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Cukup (or Things You Would NEVER see In tomorrow's Papers)

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I think its enough. Is the nation at tipping point? I am sorry, sudah tipped over dee ... No more questions as to whether Pakatan can form new government. We just have to make sure the ballots are as clean as humanly possible with our eyes. 

When I say you won't see it papers tomorrow, I forgot to exclude Chinese and Indian papers, apologies. Cukup for now .... show our decision during election time. HOW MANY 50 YEARS DO YOU HAVE TO SPARE?














Revived 2V1G Beautiful Cafe Tour

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Only one playing date per city, already Penang and KL are pretty full. Exceptional guitar work by Malaysia's finest Roger Wang, complemented by dazzling vocals from Winnie Ho and a new surprising member of the trio.  2v = 2 vocals, 1G = 1 guitarist. They have two exceptional albums out already if you haven't heard. There will be a high quality vinyl double album pressing, done in Japan, and will be available to vinyl lovers in a few months. Miss this concert if you dare. 

KL :  16th January WEDNESDAY, NO BLACK TIE

IPOH : 18th January, FRIDAY, THE ARTISTE CAFE, DE GARDEN

PENANG : 19th January, SATURDAY, CHINA HOUSE

All shows start at 9pm with cover charge at RM50pp.









IPOs & Malaysia - A Sobering Analysis

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There is the good news and the bad news. Malaysia made the headlines in 2012 by beating Hong Kong market for IPOs listing. Malaysia was 12th in 2011 and 5th in 2012. That is over taking UK and matching HK. Still, we are nowhere near what we can call a financial hub, be it regional or not.



The IPOs volatility in Malaysia was just 7.3%, a very low figure compared to other top ten IPO markets - what that means is that IPOs will generally perform adequately without zig-zagging too much or going below IPO price levels.


The queue for Malaysia listings this year includes Malakoff Corp.'s planned $1 billion IPO, which the company's chief executive said may happen in the second quarter, and the planned $1 billion IPO of Malaysia's busiest port, Westports Bhd., in which Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing is an investor. Malaysian industrial conglomerate UMW Holdings Bhd  has invited banks to advise it on a $500 million IPO, and AirAsiaX Bhd., the long-haul unit of budget carrier AirAsia plans a $250 million offering in 2013.

Last year, Malaysia was home to the world's third-largest IPO, in which Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. raised $3.2 billion. Meanwhile, IHH Healthcare Bhd.'s $2 billion IPO made it Asia's largest listed hospital operator by market value.



Iskandar Waterfront, which is developing real estate in the southern state of Johor as part of the government's push to promote Iskandar Malaysia as a special economic region, has invited bankers to manage the proposed IPO, three people familiar with the development told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Malaysian businessman Lim Kang Hoo owns 60% of Iskandar Waterfront, both directly and through some subsidiaries, and the Johor state government owns the remainder. 

Malaysian state-run funds, including government pension funds, and financial institutions that sit on massive cash piles play a big role in supporting the country's equities market. When foreign institutional investors go on a selling spree, government-backed buyers tend to step in, limiting the market's downside. and thus providing a measure of security to investors who worry about the volatility that affects markets without a similar buffer.

WHAT YOU HAVE READ IS THE GOOD NEWS ... here's why its not so good:

We have to try and sustain the pace and offerings in order for Malaysia to be truly considered a viable choice for good attractive listings. I should charge a million bucks for giving this advice but never mind la, this one also give free. How come, when its talking cock, it has to be free, even though there may be some good stuff in the cock talking??!!



a) funds - if you get the listings, the funds will be there to mop it up; so far we have been doing the "good ones", the easy to sell at "cheap-ish prices"; the more anchor funds you have the better the platform as investment bankers will know that their placements will go well already; herein lies the issue, will some of our bigger local funds be "asked or forced" to take up certain issues to be seen as "national service" to help some companies to list???, or even to help enshrine Malaysia as the new capital of IPOs for foreign listing in Malaysia??;  or worse, ask the big local funds to mop up the sellers in post IPO to ensure a decent showing.

Funds will always be there as long as the company is attractive, there will be hordes of investors wanting a piece of the action; it is only when the issues are dubious, e.g. the recent Astro listing, that we would welcome more international participants as cornerstones - ever wondered why Li Ka Shing was a cornerstone in IHH and not Astro?? (key issue, we MUST allow our local funds to remain vigilantly independent in the whole scheme of things, if not, we will be gambling and not running the whole thing in a professional manner).

b) seriously folks, pipeline - how many more Feldas do we have, any more Gas Malaysias; a fact many of us may not be aware is that Malaysia already is probably the NUMBER ONE country in the world that have the highest portion of its GDP that is listed (I think more than 80%) - i.e. everything that moves in the Malaysian economy is probably owned by some listed firm already. What that means is that we have a very active listing mechanism. Every time we spot a company making more than RM3m-5m a year in profits, the IBs will be trying to list the company. Which is why many of our listings are smallish (thats OK) as well. The only things in our economy that do not get listed are our laundry shops, the fish head curry shops and our mamak stalls (although I think plenty of our mamak chains make very good money and provide exceptional ROI and ROE). The question then remains: where else are we getting more companies to list locally? Sure, we have a few in the pipeline for 2013 and then...?

c) what do we do - our population is small, which is why most of our businesses will be small, not a good start. Thailand has a good sized population 60m odd I think, Indonesia even better. Population provides scale which we don't. Look at the listings last year, Felda is almost the last bastion in major plantations to be listed. Astro is a rehash and a rerun like MASH (pun intended). Of course if we have more Anandas, we could always take some listed companies private cheaply and then relist them for higher valuations two years down the road - you get ten Anandas, you are well on your way to recycling IPOs.



This is what we should be doing. IHH is a grand example. Take what we have, professionalize the management, acquire well and build and integrate, then list. We do not have the size organically, so we need to build inorganically. Too many of our company owners are happy being the biggest frog in a small pond. For every listed company which is successful locally, they already have a proven business platform on a small population. SCALE, LEVERAGE & BUILD ... who is doing it ... Khazanah tries but not even hard enough yet in my books. Best examples: AirAsia (you can hate Tony the man but you gotta love his brilliant entrepreneurship and vision) and CIMB. The blue print is there, unless there are things holding you back, why don't you go and build a regional business, then list the regional business on Bursa?? What is stopping IOI or KLK from putting all international ops in another vehicle and raise funds separately for it and build then list on Bursa. What is stopping Tomei or even PYT or even Carat from doing likewise?

OK, we may not be so aggressive or ready to bet the farm. Here is where good government leadership in finance comes in: use Khazanah more to tap businesses that can be built regionally, help them, fund them, be their partner ... there is your IHH. Do that for 3 companies a year, after 5 years, you will have 3 very decent IPOs coming back every year.

d) foreign listings - there is a window of opportunity with the Chinese IPOs and listing freeze in China and a blackout in the US. Yes, there are a lot of shenanigans there but opportunity is opportunity. Set strict rules. Set up independent task force for verification and checks and company visits over and over. Use only top accounting and audit firms. There is a genuine need for these Chinese companies to list as they are usually deemed too small for their markets or the wait is usually more than 3-5 years.  ... Till now, I have not YET seen ONE China listed company in Malaysia paying a decent consistent dividend, and they are all apparently making very good profits - get to the bottom of that, and we may see clear blue skies, or see a couple of M&A outfits taking some of these private at fair prices (e.g. 5-6x PER) instead of the 2-3x PER market prices, then you could seen a re-energised market. Doing nothing is PATHETIC.

e) selling selling - we can keep selling our assets, but how are we replenishing them. If we just keep selling soon most things in our country will be owned by foreign entities. Whenever there are great assets for sale, I do not see Malaysian interests bidding for them - F&N's APB for example; AIG's Asian operations; etc... We have to use our resources better, to shape our future, to invests in great regional and global business platforms, to help local companies do that. Otherwise, the IPO capital tag for Malaysia is another phrase for "Cheap Sale / Closing Down Sale / Everything Must Go".

Verdict: Its good to sparkle every now and then but if its not sustainable, its nothing in the end. Now that we showed that our structure and delivery are good to take big sized IPOs and do them successfully, build on them. But if we rely on our inherent private entities now, we will be sorely disappointed as we have listed almost every single one of them. (Side note, do you know that for most developed European countries that only 40%-50% of their GDP is listed, most of the wealth is still kept private.)

Whose Loss Is It ... Australia, Malaysia ... Who Will Feel It Most?

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There is a brilliant doctor in NZ, a plastic surgeon to begin with, who is also a research scientist. Nothing too dramatic about that, except that in doing plastic surgery, he covered a lot of birthmarks on kids. He researched into it with hospital and research funding and when that ran out, he put his own money into it. He has managed to obliterate many birthmarks using novel and less invasive ways of treatment. What is remarkable is that his research is a big stepping stone to curing cancerous tumors.

Birthmarks will grow and multiply, they have stem cells and blood vessels (quite a major discovery by Prof Swee Tan), which means its close to tumors that grow. However, most birthmarks stopped growing after a while as if there is a stop switch. It is that stop switch that Prof Swee Tan is looking for which could very well be the key to curing or stopping cancerous growth.


So, why the headline? Well, he was born and raised in Malaysia. Did his university in Australia but OZ rules that all overseas students had to leave the country on completion. However, it was NZ which saw his potential contribution early and took him in.

Is it Malaysia's loss or Australia's loss??? .... Nah, top local political honchos will just shrug their shoulders saying "apa itu ..., di sini apa pun tarak... buat apa kita try to attract him to stay in Malaysia".

Side note, we have natural resources, we even have great tracts of land for development, Nusajaya is fine but we are at a loss to attract the right people and industry. Imagine over the years, we probably have let slipped at least 100 super achiever types like Prof Swee Tan. If we had nurtured them, provided the funding, resources and attention, we could have a viable plastic surgery sub industry, and we would have Koreans coming to our shores for surgery and not the other way around. And that is ONE TINY LITTLE EXAMPLE. Which is also why the Talent Corp won't be effective because its trying to bring down King Kong with shots of rubber bands from your fingers. It has to be a holistic top-down, from ground zero change of mindset, of education, of entitlement,of meritocracy, of citizenry ...

I believe the Australian medical community regard that as a very big loss - in terms of research leadership and flow on benefits.

But the one reading this feeling most angry , perplexed and disappointed should be the Singapore government "wtf... how can we let that slip through our talent netting, unforgivable, this is easy meat ... we must always take full advantage of 'meats' raised in Malaysia and then they simply allow us to take them in their productive years".

Time Travel

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How many can you identify?



 Thats Jimi Hendrix with Mick Jagger




 Not many will get this one, Charlie Chaplin with Albert Einstein







 This one is very hard, James Dean with Elizabeth Taylor

 Oh, Mr. President, you make Clinton look like an angel





Madness of Crowds (Properly Incentivised of course)

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This may sound like a "racist posting" but its not, but no need to justify or defend really, facts are facts. Why is it Chinese tourists become a lot more belligerent than travelers from other countries? It happened for tourists from other countries as well, but certainly not the frequency we see from Chinese from China.

I mean, seriously, if you fly in America, the number of times your planes get delayed or canceled due to inclement weather (esp during winter) are enormous. Sure you will get angry but what can they do, they cannot fly in those weather??!! These people learnt fast that the louder and more vociferous you are as a group, the better the compensation for food and lodging, plus inconvenience caused.

I believe its motivated by two main factors:

a) the louder and more belligerent you get, the higher the chances of getting "paid off" by the airlines. There were plenty of cases in HK where the Chinese tourists will stay on the tour bus or planes and refused to budge, and even have team leader for negotiations for compensation ... sigh ...

b) crowd mentality, or madness of crowds, all you need is an instigator and apparently there are plenty of them around ... just like guys are usually assholes in groups, you know they behave like idiots in a group (macho posturing) e.g. construction site workers whistling and making lewd remarks to girls passing by ... but the same idiots are pretty quiet when they are alone when a girl passes by ... sigh ...

Do we have the same idiots in Malaysia? Why, yes of course, some political parties will always have some idiots doing the slogan shouting and intimidation ... you fill in the blanks. When we can be motivated or incentivised to do stupid things with just a paltry sum, we are idiots.


Stranded travellers argue with police and airport officials at Changshui International Airport.
Stranded travellers argue with police and airport officials at Changshui International Airport. Photo: AFP
Thousands of angry passengers were stranded after heavy fog delayed flights at a Chinese airport early on Saturday, as the country was shivered through its coldest weather in almost three decades.

Ten thousand passengers were stuck in Changshui International Airport in the southern Chinese city of Kunming on Saturday morning after thick fog grounded more than 280 flights, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Angry passengers stranded at the airport for more than a day struggled with airline staff, damaging computer equipment belonging to an airline, while police broke up scuffles, a photographer present at the scene late on Friday said.
Stranded travellers crowd an airline counter at Changshui International Airport in Kunming after massive flight delays.
Stranded travellers crowd an airline counter at Changshui International Airport in Kunming after massive flight delays. Photo: AFP
"The passengers were really furious, they kept going to the service desk to ask for information, but didn't get any answers," the photographer said.
Flights at the airport resumed on Saturday afternoon after the fog lifted, Xinhua said.

Air passengers in China have developed a reputation for going to extreme measures to vent their anger over delayed and cancelled flights. Cabin crew have been assaulted, passengers have run out on to the tarmac and even opened emergency exits to get off planes.

Stranded travellers argue with police and airline staff at Changshui International Airport.
Stranded travellers argue with police and airline staff at Changshui International Airport. Photo: AFP
In October, a Jetstar crew was held hostage by angry passengers at Shanghai Airport after a delay due to fog. On that occasion, up to 150 passengers cornered the flight crew when they attempted to leave after the delay pushed them over their legal flying hours limit.

A witness told Fairfax Media at the time that security, immigration and customs officials stood by and watched while the crew were cornered and intimidated.

In another incident last year around 20 angry passengers dashed towards the runway at Shanghai's main international airport, coming within 200 metres of an oncoming plane from the United Arab Emirates. Their action was sparked by a 16-hour flight delay.

Stranded travellers argue with police and airline personnel at Changshui International Airport.
Stranded travellers argue with police and airline personnel at Changshui International Airport. Photo: AFP
It was not clear why they charged on to to the tarmac, unless they were seeking to create a scene in order to boost their chances of getting compensation.

In August, two passengers furious after being refused compensation for a delay yanked open an emergency exit door on their plane � resulting in a further delay.

The cause of these protests partly lies with the Chinese carriers themselves. It is not uncommon for passengers to have to wait for hours inside a plane or at the boarding gate without any information about how long the delay might last.

A woman is helped by police and airline personnel after being pushed by the crowd of stranded travellers.
A woman is helped by police and airline personnel after being pushed by the crowd of stranded travellers. Photo: AFP
Air travel is growing rapidly in China, but the country's air corridors remain restricted by the government, creating a clogged, struggling air travel network.
Some 30 years ago, flying was a travel option only available to top government and company officials who needed to submit a special document from their employer to buy a plane ticket.

While most Chinese people still use trains for long-distance travel because of the lower cost, rising income and cheaper flights as a result of increased competition means more are now using planes.

Travellers argue with police and airline staff at Changshui International Airport in Kunming.
Travellers argue with police and airline staff at Changshui International Airport in Kunming. Photo: AFP
Over 270 million passengers flew on domestic routes in China last year, up nearly 10 per cent from 2010 and over 70 per cent from 2003, according to government data. The International Air Transport Association projects 379 million will be flying domestically by 2014.

China is suffering its coldest winter for 28 years, the news agency on Saturday quoted China's Meteorological Administration as saying.

Temperatures recorded over the country since November have averaged minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, while northeast China saw average temperatures of minus 15.3 degrees Celsius, its coldest winter for 43 years.

Plunging temperatures trapped around 1000 ships in sea ice off eastern China's Shandong province this week, Xinhua reported, while snowfall delayed more than 140 flights in Beijing last month, the China Daily said.

An annual Ice and Snow Festival in the northeastern city of Harbin, famous for its enormous ice-sculptures, opened yesterday as temperatures in the city fall below minus 24 degrees Celsius.

Temperatures in northern China are expected to pick up this week, although parts of south China will continue to experience snow, Xinhua reported.
AFP/Reuters


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/wild-scenes-as-passengers-vent-anger-over-delays-20130107-2cbvr.html#ixzz2HGuc6FcJ

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