When the rats are away, the cats come out to play.
When the rats are away, the cats come out to play.
Don’t expect any results to come out from the probe into Air Asia-Mas deal. We, find nothing amiss in the deal. We detect no insider trading. Pray tell, how you come to that conclusion? Because the people at MAS, AA and Khazanah promised us they did nothing wrong.
It was planned as far back as 2 years ago and we want to engage in some futile academic exercise to determine whether there is insider trading? When I asked the Oracle sometime back what he thought about the MAS-AA deal, he answered immediately- insider trading.
Malaysians are going to get suckered further. They are, this time by the gentle palliative coming from fearless and feistiest of AA supporters. Air Asia from Dr Mahathir who has been coopted into the Air Asia bandwagon. Asia X by that sans malice of a lady- Rafidah Aziz. They will give whatever Air Asia does from now on, a clean bill of health.
Emboldened, the fat cats at Air Asia group (that includes Asia X) are coming out to play, when the rats are away. No pun intended for the reverse order of the saying.
A few days ago, the CEO of Asia X laid blame on the government’s MAHB for delaying the construction of a new LCCT. When the idea for the construction of a new LCCT was mooted the last time, the construction was supposed to be done by Air Asia and Sime Darby. The idea was of course shot down by many quarters.
Can we imagine a spokesman from the private sector, whose ascend to the position he now occupies, is the result of the government's pleasure, is now castigating and censuring the government? That must the height of treachery. Off with his (bald) head!
Dr Mahathir was among the leading figures opposed to the construction of the lCCT at Labu at that time. We can guess the main reason for his opposition was his loathing for Abdullah Badawi and the fact that Sime Darby was chaired by the pain in his behind nemesis, Tun Musa Hitam. We all know Musa Hitam will defy Mahathir at any opportunity he has and his defiance remains something that Mahathir can never tolerate. He is now singing a different tune with the airtime given by Fernandes.
the cunning Fernandes has managed to turn over Mahathir faster than Anwar Ibrahim can do so. So, we find Dr Mahathir engaging in his own elegant silence over the new spirited attack on the government by the young ciku of a CEO of Asia X.
Here we have someone, who has benefited from the sweet charity of the government granting a lot of leeway to a business success story, feeling emboldened enough to take on the government. He is probably feeling even more reassured now that a possible competitor in the form of Firefly is literally extinguished. Asia X is now feeding off the spoils of a Khazanah directed palace coup.
It seems we can never win this once. Rafidah Aziz, recognized by many UMNO cerebrally challenged rank and filers as the economist’s economist is lecturing us all on the benefits of the cooperation between MAS and Air Asia. She’s lecturing us on the economics of economies of scale. Of course the cooperation will create those entire textbook economic benefits madam, if you say so.
But having those said by Rafidah Aziz, doesn’t mean they are true. The public will still be unmoved from their perception that the deal is a monopoly and preparation for the eventual swallowing of MAS by Air Asia.
It doesn’t excuse Khazanah and its affiliated advisers and match maker investment banker from initiating the eventual destruction of MAS. The deal between the two does not explain why MAS failed miserably given the fact that the much celebrated Sarawakian has re engineered and restructured MAS into a fighting form. What happened to all those measures taken by Jala? Have they come to naught?
The MAS-AA deal should now be regarded as an indictment on Jala and an exposure about his massive failure in trying to save MAS. Or could that object failure designed to be treated as justification for the MAS-AA deal? If the deal was planned as far back as two years ago, the people behind the whole idea knew that Jala was doomed to fail. If people like Khazanah for example knew that Jala was bound to fail and they did nothing to intervene with the objective of saving MAS, then Khazanah is guilty of being an accomplice to an economic sting. It has been negligent in carrying out its duty to save our national carrier because if it’s aware of the impending failure on Jala’s part, it must mean, they have relevant information that could be used to save MAS. They were not willing and didn’t want to because to do so, wasn’t money making.
12 comments:
Now lets do a third party review of Azman Mokhtar's WAU and Idris Jala's BTN and oil hedge.
Get the best independent consultants..not those who hv to kowtow to Khazanah n Pemandu.
Ada ke?
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/mas-airasia-share-swap-under-probe-for-insider-trading/
Now there is a probe and I can bet you, as sure as the sun rises in the east, they will say that there is no evidence to prove there was insider trading. Case closed and they laugh all the way to the bank.
We have seen it all.
Dato,first of all AA was handed to TF on a silver platter.There were many Bumiputras whose tongues were wagging and saliva dripping,like water dripping from a tap eying AA.But TF was choosen over them by very powerful backers.And the taking over of AA was a very well thought off plan by his backers.
How can a music man buy an airline for one ringgit,walked into a bank with a bankrupt airline in tow and ask the CEO for a loan of a few hundred million ringgit,and got the loan with no sweat.Every thing was prearranged for him,from ownership of the airline to financing,the business concept of running the airlines and flight routes.All he has to do was to show his face.
With powerful hidden hands behind them,these people at AA are getting to big for their heads.But the beauty of it is that up till today,nobody is able to pinpoint the hidden hands behind him.Maybe these people are getting smarter now.Everybody knew who the front for Mahathir,and later Daim when Mahathir took him into the cabinet.We can only speculate,but my bet is people from Mahathir's regime are behind him.The rats coming out to show their faces, before the cats, speak for itself.
So what you and us were sceptical about the deal finally surfaced.
Anyhow, let's wait for the probe which is announced by Awei Adek in Parliament today.
I can see some jittery people now.
Many are following the failures and raping deals 'consented' by the present leadership. Many are bored of voicing their grouses - knowing that its like barking to a wall. Know what??...next PRU will be the day we Malaysians will be sending the gentleman named UMNO to the grave. And the man holding the spade will be Najib - behind which there's a woman named Rosmah (sorry, I tak kenal dia!) giving all the instructions.....a situation I refused to see.
Dato',
Mahathir's finger prints all over the AA-MAS deal, as always with other deals that benefits him and his family.
Dear Sakmongkol
“When I asked the Oracle sometime back what he thought about the MAS-AA deal, he answered immediately- insider trading.”
Is that all there is to this sad saga? Well, the Securities Commission and Bursa Malaysia are actively investigating this angle. But there are much bigger issues at stake that we should discuss.
A competent investigation without any political interference should establish whether or not there was insider trading. That to me is the smaller of several issues. Let me list some of the other questions that deserve consideration:
1. Was there collusion between the parties to the deal to establish benchmark prices of both AA and MAS to arrive at the neat 2:1 share exchange (20.5% of MAS for 10% of AA)? This is not quite the same as insider trading where “insiders” take advantage of information not generally available to the general public and shareholders to make a profit on the shares when the share price rise subsequent to the release of that information to the market. I do not believe we are seeing a classic insider trading case here. But it could be a case where the prices of AA and MAS at the material time of the deal did not reflect the “intrinsic values” of the 2 companies, so they had to be “manipulated”, in this case the AA share price was moved higher just before the deal.
2. What should be the proper role of a sovereign wealth fund, such as Khazanah? Should it be passively managing the long-term strategic investment funds of the nation in a diversified portfolio ensuring that risks are matched with returns, and that undue risks are never taken? SWF managers are really not equipped to also manage the companies they invest in – a different skills set is required. But Khazanah seems to take an active part in recruiting and replacing key executives in their investee companies. This should stop. Such decisions should be left entirely with a competent board.
3. Should we not rethink what “national” means especially as it relates to commercial enterprises? Is a “national” airline the same thing in essence as a “national” football team? An airline exists to make money from all sorts of people, nationals as well as foreigners. In fact in many cases foreigners fly that national airline more that the locals do? If the airline is “national”, do the locals get cheaper fares over foreigners? No. So what’s national about an airline just because it paints the national flag on its tail? Why should be care about a business that perennially loses tons of money and has to be bailed out by taxpayers? What pleasure or benefit do we get out of all this? It is quite different matter with the national football or badminton team, for example. They represent all of us against other national teams. They represent our national sporting spirit, our national identity. It has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with who we are as a nation. Not so, airlines or car companies. They are mere businesses to make money and do so against other similar companies. We should simply give up on this unnecessary hang up on national companies and save ourselves lots of money. Let’s channel our need to express our national identity in other ways.
Datuk, these days what's a cat and what's a rat? As long as the cat catches the rat and the rat catches the cheese.
This MAS-AA deal stings like a cadaver. In future, AA will be the monopolist of air travel. Need we say more who shall pocket the money?
Hahahaha..ni baru Maharaja Lawak Mega..
Sir,
Too many "Fei Mao" in Bolehland ditanggung oleh rakyat.
What probe are we talking about here? No. no, we just wanted to pat Tony for his 'CONTRIBUTIONS' here. There is no sich thing and there never will be!
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