Ganesh Sahathevan

The publicity shy Daim Zainuddin, the former finance minister of Malaysia, owns 84.4% of the London AIM listed ICB Financial Group AG ( see AIM announcement at http://www.icbank-gh.com/upload/1211875219_Microsoft%20Word%20-%20080527%20ICB%20announcement%20-%20change%20of%20shareholder%20interests.pdf) The company has a market capitalisation of STG 198.9 million ; or MYR 1.27705 Billion ( See http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/companyresearch/225737/ICB_Financial/company_prices.html and use currency converter at http://coinmill.com/GBP_MYR.html#GBP=198.09) Hence, Daim is worth at least MYR 1.0778302 Billion, or for the purposes of the Forbes rankings, USD 330 million. That sum would rank him, (had Forbes given him due respect), the 16th richest person in Malaysia, just ahead of Vinod Shekar. (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/84/biz_malaysiarichest08_Malaysias-Richest_Rank.html)

The Malaysian Minister "for the time being charged with the responsibility for matters relating to the supply of electricity", may already have the powers to compel The Pencil of God, his YTL, and the other Independent Power Producers to renegotiate and value downwards their power purchase agreements with Tenaga Nasional. The IPPs and Tenaga are all regulated by the Minister pursuant to the provisions of the ELECTRICITY SUPPLY ACT 1990 . The Act contains the following broad provisions: 4. The(Energy) Commission shall carry out such functions and duties as follows: (c) to promote competition in the generation and supply of electricity to, inter alia, ensure the optimum supply of electricity at reasonable prices; (d) to promote the interests of consumers of electricity supplied by licensees in respect of— (i) the prices to be charged and the other conditions of electricity supply; (ii) the continuity of electricity supply; and (iii) the quality of the electricity supply servic...

An update to my posting at http://sahathevan.blogspot.com/2007/07/bank-negaras-reserves-at-levels-which.html Now , almost a year later, as of 15 May 2008: Malaysia's reserves of Gold ,Foreign Exchange and Other Reserves including SDR equals RM 399,919,106,509 The proportion of this amount financed by deposits from financial institutions now totals RM 284,175,898,063 , or 71.06%, compared to 67.4% as at 29 June 2007. As explained before: It was a similar asset-liability position that left Malaysia and the Ringgit vulnerable to speculative attacks in 1997. As then finance minister, " Dr" Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for financing Malaysia's foreign reserves almost entirely out of statutory deposits -- placed at no interest by financial institutions -- at the Central Bank. (for full story by Sahathevan see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BJT/is_24_6/ai_55143627 ) To illustrate: At 30 June 1997 , Gold and Foreign Exchange and Other Reserves including SDR totalled...

As reported in THE EDGE ,5 June 2008: Independent power producers (IPPs), which benefited significantly from highly subsidised fuel, have been dealt a major blow following the imposition of a 30% windfall tax on their return on assets (ROA) under the government’s restructured subsidy scheme. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday the taxes would be implemented under the Windfall Profit Levy Act 1998 and would entail the IPPs contributing towards the higher cost of fuel such as gas for power generation. The tax will take effect from next month. He said the 30% quantum would be imposed on the audited ROA threshold of 9% . http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_56ce2976-cb73c03a-18992130-1d3b7060 However YTL Power International's ROA appears to have been consistently below the threshold: Return on Average Assets Quarterly (Mar '08)- Annual-4.40% (2007) Annual-5.49% (TTM) -5.13% http://finance.google.com/finance?q=KUL:YT...