KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian economy contracted by 3.4% in the fourth quarter compared with a contraction of 2.6% in the third quarter, Bank Negara Malaysia said.
PPC International managing director Datuk Siders Sittampalam.
THE Malaysian property market, despite still navigating the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic from last year, is expected to perform better in 2021.
PPC International managing director Datuk Siders Sittampalam says while the pandemic “isn’t going to go away” soon, he is optimistic that the property market will find a way to “work around it.”
“The fear of the pandemic will not end anytime soon. It will take a while for everyone to go back to their normal live.
“With that said, people are going to have to work around it. You can’t expect to be placed under cold storage for too long. Life needs to go on and the real estate segment is the same, ” he tells StarBizWeek.
(YTL Power) is unlikely to diversify aggressively into renewable energy due to the lean returns from such projects, according to Maybank Investment Bank Research (MaybankIB).
The research house noted the utility conglomerate’s willingness to participate in greenfield coal-fired plants suggests its environmental, social and governance (ESG) concern.
“Given YTL Power’s considerable coal exposure, the company will have to contend with the environmental stigma for the considerable future.
“Being family-controlled, the group can maintain its returns-oriented focus even in the face of ESG scrutiny, ” MaybankIB said yesterday.
“We thus expect the group to maintain its current strategy of investing in regulated assets with long-term concessions and attractive returns for the foreseeable future. Aggressive renewable diversification appears unlikely in our view given lean project returns in the space, ” it said.
2021 may see tax reforms to address COVID-19, environmental challenges, and more
Governments and international bodies seek to fill massive deficits as billionaires and multinational corporations have seen their wealth grow during the ongoing pandemic. January 19, 2021 Climate activists in Amsterdam gather at the Museumplein with their bikes to ride around the center of the city during the global climate action day to demand climate action on Sept. 25, 2020.
Tax justice experts, accounting firms and corporations’ tax planning officers around the world are on the watch for a set of upcoming tax changes that could affect everything from digital services, to energy products and more.
despite a lower profit forecast for FY21.
The research house said it expects lower investment gains at Allianz Life to weigh on the group s earnings although the latter s underlying fundamentals remain strong while the drive for further cost efficiencies continue.
For FY21, Maybank IB projects group net profit to slip by 6% year-on-year. We nevertheless project a 5% YoY growth in Allianz Life’s ANP. As for Allianz General, we project GWP growth of 3.5% in FY21, but a higher combined ratio of 90.1% versus 89.3% in FY20 as claims normalize upwards. As such, we estimate Alliance General’s FY21 pretax profit growth to be 3%, it said.