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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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So let’s get to it.

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When DealStreetAsia published on Monday that VC firm 500 Global was scaling down its ambitions in Southeast Asia, the news didn’t come as much of a surprise to me.

Aside from its US headquarters, 500’s other prominent office is here, at the AICB in Kuala Lumpur, sandwiched between Bank Negara and the Asia School of Business.

Its managing partner, Khailee Ng, is Malaysian, and he and the firm have been quite the fixture in the local VC space for some time.

But it’s been a tough year, not only for Malaysia, but the entire region, in terms of fundraising and exits.

Of course, a VC’s business is a VC’s business.

Who cares whether one grows or shrinks? They are too small to matter in the grander scheme of things.

Except when there are millions in government-linked money running through its veins, like that of 500.

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It’s good to have this back on the first day of every new month. A decompress of sorts and, perhaps, a good way to think through the twists and turns of entrepreneurship.

Trending on Reddit and other social media platforms right now are so-called AI gurus and their promise-the-moon-and-stars workshops.

There are a few way…

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It’s a long weekend for those in Selangor as the state declared tomorrow a public holiday after taking the top spot at the recent Sukan Malaysia.

And, it’s that time of the year where I send out a PSA that today (August 31), only Malaya or the peninsula declared merdeka (independence) back in 1957.

Sarawak was granted self-government on July 22, 1963, while Sabah’s took effect on August 31, 1963.

The three came together to form Malaysia on September 16, 1963.

So it’s not that Malaysia received its independence today. Only one part did. We are a complicated bunch, what can I say?

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There’s another merdeka in today’s mix, this time involving Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat (ALR).

The government-backed highway trust is gearing up to test the multi-lane fast flow (MLFF) or barrier-free tolling, according to an August 26 briefing deck sighted by The Malaysianist.

And its system doesn’t require integration with the old monopoly, Touch ‘n Go.

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We millennials are at the stage where we are old enough to witness our heroes get plucked off one by one.

A sign that the grim reaper is inching closer to us. A macabre start to the weekend.

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This one materialised after I stacked the government-linked healthcare names against annual filings and the GearUp report.

It’s evidently clear that we’re witnessing an oligopoly. Is that a good thing?

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As it’s a public holiday, I’m going to take a step back and just work backwards to the July update.

Typically, on the first day of every new month, I’d push out a list of best-ofs for the previous month and, with it, some thoughts.

I missed doing that this time…

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Readers will know that our awesome government-linked investment companies (GLICs) are a mainstay here.

It’s not that I love writing about them.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t wake up to a wall of GLICs/GLCs, throw a dart to see where it lands, and then use that as a newsletter starting point.

There are days where I want to write about my top ten favourite nasi lemak stalls.

Or why the great abbreviation BLR (banana leaf rice) has turned so blergh.

But GLICs, GLCs and Big Brother are just gifts that keep on giving.

Someone did say, “the government is helping you write the stories”. I can’t disagree.

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In December 2017, Xeraya Capital led a €9 million (RM45 million) Series B2 funding round into Allecra Therapeutics.

The French biopharmaceutical company developed a novel combination antibiotic, Exblifep, designed to combat drug-resistant urinary tract infections.

Xeraya, the specialist life sciences venture capital arm of Khazanah Nasional, secured a seat on the board and took a hands-on role in steering the company’s clinical development and global market entry strategy.

The investment initially appeared to be a success when the US Food and Drug Administration approved Exblifep in February 2024.

This was to be a milestone for Xeraya, showcasing how its long-term financial backing and active stewardship had successfully ushered a life-saving therapy onto the global stage.

Triumph, however, was short-lived.

A year later, Allecra collapsed under the weight of commercialisation costs and filed for bankruptcy.

A French insolvency court accepted a binding asset bid in July last year, which was finalised on October 29.

Exblifep’s global intellectual property and commercial contracts were transferred to Indian generics manufacturer Orchid Pharma for a fraction of its development cost.

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Without cool folks like this, the newsletter will be dry and dreary like print paper.

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On Wednesday, GTA Holdings Bhd launched its prospectus for an ACE Market listing.

The firm, per its listing documents, is an aviation maintenance specialist, being the sole authorised repairer of Safran and EPI helicopter and fixed-wing engines in Malaysia.

Powering GTA was a four-year revenue growth into what will be a near-half-a-billion market debut at 35 sen a share.

But during the launch of the prospectus, one figure stood out.

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This was supposed to be newsletter no.2 yesterday but life got in the way. Still, I’ll show up anyway.

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Dealmakers are parched. It’s a drought in the Malaysian VC/PE scene with some already writing off VC for now.

“VC’s dead, bro,” one industry source tells me.

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This one’s on the DAP’ annual general meeting yesterday.

There’s a bonus too: the DAP’s finances. I got hold of the 2025 accounts. A rare thing, and I’m not sure I can pull it off again.

The next newsletter will be on our good ol’ VC/PE/tech scene.

I’m sectioning these off so The Malaysianist reads with a bit more structure (gasp!).

Earlier I pushed out Longform and the next one will be Hype Autopsy for the VC/PE/tech stuff.

Like parents raising kids, who says entrepreneurs get breaks? There’s no such thing.

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The DAP yesterday met for its annual congress.

The hottest item on the agenda was whether to stay in the federal government until the end of the parliamentary term, or walk out and turn into a so-called pressure group.

Party secretary-general Anthony Loke tabled the motion on behalf of the party’s central executive committee.

They ran it as a secret ballot, not the usual show of hands, as the leadership wanted an accurate read.

The result was 1,857 delegates voted to stay and 242 voted to leave with seven ballots spoiled.

Of the votes cast, roughly 88.5% want the DAP to remain in government. Loke dubbed this a “convincing majority”.

But here’s what stood out for me:

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Hisomuddin Bakar runs Kuala Lumpur-based research and intelligence firm Ilham Centre.

He is a familiar name in political punditry and commentary, even more so recently, with Malaysia experiencing peak election fever.

All eyes are on PM Anwar Ibrahim and whether he can not only pull off a miracle to survive the onslaught of the “blue wave” (the unified Malay bloc), but also keep his government intact for a full term.

Is this checkmate for Anwar and his PH coalition?

My interview with Hisomuddin explores the playbook of the current Malay political parties, the pulse of both Malay and non-Malay voters, and inside takes from both corporate and political circles.

The interview has been translated into English and lightly edited for clarity and flow.

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Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera’s (LTAT) listed empire went dark, when Boustead Heavy Industries Corp (BHIC) was delisted on Thursday.

That makes it the third Boustead company taken private in three years, after the armed forces’ fund delisted Boustead Holdings in 2023 and Boustead Plantations in 2024.

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On Monday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court blocked the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) from enforcing its demand for documents on property group Primus Equities and Assets Sdn Bhd.

Justice Norliza Othman, presiding over the special powers division, granted Primus an interim stay, freezing the regulator’s demand for documents until a full hearing on 20 October.

Today's newsletter unpacks the suit and ends with an ownership fact box and chart on UBB Amanah, whose directors include a former president of the Malaysian Bar, and whose ownership reaches a former aide to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

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Not if you are former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He was supposed to be charged today, but that was postponed after being admitted to the National Heart Institute.

That makes him the third former PM in just eight years. The first was Najib Razak, then Muhyiddin Yassin and now Ismail Sabri.

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Malaysia’s data centre taskforce (DCTF) is tightening the screws, raising its demands on hyperscalers who want to build here, sources tell The Malaysianist.

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Dropping some backgrounders here, in case you need them 👇🏽

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By now every major publication has run something on TH, the government investment linked company-cum-pilgrims’ fund on the mend.

The Edge took a deep dive into the 14 troubled investments and also lessons learnt. The rest just went with the usual coverage of the RCI.

LTH came up with a statement that it had enacted 75% of reforms and had moved on.

Has it really?

So I am going to do three things here.

Firstly, I’ll draw up a scorecard. Secondly, I’m going to cite a 2018 financial review report on something that has not been reported but still deserves attention.

Lastly, I’ll do a sweep on the 14 failed investments to round up the newsletter.

And at the end of the newsletter is a bonus terms and definitions box to make sense of the jargon used in the RCI and other TH-related reporting.

I’ll begin with the scorecard.

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By now, the biggest question in Malaysian politics is how long until Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim calls a general election.

Barisan Nasional (BN) has romped through two state elections in three weeks. First Johor and, just over the weekend, Negri Sembilan.

The coalition is set to retain Melaka, where it already holds 20 of 28 seats.

The state has to hold elections by 25 February next year, and Umno president Zahid Hamidi has signalled the BN-Perikatan Nasional (PN) pact will run there too.

Islamist party PAS is PN’s lynchpin.

The odd bit here is that Umno-BN (including Zahid) is a member of Anwar’s own federal government.

Yet at the state level BN has been running against Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan and winning, hand in hand with PN, which is the opposition at the federal level.

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To kickstart the month, I have a quick newsbreak on government, fintech and millions in fees, before the Tabung Haji deep dive.

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While things have improved over one of Malaysia’s most troubled government-linked investment companies (GLICs), the fund is still not out of the woods.

More so since we have new material to work with: the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s report.

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The Tabung Haji (TH) Royal Commission of Inquiry report is finally public after Anwar’s government declassified it yesterday.

We knew the headline story: in 2017, the pilgrims’ fund-cum-GLIC reported a RM3.4 billion profit when it should have booked a RM1.4 billion loss.

Today’s brief takes a broad look at what was made public as I’ll save the meatier one for a weekend long read.

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Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Cabinet will meet Wednesday and deliberate on releasing the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into pilgrims’ fund Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH).

The RCI has been kept under wraps for three years.

Anwar’s explanation was that it was to avoid “public panic” and a rush of withdrawals, and that he hopes the Cabinet would approve the disclosure.

Those are curious defences and they don’t quite hold up.

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Last month, I wrote that an investment into Care Concierge, involving the EPF and Gobi Partners, had collapsed at the eleventh hour after close to a year of talks, according to sources.

Turns out the deal simply stalled.

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