In today’s edition of Evening 5 — Tan Sri Vincent Tan and the Berjaya Group are taking caretaker Kedah MB Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor to court over alleged defamatory remarks. Meanwhile, IHH makes further inroads in East Malaysia by buying a Sarawak institution.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:04 Berjaya Corp founder and advisor Tan Sri Vincent Tan and B Corp's unit Berjaya Land
00:08 are suing caretaker Kedah MB Datuk Sri Mohamad Sanosi Makno over alleged defamatory remarks
00:14 relating to the 700 million Selangor Maritime Gateway project.
00:18 In a suit cited by The Edge, it was filed at the Shah Alam High Court on August 8th via Tan's lawyer.
00:24 Tan and B Land are seeking general damages, compensatory damages,
00:27 aggravated damages and exemplary damages.
00:30 Apart from that, lawyers have also filed an application for the High Court to issue
00:34 an injunction to stop Sanosi from making similar remarks in the future.
00:39 They also called Sanosi's comments made in an August 2nd speech that mentioned the SMG
00:44 "vindictive" and "malicious".
00:46 The lawyers claim that Sanosi's comments have "pervaded and permeated into the family circle",
00:51 further aggravating the mental trauma suffered by him and his family.
00:55 On Monday, Tan and B Land had issued a letter of demand to Sanosi,
00:58 demanding a public apology and S$200 million in compensation from Sanosi
01:02 over his remarks over the project that was concerned with rehabilitating the Klang River.
01:07 Case management is scheduled for September 4th.
01:10 The quarterly Consumer Sentiments Index,
01:17 tracked by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research,
01:19 continued its downtrend in the second quarter, decreasing 8.4 points quarter-on-quarter to 90.8
01:25 points, below the threshold of 100 points, which indicates optimism.
01:29 On a year-on-year basis, however, the CSI rose by 4.8 points.
01:34 In its report, the think tank said consumers displayed greater pessimism
01:37 towards this year's economic environment,
01:39 reflective by their negative outlook on future finances, incomes, jobs and inflation levels.
01:45 The negative trend is similarly observed in the Employment Index.
01:49 It declined 7.4 points quarter-on-quarter to 102.4 points from the first quarter,
01:54 and 7.8 points year-on-year from the second quarter of 2022.
01:59 According to Mir, as respondents exhibited pessimism about future jobs, incomes and inflation,
02:04 their spending plans also appeared to be lower.
02:07 As the global economy has not shown signs of recovering soon,
02:10 Mir is calling for the government to consider measures that would instill greater confidence
02:14 in jobs and income growth among Malaysians.
02:17 Similarly, the Business Conditions Index for the second quarter indicated that the
02:22 private sector is pessimistic over business conditions in the near term, reflected in
02:27 negative indicators in sales, employment and inventory levels, among others.
02:31 The quarterly index showed a decrease of 13 points quarter-on-quarter from the first quarter
02:36 to 82.4 points, the lowest since the second quarter of 2020.
02:40 On a yearly basis, the BCI dropped 13.8 points from 96.2 points in the second quarter of 2022.
02:47 Meanwhile, the companies appear to harbour pessimism regarding business conditions.
02:52 The BCI expected index for the second quarter decreased to 94.3 points from 115.8 points
02:58 in the previous quarter.
02:59 Mir added that the ongoing global uncertainties coupled with elevated inflation and supply
03:04 chain disruption has placed Malaysia in a vulnerable position.
03:08 The institute feels that it is important that Malaysia as a small and open trading
03:12 economy figure out solutions to address these concerns.
03:15 IHH Healthcare will be acquiring the entire equity interest in Bedrock Healthcare for
03:24 a cash consideration of RM245 million.
03:28 In a boss filing, IHH said its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Pantai Holdings,
03:32 has entered into a share purchase agreement with Saravita Holdings and nine individual
03:37 founders for Bedrock.
03:39 Bedrock, via its wholly-owned units, owns the key asset, Timberland Medical Centre in
03:43 Kuching, Sarawak, and has earmarked vacant land in central Kuching for the construction
03:47 of a new 200-bed tertiary hospital.
03:50 The acquisition is expected to be completed by the first half of 2024, subject to necessary
03:56 approvals, and upon completion, Bedrock and its subsidiaries will be consolidated as
04:00 subsidiaries of IHH.
04:02 IHH Group Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer Ashok Pandit said that this acquisition
04:07 will strengthen IHH's position as a leading provider of quality and comprehensive care
04:12 across Malaysia.
04:14 He adds that the two assets will complement its cluster strategy for East Malaysia and
04:18 bring IHH's total bid capacity in East Malaysia to almost 500 in the future.
04:24 IHH Healthcare Malaysia CEO Jean Franswana said that the proposed acquisition would allow
04:29 IHH to strengthen its position in Sarawak through the scaling up of Timberland's operations
04:34 via the new tertiary hospital, with a further investment of approximately RM400 million
04:40 to serve local needs as well as the fast-growing Indonesian medical tourism market.
04:45 TMC, which has been in operation for almost 30 years, is a prominent and respected 82-bed
04:50 private medical centre in Kuching, with strong brand recognition across Borneo.
05:00 Southern Cable Group has received an extension of contract from TNN worth
05:04 S$332.1 million to supply underground power cables to the national utility.
05:09 The group secured the one-year extension until July 2024 through its wholly-owned
05:13 subsidiary, Southern Cable.
05:15 The subsidiary was awarded the original one-year contract, valued at S$294 million, in July 2022.
05:22 SCGMD Tunging Hai says the enlarged orders in hand further reinforce its position as
05:28 a leading cable and wire manufacturer, supporting strong momentum to strengthen its earnings.
05:33 So far this year, the group has reported over S$500 million worth of new contract wins,
05:37 comprising more than S$460 million worth of supply contracts from TNB
05:42 and a S$44.8 million battery system supply contract from Telekom Malaysia.
05:46 Its year-to-date wins have surpassed the total of S$390 million achieved in 2022.
05:52 Besides TNB, the group also caters to other utility providers such as Sabah Electricity
05:57 and Sarawak Energy.
05:59 Tung added that the group is also committed to supporting Malaysia's energy transition
06:03 roadmap to assist the country in achieving its long-term energy security objectives.
06:08 Central REIT's net property income for its second quarter grew 4.6% year-on-year to S$29.2 million,
06:19 from S$27.94 million previously.
06:22 Central also noted that despite a higher net property income contribution,
06:25 the quarter saw lower realised income primarily due to elevated finance costs and utilities expenses.
06:32 Quarterly revenue was also up 4.6% to S$38.19 million,
06:36 driven by higher revenue generated from Manara Shell and Platinum Central,
06:40 partially offset by the decrease in revenue from Wisma Teknip and QB2.
06:45 It also declared an interim income distribution of S$3.19 per unit,
06:49 which translates to a yield of 7.8%.
06:53 For the first half, Central's net property income was fairly flat at S$58.49 million,
06:58 while revenue continued to hold steady at S$75.67 million, compared with S$75.27 million previously.
07:05 Approximately 74,000 square feet, or 98% of the group's committed net lettable area
07:11 due in the first half, was successfully renewed.
07:14 Correspondingly, the REIT also recorded a portfolio occupancy rate of 77% in the second quarter,
07:20 similar to the portfolio occupancy recorded in the previous quarter.
07:24 On its prospects, Central said the Klang Valley office and retail markets are expected to remain challenging.
07:30 As such, it said it will focus on asset management and leasing strategies
07:33 centred on cost optimisation and tenant retention,
07:36 and that it will intensify its efforts to market its available office spaces under the portfolio,
07:42 with a focus on bringing in new tenants from the IT, e-commerce, service office and shared services sector.
07:50 [Music]