In today’s edition of Evening 5 — the Ministry of Health says that it is seeking the AGC’s advice on the appropriate course of action to take on Pharmaniaga Logistics over the faulty ventilators issue. Meanwhile, MIER has found that both consumer sentiment and business confidence are at lows not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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00:04 The Ministry of Health is seeking advice from the Attorney General's Chambers
00:08 on the appropriate course of action as PharmaNyaga Logistics has refused to comply with a letter of demand
00:14 issued by the MOH regarding shortcomings in the procurement of faulty ventilators.
00:19 Deputy Health Minister Luka Nisman Awang Sawni said that the Ministry issued a letter of demand
00:25 for the reimbursement of $15.34 million on September 13 and provided PLSP with a 14-day
00:32 deadline for response. However, Luka Nisman said that PLSP responded by requesting the withdrawal
00:37 of the letter and expressed readiness to negotiate the outstanding payment of $1.07 million for the
00:44 ventilation upgrade project. He was responding to MP Lim Lip Eng who urged the Ministry to
00:49 not accept the handoff and the irresponsible attitude of PLSP and the supplier from China
00:55 over the faulty ventilators. Lim also recommended that the government take stern action by
01:00 blacklisting PharmaNyaga or the ventilator provider. Luka Nisman said the MOH will consider
01:06 Lim's proposed measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. He also pointed out
01:10 that the Ministry is currently preparing its response to the recommendations by the Public
01:14 Accounts Committee and is committed to improving the procurement process even in emergencies,
01:20 as well as ensuring communication through the gazetted medium. The PAC's report in October
01:25 revealed that the MOH had approved an allocation of $30 million as a down payment to PLSP for the
01:31 procurement of 500 ventilators. Of the 136 that were delivered, only 28 units were working. Added
01:38 to the $2.9 million for repairs, the government spent a total of $23.03 million for the 136
01:45 ventilators, with only 32 working at the end.
01:48 Malaysian consumer and businesses have grown more pessimistic in the third quarter as inflationary
01:58 pressures eat into spending power while slowing external demand weighs on sales amid rising
02:04 operating costs, according to studies done by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.
02:09 The Business Conditions Index continued to decline in the third quarter, following by 2.7
02:14 points to 79.7 points, the lowest level since the second quarter of 2020 during the initial
02:20 COVID-19 outbreak, compared with 82.4 points in the second quarter of 2023 and 99.8 points in
02:27 the third quarter of 2022, Mir said in a statement. According to the research institute, while domestic
02:33 orders have increased slightly, export orders have reduced. Businesses are also concerned about
02:39 increasing costs, with 56% reporting wage increases while only 23% reported price increases.
02:46 The institute's Consumer Sentiments Index also continues its negative trend, dropping 11.9
02:52 points quarter and quarter to 78.9 points in the third quarter, the lowest since second quarter
02:57 2021 when Malaysia was in a new lockdown phase. Mir's survey found that 45% of respondents'
03:04 finances have worsened in the third quarter, compared to just 10% who says theirs have
03:09 improved. In addition, 40% of respondents expect their finances to worsen in the future, compared
03:14 to just 15% who expect an improvement. The survey found that consumers are not only negative on the
03:20 outlook of their future finances, but also pessimistic about their incomes growth, job
03:25 opportunities and inflation level. Mir said that its findings showed a mixed picture for Malaysia,
03:30 with the picture for domestic growth being positive relative to other countries in the region,
03:34 but there is some concerning results in terms of imports and exports. Meanwhile, Economy Minister
03:40 Rafizieh Ramli said that Malaysia's gross domestic product for the third quarter is expected to be
03:44 better than the second quarter, despite a challenging global economy. He says that
03:49 Malaysia should see a third consecutive quarter-on-quarter growth, which has not
03:52 happened in the past three to four years.
03:56 Bajaja Foods' net profit for its first quarter of FY 2024 fell by 45% year-on-year to $19.03 million,
04:07 from $34.7 million previously, as inflationary pressures squeezed margins. Revenue for the
04:13 quarter dipped 1.6% to $278.5 million, mainly due to lower sales from the underperformance of its
04:20 Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants in Malaysia. The group declared a first interim share dividend
04:25 of one treasury share for every 100 ordinary shares held, which is equivalent to a
04:30 0.44 cent per share distribution, or a total of 7.72 million ringgit. Moving forward, the group
04:36 expects all its operating companies' performance to remain on track for the rest of FY 2024.
04:42 BFood elaborates that Bajaja Paris Baguette continues to perform at a better-than-expected
04:47 level and new outlet openings are proceeding as planned. Bajaja Starbucks is expected to return
04:52 to its revenue growth momentum once the challenging market conditions brought about by the recent
04:58 Middle East conflict are back to normality. BFood said that in order to mitigate some of
05:03 the challenging market conditions, the group is focusing on cost optimization,
05:07 labor/productivity management, and effective marketing strategies over the remaining quarters
05:12 of FY 2024. Separately, in another boss filing, the group announced the redesignation of its CEO,
05:19 Datuk Sidney Lawrence Keyes, as its new group CEO, effective immediately.
05:24 New ACE market entrant, Platek Holding, closed its maiden trading day at 32.5 cent,
05:34 7.14% lower than its offer price of 35 cent. The construction-related player's share price
05:40 had ticked up by 1 cent on its debut, reaching an intraday high of 36 cent, but was unable to
05:46 hold on to its gains. This makes it the fourth-worst-performing IPO so far this year.
05:51 However, it was the fourth-most actively traded stock on the bourse, with over 70 million shares
05:57 transacted. At the press conference held after the group's listing, Group MD-CUMM CEO Yang Qian
06:02 Lok said that Platek hopes to grow the construction method engineering segment, which accounted for
06:07 about 43% of its total revenue of $158.1 million reported for FY 2022. Group's CEO, Louis Teh Chee
06:16 Seong, says that the group remains unaffected directly by material shortages and price
06:21 fluctuations, as they are often driven by market forces. The building materials segment contributed
06:26 about 52% of Platek's total revenue in FY 2022. Platek raised $37.1 million from its listing,
06:34 of which the bulk will go towards repaying bank borrowings, $8 million for capital expenditure,
06:38 while $7.8 million will be utilised for construction of factories and labour quarters.
06:43 A total of 26,286 completed houses, valued at $18.3 billion, were reportedly unsold in the
06:56 second quarter of 2023. Deputy Local Government Development Minister Akmal Nasrullah Muhammad
07:02 Nasir stated that, according to the National Property Information Centre, this indicates a 5.3%
07:08 decrease in total units and a 0.6% decrease in value compared with the same period last year.
07:14 To control the issue of unsold houses, Akmal said that the government had implemented the
07:18 mapping of the Affordable Housing Index based on median income by state and district obtained from
07:24 the 2022 Household Income and Basic Facilities Survey report. Akmal added that the government
07:30 also encourages developers to conduct feasibility studies before initiating any development to
07:36 ensure that houses built align with people's affordability and to prevent unsold inventory.
07:42 Meanwhile, the value of real estate market transactions jumped 22.6% to $57.15 billion
07:48 in the third quarter compared with the same quarter last year due to an increase in the
07:53 transfer of ownership of major sales in the country, according to the Valuation and Property
07:58 Services Department. Transaction volume increased marginally by 3.7% year-on-year to 108,955
08:06 in the third quarter. JPBH Director-General Abdul Razak Yusak said the residential subsector
08:12 continued to support the overall property market, according for 62.9% of total transactions,
08:18 or 68,561 in volume, valued at RM28.36 billion. Abdul Razak said housing priced at RM300,000
08:26 and below per unit continued to dominate market activities with a 52.4% share, followed by those
08:32 priced from RM300,001 to RM500,000 with a 24.7% share, while the rest were units priced from
08:40 RM501,000 and above with a 22.9% share. Abdul Razak said housing prices in Malaysia had
08:47 stabilized with minimal increases. He said the Malaysian house price index stood at 212.6 points,
08:53 or RM458,751 per unit, with a small annual growth rate of 0.1% in the third quarter of 2023.
09:01 [Music]