is a global supply glut,” she said.
“In the end, it is the company’s
fundamentals and their earnings
which will determine any sustainable share price increase. The impact
of the higher oil price now is only
going to be temporary,” she said.
Saudi Arabia initiated airstrikes
against the rebel forces yesterday
after Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled the southern port city of Aden by boat as the
Houthis advanced.
The Edge Research’s fundamental
score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers.
The valuation score determines if a
stock is attractively valued or not,
also based on historical numbers.
A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.
Go to www.theedgemarkets.com for
more details on a company’s financial dashboard.
CIMB is adviser for Edra sale
BY A H MA D NAQ I B IDR IS
KUALA LUMPUR: Financial services provider CIMB Group Holdings
Bhd announced that it had been
appointed adviser to the Ministry
of Finance (MoF) to find strategic investors for the potential sale
of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s
(1MDB) energy arm, Edra Global
Energy Bhd.
“CIMB’s role will include identifying potential buyers and running a competitive process for Edra
to derive an optimal outcome for
MoF,” said the bank in a statement
yesterday.
However, CIMB (fundamental:
1.05; valuation: 1.5) said its appointment “does not extend to any other
areas” relating to the controversial
state wealth fund.
This confirms The Edge Financial
Daily’s report on March 19, quoting
sources, that the MoF had asked
CIMB Investment Bank Bhd, CIMB
Group’s corporate and investment
banking outfit, to look at a strategic
sale of the power assets of 1MDB
as an alternative to the planned
initial public offering (IPO), which
had run into headwinds because of
various problems.
It had said that the MoF, as the
sole shareholder of 1MDB, was worried that the IPO, initially planned
for late last year and now targeted for
mid-2015, might not materialise and
wanted to consider another option.
“They are in need of cash to help
pay off their debts and they are
worried that the IPO may not happen, so they need to consider an
alternative,” said a source quoted
in the daily.
CIMB’s statement yesterday also
clarified its role in relation to 1MDB
after The Malaysian Insider reported on Wednesday, quoting Second
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad
Husni Hanadzlah in Parliament,
that the government had asked
CIMB to be a “third party” to perform an evaluation of 1MDB for
BY C Y N T H IA B L E MIN
KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition
lawmakers yesterday ticked off
the Ministry of Finance (MoF)
over contradictory statements
made on tycoon T Ananda Krishnan’s involvement in the
settlement of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) RM2
billion debt with local financial
institutions.
“There are contradictory
statements from the MoF on
Ananda’s involvement in settling the RM2 billion debt. We
want to know who wrote the
written answers to Parliament.
Was it Ahmad Maslan (Deputy
Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan) or Husni (Second
Finance Minister Datuk Seri
Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah)?”
Bayan Baru Member of Parliament (MP) Sim Tze Tzin told
reporters yesterday.
Sim said the written answers
from the MoF could have been
prepared by either one of them.
Last night, Ahmad Husni told
Parliament in his winding-up
speech during the debate on
the royal address that Tanjong
plc, which is controlled by the
tycoon, had helped rope in “private investors” to come up with
the money to help 1MDB pay
off its RM2 billion.
His remarks contradict his
ministry’s written reply on March
14 on the same issue when queried by Batu MP Tian Chua.
The ministry had said then
that 1MDB’s RM2 billion debt
was settled in early February
with money from part of its
US$2.318 billion (RM8.513 billion) Cayman Islands funds and
not with the billionaire’s help.
Najib: ‘1MDB
owes local
banks RM5.037b’
BY C H E N S H AUA F UI
15
r 19, 20
ck: Ma
lashba
Poser over MoF
contradictory
statements
F
the
he IPO of its power assets
assets.
The statement came when he
announced that a special task force
will be set up to investigate 1MDB’s
operations and its RM42 billion
debt, which is separate from the one
by the Attorney-General (AG) announced last week that comprises
the Inspector-General of Police Tan
Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, the Malaysian
Anti-Corruption Commission, the
AG’s chambers and the police.
Besides himself, Ahmad Husni
said the members of this new task
force will include Minister in the
Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, Chief
Secretary to the Government Tan
Sri Dr Ali Hamsa and Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd
Irwan Serigar Abdullah.
“The government has set up a
task force. We are looking at it entirely, including 1MDB’s debts,”
Ahmad Husni said.
He added that the fund’s cash
flow problems will be resolved once
the IPO of its power assets take off.
However, critics of 1MDB have
said that the IPO will not be enough
to resolve its woes, as the exercise
would barely raise RM18 billion,
while its debt stood at RM42 billion.
“Even in the event that 1MDB is
able to successfully list its energy
subsidiary and sell its land bank
at premium prices, the financially-stricken company can only raise
barely RM18 billion to repay its
RM42 billion debt, recorded as at
March 31, 2014,” said DAP’s Tony
Pua in a statement on March 13.
CIMB closed one sen or 0.16%
higher at RM6.19, bringing its market capitalisation to RM52.23 billion.
KUALA LUMPUR: 1Malaysia
Development Bhd (1MDB)
owed local banks a total of
RM5.037 billion as of January
2015, said Finance Minister
Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“As of January 2015, 1MDB
owed local banks a total of
RM5.037 billion,” Najib said
in a brief one-line written reply
to Pandan Member of Parliament Rafizi Ramli yesterday.
Rafizi asked the minister to
state all of 1MDB’s debts with
local banks as of January 2015,
and the latest audit result by
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)
on each of these debts.
Rafizi had said earlier when
it was known that 1MDB faced
problems servicing its RM2 billion loan from local banks in
February, BNM had conducted a
compliance audit on local banks.
He had urged the central
bank to make the report on the
audit public.
6 HOME BUSINESS
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Eco World to launch
properties in UK
worth £1.15b
Projects are portions of the Embassy Gardens, Arrowhead
Quay and London City Island
KUALA LUMPUR: Eco World Development Group Bhd plans to launch
property projects with a gross development value (GDV) of about £1.15
billion (RM6.28 billion) in the United Kingdom by the end of this year.
Eco World (fundamental: 0.5; valuation: 0.3) chairman Tan Sri Liew
Kee Sin said the projects that will be
launched are portions of the Embassy
Gardens, the Arrowhead Quay and
the London City Island.
He said all three projects will have
different price points to cater to customers with different investment
needs. “More than 90% of the units
are two-bedroom [ones] with a selling
price below the £1 million threshold,”
Liew told reporters after officiating
the Eco World International Centre
at The Gardens North Tower today.
The three projects have a combined total GDV of around £2.3 billion, with the GDV for the London
City Island at £617 million, Arrowhead Quay at £611 million and Embassy Gardens at £1.029 billion, respectively.
Eco World is eyeing a 50:50 mix
of local and foreign buyers in the
said projects.
On the impact of the United Kingdom (UK) general election this year
on the property market, former UK
prime minister’s trade envoy Lord
Jonathan Marland, who was also
present at the event yesterday, said
it is too early to tell.
group will still focus on London and
Australia for its overseas property
development.
“We will consider exploring new
markets once the UK and Australian
markets are stabilised and the special
purpose acquisition company (Spac)
is approved by the authority,” he said.
Liew and fellow property magnate
Datuk Teow Leong Seng, together
with some associates, are seeking to
list the first property Spac, Eco World
International Bhd, on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia, to raise some
RM1.87 billion.
The Spac is currently awaiting approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia on the matter.
Liew says the group will still focus on
It was previously reported Eco
World plans to acquire a 30% stake
London and Australia for its overseas
in the Spac for RM562.5 million.
property development. Photo by Mohd
Eco World closed at RM1.93 yesIzwan Mohd Nazam
terday, down one sen or 0.52%, giving
Nevertheless, he said the UK gov- it a market capitalisation of RM3.82
ernment has a policy of building billion.
50,000 houses a year in London, regardless of any changes in the political scene.
The Edge Research’s fundamental
“Currently, demand is definitely score reflects a company’s profitability
more than supply,” he said, adding and balance sheet strength, calculatthat the pricing of Eco World pro- ed based on historical numbers. The
jects is deemed affordable to those valuation score determines if a stock is
in the UK. “The UK government is attractively valued or not, also based
also keen on encouraging more first- on historical numbers. A score of 3
time home buyers by offering them suggests strong fundamentals and
lower interest rates for their home attractive valuations. Go to www.
loans,” he said.
theedgemarkets.com for more details
Going forward, Liew said the on a company’s financial dashboard.
Gamuda 2Q net profit up 7%
to RM182.18m
BY SU L H I A ZMA N
KUALA LUMPUR: Construction outfit Gamuda Bhd saw its net profit for
the second quarter ended January
(2QFY15) increase 7.1% to RM182.18
million or 7.78 sen per share from
RM170.12 million or 7.41 sen per
share a year ago.
Revenue grew 26.2% to RM653.24
million from RM517.63 million in
2QFY14. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Gamuda said the
increase in revenue and profit was
“mainly due to additional stake in Kesas Sdn Bhd, the concession holder
of Shah Alam Expressway”.
For the cumulative six-months
period (6MFY15), Gamuda’s net profit rose 9.7% to RM368.03 million or
15.78 sen per share from RM335.60
million or 14.66 sen per share a year
ago, while revenue went up 21.8%
to RM1.22 billion from RM1 billion
in 6MFY14.
On a segmental basis, Gamuda’s construction division revenue
in 6MFY15 grew 8% to RM609.08
million from RM563.56 million previously, which the group attributed
to higher work progress from the underground works of the Klang Valley
mass rapid transit (KVMRT) project.
As for its property division, revenue in 6MFY15 jumped 10% to
RM414.78 million from RM377.14
million, thanks to its Gamuda City
project in Vietnam.
Gamuda (fundamental: 2.2; valuation: 1.5) added that its property
division sold RM292 million worth of
properties in 2QFY15, which boosted
its 6MFY15 sales to RM535 million.
Its current unbilled sales stood
at RM1.5 billion, while the remaining gross development value of its
existing and new projects stands at
RM49.16 billion.
Meanwhile, revenue for its water
and expressway divisions tripled to
RM199.01 million in 6MFY15 from
RM63.04 million in 6MFY14, as a
result of its additional stake in Kesas
Sdn Bhd. Going forward, Gamuda expects a “good performance this year”.
“The group anticipates a good
performance this year from ongoing
construction projects, substantial
unbilled sales of the property division, and steady earnings from the
water and expressway concessions
divisions,” it said in the filing.
The stock closed three sen or
0.57% lower at RM5.20 yesterday,
giving it a market capitalisation of
RM12.22 billion.
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No delay to T4 power plant
construction, says Malakoff
BY S H A L IN I KUMA R
KUALA LUMPUR: Malakoff Corp
Bhd has dismissed talks of a delay
in the construction of its 1,000mw
Tanjung Bin Energy (T4) coal power plant, saying they are “misleading” and “do not present the current situation”.
In a statement yesterday,
Malakoff said there is no truth to
reports that its T4 power plant is
expecting a six- to 12-month delay.
“Any risk of construction delay
that arose in 2013 was during the
initial stages of the construction.
“The scheduled completion
date is March 2016. Now after more
than 24 months of construction ...
the construction delays have been
addressed, with Malakoff expecting
to deliver the T4 power plant within the stipulated time,” it added.
On Wednesday, opposition
lawmaker Tony Pua called on the
government to terminate and penalise independent power producers (IPPs), namely 1Malaysia
Development Bhd (1MDB) and
Malakoff, for failing to finance and
deliver their concessions.
He also questioned why new
IPP contracts were being awarded to the companies when they
had failed to commence their respective projects due to financial
difficulties.
Pua said every year’s delay to
the completion of each power plant
project will cost Malaysian consumers RM644 million in higher
electricity prices.
1MDB, which has been awarded the 2,000mw coal-fired power plant as well as the Project 4A
gas-turbine power plant in Melaka, has not started work on the
projects due to shortage of funds.
Tanjung Offshore pledges cooperation
with regulators on probe
BY C H A R LOT T E C H O N G
KUALA LUMPUR: Tanjung Offshore Bhd executive director (ED)
Tan Sri Tan Kean Soon said the
company will work closely with
regulatory bodies and institutions
on the ongoing investigations
arising from the independent
committee (IC) findings. The IC
findings were submitted to Bursa
Securities, the Securities Commission Malaysia and the police
in late January.
Kean Soon, who was redesignated as the company’s ED (from
non-ED) on Monday, said in a
statement yesterday that he will
work closely with the newly-appointed special auditor, Ferrier
Hodgson MH Sdn Bhd, to conduct
a forensic audit and address the
list of questions and issues raised.
He said he would ensure the
results are disclosed publicly and
quickly. Moving forward, Kean
Soon noted that Tanjung Offshore
(fundamental: 1.85; valuation:
0.60) plans to review several matters, including the possibility of
implementing a dividend policy
to reward shareholders.
“The board is also considering
to invite Lembaga Tabung Haji,
the company’s second-largest
shareholder, to sit on the board.” Kean Soon is the third-largest shareholder of Tanjung Offshore, with a 7.58% stake, after its
chief executive officer Rahmandin
Shamsudin’s 9.99% holdings, and
Lembaga Tabung Haji’s 7.99% equity interest. “All shareholders can
expect a transparent and accountable board which will endeavour
to provide the best returns in these
challenging times for the oil and
gas industry,” he said. In the past
two days, Tanjung Offshore has
withdrawn all lawsuits against
Kean Soon and related parties.
This follows the lifting of the suspension of Kean Soon’s and two
other officers’ roles on Monday.
Kean Soon and two shareholders had also called off an extraordinary general meeting that was
slated for today. Tanjung Offshore shares closed
unchanged at 51.5 sen yesterday,
giving it a market capitalisation of
RM195.22 million.
Kenanga Group bags five Bursa
Brokers awards
BY G H O C H E E Y UA N
KUALA LUMPUR: K&N Kenanga
Holdings Bhd (Kenanga Group)
has clinched five awards at the
recent annual Bursa Malaysia
Brokers’ Awards 2014.
In a statement, the group said
Kenanga Deutsche Futures Sdn
Bhd was named as one of the top
three recipients for the Best Derivatives Clearing Broker.
Kenanga Deutsche Futures
also retained its “Best Derivatives
Trading Broker” and “Best Trading Broker — Equity Derivatives”
title for the 12th consecutive year.
Meanwhile, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd retained its top
three position in the “Best Retail
Equities Broker” and “Best Online Broker” categories for the
second consecutive year.
Kenanga Group managing director Datuk Chay Wai Leong said
the group continues to reaffirm
its position as one of the leading
players in equity broking and
listed derivatives despite intense
competition.
“This was made possible
thanks to the strong collaborative
efforts of our talent pool across
the entire group,” he added.
8 HOME BUSINESS
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Bioalpha eyes
Middle East
market in 2016
It has signed MoU with UAE-based company
BY SU L H I A ZMA N
KUALA LUMPUR: Integrated health
supplements manufacturer Bioalpha
Holdings Bhd, en route to a listing on
the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia,
aims to sell its products in the Middle
East in 2016 — beginning with the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), said its
managing director and chief executive officer William Hon Tian Kok.
“The expansion is a step forward
for us to broaden our revenue and
customer base, given that our products are halal-certified,” Hon told
reporters after the launch of its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus
here yesterday.
Bioalpha initially wanted to enter
the Middle East market in the second
quarter of 2015, but the plan was delayed pending the relevant approval
and permits from authorities.
To recap, Bioalpha had on Oct
28 last year signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) with UAEbased Fathima Group of Companies
LLC (FGC) for the latter to distribute
Bioalpha products to supermarkets,
pharmacies and healthcare centres.
FGC has 25 retail outlets in the UAE
and other member countries within
the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Hon said Bioalpha currently has
an outstanding purchase order of
RM10.26 million, which will be fulfilled by end-2015. Currently, sales
Hon said Bioalpha will open 10 outlets
in retail malls in Klang Valley this year.
Photo by Shahrin Yahya
in Malaysia contributed 47.41% to
its total revenue, followed by Indonesia (40.63%), Australia (11.19%)
and others (0.77%).
Hon said Bioalpha will open 10
outlets in retail malls in the Klang
Valley this year via licensing arrangements, at a cost of RM750,000 per
outlet.
“Our expansion plan with
MyAngkasa (MyAngkasa Holdings
Sdn Bhd) is to establish retail outlet
chains that will enhance our distribution channel as well as increase
our market share of 3.63% currently,” he said, adding that discussions
on licensing arrangements are still
ongoing.
Earlier, Hon said Bioalpha’s proposed listing on the ACE on April 14
KWAP to focus on local market, help
economic growth
KUALA LUMPUR: Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan)
(KWAP), which has a fund value of RM112 billion, aims to expand
its investments in the domestic equity, property and fixed income
markets.
By year-end, KWAP expects to grow its fund size to RM120 billion from RM110.5 billion in 2014.
Chief executive officer Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad said
the focus is in line with the government’s recommendation that
KWAP should continue to support the nation’s economic growth,
given the challenging global economic environment.
“We seek to maximise our long-term adjusted total returns to
enhance the real value of the fund, and target to achieve a nominal
risk adjusted return of 6.8% per year over a 10-year rolling period,”
he said in his keynote address at the Second Conference on Islamic Wealth Management and Financial Planning here yesterday.
He added that KWAP will also be focusing on Islamic finance
services and has been embarking on a project to set up a syariah-compliant fund in all asset classes. Currently, 71% of its investments in the equity market are syariah-compliant, including
bonds and sukuk.
He added as of February this year, 24% of KWAP’s investment
funds are syariah-compliant.
He added that KWAP would soon be announcing a deal to acquire a
building in the Klang Valley worth over RM1 billion. “We would like to
make a bigger presence in the local real estate market and will outsource
more in the equity and fixed income markets,” he said. — Bernama
at an offer price of 20 sen per share
is pegged at a price-earnings multiple of 11.56 times, based on its net
earnings per share of 1.73 sen registered in the financial year ended
December 2013 (FY13).
The group expects to raise RM20
million via the issuance of 100 million new shares, of which 80 million
will be placed to selected investors
and the remaining 20 million will be
offered to the public. This will give it
an enlarged share capital of 463.41
million, which means its market
capitalisation, upon listing, will hit
RM92.7 million.
Bioalpha said 45.4% of its IPO
proceeds will be used for working
capital, followed by 30% or RM6
million for both capital expenditure (15%) and research and development (15%); 13.1% to repay its
bank borrowings, with the remaining
11.5% for listing expenses.
For the nine months ended Sept
ember of FY14 (9MFY14), Bioalpha’s
profit leaped 42% to RM3.83 million
or 2.51 sen per share from RM2.7 million or 1.81 sen per share a year ago,
while revenue in 9MFY14 rose 59%
to RM18.76 million from RM11.79
million previously on higher sales
from its original design manufacturer and house brands.
Hon said Bioalpha intends to pay
30% from its future net profits as
dividends.
S P Setia: Merger with
Sime Darby property
arm mere speculation
BY A H MA D N AQ IB ID R IS
KUALA LUMPUR: S P Setia Bhd said
reports relating to a potential merger of the property developer with
Sime Darby Bhd’s property arm
is mere speculation, and that the
company is not privy to the details
of the rumoured corporate move.
“It’s just speculation and we
don’t know the details, so it is very
difficult to comment. If there is
any kind of corporate activity, the
board will deliberate and then we
will make a statement on it.
“Other than that, we read it from
the paper, just like you,” acting president and chief executive officer
(CEO) Datuk Khor Chap Jen quipped
at a press conference after the group’s
annual general meeting yesterday.
The Edge weekly had reported on
March 16 that a proposal for Sime
Darby (fundamental: 1; valuation:
0.9) to buy Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) stake in S P Setia
(fundamental: 1.4; valuation: 1.2)
has been put forward to the relevant parties. However, it is not clear
whether PNB, Sime Darby and S P
Setia are receptive to it.
Previously, a local daily reported
that the senior management of S P
Setia had mooted for Sime Darby
Property Bhd to acquire the former. It was said this was brought
up by the S P Setia’s management
last year, to PNB and Sime Darby. According Bursa Malaysia filings, PNB had a 51.18% stake in S P
Setia as at Jan 6, and a 7.89% stake
in Sime Darby.
The report, quoting unnamed
sources, said the idea for Sime Darby Property to acquire S P Setia
was mooted to resolve a vacuum
in leadership, caused by the departure of S P Setia’s former president
and CEO Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin on
April 30, 2014.
Looking ahead, S P Setia expects
sales to be more robust in the second half of 2015, following the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) from April 1, as the
tax has caused some uncertainty in
the property market. He noted that
there was no pre-GST rush as buyers have postponed their big-ticket
purchases.
“We foresee that about two
months after GST, things will normalise. We think that in the second
half of the year, purchases will pick
up again, given the right products,”
said Khor.
For 2015, he said S P Setia will
be selective in its product offering,
focusing more on landed products
priced RM800,000 and below.
Of its sales target of RM4.6 billion for the year, S P Setia expects
local sales to account for approximately RM2.8 billion or 60%, driven
by its developments in Penang, the
Klang Valley and Johor.
Khor said the property market in
Johor is challenging and that “the
game has changed” with the entry
of Chinese developers.
“At the moment, there appears
to be an ample supply of high-rises. For us, we have concentrated
on landed properties. Long-term
wise, depending on how the state
government and Singapore work
together, I think there will be a future for the property market there,”
he said.
Meanwhile, the balance 40%
or RM1.8 billion of its target will
comprise sales of its foreign developments, supported mainly by its
£8 billion (RM43.63 billion) gross
development value Battersea Power
Station project.
George Kent ‘fortunate’ for not getting into O&G
BY C HE S TE R TAY
KUALA LUMPUR: George Kent
(Malaysia) Bhd deemed itself
“fortunate” for not jumping into
the oil and gas (O&G) market,
which is now facing a slump in
oil prices.
“I think we can consider ourselves fortunate for not venturing into the O&G business, given that the industry is now not
conducive,” its executive director Bernie Ooi Chin Khoon told
a news conference yesterday to
announce the group’s financial
results for the fourth quarter
ended January (4QFY15).
George Kent chairman Tan
Sri Tan Kay Hock had in August last year said the group was
looking to diversify its presence
into the O&G sector.
Brent crude oil is now hovering at US$59 (RM216.53) a
barrel.
Ooi also clarified that its joint
venture (JV) partner Lion Pacific
Sdn Bhd is still involved in one
of the work packages for the Ampang LRT Line Extension.
Market talk is that the engineers who are conducting the
system works for the Ampang LRT
Extension are from CMC Engineering Sdn Bhd, and not Lion
Pacific.
George Kent (fundamental: 2.1;
valuation: 2.4) had in August 2012
won the RM955.84 million system
works contract in a JV with Lion
Pac, from Prasarana Malaysia Bhd.
During the briefing, Ooi conceded there was a dip in the group’s
4QFY15 net profit, but said George
Kent is in the midst of bidding for
other contracts.
“One of them is the RM9 billion
LRT Line 3 project delivery partner (PDP) contract, which we are
tendering with MRCB (Malaysian
Resources Corp Bhd),” he said.
George Kent saw its 4QFY15
net profit fall 55.23% year-on-year
to RM8.28 million, from RM18.48
million a year ago.
Asked whether the George
Kent-MRCB JV as reported by
The Edge weekly on March 23,
2015 was one of the six shortlisted PDP companies, Ooi neither
confirmed nor denied it.
The Edge weekly reported that
George Kent was one of the six
shortlisted candidates for the
role of PDP by Prasarana for the
development of the proposed
LRT 3 project.
George Kent shares closed
unchanged at RM1.27 yesterday,
giving it a market capitalisation
of RM390.53 million.
The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s
profitability and balance sheet
strength, calculated based on
historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock
is attractively valued or not, also
based on historical numbers. A
score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.
Go to www.theedgemarkets.com
for more details on a company’s
financial dashboard.
HOME BUSINESS 9
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
IMF: M’sia needs to overcome
dip in economic growth
To prepare itself for becoming a high-income nation by 2020
BY SUPRIYA SURENDRAN & JENNY NG
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs
to overcome the dip in economic
growth in order to prepare itself for
becoming a high-income nation
by 2020, according to International
Monetary Fund (IMF) first deputy
managing director David Lipton.
The government had forecast the
country’s economy to grow between
4.5% and 5.5% this year due to the
decline in oil prices, compared with
its earlier growth forecast of between 5% and 6%.
“The biggest challenge for Malaysia is to overcome its dip in economic growth, and to restore it to
[past levels] and sustain it.
“Through its 2020 economic convergence ambition, Malaysia plans to
grow from a middle-income country to a high-income country with a
per capita gross domestic product
(GDP) rising to about US$15,000
(RM55,088) and that is [also] a chal-
lenge that the Malaysian government
needs to take on,” he told The Edge
Financial Daily in an interview.
He emphasised that sound macroeconomic policies are just the
foundation for economic growth,
beyond that there is a need for a
highly educated population, as well
as infrastructure and research and
development that will drive Malaysia to become a technology powerhouse as it aims to become a
high-income nation.
Lipton, who was in town for the
recently-concluded 19th Asean Finance Ministers’ Meeting, had earlier said in his keynote address at a
dinner organised by Bank Negara
Malaysia (BNM) that with sustained
efforts to pursue further reforms, Malaysia’s income level in 2040 could
reach that of the United Kingdom.
Lipton commended the Malaysian government, in particular
BNM, for maintaining the resilience of the Malaysian economy
amid falling crude oil prices.
“The decline in oil prices is
something that does negatively
affect the Malaysian economy as
it provides about 20% of export
proceeds, and the government has
taken action to protect the budget
through a combination of fuel subsidies and the proposed goods and
services tax, which help ensure that
the budget is not impaired by the
decline in oil prices,” he said.
On the issue of deflation, which
in broader terms refers to a general
decline in prices often caused by a
reduction in the supply of money
or credit, Lipton said that it will
not be a threat as the debt levels
in the country are not as high in
comparison with other countries.
Malaysia’s inflation, as measured by the consumer price index,
increased at a slower growth rate of
0.1% in February from a year earlier.
Lipton said that deflation is dangerous in some places of the world,
such as countries in the eurozone
that have reached high levels of indebtedness. “In those places, having
deflation is problematic because it
means real interest rates are high and
growth is low, and debt may grow
faster than the income of the people, but in countries that are growing rapidly and where debt is not so
large, like Malaysia, deflation is not
a dangerous phenomenon,” he said.
He said that BNM plays a vital
role in monitoring deflation via its
monetary policy and other mandates
with regards to economic growth and
employment opportunities.
On threats to the global economy that may impact Malaysia, Lipton said that geopolitical risks, such
as the political tension between
Russia and Ukraine, as well as the
unrest in the Middle East may have
an impact on the business sentiment in the country.
“There are also a lot of large corporations that have done a lot of
Lipton: There could be some substantial
interest rate increases that will affect
capital flows, but I think that Malaysia has
prepared itself well. Photo by Sam Fong
borrowing that may have some
trouble repaying those debts, especially those in the energy sector,
due to the falling oil prices.”
“[Malaysia] should keep an eye out
for this kind of global indebtedness,
but [as I mentioned] having a flexible
exchange rate serves as a shock absorber to these kind of risks,” he said. He said that the global indebtedness is not a risk for Malaysia,
but affects countries where government debt to GDP is high, and
which need IMF programmes such
as Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
“High indebtedness can be a drag
on growth, taking Greece for example, although they have just changed
their government and have lowered
their budget deficit, they still face the
issue of how to cope with low growth
and high debt, which may take them
a few years to resolve,” said Lipton. 10 H O M E B U S I N E S S
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Digistar expects to turn
around by end-2016
DGB Asia
confident of
returning to profit
in FY15 after five
years of losses
BY C H E S T E R TAY
It is banking on recurring income from its various businesses
BY Y EN N E FOO
KUALA LUMPUR: Loss-making
information and communications
technology (ICT) service provider Digistar Corp Bhd is banking
on recurring income that it expects to start streaming in from
its various businesses from next
year onwards to turn the company
around by end-2016.
“Our businesses will help us
return to profitability and we expect to turn around by the end
of 2016,” Digistar group chief executive officer Datuk Wira Lee
Wah Chong told reporters after
the company’s annual general
meeting yesterday.
“We can keep on doing ICT
work but these contracts are not
enough for us. We want recurring
income and everything we have
done has been about getting a
steady recurring income for the
company and its shareholders,”
he added.
Besides the company’s core
business of providing systems
engineering and integration
solutions for the audio-visual,
broadcasting and security sectors,
Digistar has ventured into construction, property development,
central monitoring system (CMS)
services, interactive pay TV and
telecommunication businesses.
Despite the variety of its businesses, the company’s financial
year ended September (FY14) still
saw a net loss of RM5.65 million
on the back of RM109.71 million
in revenue. It continued its losing
streak into the first quarter ended
December (1QFY15) with a net
loss of RM3.86 million and revenue of RM31.24 million.
Lee said the losses were due
to bond interest expense for the
RM280 million bonds it issued to
finance the construction of the
Malaysian National Technology
Advancement Centre (MTAC) in
Melaka for the government.
“We pay RM14 million to RM16
million interest for the bonds each
year. That offsets any profit we
make from our other operations,”
he said.
Lee expects this to change at
the end of next year as Digistar’s
various businesses start to generate recurring income on top
of its existing order book of approximately RM217 million. The
company also has a tender book
of RM350 million.
He said Digistar will have a
“stable income” stream from its
15-year concession from the government to provide asset management services for MTAC once
the RM240 million construction
project is completed in July 2016.
Furthermore, its commercial
development of The Imperial Heritage Hotel Melaka will be fully
operational this year and Digistar
is expecting the project to rake in
RM25 million to RM30 million in
revenue per annum.
Digistar (fundamental: 1.05;
valuation: 0.6) is also going to
continue the expansion of its CMS
business and intends to grow its
customer base by more than
threefold to 20,000 in two years.
It is also in the process of acquiring three security solutions
companies with a view to setting
up three more command centres.
Two of the new command centres will be located in Sabah and
Sarawak, which will effectively
expand the company’s footprint
in the two states.
“The cost of monitoring one
house and 1,000 houses in the
same command centre is the
same. Our goal is to acquire more
customers and secure recurring
income from them,” he said.
Digistar’s counter closed up
half a sen or 2.22% at 23 sen yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM104.88 million.
The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s
profitability and balance sheet
strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation
score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based
on historical numbers. A score of 3
suggests strong fundamentals and
attractive valuations. Go to www.
theedgemarkets.com for details on
a company’s financial dashboard.
Bina Puri gets boost from government contract
BY SURIN MURUGIAH
KUALA LUMPUR: Bina Puri Holdings Bhd’s unbuilt order book
has grown to RM2.11 billion after
it clinched a RM291.16 million
contract from the Energy, Green
Technology and Water Ministry
to build a sewage treatment plant
at the existing Bunus regional
sewage treatment plant site in
Setapak, here.
Bina Puri (fundamental: 0.15;
valuation: 2.4) said its wholly-owned subsidiary Bina Puri Sdn
Bhd had accepted a letter of award
from the ministry last Friday for the
proposed project, which will take
18 months to complete.
“With this award, we have managed to secure RM419.66 million in
projects in the first quarter of 2015
and we believe there will be more
opportunities to secure further projects by year end,” Bina Puri group
managing director Tan Sri Tee Hock
Seng said in a statement yesterday.
The project is expected to contribute positively to the group’s net
assets and earnings for the financial year ending December 2015.
Tee said the proposed project
on a 19.388ha site will increase the
Bunus regional sewage treatment
plant’s treatment loading capacity to handle an additional sewage
discharge of 750,000 residents in
the vicinity.
The treated sewerage water will
be discharged into Sungai Gombak
and ultimately Sungai Klang.
“The laying of 36km of sewerage
pipes that is included in the project
will cater to the expected growth
of residential and commercial real
estate within Setapak,” Tee added.
The Bunus project is part of the
River of Life sewerage master plan
for Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang
Valley under the National Key Economic Areas blueprint. Its mission
is to reduce the number of smaller
treatment plants and to free up the
land they are sitting on for commercial and residential purposes,
green space and public gardens.
Meanwhile, Tee said the Bina
Puri group has been actively participating in tendering for projects
both local and overseas, and will
make the appropriate announcements on further projects secured
to keep investors and the public
informed from time to time.
Bina Puri shares closed up
5.36% at 59 sen yesterday, bringing a market capitalisation of
RM118.29 million.
No Bursa listing plans, says Aesseal chief
BY CHESTE R TAY
Pickles says the company is comfortable
with its current business structure.
Photo by Shahrin Yahya
PUCHONG: Aesseal plc, a United
Kingdom-based industrial pipe seal
maker which counts notable Malaysian plantation firms as clients, has
no plans to list on Bursa Malaysia.
Aesseal chief executive officer
Richard Pickles said the company, which counts IOI Corp Bhd
and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd as
customers, is comfortable with its
current business structure.
The current business structure
of Aesseal has helped its Malaysian unit achieve financial growth
as the group capitalises on its new
We are going to
capitalise on the
Asean Economic
Community.
regional hub here to expand within
the Asean region.
According to Aesseal operation
director for Asia Koh Choon Siew,
the group’s new regional headquarters would be an anchor to strate-
gise long-term business development plans for the group’s UK and
Malaysia businesses.
“We are going to capitalise on
the Asean Economic Community,
which is going for full implementation by January 2016.
“Asean has tremendous growth
potential for businesses and Aesseal is determined to work closely
with all our business partners in
the East Asian region to ensure we
are able to positively contribute to
the growth of the people in this region,” Koh told reporters after the
launch of the new headquarters
here yesterday.
KUALA LUMPUR: DGB Asia Bhd,
which saw changes within its top
leadership early this year, said it
is already seeing results from the
new direction and is confident of
returning to profit for the current
financial year ending September
(FY15) after five years of losses.
“We have been working very
hard to widen our profit margin,
and our first-quarter financial result is evident of our efforts,” managing director Datuk Dr Jacky Pang
Chow Huat told The Edge Financial
Daily over the phone.
“Moving forward, we are confident that the remaining three
financial quarters will be profitable as well,” he added.
The ACE Market-listed automated identification and data
capture solutions provider posted a net profit of RM139,000 for
the first quarter ended December
2014 (1QFY15) compared with a
net loss of RM538,000 a year ago.
DGB Asia’s (fundamental: 1.65;
valuation: 0.3) revenue, however,
fell 32.5% to RM1.89 million from
RM2.8 million in 1QFY14.
“Higher revenue does not
necessarily translate into higher profit all the time. For our
case, since we took control of
the management, we have seen
an average of 20% increase in
profit margin so far,” said Pang.
Pang joined DGB Asia’s board
as executive director in November 2013, and was subsequently
redesignated to his current position in February this year.
Notably, Pang is also the founder and managing director of another ACE Market-listed company,
Sanichi Technology Bhd (fundamental: 0.9; valuation: 1.2), where
he holds a 3.28% equity interest as
at Jan 2. As of Sept 30 last year, Pang
owned 3.68% of DGB Asia shares.
The group is currently undertaking a renounceable rights issue
to raise at least RM6.78 million to
a maximum of RM35.52 million.
“The issue price of 11 sen a
share for our rights shares is favourable to shareholders, as it represents a 5.93% discount (to the
theoretical ex-all price of DGB Asia
shares of 11.69 sen based on the
five-day volume weighted average
market price of DGB Asia shares
up to and including March 18 of
14.12 sen), so we hope shareholders will subscribe to it,” Pang said.
He added that the proceeds
will be used to expand DGB
Asia’s businesses in Thailand
and Vietnam.
“Currently, we are doing business through our partners there.
With this money, we will be able
to reduce our reliance on them,
which would increase our margin
further,” he explained.
DGB Asia shares rose 13.04% to
close at 13 sen yesterday, bringing
a market capitalisation of RM21.19
million. Sanichi’s share price
climbed 5.26% to 10 sen, with a
market cap of RM101.39 million.
ST O C KS W I T H M O M E N T U M 11
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
This column is an analysis done by Asia Analytica Sdn Bhd on the fundamentals of stocks with momentum that were picked up using proprietary algorithm by
Anticipatory Analytics Sdn Bhd and that first appeared at www.theedgemarkets.com. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice for your specific
investment needs. We are not responsible for your investment decisions. Our shareholders, directors and employees may have positions in any of the stocks mentioned.
CAN-ONE BHD (+ve)
CAN-ONE BHD
(ALL FIGURES IN MYR MIL)
CAN-ONE (Fundamental: 1.1/3; Valuation:
1.2/3) saw its share price rise 9.8% to RM2.90
yesterday on heavy volume.
The stock appears cheap from a breakup value perspective. Its 32.9% stake in Kian
Joo, worth RM454.5 million at current price
of RM3.11, is more than its current market
capitalisation of RM442.0 million.
In 2013, Can-One proposed to sell its stake
in Kian Joo to Aspire Insight for RM1.47 billion or RM3.30 per share. However, the sale
CAN-ONE BHD
has been tied up by legal suits. The offer price
is deemed low as Kian Joo commands a 70%
market share in domestic aluminium can
business and some of its properties have not
been revalued since 2009.
Can-One manufactures tin cans, plastic
jerry cans, bag-in-box, dairy and non-dairy
products. It has net debt of RM420.3 million.
Excluding its share of net assets in Kian Joo,
Can-One’s net assets stood at RM439 million
or about RM2.88 per share.
Valuation score*
1.20
1.10
Fundamental score**
6.31
TTM P/E (x)
(0.75)
TTM PEG (x)
0.77
P/NAV (x)
1.89
TTM Dividend yield (%)
402.34
Market capitalisation (mil)
152.40
Shares outstanding (ex-treasury) mil
1.09
Beta
1.94-3.14
12-month price range
*Valuation score - Composite measure of historical return & valuation
**Fundamental score - Composite measure of balance sheet strength
& profitability
Note: A score of 3.0 is the best to have and 0.0 is the worst to have
EKOWOOD INTERNATIONAL BHD (+ve)
SHARES for hardwood flooring manufacturer, Ekowood (Fundamental: 1.05/3 Valuation:
1.2/3) gained nearly 11.3% yesterday to close
at 24.5 sen. Over 5.8 million shares changed
hands, well above the longer-term daily average of 233,773 shares.
Most furniture stocks have done well,
thanks to the weaker ringgit and appreciating overseas demand. However, Ekowood
reported gloomy results last month.
Indeed, the company has been in the red since
EKOWOOD INTERNATIONAL BHD
the global financial crisis. Net loss totaled RM6.7
million last year. Revenue continued to decline
y-y due to the downsizing of operations in Europe and higher discounts given to customers.
It has shifted focus to the domestic market, now
about 39% of total sales, since demand collapsed
in Europe, previously its main market. It has also
been selling more to the US and Asian markets.
The strategy has, however, yet to yield results.
Ekowood is 67.5% owned by plantation
company, TSH Resources.
Valuation score*
1.20
1.05
Fundamental score**
TTM P/E (x)
TTM PEG (x)
0.32
P/NAV (x)
TTM Dividend yield (%)
36.96
Market capitalisation (mil)
Shares outstanding (ex-treasury) mil 168.00
1.12
Beta
0.19-0.36
12-month price range
*Valuation score - Composite measure of historical return & valuation
**Fundamental score - Composite measure of balance sheet strength
& profitability
Note: A score of 3.0 is the best to have and 0.0 is the worst to have
LCTH CORPORATION BHD (+ve)
LCTH (Fundamental: 2.5/3, Valuation: 1.2/3)
manufactures precision plastic components
and fabricates precision mould and dies.
The company’s shares gained 11% yesterday, closing at a historical high of 40.5 sen.
LCTH fell into the red in 2010, due, in part,
to the loss of a major customer and the resulting dip in utilisation. It managed to fill this
vacuum by securing a key MNC customer by
end-2011. Revenue increased but it remained
loss-making.
LCTH CORPORATION BHD
In 2013, LCTH posted a net profit of RM15.8
million for FY2013, thanks to one-off RM18.6
million gain on disposal of assets.
Revenue slumped 39% y-y in 2014, but underlying operations improved as the company
focused on higher margin projects following
a restructuring exercise in the previous year.
As end-December 2014, LCTH has net
cash of RM98.5 million or 27 sen per share,
equivalent to 67% of its current share price.
No dividends were paid since 2010.
Valuation score*
1.20
2.50
Fundamental score**
13.34
TTM P/E (x)
(0.35)
TTM PEG (x)
0.70
P/NAV (x)
TTM Dividend yield (%)
131.40
Market capitalisation (mil)
Shares outstanding (ex-treasury) mil 360.00
1.44
Beta
0.21-0.37
12-month price range
*Valuation score - Composite measure of historical return & valuation
**Fundamental score - Composite measure of balance sheet strength
& profitability
Note: A score of 3.0 is the best to have and 0.0 is the worst to have
Financials
Turnover
EBITDA
Interest expense
Pre-tax profit
Net profit - owners of company
Fixed assets - PPE
Total assets
Shareholders' fund
Gross borrowings
Net debt/(cash)
CAN-ONE BHD
RATIOS
DPS (MYR)
Net asset per share (MYR)
ROE (%)
Turnover growth (%)
Net profit growth (%)
Net margin (%)
ROA (%)
Current ratio (x)
Gearing (%)
Interest cover (x)
EKOWOOD INTERNATIONAL BHD
(ALL FIGURES IN MYR MIL)
Financials
Turnover
EBITDA
Interest expense
Pre-tax profit
Net profit - owners of company
Fixed assets - PPE
Total assets
Shareholders' fund
Gross borrowings
Net debt/(cash)
EKOWOOD INTERNATIONAL BHD
RATIOS
DPS (MYR)
Net asset per share (MYR)
ROE (%)
Turnover growth (%)
Net profit growth (%)
Net margin (%)
ROA (%)
Current ratio (x)
Gearing (%)
Interest cover (x)
LCTH CORPORATION BHD
(ALL FIGURES IN MYR MIL)
Financials
Turnover
EBITDA
Interest expense
Pre-tax profit
Net profit - owners of company
Fixed assets - PPE
Total assets
Shareholders' fund
Gross borrowings
Net debt/(cash)
LCTH CORPORATION BHD
RATIOS
DPS (MYR)
Net asset per share (MYR)
ROE (%)
Turnover growth (%)
Net profit growth (%)
Net margin (%)
ROA (%)
Current ratio (x)
Gearing (%)
Interest cover (x)
FY11
FY12
FY13
FY2014Q4
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
31/12/2014
630.98
63.51
9.18
41.91
32.41
255.15
336.93
228.65
247.45
215.69
789.82
(6.18)
22.79
194.88
170.73
281.42
747.42
396.98
454.66
402.31
772.88
92.48
20.64
93.96
69.67
287.15
811.50
460.61
430.18
392.16
249.96
30.96
5.02
33.93
26.48
301.46
849.87
520.81
526.44
420.29
FY11
FY12
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
FY13 ROLLING 12-MTH
0.03
1.50
15.48
40.51
66.72
5.14
10.44
1.35
94.33
6.92
0.04
2.60
54.58
25.17
426.72
21.62
31.49
1.42
101.34
(0.27)
0.05
3.02
16.25
(2.14)
(59.19)
9.01
8.94
1.59
85.14
4.48
0.05
3.42
13.74
16.31
(8.46)
7.09
7.92
1.35
80.70
4.68
FY11
FY12
FY13
FY2014Q4
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
31/12/2014
48.76
(4.84)
0.64
(9.35)
(8.60)
51.29
130.38
126.97
14.16
11.96
41.89
(3.31)
0.69
(6.95)
(6.49)
47.82
122.99
120.09
14.29
12.31
49.71
0.72
0.71
(3.47)
(3.35)
44.62
120.79
118.85
18.10
15.26
10.32
234.30
241.15
(4.36)
(4.23)
41.13
113.54
115.36
19.30
16.99
FY11
FY12
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
FY13 ROLLING 12-MTH
0.76
(6.55)
(25.81)
(17.63)
(6.37)
4.50
9.42
(7.60)
0.71
(5.25)
(14.08)
(15.49)
(5.12)
4.10
10.25
(4.78)
0.71
(2.81)
18.67
(6.74)
(2.75)
4.01
12.84
1.02
0.69
(5.64)
(13.45)
(15.47)
(5.56)
3.83
14.73
2.74
FY11
FY12
FY13
FY2014Q4
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
31/12/2014
116.32
(16.09)
0.01
(21.52)
(19.18)
49.53
184.25
181.90
(61.81)
287.44
(20.17)
0.01
(27.92)
(23.47)
38.39
159.77
158.42
(54.61)
206.61
20.05
16.89
15.81
22.70
175.32
174.23
(107.88)
30.85
6.22
4.42
2.89
41.73
188.18
187.14
0.04
(98.54)
FY11
FY12
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
FY13 ROLLING 12-MTH
0.51
(10.02)
(10.66)
(16.49)
(9.81)
3.04
(2,011.45)
0.44
(13.79)
147.11
(8.17)
(13.65)
3.04
(3,538.63)
0.48
9.50
(28.12)
7.65
9.44
4.87
4,557.46
0.52
5.64
(38.98)
(37.67)
7.82
5.60
4.44
5,079.33
1 2 I N V E ST I N G I D E A S
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE FI N AN C I AL DAI LY
Note: This report is brought to you by Asia Analytica Sdn Bhd, a licensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own
judgment or seek professional advice for your specific investment needs. We are not responsible for your investment
decisions. Our shareholders, directors and employees may have positions in any of the stocks mentioned.
I N S I D E R A S I A’S S TO C K O F T H E D AY
OCEANCASH PACIFIC BHD
OCEANCASH (Fundamental: 1.4/3, Valuation: 0.6/3) was first recommended by
InsiderAsia back in October 2014. The stock
did well, rising from 29.5 sen to a high of
40.6 sen in November but has since retraced to the current 35 sen.
Part of this could be due to its latest
4Q14 earnings results. Whilst revenue increased 6% to RM72.80 million, net profit
was down some 24.5% to RM4.91 million.
The results included a one-off loss on disposal of machinery amounting to RM1.72
million in 3Q14. Excluding this, Oceancash’s net profit would be 1.9% higher at
RM6.63 million compared to RM6.50 million in 2013.
To be sure, this growth is not exciting.
But we believe the company has good prospects. Underlying earnings have been rising
steadily over the past four years, EBITDA
OCEANCASH PACIFIC BHD
margins are consistently in the double digits, ranging between 14-18%. Net gearing
is low at 5.57%.
Oceancash has a stronghold in a niche
segment and a large target market.
The company manufactures (and exports) resinated and thermoplastic felts,
noise and carpet underlays, that function
as heat and sound insulators. It also produces non-woven products used in baby
diapers and sanitary cloth products. The
company has plants in Malaysia and Indonesia and in 2012, established a trading
company in China.
Whilst the barriers to entry to manufacture these products are low, Oceancash has
significant competitive advantage in having
established long relationships with its major customers.
The company will start a new felt production line in Indonesia this year and
transfer an existing line to Bangkok. This
is aimed to address the expanding automobile and property markets as well as to
improve cost efficiency.
The stock is trading at decent trailing
12-month P/E of 14.75 times and a priceto-book ratio of 1.25 times with a market
capitalisation of RM72.48 million. Its dividend payout increased from 0.2 sen in
2011 to 0.6 sen per share in 2014, which
translates to a modest 1.85% yield.
Insider Asia will feature a new stock pick on every alternate day.
T O N G ’S
MOMENTUM
P O RT F O L I O
TOTAL value for my portfolio dipped 0.48%
yesterday, to RM97,846.06, dragged down
by losses on Ekowood International and
Comintel Corporation. By comparison,
the FBM KLCI was flat at 1,818.42. Market breath was slightly positive with gainers outnumbering decliners by a ratio of
1.1-to-1.
Regional markets finished mostly lower,
following steep overnight losses on Wall
Street. The DJIA and the S&P 500 dropped
1.62% and 1.46%, respectively, on the back
of soft economic data. Elsewhere, Japan’s
Nikkei 225 index lost 1.39% while the Hang
Seng index was down 0.13%.
Crude oil futures rose sharply with
the WTI gaining 4.59% to US$ 51.47, at
the point of writing, fuelled by escalating
tension in the Middle East. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies
launched military operations against rebels in neighbouring Yemen.
Meanwhile, the ringgit strengthened
to RM3.66 against the greenback. Undermined by weaker economic data, the
dollar index, which measures the value
of USD against a basket of currencies, fell
0.72% to 96.28.
My portfolio is down 2.2% since inception. Despite the loss, I am still outperforming the FBM KLCI, which lost 3.9%
over the same period.
OCEANCASH PACIFIC BHD
FY11
FY12
FY13
FY2014Q4
(ALL FIGURES IN MYR MIL)
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
31/12/2014
58.06
7.93
3.53
4.39
0.01
0.89
3.51
2.15
58.88
9.50
4.09
5.41
0.01
1.07
4.36
2.62
68.58
12.33
3.86
8.47
0.02
0.70
7.79
6.50
17.81
2.62
0.60
2.02
0.03
0.12
1.92
1.80
42.96
6.68
27.12
12.33
21.67
50.87
42.00
6.35
39.16
7.17
26.86
10.53
17.99
50.41
43.88
4.20
34.51
13.13
34.97
12.32
18.78
53.25
49.25
1.98
44.35
10.25
32.05
12.75
16.90
62.18
58.05
0.74
Income Statement
Turnover
EBITDA
Depreciation
EBIT
Associates
Interest income
Interest expense
Extraordinary gain/(loss)
Pre-tax profit
Net profit - owners of company
Balance sheet
Fixed assets - PPE
Biological assets
Intangibles & goodwill
Cash and equivalents
Total current assets
ST borrowings
Total current liabilities
Total assets
Shareholders' fund
Long term borrowings
OCEANCASH PACIFIC BHD
RATIOS
DPS (MYR)
Net asset per share (MYR)
ROE (%)
Turnover growth (%)
Net profit growth (%)
Net margin (%)
ROA (%)
Current ratio (x)
Gearing (%)
Interest cover (x)
QUANTITY
BOUGHT PRICE
RM
42,500
0.235
FY11
FY12
31/12/2011
31/12/2012
31/12/2013
0.19
5.22
4.04
18.70
3.70
4.42
1.25
28.56
8.94
0.20
6.11
1.41
22.11
4.45
5.18
1.49
17.24
8.92
0.22
13.97
16.48
148.07
9.48
12.55
1.86
2.39
17.51
BOUGHT VALUE CURRENT PRICE
RM
RM
FY13 ROLLING 12-MTH
0.01
0.26
9.65
5.99
(24.45)
6.75
8.87
1.90
5.58
18.70
CURRENT VALUE
RM
GAIN / LOSS
RM
% GAIN / LOSS
9,988
-
0.0%
Shares held:
Comintel Corporation Bhd
Total shares held
0.235
--------------9,987.5
Total
Shares bought:
Ekowood International Bhd
Can-One Bhd
9,987.50
39,200
3,400
0.255
2.86
9,996.00
9,724.00
--------------29,707.5
--------------- --------------9,987.5
-
0.245
2.900
9,604
(392)
9,860
136
--------------- --------------29,451.5
(256.0)
(3.9%)
1.4%
Shares sold:
No shares were sold today.
Total brokerage, fees and duties paid
Net cash balance
1,886.4
68,394.6
Realised profits / (losses)
(11.5)
Day’s change
Portfolio
FBMKLCI
Portfolio returns since inception
Portfolio returns (annualised)
Portfolio Beta
Risk adjusted returns since inception
(0.48%)
(0.04%)
100,000.00
97,846.1
(2,153.9)
(2.2%)
(3.0%)
1.10
(2.7%)
• Portfolio will buy stocks with positive Comparative Performance
Portfolio at start
Current
Change
Portfolio’s outperformance
momentum on the day
FBM
KLCI
1,892.65
1,818.42
(3.9%)
1.8%
• Stocks in portfolio will be divested when
FBM KLCI Emas
13,163.69
12,482.28
(5.2%)
3.0%
they exhibit negative momentum
• Otherwise, stocks will be divested within This is a personal portfolio for information purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation or solicitation or expression of views to influence readers to buy/sell any stocks.
Portfolio started on 8 July 2014 with RM100,000.
a max 4-day holding period
14 B R O K E R S’ C A L L / T E C H N I C A L S
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Decline ahead of 1Q15
window-dressing activities
BY LEE CHENG HOOI
U
S markets ended much lower on
Wednesday after a
poorer set of durable goods figures for
February dampened
American fund managers’ sentiment.
The S&P 500 Index plunged 30.45
points to 2,061.05 points while the
Dow tumbled 292.6 points to end
at 17,718.54.
The FBM KLCI moved in a volatile and narrow range of 23.89 points
for the week with higher volumes
of 1.95 billion to 2.44 billion shares
traded. The index closed at 1,818.42
on March 26, down 0.68 of a point
from the previous day as blue-chip
stocks like British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, Hong Leong Financial
Group Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong
Bhd, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd
and UMW Holdings Bhd caused
the index to decline on miniscule
profit-taking activities ahead of potential window dressing in the first
quarter of 2015 (1Q15). The ringgit
was marginally firmer against the
US dollar at 3.6620 as Brent crude oil
remained slightly firmer at US$56.37
(RM206.87) per barrel.
The index rose on a rally from
the 801.27 low (October 2008) to its
1,896.23 all-time high (July 2014) and
it represents an extended Elliott Wave
“flat” rebound in a “pseudo-bull” rise
completed. The next few months’
index price movements since July
2014 had key swings of 1,837.28
(low), 1,879.62 (high), 1,766.22
(low), 1,858.09 (high), 1,671.82
(low), 1,810.21 (high), 1,706.18 (low),
1,831.41 (high) and 1,774.30 (low).
All the index’s daily signals are
marginally positive for now, with
its CCI, DMI, MACD, Oscillator and
Stochastic indicators showing upbeat
readings. As such, the index’s obvious support levels are seen at 1,774,
1,800 and 1,818, while the resistance
areas of 1,823, 1,831 and 1,896 will
cap any index rebound.
The KLCI’s 18 and 40 simple moving averages (SMA) depict an emerging uptrend for its daily chart. However, the price bars of the index are
now between the 50 and 200 SMA
and remained neutral on that front.
The recent fall from its all-time high
of 1,896.23 saw a trough at 1,671.82.
The price rebound from 1,671.82
stalled at 1,831.41 (on Feb 4) and
remains below the 200-SMA line
of 1,822.81.
Due to the rebound tone for the
KLCI, we are recommending a chart
“buy” on CCM Duopharma Biotech
Bhd (CCMDBIO). The stock rose
sharply over the past fortnight after posting a strong set of quarterly
results. Looking at the most recent
fourth quarter of financial year 2014
(4QFY14) results announcement, the
group recorded an increase of 8.9%
year-on-year to RM176.9 million
from RM162.4 million in 4QFY13.
Correspondingly, profit-before-tax
also rose by about 15.7% in 4QFY14
from RM40.2 million to RM46.5 million. The stronger profitability can be
attributed to the increased demand
from government hospitals.
Further to the results announcement, CCMDBIO highlighted that demand in the pharmaceutical industry is expected to
remain stable due to the defensive
nature of the industry. However,
demand may fluctuate especially
for supply to government hospi-
Maxis dividend per share
forecast lowered
The daily, weekly and monthly indicators (like the CCI, DMI, MACD,
Stochastic and Oscillator) have issued buy signals and now depict
very firm indications of CCMDBIO’s
eventual move towards much higher levels. It would attract firm buying activities at the support levels of
RM3.33, RM3.37 and RM3.80. We
expect CCMDBIO to witness some
profit-taking at its resistance and alltime high of RM3.84. Its upside targets are located at RM3.88, RM4.63,
RM4.98, RM5.22 and RM6.20.
Lee Cheng Hooi is the regional
chartist at Maybank Kim Eng. The
views expressed in the article are the
opinions of the writer and should
not be construed as investment advice. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice for
your investment decisions. Technical
report appears every Wednesday
and Friday.
Maxis Bhd
FYE DEC (RM MIL)
SAM FONG
Maxis Bhd
(March 26, RM7.15)
Maintain hold with unchanged
target price of RM7.19. We think
that Maxis is on the right track to
further operational improvement
as customer experience and satisfaction are once again prioritised.
For 2015, Maxis is expected to
register single-digit service revenue growth as it regains lost ground
both in the postpaid and prepaid
segments.
We, nevertheless, think that any
sharp earning upgrades in the near
term would likely be challenging
considering that the other incumbent operators are pursuing similar
strategies to grow revenue share.
Operations aside, we believe the
biggest concern surrounding Maxis
tals via the tender process.
A check of the Bloomberg consensus reveals that no research house
covers the stock. CCMDBIO currently
trades at a fair historical price-earnings ratio of 14.8 times. Its price-tobook value ratio of 2.72 times indicates that its share price is trading at
a steep premium to its book value. It
gives a high dividend yield of 4.9%.
CCMDBIO’s chart trend on the
daily, weekly and monthly time
frames is very firmly up. Its share
price has made a good surge since
its major monthly Wave-2 low of
RM1.24 in October 2008. Since that
RM1.28 low, CCMDBIO surged to
its March 2015 recent all-time high
of RM3.84.
As prices broke above their recent key critical resistance levels of
RM3.33 and RM3.37, look to buy
CCMDBIO on any dips to its support areas as the moving averages
depict very firm short- to long-term
uptrends for this stock.
Revenue
Ebitda
Pre-tax profit
Net profit
EPS (sen)
PER (x)
Core net profit
Core EPS (sen)
Core EPS growth (%)
Core PER (x)
Net DPS (sen)
Dividend yield (%)
EV/Ebitda (x)
Affin/Consensus (x)
2013
2014
2015E
2016E
2017E
9,084.0
4,573.0
2,496.0
1,765.0
23.5
30.4
2,097.0
27.9
2.3
25.6
40.0
5.6
13.4
8,389.0
4,296.0
2,436.0
1,721.0
22.9
31.2
1,910.0
25.4
(8.9)
28.1
40.0
5.6
14.6
8,607.9
4,312.5
2,665.5
1,968.4
26.2
27.3
1,968.4
26.2
3.1
27.3
26.0
3.6
14.5
1.0
8,724.9
4,353.7
2,760.1
2,038.5
27.2
26.3
2,038.5
27.2
3.6
26.3
27.0
3.8
14.4
1.0
8,831.0
4,415.5
2,934.3
2,167.4
28.9
24.8
2,167.4
28.9
6.3
24.8
28.0
3.9
14.2
1.0
Source: Company, Affin Hwang estimates, Bloomberg
at this point is the dividend quantum for 2015.
Management has guided that it
will no longer borrow to fund the
dividend payment and thus the
consistent 40 sen per share annual
payout from 2010 to 2014 is unlikely
to be repeated.
This has created some uncertainty and judging by consensus 2015
dividend per share (DPS) expectations of 19 sen to 40 sen, there may
be some disappointment in store.
We lower our 2015 to 2017 DPS
forecast to 26 sen to 28 sen from 32
sen, taking into account its free cash
flow and payout ratio.
At a DPS of 26 sen, yields of 4%
are also less compelling and at the
lower end of the sector average.
On the whole, the market seems
to be paying little attention to Maxis’ dividend issue, considering its
Maxis’ share-price appreciation of
4.4% year-to-date.
Fund flows and portfolio reallocation could be a reason behind
this and may continue to be an
overbearing factor. — Affin Hwang
Capital, March 26
B R O K E R S’ C A L L 15
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Hil Industries to
expand land bank
Hil Industries Bhd
(March 26, RM1.01)
Non-rated with a fair value of
RM1.18. Hil Industries, a leading custom injection moulder of
engineering plastics, is well-positioned to benefit from the lower
cost of plastic resin and high demand for Perusahaan Otomobil
Kedua Sdn Bhd’s (Perodua) Axia,
while its successful property ventures into affordable housing enabled the group’s earnings to grow
impressively.
The manufacturing division of
the group is involved in plastic injection moulding which produces
plastic original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts mainly for automotive and IT-related products. Its
customers include Perodua, Proton
Holdings Bhd, Toyota Motor Corp,
Honda Motor Co Ltd and others.
The manufacturing division
posted encouraging results in the
fourth quarter of financial year 2014
(4QFY14) when profit before tax
of the division climbed 32% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), lifted by
spillover demand for OEM parts
amid strong sales of Perodua Axia.
We expect the well-received Perodua Axia to continue driving the
earnings growth of the division.
Meanwhile, the group is poised
to benefit from the falling crude oil
prices as the price of its major cost
component — plastic resin, which is
a by-product of crude oil, has fallen.
The group has made its foray into
property development in the Klang
Valley in the past few years. Its maiden property project of the group in
Shah Alam, Selangor, with a total
gross development value (GDV)
of RM110 million has enjoyed a
good take-up rate of at least 90%, as
the group offers mainly affordable
housing such as terraced houses,
cluster semi-dees and semi-dees.
Moving forward, the group remains focused on offering affordable housing in Shah Alam by having
two property projects in the pipeline
with a total GDV of RM105 million,
which will be launched in the second half of this year.
We are optimistic about the outlook for the group’s property division despite the weak sentiment in
the property market as the group is
mainly selling affordable housing
which will be less affected by the
tepid sentiment.
The group posted encouraging
earnings in 4QFY14 recently where
its 4QFY14 earnings jumped 264%
year-on-year (y-o-y) and 47% q-o-q,
mainly driven by the ballooning
Hil Industries Bhd
2012
(RM’000)
2013
(RM’000)
2014
(RM’000)
2015F
(RM’000)
2016F
(RM’000)
Revenue
79,732
81,650 136,405 148,080 155,640
Gross profit
10,153
13,916
34,887
40,277
41,867
Profit before tax
573
5,518
26,618
34,165
36,805
Net profit
(3,119)
2,787
19,713
25,496
27,494
(1.12)
1.00
7.07
9.15
9.86
EPS (sen)
na
98.50
13.9
10.77
9.99
PER (x)
0
0
1.5
2.3
2.5
Dividend per share (sen)
0
0
1.5
2.3
2.5
Dividend yield (%)
(1.2)
1.0
6.8
7.7
7.8
ROE (%)
Net gearing
Net cash Net cash Net cash Net cash Net cash
Profit before tax
0.7
6.8
19.5
23.1
23.6
margin (%)
na
na
607.3
29.3
7.8
Net profit growth (%)
Source: Company, JF Apex
earnings’ contribution from property division and improved performance in the manufacturing division. That lifted full-year earnings
in FY14 to grow at an impressive
641% y-o-y.
On earnings outlook, we estimate
the group’s earnings in FY15 to grow
at 29%, underpinned by strong unbilled sales of RM50 million, a slew
of property launches in the pipeline,
and an improving margin for the
manufacturing division pursuant
to lower cost of plastic resin.
The group is in the midst of expanding its land bank by targeting
a piece of land in Klang for property development. We understand
that the land size is around 30 acres
(12ha) which could potentially contribute a GDV of RM190 million if
the deal materialises. We reckon that
the potential land acquisition would
serve as a catalyst to the group and
further propel the earnings growth
in property division going forward.
The funding for the potential
land acquisition is not an issue for
the group in view of its net cash
position with total cash of RM108
million in its coffers. — JF Apex,
March 26
16 H O M E
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Hudud for all; or none,
say analyst and lawyers
Such problems have little to do with faith but with governance
BY SHERI DA N MAHAV ERA
KUALA LUMPUR: A closer look at
Kelantan’s new hudud law reveals
practical obstacles that would make
it unrealistic to implement, according to lawyers and an analyst, who
said such problems had little to do
with faith but with governance.
Besides medieval punishments
such as crucifixion and stoning, Malaysia would probably have to issue
a travel warning for all non-Muslims going to Kelantan if the state
enforces its Syariah Criminal Code,
or hudud, observed political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat.
Such a warning would likely require non-Muslims to be accompanied by a minimum of two Muslim
adult males at all times while in
the PAS-led state. This is because if
non-Muslims were to be robbed in
Kelantan, the code does not allow
them to give testimony in court.
This is just one of the obstacles
to the enforcement of the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code II 1993
(Amended 2015), which states
that only male Muslims who are
past puberty can be witnesses and
testify in crimes such as robbery
and murder involving Muslims
in the state.
Such a provision in the code is
among several others that make
Kelantan PAS’ contentious new law
problematic in itself, said Wong of
the think tank Penang Institute, as
well as other analysts and lawyers
The Malaysian Insider spoke to.
Wong said the Kelantan law,
if it is allowed to be enforced by
Parliament, would create “legal
apartheid” in Malaysia and virtually split Malaysians.
“The issues with the enactment
are of governance, not of faith,” said
Wong, who heads the institute’s political and social research section.
Divinely inspired?
Lawyer Latheefa Koya takes that
point one step further, arguing that
because the enactment is a creation
of PAS’ jurists, it cannot be seen as
God’s law and therefore beyond
reproach.
The code is supposed to be used
on all Muslims in Kelantan, and
covers six types of crimes — sariqah (theft), hirabah (assault and
robbery), zina (adultery), qazaf
(unsubstantiated accusations of
zina), shurb (consumption of alcohol) and irtidad (apostasy).
Latheefa refutes PAS’ claims that
the code’s hudud and qisas punishments are based on Islam’s holy
text, the Quran. She outlines several
discrepancies between the Quran
and the Kelantan Code.
Unlike the PAS enactment, in the
holy Quran there is no punishment
for apostasy; no mention at all of
stoning; different requirements
for amputation of limbs and crucifixion; different requirements for
witnesses in rape and zina.
“Anything different and outside
the Quran must not and cannot
be passed as hudud. It is interference with the Quran,” said Latheefa, who is a PKR central committee
member.
Hudud affects everyone
Not only will non-Muslims be affected, but women, even Muslim
women, have cause for concern under Kelantan’s hudud code if they
are victims or witnesses to a crime.
Section 39 to 42 of the code specifically states that all offences covered under it must be proven by
testimonies from the accused and
sworn oaths from witnesses.
“There shall always be a minimum of two witnesses for all offences under this code except for
the offence of zina. For zina, a
minimum of four witnesses are
required,” states Section 40(1).
The following section 41(1)
termed “conditions of being a witness” states that “each witness must
be a Muslim male who is just and
is past puberty”.
There is no explanation in the
code on how non-Muslims are
supposed to testify in the Syariah
Court as witnesses or victims to
an offence.
Also, there is nothing in the code
to account for women witnesses
and victims, and whether the testimonies of Muslim women can be
used, lawyer Andrew Khoo said.
If the code were to be used, there
would also be problems with in-
vestigation procedures as the police would have to juggle between
two sets of laws — the Kelantan
Code and the Federal Penal Code,
said Wong.
Kelantan PAS, he said, had failed
to take into account that crimes
do not exclusively occur among
Muslims but also among people
of different faiths.
“That’s why hudud can only be
for all people or it cannot be for
anyone. It cannot just be applied
for some people. If you carry out
hudud, everyone in Kelantan will
be affected.”
Equality before the law
But the biggest issue with the enactment itself was that Kelantan as
a state is creating laws for criminal
offences.
“The constitution gives the federal government the jurisdiction
over all types of criminal law,” said
Khoo, referring to the separation of
powers between the federal government and states.
By comparison, Kelantan’s enactment is an attempt to create laws
to deal with crimes such as theft,
robbery and assault. It is in effect,
a wholly separate criminal code.
“I don’t think our founding fathers wanted a dual criminal justice
system for Malaysia.
“That would run counter to Article
8 of the Federal Constitution, which
is that everyone is equal before the
law.” — The Malaysian Insider
Hadi: Listen first to what I have to say on hudud
KUALA LUMPUR: PAS president
Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has
asked everyone to listen first to
what he has to say in Parliament
on hudud before criticising him.
“We are knowledgeable, civilised
and matured creatures. So listen to
what we want to say first.
“Don’t jump to conclusions and
criticise vociferously without knowing the whole story,” he said in a
posting on Facebook, titled “Surat
Terbuka Kepada Umat Islam: Isu
Hudud Yang Dikelirukan” (Open
letter to Muslims: The hudud issue
that is being confused) yesterday
morning.
He was commenting on reports
of a notice sent to Parliament on the
tabling of a private member’s bill
on the implementation of hudud
in Kelantan.
He added that what is being proposed by PAS through the private
member’s bill is not a hudud bill,
but amendments to the Syariah
Court Act, which was only applicable to Muslims.
Hadi said the enactment recently passed in the Kelantan state as-
Abdul Hadi: Don’t jump to conclusions
and criticise vociferously without
knowing the whole story. Photo by
The Malaysian Insider
sembly had gone through various
debates in the form of seminars
and dialogues.
He said it was later tabled at the
Kelantan state assembly in 1993
as well as in Terengganu in 2000.
In Kelantan, the call for hudud
laws to be implemented was
strengthened through annual
events to remind the public of the
enactment.
“Now, 20 years after PAS introduced this enactment, and carried
out the education process on syariah
penal law among the people through
dialogues and such, PAS would like
to take the next step in the process to
educate society on the laws of Islam
in a comprehensive way.
“The result is that today, insults
on Islamic law have been isolated,”
said Abdul Hadi in his first official
reaction after sending a notice on
March 18 to table a private member’s bill in Parliament on Kelantan’s hudud enactment.
The notice, which Abdul Hadi
served just before the March 18
deadline for the request to be made
in Parliament, would allow him to
table the bill to amend the Syariah
Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act
1965, or what is known as Act 355,
paving the way for the implementation of hudud in Kelantan. — The
Malaysian Insider
IN BRIEF
Malaysia to ratify Arms
Trade Treaty
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is in
the process of ratifying the Arms
Trade Treaty (ATT) to regulate
international transfers of conventional arms to warring parties
which plan or perpetrate war
crimes. Foreign Ministry deputy secretary-general Datuk Ho
May Yong said the ATT is known
as an international legal instrument that establishes common
binding international standards
to regulate international trade
in conventional arms. “Malaysia hopes that the ATT would
achieve its two purposes, namely to contribute to international
peace, security and stability, and
reduce human suffering,” she
said. — Bernama
Public sector home financing board bill tabled
KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Sector Home Financing
Board Bill 2015 was tabled for
the first reading in the Dewan
Rakyat yesterday. Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad
Maslan, when tabling it, stated
that the function of the board is
to manage its funds and administer facilities for public sector
home financing. The bill also
included provisions on the appointment of board members,
comprising the Treasury secretary-general as chairman, the
attorney-general or his representative, the accountant-general or his representative, as
well as the chief executive officer as an ex-officio member.
— Bernama
‘Rulers did not make
stand on Kelantan law’
KUALA LUMPUR: The Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal lodged a
police report yesterday denying any statement had been
issued on the stand of the Conference of Rulers on the proposed implementation of the
hudud law in Kelantan. Datuk
Seri Syed Danial Syed Ahmad
said the report was made at the
Jalan Travers police station to
state that reports on the matter
were untrue. “The Conference
of Rulers has never discussed
the matter at its meetings. “The
office [of the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal] did not issue a press
statement dated March 25 on
the matter,” he said in a statement yesterday. — Bernama
MACC to wrap up navy
probe in two weeks
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will complete the
investigation papers on the recent case involving the supply of goods and equipment
for the Royal Malaysian Navy
in the next two weeks before
any decision is made. MACC
Investigation Division director Datuk Mohd Jamidan Abdullah said he would discuss
with the Legal and Prosecution
Division to determine the case
of 16 individuals, including six
navy personnel who were arrested in the investigation of
the case. — Bernama
H O M E 17
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Guan Eng wins
suit against dailies,
Perkasa leader
Khir (left) said in the report as opposition leader at that time, he may have tarnished
and damaged Khalid’s (right) image, reputation and integrity being the menteri besar.
Penang chief minister awarded RM550,000 in damages
THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
BY V A NB A L AGA N
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court
awarded Penang Chief Minister Lim
Guan Eng (pic) RM550,000 in damages yesterday against a senior Perkasa leader and three newspapers for
claiming that he had leaked national
secrets to Singapore’s ruling People’s
Action Party (PAP) in 2011.
Judge Datuk Nor Bee Ariffin
said Guan Eng, who is DAP secretary-general, had proven his case
against the defendants on the balance of probability.
Guan Eng, represented by Americk Sidhu, filed the suit in June 2012,
naming the New Straits Times, Utusan
Malaysia, Perkasa information officer
and Umno member Ruslan Kassim,
Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali,
the then NST group editor Datuk
Syed Nadzri Syed Harun, and Utusan
group editor-in-chief Datuk Abdul
Aziz Ishak as defendants.
Perkasa was ordered to pay
RM150,000, while the New Straits
Times Press (M) Bhd, which owns
both the New Straits Times and Berita Harian, and Utusan Melayu (M)
Bhd were ordered to pay RM200,000
each in damages.
She also ordered the three defendants to pay costs amounting to
RM20,000.
The quantum is for the aggravated and exemplary damages caused
to Guan Eng by the defendants for
running a comment piece by Ruslan,
who alleged that Guan Eng was a spy
for Singapore and that he revealed national secrets to PAP leaders during a
meeting in Singapore in August 2011.
It was reported that the articles
published by the three dailies on Oct
2, 2011, were based on a statement
by Ruslan uploaded on the website
pribumiperkasa.com. — The Malaysian Insider
Khir apologises to Khalid,
defamation lawsuit settled
SHAH ALAM: A defamation suit
between two former Selangor menteris besar was settled when Dr
Mohamad Khir Toyo apologised
to Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
at the Shah Alam High Court yesterday, the Star Online reported.
“I sincerely offer my apologies to [Abdul] Khalid for the two
statements I’ve made against him.
“As the opposition leader at
that time, I might have tarnished,
damaged his image, reputation
and integrity being the menteri
besar,” Mohamad Khir was quoted
as saying in the report.
Mohamad Khir was the Selangor opposition leader from 2008
while Abdul Khalid led Selangor
until he resigned last year.
The report said Abdul Khalid’s
counsel, S N Nair, said both parties agreed on the apology and a
settlement with costs. The cost
was not disclosed.
The report said the dispute
revolved around two defamation suits filed by the two former
Selangor menteris besar in 2009
over allegations related to Abdul
Khalid’s personal vehicle and the
purchase of 46 cows.
It said the suits were also related to two articles bearing the
allegations, which appeared in
the New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia in January the same
year.—The Malaysian Insider
18 H O M E
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Meet the scientist preparing
Malaysia for 2050
Mega Science 3.0 project to get ready for the future in science, technology, innovation
BY EL I ZA B ET H ZACHARIAH
KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mazlan Othman, the founding director-general of the Malaysian National
Space Agency, has an uphill task
ahead of her as she attempts to
steer Malaysia towards becoming
a leading nation for science and
technology by 2050.
It is a good 35 years away, she
told The Malaysian Insider in an
interview recently, but the process
of getting there will be a long and
complicated one.
The 64-year-old Mazlan is the
project director of the Mega Science 3.0 project aimed at preparing Malaysia for the future in science, technology and innovation.
Launched in January, Mega
Science 3.0 is focused on five industries that raked in more than
RM100 billion in 2013 — furniture,
automotive, creative (media and
arts), tourism as well as plastics
and composites.
The first step towards becoming
a leading nation in these areas by
2050, Mazlan said, is to forecast
the state of the nation by 2050.
“In order to be the best in science and technology by 2050, we
have to foresee and do some pre-
dictions of the future ... of what
technologies and innovations we
can expect then,” she said. “That’s
how we can be ahead of the pack.
And then we are able to lead.”
The project is now at the “foresight” stage, in which a team is
tasked with anticipating and foreseeing Malaysia’s future in 2050.
“We already started this last
year and we have already prepared the outlook that is to be
Malaysia and how we envision it
in 35 years’ time.
“We expect this to be ready by
September and from there, we can
proceed to the next stage, where
we plan and spell out the road
map towards that future,” the astrophysicist said, adding that there
are established techniques to create the foresight.
Taking the automotive industry as an example, she said the
team would research where the
sector is heading globally before
benchmarking the sector in the
foresight report.
“Then we adjust the foresighting and aim where we want to be
in the automotive industry and
then work out how we would work
towards that.
“Let’s talk about having driver-
All anti-GST rally
detainees at customs
complex released
BY LOW HA N SHAUN
PETALING JAYA: Four people detained for allegedly insulting a police officer during an anti-goods
and services tax (GST) rally have
been released.
Muhammad Zaki Sukery, one of
the lawyers of the 25 released on
bail earlier, said that the four were
released without charge.
“Khalid Mohd Ismath was released because he has been put
under arrest for more than 24
hours. He was arrested earlier in
the morning before the event occurred on Monday. The magistrate
ordered him to be released as his
further detention was unlawful.
“All the three others were released yesterday (Wednesday) in
stages after lunch,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, 25 people, among the 29 who were accused of ignoring a police order
to disperse at the sit-in outside
the Customs Department office
in Kelana Jaya, were released on
bail of RM3,000 in one surety and
must return to court on May 14
for a hearing. The charge under
Section 21(1)(d) of the Peaceful
Assembly Act 2012 states the circumstances under which the police have the power to order protesters to disperse.
The anti-GST protest on Monday was organised by Parti Sosialis
Malaysia and Gabungan Bantah
GST, a coalition of activists opposed to the consumption tax.
The goal of the sit-in was to get
the Customs Department to answer some 100 questions on the
GST which will be implemented
on April 1.
Police broke up the sit-in after
5pm and arrested 80 people then,
while another three were arrested
later that night at the candlelight
vigil outside the police station.
Inspector-General of Police
Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has defended the police against criticism
for arresting peaceful protesters,
saying the demonstrators were
“trespassers” and had acted “as
if to take control of the Customs
complex”. — The Malaysian Insider
less vehicles. If that is where we
see ourselves in 2050, we have to
think about it in terms of the law
and our infrastructures. We can
already prepare the authorities.
“So whether we like it or not,
our road transport planners must
already be thinking about this,”
she said.
However, Mazlan, who is a former deputy director-general of the
United Nations Office at Vienna,
said the road is tough and paved
with challenges.
“First of all, nothing is certain.
We don’t really know what will
happen tomorrow, much less in
35 years’ time.
“So although you will do the
foresight using probabilities and
possibilities, people might buy
your idea or people won’t.
“Changing this mindset is what
will be hard. We have to convince
people to buy into this future we
are envisioning.”
Besides that, there would be
high demand for scientists, Mazlan
said, but there probably would not
be enough of them to carry out
the future technologies.
“One of the problems is that
many people or students are veering off science in schools. They
prefer to take business and other subjects as they feel it would
be more lucrative for them later
on in life.
“This is a problem as we see
that we will be lacking in scientific expertise, especially since we
predict that there would be new
fields and avenues to be explored
in the future.”
Mazlan herself had faced such
challenges in the early days as an
astrophysicist, with a PhD from
New Zealand but in a field which
was unheard of in the country.
Although the lack of interest
in her field was discouraging, the
undeterred Mazlan went on to set
up academic courses and laboratories for undergraduates and
postgraduate training in Astrophysics and Astronomy in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, where
she was a lecturer.
She was also instrumental in
the inclusion of space science in
the national school curriculum in
1990 and in the establishment of
the National Planetarium in 1986.
Despite the bumpy road ahead,
Mazlan and her team at the Mega
Science 3.0 project are optimistic
about the future.
They are convinced that Malay-
Mazlan and her team at Mega Science
3.0 are tasked with anticipating and
foreseeing Malaysia’s future in 2050.
She says the process of getting there is
a long and complicated one. Photo by
The Malaysian Insider
sia will not fall behind compared
with the rest of the world, and are
hoping that the project will help
prepare the country for what is
about to come.
“In 1950, there was a vast difference in how Malaysia was compared with other countries like the
United States in terms of its cities,
transport, houses and agriculture.
But in 2000, we are on a par with
these developed countries.
“So the question of whether
we will be at the same level as
them will not arise. It’s a matter
of preparing ourselves for what
lies ahead of us. We are not going
to be left behind.” — The Malaysian Insider
Najib, ministers pay last respects to Kuan Yew
SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and several
ministers paid their last respects
yesterday to Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father and
first prime minister who died
on Monday.
Najib, who was accompanied
by his wife Datin Seri Rosmah
Mansor, arrived at about noon
at Parliament House where the
remains of Kuan Yew are lying
in state prior to the funeral on
Sunday.
The Malaysian delegation also
comprised Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, Transport
Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong
Lai, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri
G Palanivel and Minister in the
Prime Minister’s Department
Datuk Mah Siew Keong.
Najib, Rosmah and the ministers were welcomed at Parliament House by Singapore Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who
is a son of Kuan Yew, and his
wife Ho Ching. Kuan Yew died
on Monday at the age of 91.
Expressing heartfelt condolences on the passing of Kuan
Yew, on behalf of the Malaysian
government and people, Najib
said Kuan Yew was a great man
whose leadership, vision, fortitude and perseverance helped
Najib (right) and Rosmah signing the condolence book for Kuan Yew at Parliament
House in Singapore yesterday, with Hsien Loong (centre) and his wife Ho Ching (left)
looking on. Photo by AFP
shape Singapore into what it is
today — an advanced economy
and finding its own place in the
world.
He said Kuan Yew would go
down in history as a great man
whose vision and leadership
helped make this world a better place.
“Kuan Yew also was a man
[who] helped shape Southeast
Asia as a region of peace and
prosperity.
“I would like to thank him for
strengthening bilateral ties between Malaysia and Singapore,”
he said after paying his last respects. “All Singaporeans owe
him a huge debt of gratitude.”
Najib and his delegation returned to Kuala Lumpur in the
afternoon. — Bernama
2 0 P R O P E RT Y
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
FR I
28 BLVD
registers 62%
take-up rate
F
Strategic location of mixed development at the
Pandan lakeside is a draw for buyers
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BY RAC H EL C H EW
KUALA LUMPUR: The official launch of the
first three of 28 BLVD Tower’s four 45-storey
towers by Beverly Group’s subsidiary Best
Boulevard Sdn Bhd and Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd last weekend saw some 62%
take-up rate.
“Given the current market sentiment, we
are happy with the 62% take-up rate. Our
buyers were attracted to the premium location and the unbeatable price. You can own a
unit from as low as RM280,000, I believe this
is very rare in the market,” said Beverly Group
sales and marketing director Wendy Tang.
The mixed development at the Pandan
lakeside in Pandan Perdana, which consists
of a 11.07-acre (4.47ha) leasehold development, has a gross development value (GDV)
of about RM700 million.
It is due to be completed by August 2019.
BY
FRA
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ter
Fra
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(CE
ert
for
The lakeside development houses 1,284
small office/home office (Soho) units with
a built-up of 450 sq ft and priced from
RM280,000, as well as 636 units of 2- to 5-bedroom and duplex serviced apartments with
built-ups of between 678 sq ft and 2,174 sq
ft priced from RM400,000.
Only 6km away from the Kuala Lumpur
city centre, the development promises residents the serenity of the Pandan Lake view
and a bird’s eye view of the city, including
the Petronas Twin Towers.
Private previews of Towers A and B have
been held since August last year.
The company has no immediate plans to
launch the 643 units in Tower D.
“We intend to launch in stages the remaining units in Tower C after the current
units have been taken up,” Tang adds.
The four residential towers sit on a
nine-storey car park podium, with the ground
An artist’s impression of the 28 BLVD at the Pandan lakeside. Photo by Best Boulevard
and first floors reserved for the lobby and
premier restaurants. The retail units are not
for sale to control the tenant mix.
The development comes with a full range
of facilities, including an infinity pool, lake
view lounge, landscaped garden and floating cabanas.
Amenities nearby include shopping malls,
petrol stations, banks, shops, schools and
colleges, and medical centres.
Beverly Group has also acquired 16.5
acres of land in Wangsa Maju and 16 acres
in Taman Equine.
“A central boulevard with GDV of RM1.6
billion, is being planned for the Wangsa Maju
site, which is just 4.6km to KLCC, to capture
a niche market.”
Meanwhile, the 16-acre Taman Equine
site is at the heart of the town and adjacent
to Aeon @ Taman Equine.The total GDV is
expected to be RM1 billion.
“The remaining GDV for Beverly Group is
approximately RM2.95 billion. We are actively
sourcing for land so that we may offer exciting lifestyle choices from landed homes and
apartments to mixed-use schemes.”
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E&O, Mitsui marks third venture in
Kuala Lumpur landmark project
BY AS HO K K RI S H N A N
Dowling (left)
and Brown at
the Bangkok
press conference
announcing the
partnership. Photo
by Agoda.com
4,000 Best Western hotels on Agoda.com
BY HA NN A H RA F EE
SINGAPORE: The United States-based Best
Western International has collaborated with
online accommodation reservations company Agoda Co Pte Ltd (Agoda.com) to create
a search engine for its 4,000 hotels worldwide on March 20.
”Partnering with Agoda.com reflects Best
Western’s commitment to expanding its distribution in the increasingly important and
rapidly-growing Asian market,” said Best
Western International senior vice-president
of marketing and sales Dorothy Dowling.
Agoda.com claims it shall provide a
regional focus on content and a customer-friendly online service in which Best
Western clients can search for hotels, examine reviews, book and pay for their stay
in a single mobile or desktop transaction.
Through the partnership, Agoda’s customers will have direct access to the hotels
in more than 100 countries.
“Agoda.com takes pride in the management
and innovation of our front-end customer
offerings and connectivity solutions to hotel
partners. Our partnership with Best Western
International further strengthens this resolve,
as we continue to make advances in growing
the Agoda.com international footprint,” said
John Brown, Agoda chief operating officer.
The partnership will be assisted by connectivity solution platform, DerbySoft, for
fast and reliable online distribution of the
rates and inventory of Best Western hotels.
Agoda.com has a network that includes
more than 600,000 hotels and other accommodation properties worldwide.
KUALA LUMPUR: Eastern & Oriental Bhd
(E&O) marked its third collaboration with
Japanese property company Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd by inking an agreement to jointly
develop a 5,812 sq m freehold parcel of land
at the intersection of Jalan Conlay and Jalan
Kia Peng in Kuala Lumpur. The joint venture
(JV) is to build luxury high-rise serviced
apartments.
“Backed by the success of our earlier collaborations with Mitsui, we are confident
that this latest partnership will deliver yet
another exemplary project of innovation
and excellence,” said E&O deputy managing
director Eric Chan Kok Leong.
Mitsui executive director Tomoo Nakamura said the company is proud of its collaborations with E&O and views the project
as sharing its expertise with Malaysia.
E&O joined Mitsui Fudosan in a marketing
collaboration in 2011 but this is its second
residential development together.
The JV to develop the land will be effected through, among others, a shareholders’
agreement and a sale and purchase agreement between Samudra Pelangi Sdn Bhd
(Samudra), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of E&O; and Mitsui Fudosan Asia
Pte Ltd (MFA), an indirect wholly-owned
subsidiary of Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd.
The site is held by Patsawan Properties Sdn
Bhd (Patsawan), a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Samudra. The JV entails the acquisition of
a 49% stake in Patsawan by MFA. After the JV,
Samudra will continue to hold the remaining
51% stake in Patsawan.
The project is within an exclusive residential enclave among diplomatic corps,
and the city’s business, retail and cultural
districts.
In 2011, a marketing collaboration was
signed for E&O properties to Mitsui’s highnet-worth clientele in Japan. The tie-up
led to a 2013 partnership in which the two
companies developed the 38-storey The
Mews Serviced Residences Kuala Lumpur.
(From left) E&O
finance director
Kok Meng Chow,
Chan, Nakamura
and Mitsui
Fudosan senior
manager Shigeki
Komi posing for
a picture after
signing the
agreement. Photo
by E&O
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P R O P E RT Y 2 1
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 20 15 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Frasers Hospitality unveils third KL property
BY C A RMEL D OMI NI C
ine
ent
V is
FRASERS Hospitality unveiled its third property,
the Fraser Residence Kuala Lumpur, claiming
it to be the city’s largest serviced residence. After the launch of Capri by Fraser in 2014, and
Fraser Place in 2010, Fraser Residence ups the
Frasers Centrepoint Group’s portfolio within
Kuala Lumpur to 1,000 apartment units.
Frasers Hospitality chief executive officer
(CEO) Choe Peng Sum said the new property follows the strong demand it received
for its first two properties.
“We expect this demand to continue as the
resurgence of interest from foreign firms will
be further boosted by the government’s implementation of the Economic Transformation
Programme. With plans to attract over 100 of
the world’s leading firms, with Kuala Lumpur expected to contribute US$59.4 billion
(RM218 billion) to the country’s gross national
income by 2020, we expect economic growth
to continue to drive the need for increased
serviced residences, which we will be well
placed to meet,” Choe said.
The hospitality arm of the Singapore-based
Frasers Centrepoint Group, Frasers Hospitality has a global portfolio, including those
in the pipeline, of 94 properties in 50 key
gateway cities, and more than 17,000 apartments worldwide. The company is on track
to double its inventory to 30,000 residential
units over the next five years.
Fraser Residence Kuala Lumpur houses 445
p is
vely
citnd
Malaysia’s first large-scale GBI project in The Prime@LDP
1.6
aju
ure
Fraser Residence
Kuala Lumpur.
Photo by Frasers
Hospitality Pte Ltd.
serviced residence units in the city centre and
is within walking distance of the Petronas Twin
Towers, Suria KLCC and the Kuala Lumpur
Convention Centre. It offers a range of spacious, fully furnished apartments from 42 sq
m studio apartments to 490 sq m 4-bedroom
apartments that can accommodate eight people. Each unit features floor-to-ceiling windows
and boasts stylish interiors with neutral tones,
with defined living, dining, kitchen, work and
bedroom areas and comprehensive home entertainment systems.
Among the offered facilities within the
property is a 24-hour fully equipped Sky
Gym and Yoga Suite with a view of the city’s
skyline, a landscaped outdoor swimming
pool, a children’s wading pool, an outdoor
Jacuzzi, steam and sauna facilities, a spa, a
kids play zone and a Club Lounge & Bar with
indoor and alfresco seating as well as an allday-dining restaurant. Its business accompaniments include boardrooms, meeting
facilities with a capacity of up to 80 persons
and pre-function guest reception areas.
Fraser Residence Kuala Lumpur provides
24-hour security and CCTV surveillance,
round-the-clock reception and concierge
services, 24-hour room service, daily housekeeping, laundry services, shuttle service to
key business and shopping districts, and
complimentary high-speed WiFi Internet
access.
A 20-minute drive from KL Sentral, it is
close to multinational companies, embassies and tourist sites such as the National Art
Gallery and the National History Museum,
and is easily accessible via the Bukit Nanas
monorail and Dang Wangi LRT stations.
BY C A RMEL D OMI NI C
s’
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f
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e
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KUALA LUMPUR: Hillcrest Gardens Sdn Bhd
goes green in its shop-office development
called The Prime@LDP, with half of the units
already sold after its soft launch recently.
The project is said to be the first largescale Green Building Index (GBI) certified
project in Malaysia and is expected to be
officially launched next month.
Hillcrest Gardens, a member of the LTAT
Group and the Kuok Group of companies,
hopes to appeal to businesses that already
have, or are planning their own environ- (From left) Hillcrest Gardens executive director Frank Goon Swee Kheong, director Major General Datuk
ment-friendly initiatives.
Hussein Mohd Ali Piah, chairman Lieutenant General Datuk Hashim Mohamed Amin, director Lieutenant
The 18,000 sq m The Prime@LDP is being General Datuk Mohd Salleh Ismail and director Lim Soon Huat at the soft launch.
pioneered by Didikmaju Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hillcrest Gardens.
The four blocks of shop offices comprise rity guard patrol, and a main bus terminal.
Located in the Jalan Puchong Utama 47 units ranging between 8,643 sq ft and
The Prime@LDP is a freehold commercial
neighbourhood, the commercial space is 11,743 sq ft.
property beside the Lebuhraya Damansara
aimed at being a modern-day business venue
Nearby amenities are supermarkets, am- Puchong. It has a dual frontage concept with
for entrepreneurs seeking new opportunities. ple parking space, 24-hour CCTV and secu- a stunning landscaped boulevard.
Political stability sees growth in Bangkok’s office rents
BY HA NN A H RA FEE
BANGKOK: Office rental rates within Bangkok’s
central business district (CBD) and non-central
business district (non-CBD) have increased,
specifically in the new Grade A buildings within the CBD.
The CBRE’s Bangkok Office MarketView
Q4 2014 report cited the calmer political situation for increased office rental rates and noted
that tenants had even proceeded with space
expansion plans.
It said in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14),
average rents for Grade A offices in the CBD
rose 0.6% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) and 3.7%
year-on-year (y-o-y) to 850 baht (RM95.31) per
sq m (psm) per month. Grade B CBD rents also
saw a rise to 624 baht psm per month, a 2.5%
increase q-o-q and 8% y-o-y. The report also
found that in the non-CBD areas, Grade A office
rentals rose to 668 baht psm per month (up 5%
q-o-q and 9.9% y-o-y), while Grade B rentals
went up to 564 baht psm per month, a 2.2%
increase q-o-q and a y-o-y increase of 5.2%.
While the report foresees growth in rentals,
it would be at a slower rate, especially for Grade
A CBD offices since buildings that command
premium rents are at full capacity. The capital’s
office market has also seen a rise in occupancy
rates. “The total occupancy rate for the Bangkok
office market increased to 90.7% from 90.5%
from the previous quarter. The occupancy rate
increased by 0.3 percentage point (ppt) y-o-y.
“We have seen office leasing activity improve
every quarter throughout 2014. The increase in
new leasing transactions will result in a rise in
net take-up at the beginning of 2015.
“There is a time lag between starting to look
for new premises and moving in — approximately six to 18 months, depending on the size
of the the required space,” noted the report.
It said total office supply increased to 8.3
million sq m, a 0.6% increase q-o-q and 2.6%
increase y-o-y. Supply grew by 49,500 sq m
with the completion of the Channel 5 head
office, U Place and Hitachi office buildings.
The overall vacancy rate was 9.3% in 4Q14,
dropping 0.2 ppt y-o-y.
In terms of 2015’s market outlook, the report suggests that the current trend of falling
vacancy rates and rising rents will continue.
Nevertheless, a temporary increase in vacancy is expected with the completion of new
supply.
According to the report, based on the new
projects that have already been announced,
400,000 sq m of new office space will be completed between 2015 and 2017. Bhiraj Tower at
EmQuartier, AIA Sathorn Tower and Gaysorn
Office Tower 2 will be Grade A offices. Approximately 76% of total new office space will be
Grade A ones, and about 44% of the total new
office space will be in the CBD.
HOT DEALS
How much is your property worth?
Which and what property has just been
sold, and for how much? What interesting
buys are now on the market? Check out
the following Hot Deals of the week.
Go to www.theedgemarkets.com for more.
Sold
Condominium in Seri Bukit Ceylon,
Kuala Lumpur
Built-up: 936 sq ft; 2 rooms,
2 bathrooms; Freehold; RM810,000
Ideally located in the Golden Triangle
of Kuala Lumpur, Seri Bukit Ceylon was
completed by UM Land in 2005. It comprises a block of 248 units, with 96 serviced
homes, 125 apartment suites, and 27 business suites. Nearby are restaurants and
bars at Changkat Bukit Bintang, and the
KL Pavillion and KLCC shopping centres.
Facilities include a cafe, children’s playground, convenience store, fully equipped
gym, self-service launderette, sauna and
swimming pool.
Sales concluded by Pia Mirpuri of Tower
Realty (012) 9710 130
On the market
Bungalow in Twin Palms Kemensah,
Taman Melawati, Ampang, Selangor
Built-up: 5813 sq ft; 6+1 bedrooms,
7 bathrooms; Freehold; RM4.25 million
With its strategic location and easy access
to highways such as the MRR2 and Duke
Highway, the Twin Palms bungalow offers a
lovely landscaped park and a playground to
give a garden club ambience. In addition,
it offers amenities such as international
schools, shopping hubs and a hospital.
Contact Jocelyn Teoh Oriental Realty (012)
307 5622
WHAT’S
HAPPENING &
WHERE
Radia Sales Gallery Official Launch
Date: Tomorrow
Venue: 2A (Lot 64406) Persiaran
Tebar Layar, Section U8, Bukit Jelutong,
Shah Alam, Selangor.
Time: 6pm-11pm
Contact: (03) 7859 9801
Allow Sarimah Ibrahim to entertain you
and enjoy a fireworks display, among others, at the official launch of the Radia Sales
Gallery. The event is jointly organised by
Sime Darby and UEM Sunrise.
Opening of EcoWorld International
Centre
Date: Sunday
Venue: EcoWorld International Centre,
Suite 3A, 01 Level 3A, The Gardens North
Tower, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed
Putra, Kuala Lumpur.
Time: 10am-6pm
Contact: (03) 2287 2255
The opening of EcoWorld International
Centre marks the developer’s foray into
the international arena. Guests are invited
to the Privilege Preview of London City
Island, its maiden project in the United
Kingdom. The centre operates from 9am
to 6pm on weekdays, and 10am to 6pm on
weekends and public holidays.
22 C O M M E N T
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
China’s influence set to climb
US thwarted on new bank as allies defy Washington to back Beijing’s initiative
BY KEVI N HA ML IN
S
even decades after the end
of World War II, the international economic architecture crafted by the United States faces its biggest
shake-up yet, with China
establishing new channels of influence to match its ambitions. Three
lending institutions with at least
US$190 billion (RM697 billion) are
taking shape under China’s leadership, one of them informally referred
to as a Marshall Plan — evoking the
post-war US programme to rebuild
an impoverished Europe. Also this
year, China’s yuan may win the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF)
blessing as an official reserve currency, a recognition of its rising use
in trade and finance.
China’s clout has been expanding for decades, as its rapid growth
allowed it to snap up a rising share
of the world’s resources, its exports
penetrated global markets, and its
bulging financial assets gave it power to make big individual loans and
purchases. Now, the creation of international lending institutions is
leveraging that economic influence
closer to the political and diplomatic
arenas, as US allies defy America to
back China’s initiative.
“This is the beginning of a bigger role for China in global affairs,”
said Jim O’Neill, the United Kingdom-based former chief economist
at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, who
coined the term BRIC in 2001 to highlight the rising economic power of
Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s
vision of achieving the same
great-power status enjoyed by the US
received a major boost this month
when the UK, Germany, France
and Italy signed on to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The
AIIB will have authorised capital of
US$100 billion and starting funds of
about US$50 billion.
Canada is considering joining,
which would leave the US and Japan
as the only Group of Seven holdouts
as they question the institution’s governance and environmental standards.
Australian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott’s cabinet approved negotiations to join too, according to a government official who asked not to be
identified as the decision hasn’t been
made public. Founding membership
will be finalised as soon as April 15, a
Chinese official said on Wednesday.
“China’s economic rise is acting as
a huge pull factor forcing the existing
architecture to adapt,” said James
Laurenceson, deputy director of the
Australia-China Relations Institute in
Sydney. “The AIIB has shown the US
that a majority in the international
community support China’s aspirations for taking on greater leadership and responsibility, at least on
economic initiatives.”
Austria this week became the latest European nation to enter talks on
joining the infrastructure bank, saying
that the country could face disadvantages in Asian markets if it’s left out.
Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao on Wednesday
said the institution would seek to cooperate with the new Chinese lender.
“Once it formally starts, I plan to
cooperate with it,” Nakao said in Tokyo. “It would be impossible to be
hostile. Lots of countries need funds,
and it is natural that we will cooperate.
It would be to the benefit of international society, the region and Japan.”
The new China-backed institutions — the infrastructure bank, a
US$50 billion development bank
in conjunction with fellow BRICS
nations and a US$40 billion fund to
revive the ancient Silk Road trade
route — are being set up after years
of frustrated attempts by China and
other emerging nations to revamp
the existing international financial
institutions to better reflect the shape
of the global economy.
A key sticking point is the US’ failure for more than four years to approve shifts in the IMF’s ownership
structure, which would give emerging
markets more influence and install
China as the third-largest member nation, up from sixth. The changes have
been held up by the refusal of the US
Congress to ratify them, even though
the White House and governments
around the world support them.
The US still has veto power on major decisions made by both the IMF
and the World Bank, and a lock on
selecting the president of the World
Bank. Both institutions are increasingly unrepresentative and undersized compared with the demands
they face.
“The real tragedy is, compared to
the billions we spend on defence to
support US global leadership, Congress undermined it by refusing to
provide the chump change needed to
reform the IMF,” said David Loevinger,
former US Treasury Department senior coordinator for China affairs and
now an analyst at TCW Group Inc in
Los Angeles. “Congress can abdicate
its international responsibilities. What
it can’t do is stop China from playing
a bigger role in managing the global
economy.”
Regarding the new infrastructure
bank, US Treasury Secretary Jacob J
Lew told lawmakers last week the
administration is concerned that the
institution may not adhere to the
same standards as other international financial institutions. “Will
it protect the rights of workers, the
environment, deal with corruption
issues appropriately?” Lew said at a
House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington. “Anyone
joining needs to ask those questions
at the outset. And I hope before the
final commitments are made, anyone who lends their name to this
organisation will make sure that the
governance is appropriate.”
Andrew Polk, Beijing-based economist at the Conference Board, said
China’s push to set up these new institutions is driven by its desire to
“stoke markets” to which it can export
industrial overcapacity.
China plans to spend US$40 billion to revive the centuries-old Silk
Road trade route between Asia and
Europe, an idea raised by Xi in a 2013
speech in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Some analysts have likened the
plan to the post-war effort to help
Europe that helped establish the US
as a regional economic power. A detailed plan may be unveiled at China’s Boao Forum conference which
started yesterday, where Xi is scheduled to speak, according to Australia
& New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.
Announced in July, the BRICS’
New Development Bank, to be based
in Shanghai with initial capital of
US$50 billion, is the third building
block of a China-centred international
economic architecture. In addition
to the original four BRIC nations, the
fifth country is South Africa.
To lure countries to join, China has
offered to forgo veto power at the new
development bank, the Wall Street
Journal reported this week. The German government and its European
partners are insisting on transparency
standards in the talks, and a Chinese
veto wouldn’t be compatible with the
transparency the Europeans want,
according to a German government
official who asked not to be named
because the negotiations are private.
Making the institutions run successfully will be tougher than starting
them, said George Magnus, a senior
independent economic adviser to
UBS Group AG in London. Recent
audits of many Chinese overseas ventures have “left a catalogue of misallocation, waste, poor administration
and weak commercial standards and
returns”, he said.
Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow
at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington,
said those concerns are overblown,
and China is likely to stick with high
standards. “They want this to be a
success,” he said. “They don’t want
to take US$50 billion out of their reserves and flush it down the toilet by
funding projects with a high degree
of corruption.”
Yu Yongding, a former adviser to
China’s central bank, said “Americans
must learn to behave in a humbler
way” to maintain their leadership in
global economic circles.
“The world has changed,” he said.
— Bloomberg View
Rolex offshoot Tudor comes of age
BY CORI NN E GRE TLER
ROLEX’S younger sibling is coming of age. Tudor, a sportier brand
that Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf
trademarked in 1926, plans to enter
Japan after returning to the United
Kingdom and the United States in
the past two years, Philippe Peverelli, who has led the brand since
2010, said in an interview.
The label may pose a threat to the
makers of Longines, TAG Heuer and
Baume & Mercier as it sheds decades of dormancy and benefits from
the support of the foundation that
owns Rolex, Switzerland’s top-selling watch brand. Priced at about
US$2,000 (RM7,340) to US$5,000,
Tudor is a gateway to a generation of
consumers that might not purchase
a Rolex, which start at about 4,600
Swiss francs (RM17,650).
“We’ve never been so young,” Peverelli said at the Baselworld watch
and jewellery fair, which ended yesterday. “Today, we try to make our
own watches with our own designs.
We need to have our own personality.
Before we were an under brand. We
are starting to have a real life.”
The label has introduced its first
watches with mechanisms that were
made in-house. That’s a first step in
reducing dependence on components bought from Swatch Group
AG’s ETA unit, which makes components for most Swiss watches.
Rolex founder Wilsdorf began putting the Tudor name on watch dials
in the 1930s, intending to create a less
expensive but reliable alternative to
his main brand. Production expanded after World War II, when Tudor
was founded as a separate company.
However, Tudor exited the US
and UK after testing those markets.
The watchmaker then focused on
China in the 1960s.
The offshoot’s pricing in comparison to its older sibling has led
some watch collectors to call it “the
poor man’s Rolex”. A 1952 ad featured a workman operating a pneumatic drill wearing the watch, and
a slogan once said the timepiece
might fit you if your “aspirations
are higher than your bank balance”.
The label probably had sales of
about 250 million Swiss francs in
2013, Rene Weber, an analyst at Bank
Vontobel AG in Zurich, said. That
would be about 5% of Geneva-based
Rolex’s total revenue of 4.6 billion
Swiss francs, he estimates. The closely held company doesn’t publish
financial information.
Tudor’s expansion adds to three
major challenges Swiss watchmakers
face this year. The surge in the franc
has made it harder to export, Apple
Inc is set to introduce its smartwatch
next month and a slump in Chinese
demand is lingering due to a campaign against extravagance among
government officials.
“The positioning is more midrange, which is exactly the exposure
you want to have right now, given
how China is performing,” Bassel
Choughari, an analyst at Berenberg
in London, said. “It’s an attractive
offering in that segment, as a lot of
brands have left it by elevating prices. There’s certainly room to grow.”
While China still makes up a big
part of its business, the re-entry in
the US and the UK is providing Tudor
with a more balanced mix.
“Tudor is a threat to brands below
The Tudor Heritage Black Bay in
midnight blue which was introduced at
last year’s Baselworld.
the mega brands Rolex, Omega and
Cartier,” Luca Solca, an analyst at
Exane BNP Paribas, wrote via email.
“The brand that has most benefited
from Tudor being asleep at the wheel
so far, has probably been Longines.”
Longines, owned by Swatch, has
expanded in the segment of time-
pieces costing 800 Swiss francs to
3,000 Swiss francs and achieved sales
of 1.5 billion Swiss francs last year,
Walter von Kaenel, the watchmaker’s
president, said in an interview with
AWP on March 18.
TAG Heuer belongs to LVMH Moet
Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE while
Baume & Mercier is a brand of Cie
Financiere Richemont SA.
Tudor is far from achieving the
same notoriety as Rolex, which has
made several rare watches that have
fetched prices of more than US$1
million at Christie’s. The top auction prices for Tudor pieces include
31,250 Swiss francs for a 1950s model
in a sale last year.
Peverelli said the entry into Japan won’t be this year. In the long
term, Tudor aims to keep growing
in comparison to Rolex.
“In 2025, I wish for Tudor to be
where Mini Cooper is today facing
BMW, which for us would be Rolex,”
the executive said. “The Mini is sexy,
a great performer, a solid German
car, attracting all ages. I want to be
able to drive alone on my own four
wheels.” — Bloomberg
F E AT U R E 2 3
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Phaseout of PPSMI runs to 2021
School heads given crucial reminder as two million students in limbo
BY A ZRI L A N N UA R
W
ith the flip-flop
in education
policy over
the Teaching
and Learning of Science
and Mathematics in English, commonly referred to by its Malay acronym PPSMI, the most vulnerable
victims are the two million plus
schoolchildren who are coasting
along in the winding-down stage
of this legacy scheme.
The last batch of students will
sit for mathematics and science
in English in the 2021 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations.
With an average of 470,000 students sitting for the SPM annually, it is estimated that over two
million children fall under the
PPSMI scheme until the phaseout
is complete.
However, it is reported that some
schools have taken it upon themselves to stop the PPSMI and switch
to its replacement, that is the Upholding the Malay Language and
Strengthening Command of English
(MBMMBI) scheme, which places
emphasis on strengthening students’ command of both Bahasa
Melayu and English.
Concerned groups, including the
Parent Action Group for Education
(Page), have raised the matter with
Education Minister II Datuk Seri
Idris Jusoh so that students are not
left in the lurch.
As a result, headmasters and
principals were given a reminder
and a dressing down by the Education Ministry recently.
At a March 17 briefing at the Federal Territories Education Department, ministry officials reminded
the gathering of the Cabinet decision in 2011, where it was agreed
that MBMMBI would be implemented via a “soft landing” approach.
At the briefing titled “PPSMI
extended till 2021; MBMMBI implemented via soft landing”, school
principals were informed about
how they should handle the last
batch of students put under the
PPSMI scheme when they started
Year One back in 2011.
A school principal who attended
the briefing says they were reminded that it is wrong for any school
to refuse to teach the last batch of
PPSMI students science and mathematics in English.
“They have to find a way. They
cannot say ‘no’ to parents whose
children began Year One under the
PPSMI system. The schools must
support this cohort until they finish their SPM in 2021.
“That year will be the final year
for PPSMI,” explains the principal,
who requested anonymity.
However, the principal admits
that perhaps some schools might
not have the human capital or the
means to educate the last cohort
under the PPSMI system, leading
to the complaints in the first place.
‘Stubborn principals part
of the problem’
Page chairman Datin Noor Azimah
Abdul Rahim says she has received
reports from concerned parents
and met Idris last month.
“The excuse that some of these
schools gave was that they wanted to streamline the system. This
defeats the 2011 Cabinet decision
not to impose Bahasa Melayu on
the students [who are still under
PPSMI].
“Since 2011, there could be new
principals who never received the
circular and are too stubborn to
listen to their teachers who want
to do the right thing,” says Noor
Azimah.
Pushing for Page’s agenda, she
advocates that the Education Ministry should continue allowing
students to choose whether they
want to be taught under the PPSMI
or the MBMMBI scheme.
“The prime minister said they
want to tighten the English requirements for public universities. In
the past, you needed to pass Band
1 under the Muet (Malaysian University English Test) to qualify for
science-related disciplines. Now
you have to pass Band 3 and Band
4 for medicine and law.
“If you want to graduate, you
need to pass Band 4 for the science disciplines and Band 5 for
medicine and law. So … [they] took
away PPSMI and plonked this on
us. That’s not fair, is it?” she asks.
Noor Azimah points out that
there’s no excuse for the government not to allow PPSMI to continue since trained teachers are
already available, as the first batch
taught under the PPSMI scheme
in 2003 are now fresh graduate
teachers this year.
“The ministry can’t say they
failed in PPSMI and cannot start
it again because the manpower
and the students have been armed
with it, and also the MBBMBI. They
have no excuse. The teachers and
students are more prepared than
ever,” says Noor Azimah.
Her sentiments are echoed by
a recipient of the Excellent Mathematics Teacher Award who complains that her efforts to master
English as an instructive language
have been wasted.
“When I was first asked to
teach science and maths in English all those years ago I had to
use a script. I’m Malay, born in
the East Coast, and I wasn’t used
to the language. Sometimes I had
to switch back to Bahasa Melayu
to explain to the students who
did not understand what I was
trying to say.
“But as time went by and I practised it, I became more and more
fluent and the same happened to
my students. Then, when I’ve finally mastered it sufficiently to be
able to fluently teach in English …
they decided to scrap it.
“What a waste,” complains the
Terengganu-based teacher, who
requested anonymity.
01. At a March 17 briefing at the
Federal Territories Education
Department, ministry officials
reminded the gathering of the
Cabinet decision in 2011, when
it was agreed that MBMMBI
would be implemented via a
‘soft landing’ approach.
02. Noor Azimah advocates
that the Education Ministry
should continue allowing
students to choose whether
they want to be taught
under the PPSMI or the
MBMMBI scheme. The Edge
file photo
01
02
PPSMI in a nutshell
THE Teaching and Learning of
Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI), the brainchild of
former premier Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad, was aimed at addressing the problems faced by Malaysian graduates who lacked
fluency in English and thus had
poor job prospects.
The idea was mooted in 2002
and implemented barely a year
later in 2003. Critics initially pointed out that PPSMI was
rolled out in a hurry because
Dr Mahathir wanted it in place
before he handed over the reins
of government to his successor
Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
The scheme saw more than
RM3 billion spent on information
technology hardware to facilitate
the teaching of mathematics and
science in English.
Unfortunately as there was a
lack of qualified teachers when
the policy was introduced, the
national academic grade average
suffered, especially in the rural
Malay heartland where students
were less proficient in English.
This led to demands by Malay
nationalists for the scheme to be
scrapped on the grounds that
PPSMI undermined the position
of Bahasa Melayu as the national language despite the call by
many parents and employers to
retain the scheme.
A poll by the Merdeka Center
for Opinion Research in 2009
showed that 58% of the respondents wanted English to remain
as the language of instruction
for the two subjects.
The change of policy was
viewed as a flip-flop by a number
of teachers, educators, non-governmental organisations and
politicians.
Dr Mahathir was highly critical of the calls to scrap the
scheme, writing numerous scathing articles in his blog against
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri
Muhyiddin Yassin, who is the
Education Minister.
PPSMI’s replacement, known
as Upholding the Malay Language and Strengthening Command of English (MBMMBI),
started for Year One pupils in
2012.
By 2021, MBMMBI is expected
to be fully implemented as the
last batch of PPSMI students will
take their Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah examinations next
year and finish their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia in 2021.
24 W O R L D B U S I N E S S
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Half of China’s total trade to
be settled in yuan by 2020
Renminbi has already broken into the top five as an international payments currency
HONG KONG: Cross-border trade
settlement denominated in China’s
yuan currency is expected to climb
to over 50% of China’s total trade by
2020, more than doubling the current
level, Stuart Gulliver, HSBC’s group
chief executive, said yesterday.
A scheme launched in 2009 and
initially in five Chinese cities to encourage cross-border trade settlement in yuan rather than US dollars
has seen rapid growth in the past
few years, with yuan settlement of
trade debts rising from 1% of transactions in 2010 to 22% last year.
This robust momentum was not
affected by the quick depreciation
of the yuan earlier this year, showing the yuan’s use in trade settlement is rooted in genuine need
and supported by confidence in
Beijing should
boost gold
reserves to 5% —
World Gold Council
BY POL LY YA M
HONG KONG: China should
increase its gold holdings to
around 5% of its total foreign
exchange reserves to help
diversify currency risks, the
World Gold Council (WGC)
said.
China currently holds about
1.6% of its foreign exchange
reserves in gold, which is relatively low compared with developed countries and some
developing countries, WGC
China managing director Roland Wang said.
“The ideal amount should
be at least 5% of its total forex
reserves,” Wang told Reuters
in an interview in Hong Kong.
China last raised its gold
holdings in April 2009, when
reserves rose to 33,890,000 troy
ounces (about 1,054 tonnes),
from 19,290,000 troy ounces,
according to central bank data.
The holding was unchanged
as of December 2014. Data for
2015 was not available on the
central bank’s website (www.
pbc.gov.cn).
China’s holdings as a percentage of total reserves in the
fourth quarter of 2014 compare
with 2.4% for Mexico, 5.7% for
Australia, 6.7% for India and
12.1% for Russia, according to
WGC figures.
Increased gold holdings
could boost investor confidence at a time when China
is pushing the internationalisation of the yuan, he added.
— Reuters
the fundamental and relative stability of the currency, Gulliver told
a forum in Hong Kong.
So far, the geographical spread
of China’s trading partners denominating trade in the yuan remains
very narrow, with the lion’s share
taking place in Hong Kong and
most of the rest happening elsewhere in Asia.
“In this sense, the renminbi
(yuan) is not yet as integrated as
a trade currency as it both could
be and will be. We do expect this
to change,” said Gulliver.
China’s yuan has already broken
into the top five as an international
payments currency, overtaking the
Canadian dollar and the Australian
dollar, said global transaction services organisation Swift. — Reuters
Filepic of an employee of a bank counting yuan notes in Pudong district in Shanghai.
Yuan settlement of trade debts rose from 1% of transactions in 2010 to 22% last year.
Photo by Reuters
Casino operators in Macau, the
world’s biggest gambling hub, have
been shifting to other Asian locales in search of more lucrative
growth prospects as revenues in
the southern Chinese territory have
plummeted.
Macau’s Suncity confirmed its
involvement in the project while
VinaCapital confirmed the participation of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which replied in an email that
it had no comment and was conducting preliminary studies. The
government has set a minimum
capital investment of US$4 billion
for large casino resorts.
Genting Malaysia Bhd pulled
out of the project in 2012 due to the
local gambling restrictions, and Las
Vegas Sands Corp chairman Sheldon Adelson said he would invest
in a multibillion dollar resort in the
country if the prohibition is eased.
The Vietnamese government
is mulling changing legislation to
allow local residents to gamble but
has yet to come up with a concrete
plan, meaning the casino project
may initially rely on business from
tourists and locals with foreign
passports. — Reuters
Alibaba deal spree tests its financial strength
BY ROBYN M AK
HONG KONG: Alibaba’s deal spree
is testing its financial strength. The
Chinese e-commerce giant spent
the bulk of its operating cash flow
on acquisitions and minority investments in 2014, but doesn’t provide much detail to shareholders.
Though the group’s core business
is robust, returns on the new ventures are less certain.
Alibaba is so big that many purchases are too small to disclose.
Though its US$200 million (RM734
million) investment in Snapchat
was widely reported earlier this
month, Alibaba has not formally
acknowledged the financing which
values the much-hyped chat app at
US$15 billion. Its recent contribution to funds managed by Jerusalem
Venture Partners, an Israeli venture
capital firm, is also confidential.
Buffett dealmaking
gives Heinz bondholders
US$550m windfall
NEW YORK: Warren Buffett’s
bid to unite HJ Heinz Co with
Kraft Foods Group Inc is proving to be a bonanza for holders
of the iconic ketchup maker’s
junk bonds. The market value of
Heinz’s bonds surged by US$550
million (RM2.02 billion), or 7.6%,
as of 2.35pm on Wednesday in
New York, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. With
the combined company likely
to be rated investment grade,
according to a statement from
Standard & Poor’s, the yields on
Heinz’s bonds have dropped
closer to those on Kraft’s notes.
The merger of Kraft and Heinz,
which is controlled by Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway Inc and
buyout firm 3G Capital, has been
structured without requiring any
additional debt to complete the
deal. — Bloomberg
Facebook bets on
Messenger app, opens
it to developers
Macau junket operator, Chow Tai
Fook plan US$4b Vietnam casino
HONG KONG: One of Macau’s top
casino junket operators, a Vietnamese investment group and Hong
Kong property-to-jewellery conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises will team up to develop a
US$4 billion (RM14.7 billion) casino resort in Vietnam, companies
involved in the project said.
The resort, to be located in the
central province of Quang Nam, is
headed by Vietnam-based VinaCapital and will forge ahead despite
a ban on gambling by Vietnamese
citizens that has deterred other big
international operators.
IN BRIEF
Chairman Jack Ma talks of building an “ecosystem” of connected services. But the common thread is far
from obvious. This year alone, Alibaba has invested US$590 million in a
Chinese smartphone maker, participated in a US$600 million cash injection for a Chinese taxi-hailing app,
set up a US$160 million joint venture
to develop Internet-connected cars,
and led a US$60 million investment
in a US mobile search firm.
Some transactions attributed
to Alibaba are actually channelled
through executives’ personal vehicles or affiliated companies. Yet the
listed group’s investments are a drain
on cash: Alibaba spent US$7.5 billion
on acquisitions and minority investments in 2014 — three-quarters of
its operating cash flow for the year.
It’s also hard to tell how Alibaba’s
new ventures are faring. The company’s share of its associates’ losses rose
to US$130 million in the three months
to December, from less than US$50
million in the previous quarter. Stakes
in start-ups are often in the form of
options or convertible shares, which
means Alibaba doesn’t have to book
its share of the ventures’ losses. But
minority stakes in listed affiliates have
fared poorly: Alibaba’s 16.5% shareholding in video site Youku Tudou
is worth less than half the US$1.1
billion the company paid last April.
With a market capitalisation of
more than US$200 billion and no
debt, Alibaba can afford to place
big bets on new services and technologies. Some may pay off. Nevertheless, the lack of information will
prompt fears that the company is
squandering its financial strength.
Now that some pre-initial public
offering shareholders are free to
sell, investors’ faith is likely to be
tested. — Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook is
turning its Messenger application into a platform for e-commerce, video and more in a bid
to shake up online communication. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled
Messenger Platform, describing
it as a way for software developers to boost appeal to the more
than 600 million people using
the application. “We think this
service has the potential to allow people to express themselves in new ways ... and to be
an important communication
tool for the world,” Zuckerberg
said at the California-based
company’s annual developers
conference that ended yesterday in San Francisco. — AFP
China’s Hainan
Airlines eyes 30-plane
Boeing order
SHANGHAI: China’s Hainan Airlines said yesterday it is planning
to buy 30 Dreamliner aircraft
from US giant Boeing — worth
almost US$8 billion at list prices
— as it seeks to look to expand its
long-haul service. The 30 Boeing
787-9 Dreamliners are due to be
delivered before 2021, Hainan
Airlines said in a statement to the
Shanghai stock exchange, where
it is listed. The order would be
valued at US$7.7 billion based
on list prices given on Boeing’s
website, although airlines typically negotiate discounts. — AFP
Jaguar Land Rover
to invest £600m
in Britain
LONDON: Indian-owned luxury
car manufacturer Jaguar Land
Rover announced a £600 million
(RM3.28 billion) investment in
advanced car manufacturing in
Britain yesterday. The British
car brand, which was bought by
India’s Tata Motors for US$2.3
billion (RM8.4 billion) from
Ford in 2008 at the height of
the global financial crisis, said
the investment showed its commitment to Britain’s resurgent
car industry. — AFP
W O R L D B U S I N E S S 25
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Indonesian stocks face
risks from debt spike
Worries grow over sliding rupiah and rising import costs
BY FRA NSI SK A N A NGOY
JAKARTA: Fund managers and foreign investors are bailing out of Indonesian stocks as worries grow that
a perfect storm of a sliding rupiah,
record levels of foreign debt and rising import costs could bring some
businesses to their knees.
Making matters worse, the benefits of a falling rupiah to Indonesia’s
Japan shows
rising frustration
with companies
sitting on cash
major agricultural and mineral exports have been eclipsed by a steep
decline in commodity prices.
The biggest concern for investors
is a tripling of private foreign debt
since the 2007 financial crisis. The
fear is that sustained currency weakness will start ramping up the debt
burden and servicing costs, crunching corporate earnings in the process.
Moreover, the rupiah’s 5% fall
against the US dollar this year on
top of the 2% slide in 2014 means
most offshore investors are sitting
on losses on their original investments. That confluence of factors
could trigger a wave of foreign capital outflows from the stock market
where foreigners account for 40% of
equity transactions.
Citing currency weakness, Edward
Lubis, president director of Bahana
TWC Investment which has 28 trillion
rupiah (RM7.9 billion) under management, said: “We are reducing our
position on equity. We are on ‘neutral’ now, and we are less optimistic
than we were a month ago.”
The rupiah’s decline has taken it to
around 13,000 per US dollar, hurting
profits for foreigners in a market that
is already trading expensively at 17
times earnings. — Reuters
ECB gives Greece extra
US$1.1b in breathing space
BY K EI I CHI YA MA MURA
BY JEFF BLACK , RE BECC A C HRI S TI E
& RADOSLAV TO M E K
TOKYO: Japan is stepping up
pressure on companies to use
their near-record cash stockpiles to help drive growth,
with Finance Minister Taro
Aso saying yesterday the government should consider a
tax to prod businesses into
action.
“Japan should carefully
consider issues like this,” Aso
said in Parliament in response
to a question from a lawmaker
in his party about imposing an
extra levy on retained earnings. “I share your concerns,”
he said.
Companies are piling up
savings by ¥2 trillion (RM61.6
billion) a month, a pace that
“isn’t normal,” Aso said. Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda have urged companies to
plough more money into higher pay for workers and capital spending to back their effort to lift the economy out
of two decades of stagnation.
— Bloomberg
FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank (ECB) made more than
€1 billion (RM4.04 billion) of extra
funding available to Greek lenders
as eurozone finance officials told
the Athens government it’s time to
prove it can be trusted.
The Governing Council handed
Greece the biggest increase in emergency funding in a month, raising
the limit to just over €71 billion in
its weekly telephone conference
on Wednesday, according to two
people familiar with the decision.
The Frankfurt-based institution’s
move is its latest to defer a financial
meltdown in Greece as eurozone governments hold back bailout money,
complaining Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras hasn’t convinced them his
economic plan can meet their requirements. Greece has until Monday to offer sufficient detail on the
programme, after finance ministry
deputies reviewed the situation on
a Wednesday conference call.
“It would be tragic if Greece gives
up the reform process now and its
achievements are thrown away,” ECB
Governing Council member Jens
NEW YORK: Google’s search for
chief financial officer (CFO) should
have it feeling lucky. There’s a
dearth of executives with the financial, tech and government knowhow needed to help run a US$400
billion (RM1.46 trillion) company.
Even fewer women fit the bill. Silicon Valley and Wall Street just can’t
find people like Morgan Stanley
CFO Ruth Porat fast enough. The
challenge is to create more like her.
Porat grew up in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Stanford before embarking on an almost
three-decade career in investment
banking. She was co-head of Morgan Stanley’s tech investment banking group amid the dot-com boom
and then led the bank’s financial
institutions group during the financial crisis. Porat also advised
the US Treasury on the bailout of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The
last five years have been spent assisting boss James Gorman navigate
the difficult regulatory and industry
climate to reshape the institution.
Such rare work experience will
serve Google well. The dominant
search engine is spending more
time with authorities around the
Schlumberger fined
US$232.7m for breaking
Iran, Sudan sanctions
WASHINGTON: French-US oil
services giant Schlumberger
Ltd was fined US$232.7 million
(RM854.009 million) by the Justice Department on Wednesday
for violating sanctions on Iran
and Sudan. Fully owned subsidy
Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings
Ltd admitted guilt to one count of
“knowingly and wilfully conspiring to violate” the US International Emergency Economic Powers
Act, under which US sanctions are
applied, the department said. According to the charges, the company’s Texas-based drilling and
measurements unit provided services to Iran and Sudan between
2004 and 2010 and tried to hide
the fact from authorities. — AFP
Sri Lanka promises port
project to resume after
problems ‘sorted’
BEIJING: China said yesterday
that Sri Lanka’s visiting president had promised work would
resume on a controversial Chinese-backed port development in
Colombo that his administration
had earlier suspended. Citing a
lack of government approvals,
Sri Lanka halted the US$1.4 billion (RM5.13 billion) port city
project, straining ties with its biggest investor. China defends the
project, saying it is in line with
local laws and any cancellation
would deter foreign investors.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala
Sirisena told Chinese President Xi
Jinping that work would resume
after problems are “sorted out”,
said a Chinese foreign ministry
official. — Reuters
Jakarta seeks major
role in Chinese-led
infrastructure bank
A man with his child making a transaction at a Eurobank ATM in Athens, Greece.
Eurozone finance officials told the Athens government it’s time to prove it can be
trusted. Photo by Reuters
Weidmann, the Bundesbank chief,
said in Munich on Wednesday.
That comment was echoed by
Governing Council member Yannis
Stournaras, the head of the Greek
central bank, who spoke later the
same day in London.
“Grexit would deliver no benefit
but a lot of pain,” he said. “The new
Greek government has a unique opportunity to implement bold structural reforms, which would be backed
by a large majority of political forces
in the country. This is in my view a
historical opportunity which should
not be missed.” — Bloomberg
Google’s CFO search should have it feeling lucky
BY ROB ERT C Y RA N
IN BRIEF
world. It has expanded its lobbying budget to become the largest
in the tech industry. Trustbusters
are poking around, and Google’s
ambitions now extend to heavily
regulated sectors including telecom, healthcare, autonomous vehicles and payments.
Google’s mountain of cash
also keeps growing, and now exceeds US$60 billion. Managing
this hoard effectively, while minimising taxes, is a complex task. Investors may love the rapid growth,
but they also crave safe hands on
the till and a veteran manager of
risk. Facebook and Twitter also
have recruited bankers to be CFOs.
At a market value five times that
of Morgan Stanley, Google will present Porat with new complications.
Given Wall Street’s reputation in IT,
she may also have some technological catching up to do. And Porat will
be finding her way as an outsider
in a company tightly controlled by
its two founders. Not many come
armed with the skills necessary
for such a position, but there are
a growing number of them to fill.
The biggest lesson from this latest
hire is just how big a job-training
task Corporate America has ahead
of it. — Reuters
JAKARTA: Indonesia wants to play
a major role in a new Chinese-led
Asian infrastructure bank, with at
least the vice-president’s position
reserved for the Southeast Asian
country, the finance minister said.
The US$50 billion (RM183.50 billion) Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), expected to
start operations by the end of the
year, is attracting a growing list of
countries from Britain to India to
New Zealand. “We are fighting to
get a position in the AIIB ... because most likely we will be the
biggest client,” Finance Minister
Bambang Brodjonegoro said. —
Reuters
Singapore savings
bonds — new option for
retail investors
SINGAPORE: A new type of government bond will debut here as
part of a move to make low-cost
investment options more widely
available to retail investors, The
Straits Times reported. The Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) will
be launched by the government,
Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport Josephine
Teo announced at an investment
industry event yesterday. She said
the SSB will be safe investments
that are principal-guaranteed by
the government, which means the
initial outlay is protected.
26 WORLD
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
Co-pilot deliberately
crashed plane: prosecutor
He was alone at the controls while the pilot was outside banging on the door
BY MA RC B U RL EIGH
& D EL PHI NE TOUITOU
SEYNE (France): The young co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings
flight deliberately crashed the plane
into the French Alps after locking
his captain out of the cockpit, but is
not believed to be part of a terrorist
plot, French officials said yestersday.
The 28-year-old co-pilot “deliberately” initiated the plane’s descent,
Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin
told a press conference in which he
revealed the details of recordings
made by the Airbus’ cockpit flight
recorder in the final minutes before
the crash that killed all 150 aboard.
“The co-pilot is alone at the controls,” Robin said. “He voluntarily refused to open the door of the cockpit
to the pilot and voluntarily began the
descent of the plane.”
There was no immediate clue to
the motive of the co-pilot, but investigators appeared to rule out terrorism.
“At this moment, there is no indication that this is an act of terrorism,”
Robin said, adding that the co-pilot,
identified as Andreas Lubitz, had no
known terrorist connection. “He was
not known to us.”
Despite the horrifying scenario of a rogue co-pilot sending the
Germanwings crew and passengers
to their deaths, Robin said that the
passengers on board probably were
unaware “until the end”.
“The screams aren’t heard until
the end,” he said.
Robin said
the 28-yearold co-pilot
‘deliberately’
initiated
the plane’s
descent. Photo
by Reuters
All six crew and 144 passengers
died “instantly,” he added.
The co-pilot, who deliberately set
the controls “to accelerate the plane’s
descent” into the side of a mountain
in a region famous for its ski resorts,
“was conscious until the moment of
impact,” Robin said.
The shocking new information
was released as families and friends
of victims began arriving in France
to travel to the remote mountainous
crash site area, where locals have
opened their doors in a show of solidarity with the grieving relatives.
Two planes arrived in southern
France yesterday from Barcelona
and Duesseldorf with families and
friends. Tents were set up for them
near the crash site area to give DNA
samples to start the process of identifying the bodies of loved ones, at
least 51 of whom were Spaniards
and at least 72 Germans.
Meanwhile, the remains of vic-
Four rebel suspects killed, 22
arrested in Thai south clash
PATTANI: Four suspected insurgents were killed and 22 others arrested during a firefight with security forces in Thailand’s deep south,
police said yesterday, in the latest clashes to hit the restive region.
Thai military, police and rangers laid siege to To Kood village in
Pattani province on Wednesday evening after a tip-off about potential militants — who are fighting for greater autonomy for the
Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.
“There were about 30 suspected militants when we surrounded the
village but some managed to flee to nearby mountains,” local commander Mana Dechawarit told AFP. “The clash lasted for one hour.”
According to official police reports, the dead suspects were all
Muslim men aged between 23 and 32. Those arrested were also
all Muslim men, currently detained in a military camp, Mana said.
A patchwork of disparate, but seemingly well-organised rebel
groups are calling for a level of autonomy for the culturally distinct
south, bordering Malaysia, as well as an amnesty for their prisoners
and wanted fighters.
Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist nation, annexed the region
more than 100 years ago and stands accused of perpetrating severe
rights abuses as well as stifling the distinctive local culture through
clumsy — and often forced — assimilation schemes.
Conflict analysts Deep South Watch say more than 6,300 people — the majority civilians — have been killed in the bitter 11-year
insurgency mainly in the southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.
Mana said none of the 50 security force members involved in
the raid was injured in the clash, during which police seized three
AK-47s, one pistol, and one grenade. — AFP
tims, found scattered across the
scree-covered slopes, were being
taken by helicopter to nearby Seyneles-Alpes.
A mountain guide who got near
the crash site said he was unable to
make out recognisable body parts.
“It’s incredible. An Airbus is enormous. When you arrive and there’s
nothing there ... it’s very shocking,”
said the guide, who did not wish to
be identified.
The crash site, which is situated at about 1,500 metres altitude, is
accessible only by helicopter or an
arduous hike on foot.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew over the site to see
the devastation for themselves on
Wednesday. Spain’s Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy also visited a crisis
centre near the scene.
It was the deadliest air crash on
the French mainland since 1974
when a Turkish Airlines plane
crashed, killing 346 people.
Lufthansa said the aircraft was
carrying citizens of 18 countries.
Three Americans and three Britons
were confirmed among the victims.
Argentina, Australia, Belgium,
Colombia, Denmark, Holland, Israel, Japan, Mexico and Morocco also
had nationals on board, according
to officials.
Investigators say that once the
co-pilot locked himself in, he never
talked again. After he sent the plane
into its fatal last dive, ground control
repeatedly tried make contact and
the co-pilot did not answer.
“He had no reason not to talk to air
control,” Robin said, adding that they
could hear him “breathe normally.”
“He didn’t reply to a thing. He
didn’t say a word. In the cockpit, it
was utter silence.”
A source close to the enquiry said
an alarm indicating proximity to the
ground could be heard before the
moment of impact.
The dead on board flight 4U 9525
included two babies and 16 German
school exchange pupils. They were
flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
A second black box, which records flight data, has not yet been
recovered.
The New York Times cited a senior military official involved in the
investigation as saying the cockpit
black box recording indicated the
pilot tried unsuccessfully to bash
his way back into the cockpit. — AFP
S’pore mourns Lee
with unusual tributes
SINGAPORE: A Lee Kuan Yew bun
or figurine? The death of Singapore’s founding leader on Monday
has spawned unusual tributes and
business ideas, ranging from the
reverent to the ridiculous.
As tens of thousands of people
pay their respects to the 91-yearold former prime minister’s remains in Parliament ahead of his
funeral on Sunday, a mini-industry inspired by Lee’s death has
sprouted.
Singaporean food chain BreadTalk was forced to apologise after it
was slammed online for introducing a new bun it called a tribute to
Lee, promising that proceeds from
sales would be given to charity.
“We regret that this product has
caused much concern and appreciate the public’s feedback, which
we take very seriously,” the company said on its Facebook page as
it pulled the item off its shelves.
Even a prominent young member of Lee’s ruling People’s Action
Party (PAP) came under fire for
naming an exercise routine he invented the LKY91, after the late
leader’s initials and age.
One reader reminded the Member of Parliament, Teo Ser Luck, on
Facebook to be “sensible enough
to know it is the mourning week
for [the] whole nation”.
One tribute came in the form of
an online petition on the website
Change.org to rename Singapore’s
famed Changi Airport to Lee Kuan
Yew International Airport. At least
758 people had signed the petition
as of mid-afternoon yesterday.
A Singaporean artist, Christopher Pereira, who has been making Lee figurines since 2009, said
business was brisk following the
leader’s death. He had set up a stall
near parliament.
“Over the last few days, I have
been getting an overwhelming
number of orders, as people want
to buy them as a tribute to him,”
said Pereira.—AFP
IN BRIEF
Cambodia unveils
memorial at brutal
Khmer Rouge prison site
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia
unveiled a new memorial at a
notorious Khmer Rouge prison yesterday to remember the
thousands who were tortured
and murdered there during
the ruthless regime’s rule in
the late 1970s. The US$90,000
(RM330,525) tribute, reminiscent of a Buddhist stupa and
paid for by the German government, was unveiled in front
of survivors of the Tuol Sleng
prison in the capital Phnom
Penh.” I am satisfied and can
die peacefully after seeing
this,” Chum Mey, 85, one of
the few prisoners who came
out of the notorious camp alive
told AFP after the ceremony.
— AFP
14 dead in scaffolding
collapse at Vietnam
steel plant
HANOI: At least 14 workers were killed and dozens
more injured after scaffolding collapsed at a steel plant
in central Vietnam, officials
said, as rescue teams yesterday searched for bodies still
trapped in the wreckage. The
labourers were building concrete blocks as part of a seawall project when the accident
took place late on Wednesday
in the coastal province of Ha
Tinh, said Le Minh Dao, office manager of the provincial People’s Committee. “We
have pulled out 12 bodies.
Two other bodies will soon
be rescued from the rubble,”
Dao said. — AFP
Twitter chief vows to help
Indonesia fight disasters
JAKARTA: Twitter Inc chief Dick
Costolo said yesterday the microblogging site planned to work
with Indonesian authorities to
warn people about natural disasters that regularly hit the archipelago, from earthquakes to
volcanic eruptions. During a visit
to Jakarta, where Twitter opened
an office this month, Costolo
told reporters that he and Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla
had discussions about “government and Twitter working together in times of emergency to
make sure in events like flooding, that people can be alerted
right away”. He also hailed Indonesia as “one of our largest
growth opportunities”. — AFP
Taiwan protesters scuffle
with police over flight route
TAIPEI: Taiwanese protesters
scuffled with police yesterday
ahead of China’s launch of a
controversial flight route, which
they say has been allowed to go
ahead despite fears over security
risks. The route over the Taiwan
Strait is due to be inaugurated
on Sunday, despite a backlash
over security concerns. Around
40 protesters entered the lobby
of the headquarters of the Mainland Affairs Council — Taiwan’s
top China policymaking body
— in the capital Taipei to voice
their anger. — AFP
W O R L D 27
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Saudi launches strikes
on Huthi rebels
Ten-nation coalition acting to prevent fall of embattled Yemen president
BY FAWA Z A L- H A I DAR I
ADEN (Yemen): Saudi warplanes
bombed Huthi rebels in Yemen yesterday, launching a military intervention by a 10-nation coalition to
prevent the fall of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The rebels and their allies within the armed forces were closing in
on main southern city Aden where
Hadi has been holed up since fleeing
the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa
last month.
The advance raised fears in Saudi
Arabia that Shi’ite minority rebels
would seize control of the whole of its
Sunni-majority neighbour and take
it into the orbit of regional rival Iran.
The Saudi ambassador to the
United States said that the operation had begun with air strikes but
that the coalition stood ready to do
“whatever it takes” to protect Hadi’s
government.
Iran immediately condemned
regional rival Saudi Arabia yesterday
for launching air strikes on Huthi rebels in Yemen, saying it was “a dangerous step” that violated “interna-
NY arrests
subway sex
offender after
online campaign
NEW YORK: A 21-year-old
woman was asleep on the
New York subway when a man
thrust his hand up her skirt
and groped her in a shocking
sexual assault.
Fellow passengers at the time
did nothing — apart from the
one who filmed the assault,
footage of which wound up on
Internet porn sites.
Now, after two years and an
online campaign led by the victim, a suspect has finally been
arrested.
Elisa Lopez had initially slept
on, unaware of what was happening.
When she suddenly woke
up, she punched her attacker in
the face and ran off the train in
Midtown Manhattan. That was
Oct 20, 2012.
It was only when a friend
called to say there was a video
of her circulating online that
Lopez realised the extent of the
attack.
Unbeknown to her, a passenger had filmed the assault using
his cell phone and uploaded the
footage to the Internet, where
it appeared on YouTube, porn
sites and even the news.
“I was in disbelief,” Lopez
said last December. — AFP
People searching
for survivors under
the rubble of houses
destroyed by an air
strike near the Sanaa
Airport yesterday.
Photo by Reuters
tional responsibilities and national
sovereignty”.
Foreign ministry spokesman
Marzieh Afkham said the military
action would “further complicate
the situation, spread the crisis
and remove opportunities for a
peaceful resolution of Yemen’s
internal differences”.
“This aggression will have no result except to spread terrorism and
extremism, and increase insecurity
throughout the region,” she said in a
statement, calling for an immediate
halt to the air strikes.
Huge explosions were heard in
Sanaa as warplanes pounded the
airbase adjacent to the international
airport and other locations, an AFP
correspondent reported.
At least 13 civilians were killed
when seven homes near the airbase were hit, a civil defence source
said. — AFP
Yemen is teetering on the brink
of civil war as turmoil has grown
since Huthis launched a power grab
in February.
Islamabad has long-standing
close ties to Saudi Arabia, and foreign office spokesman Tasnim Aslam
said the kingdom had asked Pakistan
to join the coalition.
“I can confirm that we have been
contacted by Saudi Arabia in this
regard. The matter is being exam-
ined. That’s all I have to say at the
moment,” she said at a regular press
briefing.
The official Saudi Press Agency
said earlier that Pakistan — along
with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and
Sudan — had expressed desire to
participate in the operation.
Egypt and Jordan have confirmed
that they will join Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia in the coalition. — AFP
Mother jailed for circumcision of daughter
KATIOLA (Ivory Coast): A mother
who took her four-year-old daughter to be circumcised was sentenced
to one year in prison on Wednesday
in the north of Ivory Coast, where
such convictions are rare.
A relative who accompanied
her for the procedure on March
11 received the same jail term, as
well as a fine of 360,000 CFA francs
(RM2,210), in what prosecutors
said was a “warning” to those still
carrying out female genital mutilation on young girls.
Another mother, whose fiveyear-old daughter was also mutilated in the same village, was acquitted, while the person who carried
out the circumcisions has gone on
Kerry presses Iran in
Switzerland as nuclear
deadline looms
LAUSANNE: US Secretary of
State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart held downto-the-wire talks in Switzerland
yesterday, with US officials insisting contours of a historic
nuclear deal were in sight just
days before a deadline. “We
very much believe that we can
get this done by [March] 31,”
said a senior state department
official travelling on Kerry’s
plane to the Swiss lakeside city
of Lausanne. “We can see a
path forward here to get to an
agreement; we can see what
that path might look like,” the
official told reporters, cautioning, however, that this does not
mean they will get there. — AFP
Arabia halts flights at
seven airports near border
Pakistan ‘examining’ Riyadh
request over Yemen intervention
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is examining a request from Saudi Arabia to
join a coalition to defend Yemen’s
president against advancing rebels
threatening his stronghold in Aden,
Islamabad said yesterday.
The Gulf kingdom has begun air
strikes against Shi’ite Huthi rebels
and the Saudi ambassador in Washington said a coalition of 10 countries,
including Pakistan, was being formed
to protect the Yemeni government.
IN BRIEF
the run and is wanted by police.
The sentence is the lowest possible under Ivorian law.
“This is a warning,” said prosecutor Hamed Diomande.
Despite efforts by aid workers to
raise awareness, he said: “You (the
mothers) continue to circumcise
your children.”
“Next time, the punishment will
be heavier,” he continued.
Female genital mutilation is a
“tradition”, one of the defendants
said in court, saying they did not
know it was against the law and
promised to never do it again.
Nine women were sentenced
to jail terms in 2012 for the female
circumcision of around 30 young
girls in Katiola, in what the United
Nations said was the first criminal prosecution of its kind in Ivory Coast.
Female circumcision affects
around 38% of the female population in Ivory Coast, according to
the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef ).
The practice is particularly prevalent among northern Muslims and
animists in the west of the country where up to 80% of females are
circumcised despite a 1998 ban
and numerous initiatives aimed
at eradicating it.
Wednesday’s conviction is
“a positive sign”, said Louis Vigneault-Dubois, spokesman of the
Unicef in Ivory Coast. — AFP
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia halted
flights at seven airports near
the Yemeni border yesterday as
it launched air strikes against
Huthi rebels in its southern
neighbour, the civil aviation
department said. “The General Authority of Civil Aviation
of Saudi Arabia announced a
temporary suspension of international and domestic flights to
and from airports in the south
of the kingdom from dawn on
Thursday (yesterday),” the department said in a statement.
Flights have been halted at
Jazan, Abha, Wadi al-Dawasir, Bisha, Sharurah, Najran
and al-Baha until further notice. — AFP
Boko Haram conflict sees
spike in civilian deaths
LAGOS (Nigeria): More than
1,000 civilians have been killed
in Boko Haram attacks in the
first three months of this year,
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said yesterday. “Each week that
passes we learn of more brutal
Boko Haram abuses against civilians,” the group’s Nigeria researcher Mausi Segun said in an
emailed statement. “The Nigerian government needs to make
protecting civilians a priority
in military operations against
Boko Haram.” HRW estimates
that at least 3,750 civilians died
during Boko Haram attacks in
2014 and that the deaths in the
first quarter of this year were up
on the same period 12 months
ago. — AFP
23 suspects captured over
Tunis museum attack
TUNIS: Tunisia said yesterday
that it arrested 23 suspects in
connection with last week’s jihadist massacre at the country’s
national museum. “23 suspects
including a woman have been
arrested as part of a terrorist
cell involved in the attack,” Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli
told journalists, adding that
80% of the cell had been broken
up. All of those arrested were
Tunisians, he said, adding that
another Tunisian, two Moroccans and an Algerian suspected
of being members of the cell
were on the run. — AFP
28
live it!
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
FR I
WELLBEING . THE ARTS . WINE+DINE . STYLE+DESIGN . LEISURE
Personal
ASSISTANT
COMPI L ED BY HANNAH M ER ICAN
WORK. LIFE. BALANCE
Jod
SING along to some much-loved classics
this weekend at the Dewan Filharmonik
Petronas (DFP) with Malaysia’s King of
Pop Jamal Abdillah. Jamal will take the
audience on a musical journey from his
humble beginnings in Teluk Intan, Perak,
to his present stature as one of the most
prominent male singers in this region. Listen
to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra’s
(MPO) symphonic interpretations of some
of his biggest hits such as Kekasih Awal
Dan Akhir, Penghujung Rindu, Derita Cinta,
Samrah Mentari, Keluhan Perantau, Azura
and a medley of P Ramlee’s hits such
as Putus Sudah Kasih Sayang, Hujan Di
Tengahari and Tunggu Sekejap. The MPO
will be led by its resident conductor Ciaran
McAuley. Tomorrow and Sunday at 8.30pm
and 3pm respectively at the DFP, Petronas
Twin Towers, KLCC. Tickets are RM180,
RM280, RM380 and RM480, call (03) 2051
7007 or email dfp_boxoffice@petronas.com.
my to purchase.
JOIN guitarist, composer and educator
Az Samad this weekend for an intimate
round of performances with Alexis
Bistro’s Songwriters Playground, where
songwriters perform both some of their
best material and debut new songs they’re
working on. This time, Reza Salleh and
Anna Chong will take hot seat as they
take turns at the mike, led and supported
by Az. 10pm today and tomorrow at
Alexis Ampang, Great Eastern Mall, Jalan
Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Admission is free,
for reservations call (03) 4260 2288.
WATCH Looking for Richard this
Sunday at KLPac. The film, Al Pacino’s
directorial debut, is part documentary,
part performance and delves into the
historical context and truth of Richard III.
Also featuring interviews from acclaimed
actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Vanessa
Redgrave, Kevin Kline and Derek Jacobi,
Looking for Richard was first presented
at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival and is a
unique way at examining one of the Bard’s
greatest works. Starring Al Pacino, Kevin
Spacey and Winona Ryder, the film will be
screened at 3pm on Sunday at Indicine,
KLPac, Jalan Strachan, Kuala Lumpur.
Admission is free, call (03) 4047 900 or
visit www.klpac.org for more information.
The Rickshaw Run is a pan-Indian
adventure that boasts no set
routes and no back-ups.
FULL SPEED
ahead
An amazing adventure through India on a tuk-tuk
BY QUAH S U ANN
W
hat on earth could
possibly possess
someone to take
on a 2,500km journey across India in
a rickety old tuktuk? Well, apparently, stumbling across
a YouTube video while in between jobs
will do the trick.
When Inessa “Nessa” Fouquet, who’d
just quit her job in Singapore to move to Malaysia with her fiancé, Hafiz Faizal clicked
play on YouTube on one fateful day, she was
instantly enthralled with what she saw —
The Rickshaw Run, a thrice-yearly charity
race organised by United Kingdom-based
The Adventurists. They host a variety of
adventure races each year, with the goal of
raising funds for charities around the world.
The Rickshaw Run is just one of their
many popular races, done in an iconic “7
horsepower glorified lawnmower”. With
three routes taking place in January, April
and August; it’s a pan-Indian adventure
that boasts no set routes, no back-ups, the
promise of multiple breakdowns, getting
lost and hopelessly stuck … basically, intimidating things that only the brave or
wildly clueless attempt to tackle.
Teaming up with another friend who
was in between jobs, Nik Johann Annuar,
the trio named themselves Team Jenggols and started making plans to conquer
Team Jenggols (from left) Johann, Nessa and Hafiz.
India in a vehicle that isn’t remotely capable of moving any faster than 55kph
… downhill.
After managing to raise the required
£1,000 (RM5,468) for Cool Earth—a charity that pledges to save at-risk rainforests
and shield millions of acres of neighbouring forests by empowering local people
and giving them the resources they need
to keep their forests intact — Johann, Nessa and Hafiz flew to India with a pittance
in their pockets but their minds set on an
unforgettable adventure.
When they met their tuk-tuk; the auto-rickshaw that would be their trusted
companion for the next two weeks, they
cleverly christened it “Appu” — a name
that doesn’t get more Indian. With broken headlights and an engine that sim-
ply would not stop breaking down, Appu
ended up only being able to make headway during the day. After spending several hours on a darkened stretch of road
on the first day with only their iPhone
flashlights as a source of illumination
and fearing for their lives, the trio wisely
decided to stop trying to drive at night.
Soon, though, they started to really
embark on their epic journey and began
to appreciate the friendliness of the locals,
the beauty and simplicity of the terrain,
and the infinity of the vast landscape before their eyes that constantly changed as
they traversed muddied backwater paths.
From their starting point at Kochi in the
south to their finish line in Jaisalmer in
the north, the trio made all sorts of unlikely friends — from kids playing football
to fellow tuk-tuk drivers and mechanics
who did not speak English.
“It was difficult when Appu broke
down because we couldn’t explain the
problem to the mechanics. Tuk-tuk drivers are considered the bottom of the food
chain, so to speak, so none of them could
really speak English. So we had to improvise and Hafiz discovered that if he spoke
English in an Indian accent, they could
understand him better,” said Johann.
While enduring nights in dilapidated
motels and gruelling days travelling through
the countryside, they each got to reflect on
not just their lives, but the meaning of life
in general, and learn how to take one day
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live it! 29
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 20 15 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
WELLBEING . THE ARTS . WINE+DINE . STYLE+DESIGN . LEISURE
FILM
BY QUAH S U ANN
The Gunman
Jodhpur, looking over the majestic Mehrangarh Fort.
Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, the inspiration
for the Taj Mahal.
at a time, just like the Indians do.
“I used to get really worked up by everything.
Like in the beginning of the trip, I was always
trying to keep to a schedule and would freak out
when we fell behind. But after a while, I realised
that there was really no point in worrying about
things that I couldn’t control,” explained Nessa.
In fact, one of the most important things that
the three of them learned about themselves
during the trip was that they are actually capable of doing something so adventurous, so
difficult, but yet so rewarding.
“I never really thought that I would be able to
do something like this because I’ve travelled, but
I’ve done stupid travelling — shopping, monuments and stuff. This was like throwing yourself into the deep end, and trying to swim out
of it. But it’s the best way to travel,” Nessa said.
“This whole trip has made me more confident and taught me that you can do anything if
you want to — you just need to get off and get
it done yourself instead of relying on others,”
Hafiz declared.
Of the 90 teams that took part in this particular
rickshaw run, there was a significant percentage
of them who were on an Eat Pray Love-esque
soul-searching sort of trip. They were made up of
all sorts of people: disillusioned bankers, married
people going through a mid-life crisis, to some hippie types who’d declared that accomplishing these
sort of cross-country trips was their purpose in life.
Surprisingly, though, Team Jenggols was the
only team with Asians in the entire race. In fact,
Johann and Hafiz felt like they easily blended in
with the locals, and seldom encountered people
who looked at them weirdly — except for those who
noticed that they were travelling with a white girl.
After their gruelling two-week trip from Kochi
to Jaisalmer was completed, Johann, Hafiz and
Nessa spent a further two weeks just exploring India — visiting touristy sites this time. They’re not
done, though. As soon as they can, they are most
definitely heading back to India again. If one thing
is for sure, it is that all the trials and tribulations
that they faced on The Rickshaw Run have not
only changed them forever—it has made them
inexplicably in love with one of the most historical,
multicultural and intriguing countries on earth.
For information about The Adventurists and The
Rickshaw Run, visit www.theadventurists.com.
Director: Pierre Morel
Cast: Sean Penn, Jasmine Trinca,
Javier Bardem
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Length: 115 minutes
Opening: Now showing
Plot: Sean Penn as ex-special forces officer
and military contractor, Jim Terrier assassinates a minister in the Congo, only to find
himself being hunted down eight years later.
IT is a bit odd seeing Sean Penn in a Liam
Neeson a la Taken sort of role — bare chested for the most part and handling a gun like
it’s one of his limbs — so technically, fans
of Penn should be intrigued and excited to
see him in an action role. But with a weak
plot and script, The Gunman fails to deliver. Unless of course you’re an action junkie
with little interest in storylines.
This movie doesn’t do anything that hasn’t
already been done before in countless other
action films — from the damsel in distress to
a repentant assassin and the sheer number
of never-ending gunfight sequences.
That’s not to say that Penn has been miscast; after all, he sports a very respectably
ripped physique that the movie tries to play
up whenever it can. Is it because there isn’t
really much else to look forward to?
Even the talented Javier Bardem, who
usually brings as much heart and soul into
his movies as Penn does plays a character
that is woefully under-developed, pathetic and not just unlikable, but thoroughly
despicable.
The Gunman revolves around Jim, who’s
supposedly seen the error of his ways and
tries to make amends by returning to the
Congo as a humanitarian worker. That
doesn’t last, though. Not even an hour into
the movie and he goes on another killing
rampage, taking out whoever stands in
his way.
We catch glimpses of Jasmine Trinca’s
talent as an actress but you will be left disappointed that the director did not utilise
more of her acting skills, and instead has her
screaming like a helpless teenager 90% of
the time. Playing Annie, Jim’s love interest,
Trinca plays a female doctor on a mission to
Congo to save lives, only to find herself incomprehensibly in love with Jim — and that
pretty much sums up her entire character.
Viewers will walk away from the movie
wondering what the director, screenwriters
and producers were hoping we’d learn from
it. There certainly isn’t a moral of the story,
and neither is it an epic love story that turns
sappy, romantic hearts to mush.
What it is, is basically, Sean Penn telling
the world what resides under his T-shirt —
what we never got to see in his best films, I
Am Sam, Milk and Mystic River.
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30
live it!
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
WELLBEING . THE ARTS . WINE+DINE . STYLE+DESIGN . LEISURE
Zen TODAY
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement,
achievement, and success have no meaning. — Benjamin Franklin
ICONIC
MUSEUMS
adapt to mass tourism
M
ass tourism, spurred by
cheap flights and richer emerging economies,
is forcing the world’s
top museums to rethink
their welcome, notably
by boosting access, embracing apps and
improving ancillary services such as eateries and gift shops.
The overhaul is dictated by the sheer numbers of visitors crowding galleries to catch a
glimpse of the Mona Lisa, a Van Gogh canvas
or a Michelangelo statue. Nearly 10 million
people a year pass through the Louvre, seven million visit the British Museum, and six
million go to the Met in New York.
“The Louvre was conceived for five million people. For the past three years straight
we’ve had more than nine million,” noted the
president of the vast Paris museum, JeanLuc Martinez. He has launched a Pyramid
Project for the Louvre that aims by mid-2016
to improve entry through redesigned ticket
offices, lines and cloakrooms. “If the visitors
aren’t taken care of, how can you expect
their experience seeing the works of art to
pass off well?” Martinez asked.
Coping with the crowds is also a concern
for Glenn Lowry, director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA. A decade
after an extension that saw MoMA double its
capacity to three million visitors a year, the
museum wants to grow again by tearing down
an adjacent building. The famous Palace of
Versailles outside Paris is expanding, too. It
will soon open a 2,700-sq m space to take
in some of the 10 million people who come
each year to tour the chateau and its park.
Some museums, aware of their status as
prime tourism destinations, are also opting
to increase the quality of their restaurants,
such as the Guggenheim in Spain, and to
develop designer gift shops, mimicking MoMA’s envied retail outlet.
Another option to improve access is extending the opening hours. Since 2013, visitors can go to MoMA and the Met in New
York every day of the week. The French government is asking the Louvre, Versailles and
the Musee d’Orsay to follow suit. But for the
head of the Louvre, “the problem isn’t about
doing more, but doing better”.
The Musee d’Orsay’s president, Guy Cogeval, agreed that finding a way to manage 3.5
million visitors annually was a priority. “Traffic
management is one of my big concerns. We
are trying to better spread the visitors around”
the various sections of the Paris museum.
With globalisation, there are not only more
and more people trying to squeeze through
the doors of the world’s museums, but they
hail from many more cultures and countries
than in the past. Museums are finding that
they no longer cater to a public well-versed in
the history and artistic movements on show,
but to visitors needing more context and information to process what they are seeing.
“We are still far from learning the lessons
from this diversification,” said Alain Seban,
who has run the Pompidou Centre in Paris
for the past eight years. Foreigners make
up 70% of the Louvre’s visitors and 80%
The Louvre’s Pyramid Project aims
to improve access to its premises
with redesigned ticket offices and
cloakrooms. Photo by AFP
of Versaille’s, with Chinese in particular a
growing contingent.
“This imposes another way to receive
them and to try to understand what they
have come to see,” said the president of the
Palace of Versailles, Catherine Pegard.
Susan Foister, spokesman for the National Gallery in London, concurred. “We think
a lot more these days about who makes up
our audience and what they need from their
encounters at the National Gallery,” she said.
Often in groups or families, tourists from
afar tend to take in a museum by making
bee-lines for its most famous artworks: the
Mona Lisa painting and the Venus de Milo
statue at the Louvre, for instance.
Polling shows that many visit just one
landmark museum per year, and that their
average age has dropped significantly. At the
Musee d’Orsay 30% of the visitors are under
26, and at the Louvre half are younger than 30.
That makes for some unusual success. The
Musee d’Orsay, for instance, was surprised
to see “a lot of young people” turn up to an
exhibition of works by a little-known French
painter named Jean-Leon Gerome, whose
paintings recalled the heroic dioramas used
in video games.
So how can the museums adapt to the
changing face of their visitors?
“You have to start from the idea that these
people know nothing,” said Martinez from the
Louvre. References that might seem obvious
need explaining, with multiple translations.
French museums are applying lessons learnt
from starting up outposts in different parts
of the country, or abroad.
Several museums are ramping up their
digital offerings to support their collections,
giving visitors the opportunity to load information into their smartphones or tablets
before walking the halls. At the Pompidou
Centre, where two out of three visitors brandish a smartphone, an application will soon
be launched that offers the user a tailored
walk-through, based on interests revealed
through a quiz.
Seban said the future would probably see
visits increasingly personalised, with museums borrowing tactics and technology from
the big retailers. The Internet is also sustaining
a virtual model of the museums that is just as
popular as the real thing. The Met’s website
last year received more than 26 million visits,
while the National Gallery had six million.
“It’s paradoxical to present the amount
of visitors as a problem,” said Martinez. “A
museum’s mission, after all, is to allow the
widest public possible the chance to see its
collections.” — AFP
S P O RT S 3 1
F R I DAY MA RC H 27, 2015 • T HEED G E FINA NCIA L DA ILY
Australia thrash India to
set up World Cup final
Clash against New Zealand will take place at MCG on Sunday
BY KU L D I P L A L
SYDNEY: Australia put themselves
in line for a fifth World Cup title
with an emphatic 95-run semi-final
victory over defending champions
India in Sydney yesterday.
Steve Smith hammered 105 off
93 balls and Aaron Finch returned
to form with 81 as the hosts piled
up 328 for seven after electing to
bat on a good pitch at the Sydney
Cricket Ground (SCG).
India were bowled out for 233
in reply despite an opening stand
of 76 between openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan — and a
typically defiant run-a-ball 65 from
captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
James Faulkner finished with
three for 59, while left-arm fast bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell
Starc claimed two wickets each.
Australia will take on tournament co-hosts New Zealand in
the final at the Melbourne Cricket
Ground on Sunday.
The four-time champions, who
last won the title in 2007, have now
won all seven World Cup semi-finals they have contested since the
inaugural edition in 1975.
India will rue a missed opportunity after an impressive campaign
earlier in the tournament when they
won all seven matches, piling up
300 or more runs each time they
batted first and bowled out their
rivals in every game.
But they failed to dismiss Australia as in-form seamer Mohammad Shami went for 68 runs in 10
wicket-less overs and Umesh Yadav
conceded 72 runs in nine overs for
his four wickets.
A sell-out crowd of some 42,000
at the SCG was treated to good
cricket on a grassless, even-paced
wicket that enabled batsmen to
play shots freely.
Smith and Finch shared a second-wicket stand of 182 before India hit back with quick wickets as
the hosts stumbled from 191 for
one in the 35th over to 248 for five
in the 43rd. — AFP
Alonso raring to go after clearing crash confusion
Alonso says he never lost
consciousness or suffered
memory lapses as a result of
the accident. Photo by Reuters
BY JOHN O’ B RI EN
SEPANG: Fernando Alonso sought
to clarify the situation surrounding
the pre-season crash that forced
him to miss the season-opening
race in Australia — the Spaniard
said he never lost consciousness or
suffered memory lapses as a result
of the accident.
Alonso moved from Ferrari to
McLaren at the end of last season
but confusion surrounding a winter testing crash in Barcelona last
month left him facing 30 minutes
of questions about the accident
on his return to the Formula One
paddock ahead of this weekend’s
Malaysian Grand Prix.
“Everything was like a normal
concussion,” Alonso told reporters
yesterday, hours after passing tests
at the Sepang International Circuit
that gave him the green light to
mark his return to the team with
whom he raced for one campaign
in 2007.
“I went to hospital in good con-
Nehwal not losing sleep over
No 1 ranking
NEW DELHI: Badminton star Saina Nehwal has shrugged off mounting
pressure — over whether she will become the first Indian woman ever
to clinch the World No 1 ranking — at the Indian Open in New Delhi.
Nehwal, currently No 2 after reaching the prestigious All England
Championship final this month, is expected to snatch the No 1 spot
if she wins the tournament in front of a home crowd.
But 25-year-old Nehwal, who already has a string of firsts to her
name, insisted that numbers do not count for much.
“Whether my ranking is one, two or 10, it doesn’t matter. For me,
what matters is that I should stay fit and whoever I play against —
I give my 100%,” she told AFP after cruising past a qualifier in the
opening round on Wednesday.
Nehwal said she was still feeling some pain from a slight shoulder
injury suffered during the All England Championship where she lost
to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the final.
Being the first Indian woman to win a Super Series title as well
as the first to win an Olympic medal at badminton, Nehwal might
again meet Marin, seeded second in the US$275,000 (RM1 million)
Super Series event.
“I am recovering from the injury. Of course, a bit of pain is there
but every sportsperson has to face some fitness problems or others,” Nehwal said.
“For the last six to seven months, I have been playing really well.
Actually, I did not expect to play so well,” she said. — AFP
dition and there was a time — about
four hours — that I don’t remember,
but that was completely normal due
to the medication they gave me to
go into the helicopter.
“I didn’t wake up in 1995 ... I
didn’t wake up speaking in Italian
or any of the states that were reported. I remember the accident and
all things from the following days.”
The cause of the crash remains
something of a mystery to both
the driver and his team, but the
double world champion was certain the blame could be laid upon
a steering issue.
“There is nothing clear in the
data that we can spot and say ‘it
was that’, but we definitely had a
steering problem in the middle of
turn three,” he added. — Reuters
Fit-again Bottas makes cockpit
changes for Malaysia
BY J O HN O ’BRI E N
SEPANG: Valtteri Bottas is confident that his back has fully healed
— and he will be fit for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix this
weekend — after he missed the
season-opening race in Australia
despite qualifying as the sixth fastest in his Williams.
Claiming that the pain felt “like
a knife stabbing in his back” on
the eve of the race, Bottas heeded
the advice of the sport’s governing
body not to compete in Melbourne
but was passed fit yesterday for the
second round in Sepang.
“At the end of last week, I could
do something without any pain
and during the weekend I could
do some training, swimming and
cross-training without any pain,”
he told reporters.
“We’ve been doing everything
we can in this short space of time
but luckily there were two weeks
[of gap] and I really feel confident
about getting back in the car.
“It has healed really well and it’s
going to keep getting better and
better all the time.”
Bottas added that he was working with Williams mechanics to
adjust his seat and pedal positions in the cockpit to lessen the
impact on his back as it continues to heal.
“The back is in a more neutral
position in the car, so there is less
pressure for the discs. Now, I think
we have got it right,” he said.
“It’s quite a big amount of
changes to make sure everything
is in a neutral position with the
back, so when the compression
comes, it goes to all the discs
with similar pressures,” he said.
— Reuters
IN BRIEF
Hamilton laughs off
Horner’s call for level
playing field
SEPANG: World champion
Lewis Hamilton admitted he
was amused by Red Bull boss
Christian Horner’s call for Formula One to forcibly reduce his
Mercedes team’s advantage. “I
find it quite funny,” the Briton
told reporters in Sepang yesterday ahead of the Malaysian
Grand Prix. “It’s only been one
race, so to already have comments after the first race is what
I find funny.” Hamilton noted
that Horner made few complaints when Red Bull claimed
four constructors’ titles in a row
from 2010 — with Sebastian
Vettel winning the world title of
each season. He said Mercedes
never voiced any displeasure
during that period. “It’s an interesting opinion coming from
individuals who have had so
much success,” Hamilton added. — Reuters
Williams appoints German
Sutil as reserve driver
SEPANG: Williams have appointed experienced German
racer Adrian Sutil as a reserve
driver for the season, the Formula One team said yesterday.
“I’m delighted to have Adrian joining our stable of drivers for the 2015 season,” team
principal Frank Williams said
of the veteran of 128 Grands
Prix. “Having most recently
raced during the 2014 season
also gives him excellent knowledge of the current generation
of race cars and new Hybrid
power units, which is invaluable for anyone needing to
step into the cockpit in 2015,”
he said. — Reuters
‘Gloves are off’ between
Renault and Red Bull
LONDON: Renault Formula
One managing director Cyril
Abiteboul posted a picture of a
pair of boxing gloves on Twitter as he packed for Sunday’s
“round two” of the Formula One
season in Malaysia — and he
may need them. The French
manufacturer and former world
champion Red Bull has been
increasingly an uneasy partner
since the introduction last year
of V6 turbo hybrid power units.
Mercedes, dominant last year,
romped to another one-two in
the Australian opener on March
15 and Red Bull’s patience is
running low. — Reuters
Japanese baseball club
ordered to pay fan
TOKYO: A judge yesterday ordered a professional Japanese
baseball club to pay a woman
US$350,000 (RM1.28 million)
in damages after she was hit in
the face and partially blinded
by a foul ball. The woman, in
her 30s, filed a lawsuit against
the Nippon Ham Fighters and
Sapporo city where the team
is based after she lost sight in
her right eye, caused when the
stray ball struck her during a
game in August 2010. The ball
shattered her cheekbone and
ruptured the eyeball. — AFP
3 2 S P O RT S
FR I DAY M ARC H 27, 2 0 1 5 • TH EEDGE F I N AN C I AL DAI LY
High expectations as
Kane debuts for England
With 29 goals for Spurs this season, he is the Premier League’s hottest property
BY TOM WI L L I A MS
LONDON: Harry Kane is expected
to make his England debut in today’s 2016 European Championship
qualifier at home to Lithuania and
already finds himself cast as English
football’s potential saviour.
With 29 goals for Tottenham Hotspur this season, the 21-year-old has
become the Premier League’s hottest
property and his England debut is
being billed as the most keenly anticipated since Wayne Rooney’s 12
years ago.
A graduate of Tottenham’s academy, who was born 8km from White
Hart Lane, Kane was loaned out to
four different lower-league clubs
before making his explosive breakthrough this season.
Amid a steady decline in the number of English players in the Premier
League, Football Association chairman Greg Dyke cited Kane’s example this week as he warned about
the dangers of denying promising
young players opportunities.
“The question that needs to be
Premier League
clubs back in
black
BY TOM WI L L I AM S
LONDON: English Premier
League clubs posted a pre-tax
profit last season for the first
time in 15 years, according to a
report released by business advisory firm Deloitte yesterday.
The 20 teams in the English
top flight in 2013/14 generated
a combined profit of £190 million (RM1.04 billion) — the first
profit since 1999 and almost four
times greater than the previous record of £49 million set in
1997/98. Clubs had accumulated £2.6 billion in pre-tax losses
over the last decade, but a new
television rights package worth
around £5.5 billion that took effect in 2013 helped them balance
the books.
“Last season was the first in
the Premier League’s current
three-year broadcast deal,” said
Dan Jones from Deloitte’s Sports
Business Group. “Combined
with strong commercial growth
at the highest revenue-generating clubs, this has boosted Premier League revenue 29% to a
record £3.3 billion.”
Despite the huge rise in revenue, clubs have exercised a deal
of restraint in their spending on
player wages, which grew by 6%
to £1.9 billion. — AFP
Kane (right) training with the England team at St George’s Park, Burton-upon-Trent on
Tuesday. Kane could be asked to lead the line alongside captain Rooney. Photo by Reuters
asked is how many other Harry Kanes
are there in the academies of English
football who cannot get a first-team
game?” asked Dyke, who is making
it harder for foreign players to get
work permits.
An unassuming, happy-go-lucky
character, Kane has repeatedly confounded expectations this season,
netting doubles against Chelsea and
Arsenal, as well as a first top-flight
hat-trick against Leicester City last
weekend.
England manager Roy Hodgson
has warned supporters not to expect
too much, too soon.
“I do really hope people in general will have a more reasonable ap-
proach and say, ‘Let’s give this guy a
chance,’” said Hodgson, whose side
also face Italy in a friendly in Turin
next Tuesday.
“He is going to have some good
and bad games, and hopefully he
will have 10 or 12 years in the Premier League and England matches
in front of him. Let’s not build him
up to the best thing we have ever had
or a flop on the basis of a month or
two or a couple of games or so.’ But
I am delighted for him. If he gets
his chance to play in these games, I
am sure he won’t let anyone down.”
With Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge
sidelined by a hip injury, Kane could
be asked to lead the line alongside
captain Rooney as England look to
preserve their 100% record in Group E.
Michael Carrick, meanwhile, is in
line to take over from the injured
Jack Wilshere at the base of England’s
midfield diamond. Sturridge’s clubmate Raheem Sterling should also
start, although British media reports
suggest he will be released from the
squad after the game as he continues
to nurse a toe injury. — AFP
Besiktas consider swoop for Cech
ISTANBUL: Turkish top flight side
Besiktas are stepping up their efforts
to sign unsettled Chelsea goalkeeper
Petr Cech, with a move even possible
before the end of the season, a report
said yesterday.
The 32-year-old Czech Republic ‘keeper indicated in Prague this
week he was tired of sitting on the
bench for the Blues after losing the
first choice spot to Belgian international Thibaut Courtois.
The Fanatik sports daily said
that after his comments Beskitas
had “accelerated talks” about the
player, who has long been a target
for the Istanbul club.
Rapidly acquiring a new goalkeeper has become a matter of urgent
priority for Besiktas as they head
into the finale of Super Lig season as
strong contenders for the title along
with Istanbul rivals Galatasaray and
Fenerbahce.
First choice goalkeeper Tolga Zengin is out for up to nine weeks after
rupturing a tendon last weekend and
had also been heavily criticised for a
woeful display in last week’s Europa
League defeat to Club Brugge.
“It would be wrong for me to say
which player we are having talks
about,” club chairman Fikret Orman
was quoted as saying by Fanatik.
“We are making efforts for the end
of the season,” he added.
Cech has many other admirers
including Premier League duo Arsenal and Liverpool as well as Serie A
high-fliers AS Roma and defending
French champions Paris Saint-Germain.
“I have to do something about
my situation because I want to play,
not sit on the bench,” Cech, who is
under contract until the summer of
2016, said ahead of tomorrow’s Euro
2016 qualifier against Latvia. — AFP
Germany’s World Cup hangover concerns Loew
BY RYLAND JAMES
KAISERSLAUTERN (Germany): Eight
months after the champagne corks
popped following their World Cup
triumph in Rio de Janeiro, head coach
Joachim Loew has cause for concern
as Germany’s Brazil 2014 hangover
continues.
Only Lukas Podolski’s 81st-minute
equaliser prevented Germany suffering a shock defeat to Asian champions Australia in Kaiserslautern on
Wednesday in a 2-2 friendly draw.
Next comes this Sunday’s
Euro 2016 qualifier away to second-from-bottom Georgia with
Germany in the unusual position
of joint second in Group D, three
points behind leaders Poland and
level on seven with Scotland and
Ireland.
But what would normally be anticipated in Germany as a routine win,
now looks like a challenging away tie.
“We need to increase the tension
and tackle the game there with more
concentration,” insisted Loew. “I
am always prepared to take risks in
friendly games, but we can no longer
do that now in qualifiers.”
Loew knows Germany can ill afford to drop more Euro 2016 qualifying points. After more than eight
years in charge of the national side,
this is the first time Germany are not
dominating their qualification group
for a major tournament under Loew.
A precarious 2-1 win over Scotland last September was followed
by October’s 2-0 defeat to Poland
in Warsaw and a draw at home to
Ireland. The world champions then
laboured when minnows Gibraltar were seen off 4-0 in Nuremberg
in November, which the visitors’
coach Allen Bula, who was recently
sacked, hailed as “great result” for
the part-timers, who had previously
been thrashed 7-0 by both Ireland
and Poland.
After Germany finishing 2014 with
a 1-0 friendly win over a depleted
Spain on a rain-drenched night in
Vigo, Loew promised changes and
significant improvements in 2015.
— AFP
IN BRIEF
Moldovan club
suspend players for
alleged match-fixing
TIRASPOL (Moldova): Moldovan
top division club Dinamo-Auto have indefinitely suspended
two players over allegations of
match-fixing, the Tiraspol-based
side said. “For the management
of Dinamo-Auto, it’s always been
and will be important to observe
the principles of fair play,” the
club, founded in 2009, said in
a statement. “We condemn all
attacks on the integrity of the
game and we urge all, who care
about football, to protect it from
various negative influences and
manipulation.” The Moldovan
National Anti-Corruption Agency
last week questioned 12 players
and officials following the league
match between leaders Dacia
Chisinau and Dinamo-Auto Tiraspol. Dacia won 6-2. — Reuters
Falcao hints at need to move
on from Manchester United
BOGOTA: Manchester United’s
on-loan striker Radamel Falcao
hinted on Tuesday he could leave
the club at the end of the season
in search of more regular football,
but said he was still committed to
the English side. Colombia forward Falcao missed last year’s
World Cup through injury then
moved on loan from Monaco to
United where he has seen limited
first-team action. “I think any footballer needs to play and is happy
playing. I’m totally committed to
the club, there are eight matches
to go (in the Premier League) and
anything can happen,” Falcao told
Colombia’s Radio Caracol. “So
when the championship ends
surely I’ll sit down, do an analysis
and decide what’s best for me,”
added the 29-year-old. — Reuters
Khedira confirms
Real Madrid exit
KAISERSLAUTERN (Germany):
Germany midfielder Sami Khedira said he will leave Real Madrid when his contract expires at
the end of the season. “There is
nothing more to say than what I
told the sports magazine (Kicker), when there’s anything more,
I’ll say it,” the 27-year-old said
after captaining Germany to a
2-2 friendly draw with Australia
in Kaiserslautern. Having joined
Real in 2010 from Stuttgart, Khedira has been linked to Bundesliga side Schalke 04. “This is not a
decision against Real, I just want
to spice up my career and evolve,”
Khedira said. — AFP
Adidas to shift some
production from Asia
HERZOGENAURACH (Germany): Adidas announced plans to
revolutionise the way it manufactures goods to speed up
production and allow shoppers to customise more shoes
and clothes, to help it accelerate sales and profit growth
over the next five years. The German sportswear firm, which has
been losing ground for years
to fast-growing rival Nike, said
it was testing automated production units that would allow
it to shift manufacturing from
Asia. — Reuters