Summary of business stories from Jan 18 to 24

Datuk Seri Nazir Razak is the chairman and founding partner of Ikhlas Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, a private equity firm based in Singapore.

Nazir ventures into durian plantation

• In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, PLS said it has proposed to place out 19 million new shares to Datuk Seri Nazir Razak at 95 sen per share as part of its private placement exercise.
• PLS said the proposed placement would enable the company to have Nazir onboard as a strategic investor.
• private equity firm Ikhlas Capital Singapore Pte Ltd. PLS is planning a private placement that would entail the issuance of up to 52.61 million new PLS shares representing up to 10% of the total number of issued PLS shares.

Top Glove launches recruitment drive for 9,000 employees

• It said in a statement issued today that it will hold a virtual career fair every third Saturday of the month, with the inaugural fair taking place on Jan 23, 2021.
• In particular, it aims to provide employment to fresh university and vocational graduates and general workers in the country.
• The group is hiring 4,000 positions for local workers, 2,300 positions for university and tech vocational fresh graduates, 2,000 interns and trainees and 700 experienced Malaysian employees.

MCO 2.0 to cost Malaysia RM600m daily, Zafrul says

• The government expects the country to lose RM600 million daily due to the latest Movement Control Order (MCO 2.0), compared to RM2.4 billion daily in March until May, 2020, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.
• The five essential sectors are manufacturing, construction, services, trade and distribution, as well as plantations and commodities.
• Tengku Zafrul said PERMAI is an improvement of the initiatives announced in Budget 2021 as well as ongoing initiatives in the Rakyat Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN) and National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA).

Bank Negara maintains OPR at 1.75%

• However, Bank Negara said the growth trajectory was projected to improve from the second quarter onwards.
• The improvement, it said, will be driven by the recovery in global demand, turnaround in public and private sector expenditure amid continued support from policy measures, and higher production from existing and new manufacturing and mining facilities.
• Bank Negara, however, cautioned that downside risks to the outlook remain, stemming mainly from ongoing uncertainties surrounding the dynamics of the pandemic and potential challenges that might affect the roll-out of vaccines both globally and domestically.

Mah Sing offers payment-free homes for 4 years

• Homebuyers will benefit further from the units available which have been selected from participating Mah Sing projects and revolve around the existing Maybank Islamic financing solution, HouzKEY, as well as the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2021.
• Moving forward, Leong is optimistic about this year, highlighting that the group's new campaign will help buyers own a home.
• In the Klang valley, the participating projects in this campaign are M Oscar, M Centura, M Arisa, M Adora, M Luna, M Vertica, M Aruna, Sensory Residence @

Banks continue to extend repayment aid

• Malaysian banks will continue to extend repayment assistance, including an extension of existing moratorium to individuals affected by the current movement control order (MCO).
• As at 31 December 2020, over 1.3 million applications for repayment assistance have been received, with an approval rate of 95%.
• The extension will apply to all Targeted Repayment Assistance schemes announced previously.

Paul Wong appointed CIMB Thai president and CEO

• Paul Wong Chee Kin has been appointed as president & CEO of CIMB Thai, effective Feb 1, CIMB Group said on Friday.
• He succeeds Sutee Losoponkul, who was acting president & CEO since September 2020 following the departure of the previous CEO, Adisorn Sermchaiwong.
• Sutee will remain with CIMB Thai and assume the role as adviser to the president & CEO up to Dec 31,2021.

Facial recognition tech to be rolled out at KLIA

• Passengers travelling through Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) will soon be able to use facial recognition technology in place of a boarding pass.
• Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd said the initiative utilises facial recognition technology to provide passengers with one single-token biometric identification authentication that will take them through the entire airport journey without having to show their boarding passes at all touchpoints from check-in right until the boarding gates.
• Malaysia Airports Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said that the single token journey is a major component of the organisation's Airports 4.0 initiative.

Malaysia Aviation Group moves forward in its restructuring exercise

• Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), the parent company of Malaysia Airlines, has successfully obtained the approval from the UK Court to proceed with a major component of the comprehensive restructuring of the group.
• The airline said in a statement that the restructuring was based on a revised long-term business plan and will pave the way for MAG to ensure its long-term sustainability together with the strong support from its shareholder and the large majority of its creditors.
• With the success of obtaining approval through the UK court-convened restructuring, the airline can now work towards gains it was seeing prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hartalega likely to see record 643% surge in earnings

• The research unit estimated the company's Q3FY21 earnings, which should be released in the next two to four weeks, may surge 643% year-on-year and 65% quarter-on-quarter
• Hartalega gloves Also, Hartalega has set benchmarks by implementing periodical rapid test kit testing (PRTKT) for Covid-19 among its workers.
• Under PRTKT, Hartalega plans to test 10% of its workforce every week.