Sunday, July 25, 2021

MalaysiaNow - MT doing old school reformasi era psywar



The number of Covid-19 patients were rising, but more pressing was not enough doctors and nurses to attend to them. Unlike certain hospitals in the Covid stricken areas in Selangor today, there were sufficient number of ventilators but its use was increasing then

The Hungarian government made a decisive move in 2020 to strategically stock up on ventilators for fear of the tragic situation in Italy.  

It was a pandemonium with Western countries rushing for facemasks, gloves, PCR test kits and ventilators. 

It came to the point American, German and agents from various countries were outside factories in China with upfront cash to pay and bribe supervisors to hijack orders. Not withstanding, the layers of go-betweens in sourcing for pandemic related medical products. 

Securing the product was not the only challenge. Exporting it to the destination was another. Ports and airports in Hong Kong and Shenzhen had queue of exporters, which took two days to get clearance to board goods.

Friday, July 23, 2021

Hotel Istana: Syed Mokhtar-Fakhri Yassin cooking somethin'?


Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary plan to take MMC private. He did so on Tradewind Corporation in 2013 and delisting completed in 2017

With shares extremely low and no premium in valuation, it is only natural to do so. It is no big a news. There is not much of a buzz too on the announcement to close the operations of 30-year old iconic Hotel Istana too. 

It is only expected for Hotel Istana whose been competitively on the decline. With hotels across the country closing up, one can only expect so from a highly leveraged owner. The 5-star hotel is a now quarantine centre, thus one can expect it is bleeding money. 

Seemingly it is no news, but it is rather curious that unlike other hotel closure, which tend to be immediate, Hotel Istana announce on July 1st to close three months later for September 1st. 

Is it buying time to do something?

Friday, July 16, 2021

Learn from Air Asia mess before carving out Subang

Today, it is for all to witness how allowing Air Asia to roam free has cannibalised Malaysia Airlines, reduced Malaysia's prominance in the world airline industry from once 3rd rated in the world, and reduced the local airline industry into a low yield destination. 

For a good many years, Air Asia temporarily took prominance in Asia with listing at almost all bourses of its Asian major destinations. However, Covid 19 pandemic proves that the competition is good mantra expounded by Air Asia is structural deficient as the crumble under financial pressure to reduce itself to pursue food delivery business. 

The same will happen should government decide to emulate the same mantra for the airport business to turn into an unmanageable industry which will be counter productive to the development achieved for the overall Malaysian aviation indutstry.  

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Altimet-ly, no Malaysians should go hungry


During the Ottoman Empire, there was a Turkish tradition called hanging bread.  

It is similar to the Food Bank that sprouted in Malaysia recently at houses of worships, grocery stores, community centres, petrol stations, and in front of closed non-essential good shops.

The above Turkish video with Indonesian translation depicted the tradition. According to a Turkish newsportal AA, it was reported in 2014 that:

As ongoing austerity policies hit European citizens – leading to an explosion of so-called ‘food banks’ to support low-income families – a local authority in a crowded area of Istanbul is encouraging high or middle-income residents to pay for extra bread for their less-well-off neighbors, without the beneficiaries knowing who donated.  
 
Taking its name from the hooks on which they were commonly stored, ‘hanging bread’ was revived in Istanbul's busy Bagcilar district last year during Ramadan.

Thursday, July 08, 2021

... no idea ... blame you ... put them in Parliament


Agency: "Sir, we found three candidates as per your requirements, now how do you want their placements sir?" 

Managing Director: "Put about 100 bricks in a closed room. Then send the candidates into the room & close the door, leave them alone & come back after a few hours and analyse the situation:

Monday, July 05, 2021

Businessman trickery, Auditor no angel


On our birthday, we confessed gotten an early scoop on the problems faced by Serba Dinamik and reports made by KPMG to police and SC.

The scoop was earlier than KPMG finding. We were alerted of the rise in turnover coincide with corresponding rise in receivables. Sources claimed the books are cooked.

For reasons not to be declared, we held back from writing about it. There were other urgent issues. More so, there were insufficient info or anything closely resembling evidence.

However, the manner groups believed to be aligned to KPMG was villifying Serba raises suspicion. 

Its our second nature to sense propaganda is at work. Something sinister seemed to be happening. By right, work done by KPMG should be good enough to stand on its own. 

Why the hype?

Taken from the blog nuclearmanbursa, a 50 something whose been around in the market:

On Friday last week,  Serba Dinamik got its wish  for an independent party to either condemn them or free them from the negativity that arose because KPMG could not form an opinion . 

Trading today will be interesting but only on Tuesday, the 1.75 billion shares  traded last  last week  will meet the hold, fold or foresold fate 

Reddit banter points to a new shareholder. Similar stories are bound to appear elsewhere ahead of Tuesday. 


Nothing much said though on what looks like a deliberate attempt online and in Telegam to paint a picture of guilt on Serba Dinamik.  READ ; 



Who would go to such lengths and why must we all be convinced that Serba Dinamik's guilt is cast on stone 

Pronounce Serba Dinamik INNOCENT, and EY,  the only BIG FOUR 1MDB  auditor who walked away with their integrity  and honesty elevated, will have knives pointed at their integrity by lesser men.

Add  the strange selling strategy employed by the EPF and a Sarawak  based media's demand to know if the fabled PAK PANDIR IS FOR REAL

Have we forgotten how attempts were made on Air Asia, seemingly on governance issues over the past 6 years, which could have resulted in Tony Fernandes, having to sell against his will and on the  cheap the company he built from nothing.  The personalities in Serba Dinamik are mere dwarf's compared to Tony in terms of profile, wealth, and global networking, but even he had to take The WALK OF SHAME

READ ;





TUESDAY,  shall have her share of diamonds in the rough intrigue, and nothing more than that because they have always known as you  now know ; the story of  Serba Dinamik  has yet to be told.

KPMG


KPMG has the SC, watchdogs, other authorities and professional NGOs on their side, why the need to pounce on Serba further.

From being perceived as crook, now Serba is increasingly looking like victims. This whacking a housefly with a sledgehammer. Nothing more thrilling than rooting for underdogs. 

More so, under the PN government, PLC owners are heard facing political harassment, in whch enforcement agencies are abused at the instruction by one bald headed Datok, to illicit support for PPBM.

Institutional investors are suspiciously instructed to sell down their shareholding and press the share prices down. Media threatened by government officers to have ads pulled out as to not give coverage to events such as Bellamy Moves. 

Through our job and business experience, Auditors are naturally and unnecessarily petty and pain in the assess. However, their attitude are different for those money churning big corporation clients. 

Auditors double dipping as "salesman" for their other "services" is an open secret. In a subtle way, the auditee is assured. Take care of us and we take care of you. 

KPMG was embroiled in the 1MDB debacle. They qualified their accounds, but retracted under political pressure and media campaign following the fall of the BN government.

Should KPMG be wrong, then like Deloitte, they should also be heavily fined for US$80 million.

Lets not forget Arthur Anderson in the Enron scandal. Local fixation with The Big Four can be puzzling. They are not without their sins. (Note KPMG cheating scandal in 2019 here). 


Anyway, lets wait for Ernst and Young to review KPMG and Serba Dinamik. An Auditor Watcher claimed that unlike KPMG, EY came out of 1MDB with reputation intact. 

Serba Dinamik could be guilty as charged. But, frankly we would love to see an auditor like KPMG be disciplined. They can seldom be too good for themselves.

Saturday, July 03, 2021

Raising the black and white flags


Its irrelevent whether this campaign is initiated by PKR or whoever, Tan Sri Mahiaddin has to go.

Makes no different who the replacement is, the first order of business is to change him before situation get from worse to worst.

Be it Hishamuddin or Anwar Ibrahim or Zahid Hamidi or Shafie Apdal or remote possibilities of Najib or Tengku Razaleigh, the choice of replacement should not be allowed to divert attention from the more important task.

There are numerous viable options available so those delving into it is using it as excuse to support the incompetent leadership, devious politics, and forever giving excuses behaviour of Mahiaddin.

Thursday, July 01, 2021

MAHB not found fairway on Subang Airport issue


Hope the title hit the right note for the golfing members of the Board of Directors of MAHB. 

Tengku Zafrul's denial is not convincing. On his second or third shot, he may succumb to sell or give long term lease of the Subang Airport land to Desmond Lim's WCT. 

MAHB could see the green from where it is now but obstacles ahead are denying a clear path.  Need to get the ball on the fairway first. 

Safeguard its cash position and prioritise to get the Subang Regeneration Plan off. No point spending money on critical upgrade for KLIA but lose Subang.

If WCT plan go through and the point-to-point airport becomes a reality, it means tens of billion ringgit of potential loss in revenue and the billion capex spending could be utilised for other strategic purpose.

Not to mentioned, the cannibalisation is not limited to MAHB, but MAS and other airlines too. There are pea brains up there cannot see beyond and gullible to simplistic commercial narratives.

My Say