Also a vibe-check on Tan’s father-in-law, Tong Kooi Ong, and the latest Maxis-Astro deal.

Wrapping up Sunday with some money and power. I mean, where else but here? Surely not YouTube.

And before I dive into the newsletter, I was on BFM recapping the drama around Zetrix AI.

A short slot, but always fun to have mini detours from the usual grind that is writing newsletters.

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Grab co-founder Anthony Tan has been hustling these past few years, trying to get close to the political sun across the region.

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Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim went on a tear in Parliament this week, riffing on old corporate scandals.

These were his takes, of course.

And with Anwar — as with most politicians, past and present — his words are not entirely accurate.

Still, it was a revealing exercise.

Answering a question on the “corporate mafia,” the PM decided to play historian, reaching back to the corporate restructuring of the late 1990s.

This was during his own political fallout, and the shake-up that followed the 1996-97 Asian financial crisis (AFC).

Anwar named three companies whose owners, he said, were forced to sell.

He implied this was the work of an unnamed former finance minister “who had influence and deep pockets.”

He never said the name, but it was plainly the late Daim Zainuddin.

And the PM was referencing the major banking consolidation Daim undertook as finance minister to address a post-AFC Corporate Malaysia.

Daim and Anwar had a complicated relationship, one that curdled into something acrimonious by the end of Daim’s life, with Anwar’s own government prosecuting him.

The rivalry between Anwar, Daim and Mahathir Mohamad shaped Malaysia’s political economy, and its aftershocks still decide who rises and who is squeezed in Malaysian business today.

The three names Anwar raised in parliament were Lim Thian Kiat, Abdul Rashid Hussain and Tong Kooi Ong.

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KL20 was held on Monday at The Campus in Kuala Lumpur.

This was formerly the grounds of the International School of Kuala Lumpur, a plain name for what is perhaps one of the most expensive international schools in the Klang Valley.

And the event this time was supposedly the final chapter to the maiden 2024 conference.

Was there anything to shout about? The crowd was negligible. This despite four ministers showing up.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim didn’t attend this time round.

A stark contrast to 2024’s event where many crawled out of the woodwork to position themselves as the VC pick-me.

I am sure that vibe is the same this time round, albeit with a tiny audience.

And I wonder how much public money, directly or otherwise, went into organising this year’s iteration.

As we’re nearing the election season, naturally it’s a period of massive spin and propaganda, which I’ll get to in a bit.

First, let’s talk about the VCs .

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After weeks of forced selling, Wong Thean Soon’s (TS Wong) ownership of Zetrix AI has dropped below 2%.

The firm’s market value has slumped to record lows, and with Wong’s stake shrinking, Zetrix sounded the alarm on Friday.

The firm said it was in “potential breach” of a debt covenant on its RM2 billion sukuk programme.

As the debt is fully drawn, this leaves Zetrix facing RM2.16 billion in obligations, coupons included, if the breach isn’t cured.

The programme hinged on Wong remaining the single largest shareholder. He ended the week as anything but.

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This week, Southern Alliance Mining (SAM) put out a bourse filing that Malaysia’s king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, had bought a stake in the Johor-based miner.

Sultan Ibrahim of Johor took up 2.25% in Singapore-listed SAM on Monday.

He paid S$6.1 million (about RM19.5 million) for 14.3 million shares at S$0.425 apiece, making it an 11.84% premium to the day’s close.

This was a transaction between Sultan Ibrahim and SAM’s founder and controlling shareholder, Pek Kok Sam. The company itself was not a party to it.

While the figure may seem large, it’s a small sum for a billionaire king, and the move is more than just a punt on a penny miner.

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And I kick off the week with a Budget 2027 postscript.

I know, I know, I’m giving too much emphasis to a document that has been, at best, aspirational.

But it’s worth considering that this is perhaps the last budget of a prime minister who actually completed a full first term. We haven’t had that since 2018.

I’ll start with the obvious: the allocation jump, and then move on to Anwar’s protected class, his best-kept constituency, and our long-suffering petro piggybank.

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PM Anwar Ibrahim tabled Budget 2027 a few hours ago. And, like clockwork, there’ll be discussions and analyses on what is a media staple.

So to kickstart Budget 2027 coverage, money-power style and to be a lil’ different from my media peers, I’ll take a stab at the man who occupies the highest elected office: Anwar.

First up, it truly is an election budget. And I’m not the one calling it.

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On Wednesday, Khazanah Nasional released a report on Dana Impak.

This is the RM6 billion so-called impact flagship, unveiled in 2022 and meant to run five years, across six themes.

If you read the report, there are the typical buzzwords of patient, catalytic capital. Deeper talent pools. Stronger Malaysian firms. Champions for a new economy, aka the Madani economy that is the brand of PM Anwar Ibrahim.

And the latest Dana Impak report is full of this fluffy, feel-good stuff. Of course, we know Budget 2027 is on Friday, so everyone is working hard.

But here’s my take from all the numbers and names in the document:

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We’re down to the last quarter of the year. I usher in October under a thick blanket of smoke, a hazy gift from Indonesia.

Air quality around Kuala Lumpur has breached 200. Even the more shielded places, like Ipoh, are turning orange and red.

Are we really that helpless? I don’t think so. But I’ll leave that bitter discussion for anothe…

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But “editorial wisdom” necessitates that a “celebrity” should be played up for maximum effect.

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There are truly no breaks for Wong Thean Soon (TS Wong) and Zetrix AI Bhd.

On Friday, the firm’s share price closed at 12 sen, marking a historic sell-off.

This was due to the Road Transport Department (JPJ) announcing the suspension of all services through parent Zetrix and its subsidiary MyEG Sdn Bhd as collection agents, effective Monday.

That brings to a halt road tax renewals, driving licence renewals and traffic summons processing handled through their platforms.

The suspension follows news by The Straits Times that Zetrix failed to remit more than RM200 million in public collections it had gathered on behalf of JPJ.

The Transport Ministry confirmed the arrears to another publication, The Edge, claiming they date back to the start of the company’s three-year contract in May 2023.

But the terse announcement failed to mention when the arrears were due.

Still, that was enough to kick off panic selling.

That day, Zetrix became the most actively traded stock on Bursa Malaysia, with more than 1 billion shares changing hands, sinking to an intraday low of 10 sen before closing at 12 sen, its weakest since June 2013.

The stock is now down about 85% over six months, valuing Zetrix at RM900 million.

One after another

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Today, we look at a legacy fund.

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A simple thing to ask of any government-backed venture fund is this, how much money has it actually returned?

To its investors, that is.

Venture is a long game, where a fund’s life typically runs 10 years, with an extension of a year or two on top.

I’ve written about some of our legacy funds before, but that was on Q3 2023 data.

This time, I have an update on the Gobi Mavcap Asean SuperSeed Fund.

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So I have a little wrap on AirAsia (still), the hard-to-kick consultancy habit, and Sarawak’s multi-billion ringgit energy play.

First, Hasmah Mohamad Ali, wife of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, died today, aged 100.

A doctor in her own right, she was the first Malay woman to study medicine at King Edward VII College in Singapore.

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I won’t dive too deep into AirAsia for now, because after all the headlines, the story’s pointing in a single direction: the airline needs financial backing.

Not even Tony Fernandes can spin his way out of this, though he’s been trying to blame the press for the negative coverage.

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So bear with me, guys. I’ll try to throw something different after this.

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On Wednesday, I wrote that Wong Thean Soon (TS Wong) and his corporate vehicle, Asia Internet Holdings (AIH), had obtained an ad interim injunction against Zetrix AI’s share registrar, GAP Advisory.

Wong and AIH effectively halted a cash dividend of 2.89 sen per share on nearly 1.9 billion Zetrix shares (roughly RM55.4 million), and demanded new shares under Zetrix’s dividend re-investment plan (DRP) instead.

This was to let Wong keep the equity within his own control. The businessman had endured weeks of margin calls after shares in his mothership, Zetrix, and other investee firms tumbled.

Which made the suit, on the surface, bizarre: he was suing his own company’s share registrar, even as his company (Zetrix) kept him unnamed in the bourse filings disclosing the injunction.

Wong wanted to prevent cash distributions from being channelled to the institutional brokers and banks that financed his shareholdings.

Despite the move to halt the payout, the tycoon met legal resistance this week from three major investment banks, each intervening in his suit to set aside the injunction.

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So, I was looking back at some notes, and it dawned on me there is something brewing in Corporate Malaysia right now, and it is circling around the identity or biometrics business.

One of the biggest stock-market stories at the moment revolves around the companies owned by Wong Thean Soon (TS Wong).

I wrote about his corporate rollercoaster last week.

Briefly, Wong has been on the receiving end of forced selling that his stake in his flagship Zetrix and other investee firms have whittled down, even as new substantial shareholders and boardroom changes emerge at companies he controls.

This week, however, his lawyers struck back.

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On Friday, Tony Fernandes faced the press to do what he does best: play the master showman.

It had been weeks since his AirAsia was in the news, thanks to newswires Reuters and Bloomberg, with the airline’s financial strains front and centre.

Fernandes projected total defiance, rubbishing reports of government intervention as “ludicrous” and insisting the airline is sitting on a mountain of cash.

So, I’ll break down each claim and see how it holds up against the mechanics of his business.

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Najib Razak gets to go home, but with some T&Cs attached to it.

The former prime minister will serve out the remainder of his sentence at his luxurious pad in Bukit Tunku, after being granted a conditional pardon yesterday.

The Federal Territories Pardons Board, at its 64th meeting, obtained the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar for Najib to serve the remainder of his SRC International sentence under house arrest.

He stays home until August 23, 2028, provided he pays a RM50 million fine and complies with the conditions.

Should he breach them, the pardon is nullified and the ex-PM returns to prison.

There are a few things I’ll address here: where the RM50 million sits in the billions Najib is contesting, the political playbook from here, and whether we even have a provision for house arrest.

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I was thinking about what to write today.

Usually, being the dan lain-lain1 that I am, the knee-jerk reflex is some pretentious musing on what it means to be Malaysian or that displaced, awkward, weird struggle of finding oneself in this country.

Or to vent about the haze while inhaling steroid-filled vapour through a nebuliser.

Corruption, haze, remind me of the allure of Indonesia again?

And why Asean is a five-letter word business and political personalities reach for when they’re irrelevant.

I’ll leave those for another day.

Today’s newsletter is a short one, so let’s get to it.

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After 63 years, what can we say about Malaysia that matters to this newsletter?

I was thinking of second chances, hope, something along those lines. And then it hit me.

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Wong Thean Soon (aka TS Wong) is having the worst weeks of his corporate life.

And it all began with a rumour: that the company he controls, Zetrix AI, was somehow tied to the graft case of former human resources minister M. Saravanan.

Saravanan was charged late last month with allegedly taking RM1.097 million in bribes over foreign-worker quotas. He has claimed trial.

Zetrix denied any ties with the minister.

The firm told Bursa it was “not implicated in, nor associated in any way whatsoever” with the former minister or his charges.

Wong steadied nerves by telling analysts and investors on a call that he needed time to work through the forced sale.

But the stock market didn’t buy Zetrix’s explanation.

Its share price plunged, and a domino effect ran through the other companies Wong holds substantial stakes in.

Some of those companies quickly saw new, unidentified shareholders take up substantial blocks, alongside boardroom reshuffles.

This was especially clear with HeiTech Padu, the contractor building the national immigration system.

Wong’s own paper fortune shrank, too.

Aggressive corporate manoeuvres have always been a common sight on Bursa Malaysia.

So I reached out to Wong and asked him three things.

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Tonight’s edition covers: an exit from Creador’s food portfolio, an update on Involve Asia’s redemption exercise, and Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s (PNB) search for more alpha.

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Covering Tony Fernandes in my past life as a business journalist has always been a tricky proposition.

When should one take him seriously?

Fernandes is a salesman, always drawing attention to himself or his brand.

But substance?

When the Finance Ministry (MoF) appointed Alton Aviation Consultancy to look into AirAsia Group’s funding needs, it read like irony.

It dredged up memories of a 2014 tweet of his that hasn’t aged well: “I wonder if it’s fair that Malaysia Airlines can lose so much money and protect its market share. Can only do that with taxpayers’ money.”

Back then, Malaysia Airlines had just posted a net loss of RM1.17 billion.

Now it is AirAsia reaching for a government hand of its own, at least according to last week’s Reuters report.

MoF tasked Alton with breaking down the financial support AirAsia needs, if any.

The budget carrier is seeking up to US$1 billion in fresh funding and another RM700 million in local facilities.

With taxpayers’ money potentially being lined up, it’s worth asking what put him there.

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