Back when investment firm New Forests Advisory Pty Ltd was established, sustainably grown timber was not common, and the focus on sustainability and environmental, social and governance factors was not as intense as it is now.

Founded by David Brand in Australia in 2005, the firm offere...

Investing: Sustainable forestry now an asset class

It took only one meeting between Anish Mathew Samuel and Chakrapani Ruddraramker, who both went to the same business school in Manila, to quit their jobs and set up a company to trade eco-friendly products, thanks to their passion for sustainability.

This was 10 years ago. Soon, they be...

Agriculture: On a quest to make organic farming affordable

There were few positive headlines about ESG and sustainable funds in the last few years. In 2022, the returns of many of these funds were negatively impacted by their underexposure to energy counters and overexposure to technology stocks. In 2023, declining fund flows and a net outflow were recor...

Finance: Waiting for more maturity in ESG

East Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on Southeast Asia (SEA), has launched a free web-based greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator called Ecovisea for companies to measure their emissions. Ecovisea, which stands for emissions calculator and visualisation SEA, was developed in collaboration...

Toolkit: A new free carbon emissions calculator

A parallel is often drawn between sustainability reporting and financial reporting. Both are mandatory for Malaysian public-listed companies (PLCs) and must be published online annually. Yet, compared with financial reports, sustainability reports seem to engender less trust and the comparability...

Cover Story: How credible is sustainability reporting?

AmanahRaya Investment Management Sdn Bhd (ARIM) won five awards at the LSEG Lipper Fund Awards 2024 in the Bond MYR category, continuing its record from last year. The AmanahRaya Syariah Trust Fund bagged the Best Bond MYR (Islamic) in the three-, five- and 10-year categories, while the AmanahRaya Unit Trust Fund won the Best Bond MYR (Malaysia) in the five- and 10-year categories.

AmanahRaya Investment Management continues to win big in Bond MYR category

Eastspring Investments (EI) Bhd walked away with two trophies at the LSEG Lipper Fund Awards 2024 for its equity and mixed asset funds. The EI Equity Income Fund won the Best Equity Malaysia Income (Malaysia) in the 10-year category, while the EI Asia Select Income Fund bagged the Best Mixed Asset MYR Balanced — Global (Malaysia) in the 10-year category.

Eastspring Investments wins two awards

Areca Capital Sdn Bhd has bagged two awards at the LSEG Lipper Fund Awards 2024 with its Areca equityTRUST fund. This is the seventh year in a row that the fund house has walked away with the Best Equity Malaysia awards in the five-and 10-year categories.

Areca Capital fund wins Best Equity Malaysia for seventh year in a row

Two years ago, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. By now, one would have heard similar pledges from many corporates. But how can one know whether this is enough to halt climate change, and whether it can be achieved?

As scrutiny on clai...

Q&A: Why Sime Darby Plantation had its climate targets validated

Technology solutions providers have been venturing into the sustainability reporting space in the last few years, as they realised a challenge that companies faced in this journey: gathering the right data and reporting it in the required format.

This need has become more urgent only in...

Reporting: Time to get Asia’s ESG data right and ready

KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): Inter-Pacific Research Sdn Bhd said that after a two-day consolidation, the key FBM KLCI index could mount a rebound to end the week on a firmer note.

In its daily bulletin on Friday, the research house said this is despite its still overbought market conditions t...

FBM KLCI seen hovering between the 1,600- 1,610 level today 

KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research has a “trading buy” rating on Genting Bhd (KL: GENTING) at RM4.52 with a target price of RM7.12 and said it continues to like Genting for its well-established operational presence across diverse regions, mitigating regulatory and c...

HLIB says Genting is undervalued, target price RM7.12 

Kenanga thinks Telekom will leverage significantly from Microsoft’s Investment.

MORNING CALL: 10/5/24

SINGAPORE (May 10): Singapore's second-largest bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) posted on Friday a better-than-expected 5% rise in first-quarter profit and forecast its net interest margin at the higher end of a 2.20% to 2.25% range for the full year.

Net interest margin, a key ...

Singapore's OCBC posts record Q1 profit, lifts margin guidance for 2024

TOKYO (May 10): Oil prices rose on Friday, continuing upwards trend on the signs of improving economy in China and as negotiations to halt hostilities in the stand-off between Israel and Hamas yielded no results.

Brent futures rose 37 cents, or 0.4%, to $84.24 a barrel, while U.S. West ...

Oil prices up on stronger Chinese data, Middle East conflict

KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): Phillip Capital has maintained its “buy” rating on Pentamaster Corp Bhd (KL: PENTA) at RM4.44 with a higher target price of RM6.23 (from RM5.65) and said Pentamaster’s 1Q24 core net profit of RM24 million was in line with ours and consensus forecasts.

In a note on...

Phillip Capital raises target price for Pentamaster to RM6.23 

TA Securities has valued ACE Market-bound Smart Asia Chemical Bhd (SAC) at 12 times calendar year 2025 (CY2025) earnings per share (EPS), arriving at a fair value of 54 sen.

TA Securities values ACE Market-bound Smart Asia Chemical at 54 sen 

(May 10): Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led major investment banks posting higher profits in Japan as bond trading boomed, offering a cushion last year in an otherwise tough environment globally.

Net income at the Wall Street firm’s local securities arm rose by a quarter last year to 39.2 bi...

Goldman tops investment banks reaping windfall in Tokyo trading

PARIS (May 10): A man shot and wounded two police officers in Paris after he got hold of one of the officer's weapons while he was being held at a police station, AFP and BFM TV reported on Thursday.

The incident occurred on Thursday evening at a police station in Paris' 13th district. ...

Man shoots and wounds two police officers in Paris, French media reports

(May 10): Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding Ltd., the high-end electric car brand under Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., sold shares in an expanded initial public offering at the top of a marketed range to fetch about US$441 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

In ...

Geely’s EV maker Zeekr said to raise US$441 million in US IPO

KUALA LUMPUR (May 9): Here is a brief recap of some business news and corporate announcements that made the headlines on Thursday:

Salcon Bhd (KL:SALCON) said Envitech Sdn Bhd, a 60%-owned subsidiary of Salcon Engineering Bhd, has been awarded a job by Rantau Urusan (M)...

Salcon, Supermax, MAHB, Pentamaster, Solarvest, Scientex, Globetronics, Mr DIY, MCE, Kerjaya Prospek, MAA, KNM and Annum

NEW DELHI (May 9): Malaysia's former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar has been named a member of India-based Fischer Medical Ventures Ltd's board.

The company, formerly known as Fischer Chemic Ltd, announced his appointment as additional director in the capacity of independen...

Khairy Jamaluddin named member of India-based company's board

Property developer Kerjaya Prospek Property Bhd (KL:KPPROP) will jointly develop a piece of freehold land in Aspen Vision City, Batu Kawan, Penang into a mixed development that will include a hotel and serviced apartments.

Kerjaya Prospek Property to jointly develop Penang plot with Aspen group

The continued uncertainties over China's economic growth prospects and the recent geopolitical crisis have increased US dollar demand as a safe-haven asset, said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) deputy governor Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid.

“Much has been made of the performance of the ringgit against the US dollar. Unfortunately, many see and use this as an indicator or barometer of how we are doing.

Ringgit has been unfortunately, unfairly assessed against US dollar — BNM deputy governor

SINGAPORE (May 9): Wilmar International Ltd has secured a US$100 million (S$135.7 million) sustainability-linked loan from Malayan Banking Bhd (KL:MAYBANK).

Wilmar secures US$100m sustainability-linked loan from Maybank

MAA Group Bhd (KL:MAA), a substantial shareholder of KNM Group Bhd (KL:KNM), has extended a RM13.5 million loan to address the working capital requirements of the Practice Note 17 (PN17) company.

The loan, bearing an interest rate of 12% per annum, was provided to KNM's wholly-owned subsidiary, KNM Process Systems Sdn Bhd (KNM PS) on May 8.

MAA loans RM13.5 mil to KNM for working capital

KUALA LUMPUR (May 9): The&nbsp;East Coast&nbsp;Rail Link (ECRL) project has started its system installation works, marking the final phase of construction works before entering the testing and&nbsp;commissioning stage.

ECRL project contractor commences system installation works

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has been working to pilot a fast-track pre-approval framework for corporates who bring back foreign currency funds and convert to ringgit, to enable them to re-invest abroad when the time comes, according to deputy governor Adnan Zaylani.

BNM aims to pre-approve oversea reinvestments to encourage repatriation of foreign proceeds

KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research has a “trading buy” rating on Genting Bhd (KL: GENTING) at RM4.52 with a target price of RM7.12 and said it continues to like Genting for its well-established operational presence across diverse regions, mitigating regulatory and c...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher on Thursday, the seventh straight daily advance for the benchmark, as all three major US indexes gained after weekly jobless claims data offered fresh hope for interest-rate cuts.

Dow closes up to make it seven in a row, as jobs data boosts rate-cut hopes

The graph of people's support for Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate shows an encouraging uptrend from the results of the face-to-face campaign conducted by the party machinery ahead of the last days of the Kuala Kubu Baharu state by-election campaign.

KKB by-electon: Graph of voter support for PH candidate rising, encouraging — Amirudin

Farm Price Holdings Bhd, which will be listed on the ACE Market next Tuesday (May 14), announced net profit of RM2.67 million on revenue of RM30.71 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024 (1QFY2024).

Vegetable wholesaler Farm Price posts RM2.67 mil net profit in 1QFY2024 ahead of listing

The federal government is determined to eradicate hardcore poverty in Terengganu within the next two months, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said as of May 2, there were 1,663 families in the state still in the hardcore poor group.

Hardcore poverty in Terengganu to be eradicated in two months

China Eastern Airlines has announced the launch of a daily passenger flight service starting June 30, connecting Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, with Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, reported Xinhua.

New passenger air route to link Nanjing and Kuala Lumpur

Phillip Capital has maintained its “buy” rating on Pentamaster Corp Bhd (KL:PENTA) at RM4.44 with a higher target price of RM6.23 (from RM5.65) and said Pentamaster’s first quarter of 2024 (1Q2024) core net profit of RM24 million was in line with its and consensus forecasts.

TA Securities has valued ACE Market-bound Smart Asia Chemical Bhd (SAC) at 12 times calendar year 2025 (CY2025) earnings per share (EPS), arriving at a fair value of 54 sen.

China's largest contract chipmaker SMIC reported a first-quarter revenue rise of 19.7% on Thursday, as its global customers rebuilt their inventories.

Chinese chipmaker SMIC says revenue up 20% as clients restock

The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives extended its decline on Thursday, weighed down by weaker edible soft oils and cautious trading ahead of April’s palm oil data on Friday.

Fastmarkets Palm Oil Analytics senior analyst Sathia Varqa said the decline reflects cautious positioning ahead of the industry data due on May 10, focusing on the extent of April’s production rise.

CPO futures extend decline amid weaker edible soft oils

Annum Bhd (KL:ANNUM), formerly known as Cymao Holdings Bhd, says it is going to hire a new audit firm to conduct a special audit on its revenue, after its external auditor Messrs SBY Partners PLT said it cannot verify the figures Annum reported despite performing additional audit procedures.

Annum, which is involved in the manufacturing of wood-based products, just hired SBY in March this year after approaching 31 other auditors who turned down the job. Most had cited resource constraints, according to the group.

Annum plans special audit after newly hired auditor declines to vouch for its financials

World stocks rallied on Thursday, led by surging European shares and a larger-than-expected rise in US weekly jobless claims that buoyed interest rate cut hopes, while the dollar eased as the market awaits key inflation data next week.

Tan Zhai Yun

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