Pakdi

Billionaire Warren Buffett says economy remains flat

OMAHA, Nebraska: Billionaire Warren Buffett said Wednesday the economy has not yet had any bounce and will take some time to recover, but he complimented the government’s efforts over the past year to solve the problems.

Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and chief executive conducted a couple of live television interviews in New York.

The interviews came before his lunch with a Chinese investment manager who bid $2.1 million in a charity auction to dine with the Oracle of Omaha.

Buffett said during an interview on CNBC that all the reports he sees from Berkshire’s retail, manufacturing and utility businesses show the economy has remained fairly flat.

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Tags: Warren Buffett

Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) wants to monetise its investment in its property development companies. That is well known and something that even its top officials do not deny.

Names that have been linked to PNB’s plan include Mah Sing Bhd and S P Setia Bhd — two companies in which the investment fund is a shareholder.

Two weeks ago, it was reported that PNB was looking to jointly develop, with Mah Sing, its landbank in the centre of Kuala Lumpur as well as in Johor.

Observers reckon the rationale for choosing Mah Sing is probably because the developer is well known for its ability to develop small pockets of land within a short time frame.

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Proton posts RM342mil Q4 loss

By JAGDEV SINGH SIDHU (The Star)

KUALA LUMPUR: Proton Holdings Bhd yesterday announced a net loss of RM341.5mil for its fourth quarter ended March 31 as write-downs and impairments dragged down the company’s financial performance that has already been hurt by a slowdown in sales.

Group chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh said Proton’s performance reflected the current global economic condition.

“The softening of the automotive industry arising from the global financial crisis had also adversely affected the performance of the group in the second half of the financial year,” he said in a statement.

For the fourth quarter, Proton posted an 18.4% drop in revenue to RM1.4bil and net profit swung into the red with a loss of RM341.5mil from a profit of RM217.5mil.

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Tags: automotive, car, mpv, proton, proton exora

Pakdi: An interesting survey on Gen-Y. News via btimes.

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Generation-Y employees rate cash bonuses, job flexibility and mobility as their top wants in their line of work.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) survey titled “Malaysia’s Gen Y unplugged”, found that 49 per cent of those polled said cash bonuses was the most valuable job benefit.

About 91 per cent said they would work across geographic borders while 58 per cent desired flexible working hours.

The survey polled Gen Y employees on their career expectations now and in 2020. Gen-Y refer to individuals born from 1980 onwards and entered the workforce after July 1 2000.

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Tags: gen-y, pricewaterhousecoopers, pwc

Robert Kuok Remains Malaysia’s Richest With Net Worth Of US$9 Billion

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (Bernama) — Robert Kuok, the Kuok Group patriarch, remains Malaysia’s richest with a net worth of US$9 billion, down from US$10 billion a year ago, according to the 2009 Forbes Asia Malaysia Rich List.

In a statement here today, Forbes said Kuok has held the top spot every year since Forbes Asia began ranking the 40 richest Malaysians in 2006.

Businessman Ananda Krishnan held on to his second place with a net worth of US$7 billion,just down from US$7.2 billion last year.He has also maintained the same ranking every year since 2006.

Together, Kuok and Ananda account for 44 percent of the top 40’s wealth.

They are also the two richest people in Southeast Asia.

The third richest is Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng, head of IOI Group, one of the world’s leading operators of palm oil plantations. He is worth US$3.2 billion, down from US$5.5 billion last year but keeps his position in the top three.

Malaysia’s 40 richest people are worth a combined US$36 billion, down from US$46 billion a year ago.

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Tags: al-bukhary, Ananda Krishnan, forbes, Lionel Messi, Maxis, Robert Kuok, Syed Mokhtar Bukhary

Another training provided by the government to graduates. More focus in capital market.

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Following the Second Stimulus Package announced by YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak on 10 March 2009, the Securities Commission (SC) today implemented a new initiative that will create 500 jobs in the capital market for Malaysian graduates.

The SC Executive Enhancement and Development (SEED) programme, which was launched by Minister of Finance II YB Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, will provide training and on-the-job attachment to enhance employability and career mobility in the capital market for 500 graduates over the next two years.

“The government is committed to alleviating the social hardship of those who find difficulty in securing employment given the challenging economic environment, said Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni in his speech at the launch, which was also attended by Deputy Finance Ministers, YB Dato’ Chor Chee Heung and YB Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin.

“Towards this end, the efforts by the SC in training and placing the graduates in the financial sector will go a long way towards providing job opportunities. I am happy to note that the SC has been able to roll out this programme within such a short space of time.

In her speech, the SC Chairman Dato’ Sri Zarinah Anwar said, “The SEED programme offers a unique opportunity to train and develop graduates with a long-term capacity building perspective to ensure that the capital market is sufficiently equipped with skilled and knowledgeable employees.

Under the programme, which is funded by the SC and the Capital Market Development Fund, graduates will be enrolled in three training schemes which are specially developed to create entry level professionals for the conventional and Islamic capital markets, as well as executives for various regulatory functions within the SC and Bursa Malaysia.

The three training schemes, which will employ a multi-modal approach of structured learning for knowledge acquisition and experiential learning for skills acquisition such as interpersonal development, will also include on-the-job attachments with capital market intermediaries ranging from 11 to 22 months.

Additionally, graduates will be given the opportunity to sit for SC’s licensing examinations to further increase their employability in the capital market. This will also help reduce training and development costs for new entrants for the intermediaries and provide a ready pool of ‘fit-for-purpose’ graduates for employment in the capital market.

Source: Malaysia Securities Commission

Tags: Add new tag, capital market, fstep, Najib Tun Razak, second stimulus package, securities commission, SEED

Nine Malaysian banks have been placed on review by Moody’s Investors Service for possible downgrade of their deposit and debt ratings.

The banks concerned are AmBank (M) Bhd, CIMB Bank Bhd, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd, EON Bank Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd, Malayan Banking Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, and RHB Bank Bhd.

“The review of their debt and deposit ratings will look at the extent to which Malaysia’s ability to provide support to its banking system, if needed, is converging with the government’s own debt capacity as a result of the ongoing global economic and credit crisis,” said Moody’s vice president and senior analyst Christine Kuo.

At present, the deposit and debt ratings of the nine banks on review receive between one and five notches of systemic support, the credit ratings firm said in a statement today.

“Moody’s believes that most governments are at least as likely, if not more likely, to support their banking systems as they are to service their own debt — a view that has traditionally led to bank ratings often benefiting from significant uplift due to systemic support,” Kuo said.

“However, as the financial crisis continues, the capacity of a country and its central bank to support its banks converges with, and is increasingly constrained by, the government’s own debt capacity,” she said.

As such, Moody’s will be reassessing the level of systemic support for the banks listed above to determine whether the systemic support they receive needs to be more closely aligned to the government’s local currency bond rating, Kuo said.

The firm expects to conclude the review over the next few weeks. — Bernama

Buffett’s favorite companies enjoy what he calls a business franchise. A franchise in Buffett-speak is essentially a durable competitive advantage — an edge that is difficult for competitors to duplicate and that isn’t going to go away any time soon. In the case of Coca-Cola, the franchise is a combination of size, marketing power and a brand name built up over decades. In the case of The Washington Post, the franchise is the power that stems from owning the dominant paper in the U.S. capital. If a company has a franchise, its stock price may go up or down at times, but it’s a near certainty to perform well over the years. “Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates or elections,” Buffet advises. Instead, he urges his followers to “buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.”

Read more: World’s greatest investor tells all: invest like Warren Buffett

Tags: franchise, Stock Market, Warren Buffett

We haven’t found anything to speak of in equities in a good many months. As for how long we’ll wait, we’ll wait indefinitely. We’re not going to buy anything just to buy it. We will only buy something if we think we’re getting something attractive … we have no time frame. If the money piles up, the it piles up. And when we see something that make sense, we’re willing to act very fast and very big. But we’re not going to act on anything if it doesn’t check out.

You don’t get paid for activity. You only get paid for being right.

(Berkshire Hathaway’s 1998 Annual Meeting)

Tags: Stock Market, Warren Buffett

Government goes easy on financial sector

Najib, also the Finance Minister, said there would be flexibility in allowing for an increase in foreign equity ownership limits of investment banks, Islamic banks, insurance companies and takaful operators from 49% to 70%.

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Under this, a maximum of two new Islamic banking licences would be issued to foreign players to establish banks with paid-up capital of at least US$1bil (RM3.62bil

(via theStar)

Pakdi: I hope local Islamic banks and local takaful operators have fully prepared with this announcement.

Tags: bank islam, bank muamalat, takaful ikhlas, takaful malaysia, takaful nasional