The Week Ahead: NFC Corp trial, regional economic data to take centre stage

TheEdge Tue, Sep 01, 2020 01:30pm - 3 years View Original


The week will kick off with the resumption on Tuesday of the government’s RM250 million civil suit against National Feedlot Corp Sdn Bhd (NFC), its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail and nine others.

Mohamad Salleh is the husband of former women, family and community development minister Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. He is on trial along with the couple’s three children and seven companies owned by the family, including NFC.

They are accused of misappropriating and wrongly using RM118 million from a RM250 million loan granted to NFC by the government in December 2007 to set up and operate a national feedlot centre in Gemas. The government is seeking RM253.62 million for the sum owed, together with interest of 2% from May 1, 2019.

There will also be a case mention on former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng Chong Hwa’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-linked case as local authorities seek his return to Malaysia to face charges. At the last case management on May 19, Ng was still in the US facing criminal charges for conspiracy under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

He pleaded not guilty on Dec 19, 2018, at the Sessions Court here to four charges of abetting Goldman Sachs over the sale of 1MDB bonds totalling US$6.5 billion by omitting material information and publishing untrue statements.

On Friday, Bank Negara ­Malaysia will be releasing its international reserves as at Aug 28. As at Aug 14, the international reserves amounted to US$104.3 billion (RM434.5 billion), slightly higher than the US$104.2 billion as at July 30.

Regionally, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is the only major Asia-Pacific central bank with a monetary policy decision this week, on Tuesday.

“We think the RBA has effectively exhausted conventional monetary policy by cutting the official cash rate to its self-imposed floor of 0.25%. Hence, we do not see further policy rate reduction, with negative rates ruled out by Governor Phillip Lowe (for now),” UOB Research says in a note on Friday.

Australia, along with India, will announce its second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data, with both economies expected to see a sharp contraction of 5% and 19.2% respectively, according to Bloomberg estimates.

China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for August will be released on Monday. A Bloomberg poll shows that it will stay expansionary at 51.1, which is unchanged from July. Its August non-manufacturing PMI, however, may edge lower to 54.1 from 54.2 in July.

The Markit manufacturing PMI surveys for Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan are scheduled to be announced on Tuesday.

Other economic data include South Korea’s August trade (Sept 1), Thailand’s July trade (Aug 31), Indonesia’s August Consumer Price Index (Sept 1) and Macau’s August casino revenue (Sept 1). Bloomberg data forecasts that South Korea’s August exports may drop 11% year on year, higher than the 7.1% contraction in July.

Over in the US, initial jobless claims will be released on Thursday, which are expected to stay above one million in the next two weeks, UOB Research says. On Tuesday, the world’s largest economy is scheduled to release the August ISM manufacturing data.

Monday is a public holiday for Malaysia (National Day) and the Philippines (National Heroes Day). Vietnam will celebrate its National Day on Wednesday. It will also be a short week for Thailand as it observes the Songkran holidays from Sept 4 to 7.

On the corporate front, listed companies scheduled to have their annual general meetings this week include Sam Engineering and Equipment (M) Bhd and Sunway Bhd on Wednesday, Xidelang Holdings Ltd and ELK-Desa Resources Bhd on Thursday, and Xinghe Holdings Bhd and Inix Technologies Holdings Bhd on Friday.

Sunway will also be having its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Wednesday to seek shareholders’ approval for the proposed renounceable rights issue of up to 1.11 billion new irredeemable convertible preference shares (ICPS) at an issue price of RM1 per. This will be undertaken on the basis of one ICPS for every existing shares held.

Meanwhile, Apex Equity Holdings Bhd will be convening its adjourned AGM at its headquarters in Kajang, Selangor, on Sept 2. It will be interesting to see whether its shareholders will approve the proposed adoption of the new constitution of the company. Apex needs at least 75% voting in favour to carry out the special resolution.

To recap, the resolution was not carried in its EGM on June 19 last year, as well as another EGM on Nov 18 last year. According to its AGM notice to shareholders, a new version of the constitution, which is more structured and provides better clarity, will be tabled for shareholders’ approval.

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