Most conglomerates in Southeast Asia outperformed their peers in other parts of the world, as well as pure play companies in the region, in total shareholder returns (TSRs), revenue growth, margins and multiples from 2003 to 2012, Bain & Company’s Southeast Asia Conglomerates Report 2023 reveals. The average annualised TSRs of Southeast Asia conglomerates were eight percentage points higher than that of the region’s pure plays in that period.

The end of the Southeast Asia anomaly

In what has been called the most significant antitrust trial since the US government sued Microsoft in 1998, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is taking on the largest search engine in the world, Google. This will be the first of many trials against Big Tech companies that will play out in the next few months.

The trial to dominate them all

A company’s integrity hinges on the credibility of its conduct and disclosures. An internal audit is a critical function to ensure that this trust is upheld. With accelerated global developments and varying standards, the stakes are even higher for sustainability reporting.

A 20-point checklist for internal auditors

Despite political shifts taking place in Malaysia from early 2020 to late 2022, its economy has attracted sizeable foreign direct investments (FDIs), DBS Group Research’s findings show. In the first of a two-part series exploring FDI dynamics in the Asean-6 (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines) on the back of China+1 shifts, the bank-backed research house found that FDI inflows into the bloc, as a proportion of world inflows, have exceeded those going into China over the past two years.

Malaysia’s FDI inflows pick up on China+1 policy 

In March, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told parliament in a written reply that it would take 30 years to pay off Putrajaya’s debts and liabilities — provided that no new debts are incurred and all loans maturing 
from 2024 are paid off.

Weighing Malaysia’s debt burden

Asset prices saw a 2.7% decline in 2022 globally, the strongest drop since the global financial crisis in 2008, according to Allianz Research.