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Malaysia’s new government advisor Daim Zainuddin speaks during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, China Wednesday, July 18, 2018. Andy Wong/Pool/via Reuters
March 23, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia will finalize talks with China in early April regarding a $20 billion rail project that has been suspended since July last year, the Malaysian representative for the negotiations said late on Friday.
The renegotiations could result in cost savings of more than 10 billion ringgit ($2.5 billion) for Malaysia, the country’s envoy for the discussions, Daim Zainuddin said in an interview with a local television station.
China representatives have extended an invitation to Malaysia for a visit on April 2 to conclude negotiations on the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) in the first week of next month.
“They were here two weeks ago in talks with me, and they have invited me to China … to finalize talks,” Daim said.
Daim said the renegotiations could include commercial elements that would benefit Malaysia but did not elaborate.
The ECRL had been threatened by cancellation since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who came into power in May last year, vowed to renegotiate or cancel what he calls “unfair” Chinese projects authorized by his predecessor Najib Razak.
Hit by ballooning costs, lack of transparency and the risk it could saddle Malaysia with uncomfortably large debt, the project that was launched in 2017 has come to symbolize Najib’s scandal-ridden administration.
In January, ministers flip-flopped on Malaysia’s decision about the ECRL – the centerpiece of China’s infrastructure push in Southeast Asia – first saying it was canceled and then announcing that talks were still ongoing.
Reuters reported in January, citing sources, that China had offered to nearly halve the cost to save the 688-km (430-mile) rail project.
(Reporting by Liz Lee)
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FILE PHOTO: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad arrives at APEC Haus, during the APEC Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea November 18, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray
March 19, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia may list certain state-owned entities to reduce government debt and liabilities, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Tuesday.
A government committee on reducing debt is looking at strategies, including “identification of opportunities on potential asset monetization, which means mature unlisted government entities may be listed in the stock market,” Mahathir said at an investor conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Reducing some equity stakes of state-owned firms is also being considered, he said.
(Reporting by Liz Lee, Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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The Goldman Sachs company logo is seen in the company’s space on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
March 18, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian prosecutors on Monday said they would issue summonses to units of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong, requiring them to respond by June to criminal charges filed against them last year.
Soon after being elected in May, 2018, a new government charged three units of Goldman Sachs for misleading investors by making untrue statements and omitting key facts in relation to bond issues totaling $6.5 billion for state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
On Monday, only the Singapore unit of Goldman Sachs appeared at a pre-trial hearing in a Kuala Lumpur court as a respondent.
“Fresh summonses will be served on the United Kingdom and Hong Kong offices of Goldman Sachs ahead of the next court hearing on June 24,” prosecutor Aaron Paul Chelliah told reporters.
The 1MDB scandal played a major role in the electoral defeat that ended Najib Razak’s near decade in power, and a new government led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad promptly re-opened corruption investigations.
Najib, who has consistently denied wrongdoing, is facing multiple criminal charges, mostly linked to 1MDB, and has been barred from leaving the country.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has estimated that a total of $4.5 billion was misappropriated by high-level 1MDB fund officials and their associates between 2009 and 2014, including some of the funds that Goldman Sachs helped raise.
Malaysia has said it was seeking up to $7.5 billion in reparations from Goldman Sachs, including $600 million in fees paid to the bank for the bond issues.
Goldman Sachs has consistently denied wrongdoing and said certain members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB lied to it about how proceeds from the bond sales would be used.
A separate Kuala Lumpur court also set April 15 for prosecutors to serve documents to the defense for former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng.
Ng, a Malaysian, was charged on Dec. 19 last year with abetting the bank to provide misleading statements in the offering prospectus for the 1MDB bond sales.
Prosecutor Zaki Arsyad told the court he needed more time to obtain documents as most of them were overseas.
Ng was originally set to be extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges filed against him by the DoJ.
Malaysia, however, has said it may postpone the extradition until Ng can face a domestic trial first.
Tim Leissner, another former Goldman Sachs official, and Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho have also been charged in the United States over the alleged theft of billions of dollars from 1MDB. Leissner has pleaded guilty.
Low, whose whereabouts is unknown, has issued denials of any wrongdoing and has refused to return to Malaysia, saying that the case against him is politically motivated.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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FILE PHOTO: Euro, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, pound and Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration, January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Illustration/File Photo
March 18, 2019
By Tommy Wilkes
LONDON (Reuters) – Collapsing asset price volatility has turned ‘carry trading’ into one of investors’ top plays of 2019. Many reckon the run is far from over.
This strategy sees investors borrow in currencies where interest rates are low to invest in countries where yields are high, such as in emerging markets. Investors can pocket the difference, or ‘carry’.
For the trade to work liquidity needs to be plentiful, the global economic backdrop benign and, importantly, currency volatility next to nothing. Broadly, all those conditions seem to be in place.
Volatility, or vol, had been crushed this year by central banks’ decisions to hit the pause button on interest rate rises. Societe Generale analyst Kit Juckes says markets’ “outright boredom” so far in 2019 has been the perfect recipe for carry trade success – FX volatility is near multi-year lows.
As a result, carry trading has returned 5.5 percent in 2019, according to HSBC’s Global FX Carry Index. That follows a fall of 1.4 percent in 2018, when rising U.S. interest rates caused a stampede out of emerging markets, the favored place to earn carry.
The current environment for carry is “textbook”, says Andreas Koenig, head of foreign exchange at Amundi Asset Management.
(GRAPHIC: Speculators long on Mexican peso – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Cg2cxu)
SELL AND BUY
Koenig has been betting on the Turkish lira and Brazilian real, both of which offer yields well into the double digits.
Investors buying 10-year Russian government bonds can earn yields of 8.5 percent, or 8 percent in Mexico. Those returns have been further burnished by currency appreciation — some emerging currencies such as the rouble have firmed as much as six percent against the dollar and euro.
On the other hand, the Japanese yen, Swiss franc and euro tend to be carry traders’ funding currencies of choice, as their low yields make them attractive to sell.
Yields in Switzerland on the benchmark bond return -0.35 percent; in Germany barely 0.07 percent. But the euro has been particularly popular this year as the struggling economy has further delayed policy tightening plans in the bloc.
(GRAPHIC: Comeback for carry – https://tmsnrt.rs/2O2a6iz)
But can the good times last?
Analysts say the carry trade is here for a while, or at least as long as rates remain low and economic data is strong, but not so strong it forces a central bank rethink.
BNP Paribas predicts near-term growth in major economies will be “not too cold, but certainly not hot.
“The tepid economic outlook means we are positive on long carry and short volatility trades,” the bank’s economists wrote last week.
POOR PERFORMANCES
As history shows, the hunt for carry is not without risks.
Should U.S. growth deteriorate, international trade conflicts escalate or the end of the decade-long bull run crystallize, the resulting volatility spike can send “safe” currencies such as the yen, euro and Swiss franc shooting higher, while inflicting losses on riskier emerging markets.
But even in a good carry environment, some high-yield trades may not work. For instance, MSCI’s emerging currency index is up 1.6 percent in 2019 after last year’s 3.8 percent drop, but the gains mask individual poor performances.
Robin Brooks, economist at the Institute for International Finance, notes that since the Federal Reserve’s surprise policy U-turn in January, high-yielders such as South Africa’s rand and Turkey’s lira have actually weakened.
Asian currencies including India’s rupee and the Malaysian Ringgit have gained – a “puzzle” Brooks attributes to expectations of a U.S.-China trade deal rather than investors responding to the Fed’s dovish shift.
(GRAPHIC: Emerging markets currency performance in 2019 png – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Cg2cxu)
Investors have also loaded up their carry trade positions already: speculators are $2.3 billion net long in Mexico’s peso against the U.S. dollar, against a neutral stance in January, according to CFTC positioning data.
(GRAPHIC: Speculators long on Mexican peso – https://tmsnrt.rs/2FbJ996)
Amundi’s Koenig said that following the strong recovery in high-yielding currencies in 2019 “the risk is not only in terms of volatility but in underlying levels.
“Carry from here is not my favorite strategy,” he said. “In a late-cycle stage, it’s not very likely that it holds forever.”
(Graphics by Ritvik Carvalho; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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A Saudi man who’s brother died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, touches a debris after a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
March 15, 2019
By Tom Hals, Brendan Pierson and Tina Bellon
(Reuters) – The crash of Boeing Co’s 737 MAX 8 passenger jet in Ethiopia raises the chances that families of the 157 victims, even non-U.S. residents, will be able to sue in U.S. courts, where payouts are larger than in other countries, some legal experts said.
Sunday’s crash occurred five months after the same model of the plane went down in Indonesia, an accident that prompted a string of U.S. lawsuits against Boeing by families of the 189 victims.
While no lawsuits have yet been filed since the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, some plaintiffs’ lawyers said they expect that Boeing will be sued in the United States.
Boeing did not immediately comment.
The company, which has its corporate headquarters in Chicago, has often convinced U.S. judges to dismiss air crash cases in favor of litigation in the country where the evidence and witnesses are, usually where the crash occurred.
That allows the company to avoid U.S. juries, which can award hefty punitive damages to accident victims for wrongful death, emotional suffering and economic hardships of surviving family.
Boeing may have a tougher time with that strategy after the Ethiopian crash, some legal experts said.
This is partly because eight U.S. citizens died and because plaintiffs could argue that liability hinges on system design and safety decisions made by Boeing executives since the Lion Air crash in Indonesia.
“Now with two crashes with a brand-new aircraft, what Boeing did in the intervening five months is more relevant, and that all happened in the United States,” said Daniel Rose, a lawyer with Kreindler & Kreindler, a firm that represents air crash victims and their relatives.
The causes are still unknown, but both involved a relatively new 737 MAX 8 aircraft that crashed within minutes of takeoff and experienced sudden drops in altitude when the aircrafts should have been steadily climbing.
This has raised fresh questions among regulators about a digital anti-stall system known as Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, designed specifically for the MAX to offset the extra lift from larger engines mounted on its low-slung frame.
In a March 4 court filing in litigation over the Indonesia crash, Boeing asked the judge to limit all discovery in the case to issues of forum, or which country the cased belonged, and said it planned to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
LIABILITY
While potential plaintiffs may name Ethiopian Airlines as a defendant in any lawsuits, the focus on the 737 MAX 8 anti-stall system makes Boeing a likely target of litigation, some lawyers said.
Arthur Wolk, an attorney who represents plaintiffs in air crash litigation and said he has been contacted by a potential plaintiff over the Ethiopian Airlines crash, said Boeing would likely face claims for strict liability. That means they could face an allegation of having sold a product that was inherently defective and dangerous.
Plaintiffs will also claim Boeing failed to exercise reasonable care in designing planes or failed to inform flight crews about how the planes operate, Wolk said.
Rose, the lawyer for passengers, said two accidents so close together will put the focus of any lawsuits on the Ethiopian crash on how Boeing tried to address problems with its MCAS system after the Lion Air crash.
“Were there other efforts by Boeing to essentially minimize the problem or hide the scope of the problem?” Rose asked. If lawyers can show Boeing management acted recklessly, it could clear the way for substantial punitive damages, he said.
Some lawyers who have worked on the other side of such cases are less sure about Boeing’s potential liability.
Kenneth Quinn, a lawyer who represents airlines and manufacturers, said he thought Boeing had a good chance of getting both sets of U.S. cases dismissed on forum grounds.
He said the trend in U.S. courts was in Boeing’s favor.
“Increasingly, attempts to litigate foreign crashes involving foreign airlines on foreign soil are being dismissed,” he said.
In November, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. dismissed a case against Boeing and other defendants stemming from the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines flight in 2014 because the presumed crash had a stronger connection to Malaysia than the United States.
In 2011, a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed 116 wrongful death and product liability cases against Boeing over the 2008 crash of a Spanair jet on a domestic flight in Spain, where the judge determined the cases should be heard.
If the company has to defend U.S. cases, it would likely argue that claims against it are preempted because the FAA had approved the plane’s design, said Justin Green, a plaintiffs lawyer.
While manufacturers in the past have enjoyed broad protection under the Federal Aviation Act, a decision by the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals has called into question whether manufacturers can rely on preemption when they could have easily submitted changes to the FAA for approval.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Brendan Pierson in New York; additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Tina Bellon in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Grant McCool)
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FILE PHOTO: The ticker symbol and logo for Goldman Sachs is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
March 14, 2019
By Hadeel Al Sayegh and Stanley Carvalho
DUBAI/ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala has suspended any new business dealings with Goldman Sachs since its subsidiary filed a lawsuit in November against the U.S. bank and others to recover losses suffered through its dealings with Malaysian state fund 1MDB.
“We have suspended any activities with Goldman Sachs pending outcome of the litigation,” Brian Lott, spokesman of Mubadala Investment Co, said in response to questions from Reuters.
“The only exceptions are engagements signed prior to the litigation, which will continue as per contractual terms,” he said.
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Mubadala, which manages over $225 billion in assets, holds stakes in some of Abu Dhabi’s biggest companies as well as stakes in global firms such as Spanish energy firm Cepsa and Vienna-based OMV.
Over the last few years, New York-based Goldman has ranked among the top banks for takeover advice in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The investment bank was hired by the Abu Dhabi government to advise a steering committee that oversaw a merger between Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate in 2013. The bank also worked on a merger valuation plan for the Abu Dhabi and Dubai bourses, in 2014, which was shelved as terms could not be agreed.
International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), which merged with Mubadala in 2017, filed a civil legal action in New York in November against Goldman and others, alleging they “played a central role in a long-running effort to corrupt former executives of IPIC and its subsidiary Aabar Investments, and mislead IPIC and Aabar”, aiming to further the business of Goldman and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Goldman has said that it will contest the claim ‘vigorously’.
Malaysia’s 1MDB is the subject of corruption and money-laundering investigations in at least six countries.
An estimated $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by high-level officials of the fund and their associates between 2009 and 2014, the U.S. Justice Department has alleged.
(Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar and Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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The Goldman Sachs company logo is seen in the company’s space on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
March 14, 2019
By Fathin Ungku
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Malaysia’s securities commission said on Thursday that it has issued a show-cause letter to Goldman Sachs, which is embroiled in multi-jurisdictional investigations into Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
A show-cause letter typically requires the recipient to explain why they should not be subject to disciplinary action.
“We have issued a show cause to Goldman Sachs,” the chairman of the Malaysia Securities Commission, Syed Zaid Albar, said at a press conference on Thursday.
However, he did not say when the letter was issued or provide any details about its contents. If the commission finds a financial institution violated regulations, its powers include issuing fines or revoking operating licenses.
Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apart from facing civil lawsuits, Goldman Sachs is being investigated by Malaysian authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice for its role as underwriter and arranger of three bonds that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB.
Goldman Sachs has consistently denied wrongdoing and said certain members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB had lied to the bank about the use of the proceeds from the bond sales.
(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Neil Fullick.)
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Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, who was a suspect in the murder case of North Korean leader’s half brother Kim Jong Nam, is escorted as she arrives at the Shah Alam High Court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin
March 14, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – A Vietnamese woman will continue her trial for the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, after Malaysian prosecutors rejected a request from Vietnam to free her on Thursday.
The Vietnamese government had made the call after Doan Thi Huong’s co-accused, Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah, was released on Monday.
Huong and Siti Aisyah were charged with killing Kim by smearing his face with VX poison, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017.
(Reporting by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Michael Perry)
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The JF-17 Thunder, jointly developed by Pakistan and China, is getting some new upgrades that will make the tactical aircraft all the deadlier.
The news comes amid claims by Islamabad that it was a JF-17 that India shot down last month, not a US-made F-16, as well as a successful smart missile test by the Pakistan Air Force using the jet.
“All related work is being carried out,” on the JF-17 Block 3 upgrades, Yang Wei, a Chinese legislator who is also the jet’s chief designer, said at a press conference last Friday. The upgrades will includes an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar as well as a new helmet-mounted display and sight system for the pilot, enabling them to aim by looking around, Beijing-base military analyst Wei Dongxu told the Global Times on Monday.
The addition of AESA gives Pakistan the ability to compete with India’s new domestically produced Tejas MK-1, which also sports the advanced radar, Sputnik reported. With AESA, the JF-17 can scan the skies as well as the ground for many targets at once and at many frequencies, whereas more traditional pulse-doppler radars have to be pointed and can only scan at a single frequency, making them much easier to jam.
Huawei is being used by China to spy on America even prompting the Pentagon to remove all products that the military may be using.
The plane will also get computer and communications upgrades that will enable pilots share information quickly — what Wei called “informatized warfare.”
Wei told the Global Times the radar addition makes the plane more than a match for the F-16, which Pakistan also uses. The newest F-16 variant, the F-16V “Viper,” also sports AESA radar, Sputnik reported.
Since the new Thunders use basically the same airframe as the previous model, Wei said there won’t be any delays in manufacturing, and the additions can be fitted quickly to the new jets.
First introduced in 2007, the JF-17 Thunder is also called the CAC FC-1 Xiaolong, or “Fierce Dragon,” as it was jointly produced by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China.
The fifth-generation multi-role attack jet has been floated as a competitor to others such as India’s Tejas F-1, South Korea’s FA-50 and the United States’ F-16; the Global Times noted the Malaysian Royal Air Force is presently weighing precisely those options. The blog The Aviationist noted that at between $25 and $32 million each, the advanced JF-17 can compete with the F-35 as an export model, too, and being produced in far greater numbers makes it all the deadlier.
Also on Wednesday, the Pakistan Air Force announced that a JF-17 had successfully test-fired an indigenously developed smart missile, Sputnik reported, saying a “successful trial has provided JF-17 Thunder a very potent and assured day and night capability to engage a variety of targets with pinpoint accuracy.”
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Iran and the United Arab Emirates, told Sputnik for a Wednesday article that it had been a JF-17, and not a US-made F-16, that the Indian Air Force shot down late last month near the Line of Control that separates the Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of the contested Jammu and Kashmir province. Under the terms of its agreement with Washington, Pakistan can only use the F-16s it purchased for strikes against terrorist forces and not in engagements with India’s military.
Tucker Carlson laid waste to Media Matters in his opening monologue about their targeting of him and other conservatives.
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FILE PHOTO: Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, who is on trial for the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader, arrives at the Shah Alam High Court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin/File Photo
March 12, 2019
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Vietnam called on Malaysia on Tuesday to free a Vietnamese woman accused in the 2017 murder of the North Korean leader’s half brother, a day after a Malaysian court dropped a similar charge against an Indonesian woman.
Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Binh Binh, in a telephone call to his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah, asked Malaysia to “ensure a fair trial and free Vietnamese citizen Doan Thi Huong,” the government said in a statement.
Huong’s co-defendant, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, was freed on Monday after a Malaysian court dropped the charge against her.
She and Huong have been accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with liquid VX at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Conviction could carry the death penalty.
Minh said in the phone conversation that senior leaders and the people of Vietnam have paid close attention to the trial, the government statement said.
Huong’s father, Doan Van Thanh, said Siti Aisyah’s release was good news for his family.
“I believe that my daughter will be released too because she is innocent. We haven’t received any information from Malaysia recently, and we are eager to hear from them now,” Thanh told Reuters.
The court is scheduled to presume proceedings on Thursday.
Defense lawyers have maintained that the women were pawns in an assassination orchestrated by North Korean agents.
During the trial, the court was shown CCTV footage of two women allegedly assaulting Kim Jong Nam while he prepared to check in for a flight.
Siti Aisyah and Huong have maintained that they believed they had been hired to participate in a reality TV prank show.
(Reporting by Khanh Vu; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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