The bumiputera relay race (and who actually wins)
Ekuinas' latest retail buyout exposes a 50-year structural failure.
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Ekuinas announced on Wednesday it had acquired a controlling stake in homegrown footwear brand XES Shoes.
If you are pun-sensitive, you’d have spotted the obvious joke, but there are a few things that piqued my interest while digging up this deal.
The holding company behind XES is Shellys Marketing Sdn Bhd.
The official press release, carried by major news publications, pitched this as a straightforward control buyout to “strengthen its retail and online commerce presence”.
But take a look at the actual mechanics of the deal — and the structural changes happening at Ekuinas — and you get a nuanced picture.

