KUALA LUMPUR (July 18): Mercury Securities Sdn Bhd has initiated coverage of Cnergenz Bhd, with a “buy” recommendation at 47 sen, with a target price of 66 sen based on earnings per share of 3.8 sen forecast for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2023 (FY23) and peers' average price-earnings of 17.3 times. “The target price represents a potential return of 40% from the current price,” it said. Mercury said Cnergenz had an order book of RM147 million as of May 31, 2022, expected to be fully recognised within the second half of 2022. “Under the leadership of chief executive officer Lye Yhin Choy, who is responsible for the overall management and business operations of Cnergenz, the company was able to achieve a three-year revenue CAGR of 9% from FY18 to FY21 (excluding customer K & H for FY18 and FY19), despite the Covid-19 pandemic in FY20,” it said. At 9.54am, Cnergenz had risen 3.16% or 1.5 sen to 49 sen, with 279,300 shares traded.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 18): US-headquartered Trilliant, a provider of solutions for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), smart grid, smart cities and IoT, is starting its manufacturing in Malaysia. Trilliant chairman and CEO Andrew C. White said manufacturing efforts were now underway in Malaysia. “Trilliant is proud these products will say ‘Made in Malaysia,’ and we look forward to supporting the creation of additional high-tech jobs and enhancing local expertise,” he said. White said the manufacturing team will be focused on the Trilliant Communications Module (TCM) and the Trilliant Street Light Controller. White said approximately 119 tons of CO2e will be reduced over the course of the next three years in Malaysia alone.

KUCHING (July 17): The Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) received an overwhelming number of trade enquiries during its participation in the recently held ASEAN-Italy Economic Relations High-Level Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur. STIDC general manager Datuk Hashim Bojet said delegates at the dialogue were keen to explore business opportunities in the wood-based and non-wood-based sectors in Sarawak during the business-to-business (B2B) meetings. “This (STIDC participation) is a strategic initiative that augured well with the (Sarawak) Forestry and Timber Industry Master Plan 2020-2030 and the state’s Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030,” he said in a statement Sunday (July 17). He said the master plan and PCDS 2030 aim to ensure Sarawak’s economic resilience and generate RM8 billion in export earnings from the wood-based sector by 2030. “Last year, 75 manufacturing projects worth US$363.8 million with Italian participation were implemented across Malaysia, creating 4,320 jobs for the locals,” he added.

There has been no dearth of high-octane examples of the dark and insidious relationship between authority, power and corruption. For us business leaders, there is a deep need to better understand how power sometimes corrupts and how to avoid it. The proverb, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, is supposed to mean that whenever a person has power over other people or things, it makes him or her corrupt. The original statements go thus: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. He was stated to have said in parliament that “Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”, which is closest to the phrase, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

IS the honeymoon between DAP and Parti Warisan officially over? The romance began when Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal formed Parti Warisan in October 2016 after quitting Umno a few months earlier. DAP’s Likas assemblyman Datuk Junz Wong joined Warisan as a vice-president – but DAP ignored the little hiccup and established an alliance with the Sabah-based party.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): The new look MySejahtera application now comes with new features by providing the latest information on users' health status. Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in a tweet said the new features are seen as assisting users in monitoring and obtaining more details on their health status. The MySejahtera application can be updated now via Google Playstore for android users and Apple App Store (IOS users). Meanwhile, the Health Ministry (MOH) in a statement on Saturday announced that the screening records of users under the National Health Screening Initiative at government clinics would be displayed. Read also:Child immunisation records, health screening now featured on MySejahtera — Khairy

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 5,230 new Covid-19 cases on Friday (July 15), says the Health Ministry. According to the ministry's CovidNow portal, 5,219 of the new Covid-19 infections in the country were local transmissions, while there were 11 imported cases. This brings the total number of Covid-19 infections in the country to 4,613,998 cases since the pandemic began. A total of 8 deaths were recorded on Friday with 1 classified as being brought in dead, bringing the total to 35,844.

The Russell 1000 value index is down around 13% year-to-date, while the Russell 1000 growth index has fallen about 26%. This month, however, fears that the Fed's monetary policy tightening could bring on a US recession have shifted the momentum away from value stocks, which tend to be more sensitive to the economy. The Russell value index is up 0.7% in July, compared with a 3.4% gain for its growth-stock counterpart. "People pay a premium for growth stocks when growth is scarce," said Burns McKinney, portfolio manager at NFJ Investment Group. Data from UBS Global Wealth Management on Thursday showed value stocks tend to outperform growth stocks when inflation is running above 3% — around a third of the 9.1% annual growth US consumer prices registered in June.

THERE is clearly a major disconnect between the technology sector’s earnings and the share prices. Despite the ever-growing demand for electronics and the robust earnings outlook, technology stocks have been on a free-fall this year.

KUALA LUMPUR: First-time homebuyers will get a stamp duty exemption on the instrument of transfer and loan agreement under the Keluarga Malaysia Home Ownership Initiative (i-MILIKI), says Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. ALSO READ: Affordable housing a priority on nation’s agenda"Although this stamp duty exemption will reduce revenue collection for the country, I would like to stress that this is the government's commitment towards all Malaysian families. "According to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), the stamp duty exemption claim under the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) is RM957.8mil. "In fact, the highest stamp duty exemption claim is for house prices of RM500,000 and below. This, he said, is part of the government's target to build 500,000 affordable homes throughout the 12th Malaysia Plan.

Zooming in further into the inner workings of the modern-day corporation, the rise of digitalisation has inevitably proliferated its way into the way corporations conduct general meetings, of which annual general meetings (AGMs) feature most conspicuously. However, as with any human-designed conception, virtual/hybrid AGMs are prone to faults that debilitate transparency, reliability and shareholder democratisation. Further accelerating the push for virtual/hybrid AGMs, the SC also issued a rallying call for listed issuers to continue leveraging technology to conduct general meetings beyond pandemic-related restrictions. By combining KPMG’s board advisory services with ConveneAGM’s established technology platform, we aim to revolutionise the future of general meetings in Malaysia. For listed issuers, technology will continue to play a crucial role in enabling opportunities.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Indonesian foreign labour standoff needs to be resolved as soon as possible to avoid further dispute, says Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. The Prime Minister said he had instructed the Human Resources Ministry and the Home Ministry to settle the matter with Indonesia before it escalates further. "I do not want this matter to be prolonged, as I am worried it could affect our relationship with Indonesia," said Ismail Sabri to reporters after launching the Home Ownership Programme (Hope) and Karnival Jom Beli Rumah here on Friday (July 15). Earlier this week, Indonesia said it had temporarily stopped sending its citizens to work in Malaysia, citing a breach in a worker recruitment deal signed between the two countries. Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Hermono reportedly said the freeze was made after Malaysia's Immigration authorities continued using an online recruitment system for domestic workers that had been linked to allegations of trafficking and forced labour.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Bursa Malaysia is likely to see muted trading with an upside bias next week following the recent heavy sell-off amid increasing market risks and volatility in global equity markets, said an analyst. Weekly turnover dropped to 5.81 billion units worth RM4.81 billion from 9.45 billion units worth RM6.49 billion last week. The Main Market volume eased to 5.49 billion shares valued at RM4.2 billion against 5.74 billion shares valued at RM5.61 billion in the previous week. Warrants volume shrank to 1.39 billion units worth RM256.9 million versus 2.11 billion units worth RM412.91 million last week. The ACE Market volume fell to 1.29 billion shares valued at RM346.46 million from 1.59 billion shares valued at RM460.36 million the week before.

Total turnover improved to 2.05 billion units valued at RM1.06 billion, against 2.01 billion units valued at RM1.20 billion on Thursday. Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 52.51 points to 16,007.69, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.30 points lower at 166.73, and the Plantation Index shed 13.48 points to 6,655.73. The Main Market volume narrowed to 1.29 billion shares worth RM916.47 million, against 1.45 billion shares worth RM1.07 billion on Thursday. Warrants turnover widened to 398.90 million units valued at RM75.88 million, versus 275.17 million units valued at RM49.74 million yesterday. The ACE Market volume improved to 351.41 million shares worth RM66.41 million, from 273.22 million shares worth RM80.63 million previously.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 14): Two more of debt-ridden Sapura Energy Bhd’s units, Sapura Pinewell Sdn Bhd (SPSB) and Sapura Fabrication Sdn Bhd (SFSB), have been served with winding-up petitions for failing to settle RM906,194 in outstanding amounts. SPSB and SFSB were served the petitions last Friday (July 8), due to the non-payment of invoices from Plomo Group Sdn Bhd and Marine Creation Sdn Bhd respectively, according to a bourse filing on Thursday (July 14). In the event Petitioner-2 fails and/or refuses to do so, the company may be forced to take further legal action against Petitioner-2,” said Sapura Energy. Based on the audited financial statements for the financial year ended Jan 31, 2022, Sapura Energy has invested a total RM427.95 million in SPSB, and RM4.296 billion in SFSB. Sapura Energy shares were unchanged at four sen on Thursday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM639.16 million.