Malaysian Loves Uber

The latest study by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) has found that 75% of Malaysian users choose Uber over taxis. The online study involved 45,000 users.

Previous reports had stated that Uber users preferred the service as the vehicles used were better and the service was cheaper. They were also fed up of taxi drivers who refused to take them to their destinations, failed to use their meters and overcharged them.

Fairfax Buy PT Asuransi Multi Artha Guna

Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd has agreed to buy 80 per cent of PT Asuransi Multi Artha Guna Tbk (AMAG) for about $165-million, sending shares of the Indonesian insurer to a record high. Fairfax, in a statement late on Monday, said it would buy the stake from PT Paninvest Tbk and affiliates in a deal likely to close by year-end.

On Tuesday, AMAG shares rose as much as 15.5 per cent to 462 rupiah ($0.035), compared with just 0.7 per cent in the broader market.Fairfax’s deal with the Panin Group, controlled by Indonesia’s Gunawan family, highlights foreign interest in the Southeast Asian country’s general insurance market after a number of deals in recent years in the life insurance segment.

Japan’s Sumitomo Life Insurance Co bought 40 per cent of the life insurance arm of PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk, while compatriot Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co Ltd acquired 40 per cent of Panin Life.

Fairfax said it would integrate AMAG with its Indonesian subsidiary, and that AMAG would enter a long-term general insurance partnership with PT Bank Pan Indonesia Tbk.

Hong Leong Assurance Up For Sale

Hong Leong Financial Group’s (HLFG) potential sale of its 70% stake in Hong Leong Assurance (HLA) and 65% stake in Hong Leong MSIG Takaful (HLMT) is expected to unlock its valuation.

The potential sale of HLA and HLMT is a positive in that it would unlock the valuations of Malaysia’s fourth largest life insurer. The disposals could raise about RM3.2bil, which translates to RM2.79 per share, which we think could potentially be distributed back to shareholders. 

HLFG announces that it will commence negotiations for the possible sale of its stakes in HLA and HLMT. The buyers are not specified. HLA, which is the fourth largest life insurer in Malaysia after AIA, Great Eastern and Prudential, in terms of annualised new business premiums.

The research house said the insurance division currently contributes less than 10% of group earnings so there would not be a significant impact to earnings post disposal. 

What HLFG would have left in its stable would be a 64.4% stake in HL Bank, 30% stake in MSIG Insurance, an 81.3% stake in HL Capital and a 100% stake in HL Insurance  (Asia).

Zurich Bought MAA Takaful

Zurich Insurance Co Ltd has bought MAA Takaful Berhad (MAAT) from MAA Group Berhad and Solidarity Group Holding BSC for RM525 million. A statement issued by Zurich Insurance Co said about RM400 million was paid at the closing of the transaction and that the balance would be paid on the third anniversary after the closing.

This, it said, was in accordance with the terms and conditions of the share purchase agreement and subject to certain adjustments.

Insurance Journal reported that the combination of MAAT’s range of products and Zurich’s existing insurance solutions would enable it to provide customers in Malaysia a full suite of insurance products and solutions spanning life insurance, general insurance, family takaful and general takaful.

Who Is Bilqis Hijjas

Dancer and performer Bilqis Hijjas, an activist, was freed from a charge of dropping balloons at a shopping mall last year. Magistrate Mohd Faizal Ismail ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charge against Bilqis, the daughter of prominent architect Hijjas Kasturi, under Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act.

“The complainant’s evidence was not credible when she claimed that she was insulted,” said the magistrate. “She was only doing her job as an auxiliary policewoman to maintain peace at the mall.”
He added the witness from the organiser for the art event did not realise about the balloon incident until she was told. Unless she realised it in the first place and reported to the authority, then the court can say the accused’s behaviour was insulting because it was targeting her.”

Magistrate Faizal also found the investigating officer, who told the court that Bilqis was “rude”, was merely giving his own opinion. He also went through the Hansard and found that when the Minor Offences Bill was debated, it did not specify what was the intention of enacting Section 14. “There is no case law that can be referred to. In facing a charge under minor offences, the accused would normally plead guilty.”

Magistrate Faizal then acquitted and discharged Bilqis from the charge. She claimed trial for allegedly insulting behaviour by dropping balloons at a shopping mall. If found guilty, the maximum fine is RM100. The yellow balloons had the words “justice” and “democracy”.


Speaking to reporters, Bilqis said she was grateful for the decision. “It was just very minor. If this is considered a crime, it will set a dangerous precedent,” she said.

Saving For Education - Malaysia

More than 50 percent of Malaysian parents are willing to go into debt to fund their child's education, while 80 percent are funding their child's education from day-to-day income, an HSBC survey revealed.

HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd Retail Banking and Wealth Management Country Head Lim Eng Seong said 92 percent of local parents were funding their child's education and willing to make sacrifices and risk their own financial security, compared to 60 percent at the global level.

"Many parents think that funding a child's education is more important than their other financial commitments like credit card repayment, insurance and contribution to retirement savings," he said after releasing 'Foundations for the Future', the latest report in HSBC's 'The Value of Education' series.

Lim said the percentage of allocation that should be set aside was between 10 percent and 15 percent of the salary.

"As an example, on a salary of RM5,000 per month, a parent should set aside 10 percent or 15 percent solely for education, apart from other expenses such as petrol and income tax," he added.The survey also revealed that Malaysian parents spend about 14 percent higher or US$8,720 each year towards their child's university education than the global average of US$7,631.

Lim also stressed that it was crucial for parents to start their financial planning early and consult banks due to the uncertain global situation.

"For instance, the pound sterling has depreciated to around the 5.4 level against the ringgit as compared to 6.5 level two weeks ago, so parents have to start meeting financial planners as they are not only paying for study fees, but also food, books, local travel and transport as well as technology devices," he added.

The survey was conducted in 15 countries including Malaysia, with the participation of 6,200 parents.

Leader Versus Manager

Business people and business theorists love to draw distinctions between management and leadership. They tell us that “managers do things right; leaders do the right thing” and “management is administration, but leadership is innovation.”

Management, we seem to think, is what we need to do, but leadership is what we wantto do. This is a conundrum that many of us describe, but is it real? Are leadership and management fundamentally different roles in practice? Or do they simply require us to focus on different things?

All of the interviewees described leadership as being different from management when asked a direct question at the end of the interview. The participants responded with differing degrees of emphasis — from “they’re different” to “absolutely” — but they clearly expressed the idea that leadership and management are separate, different concepts.

Yet these conversations also revealed a more nuanced distinction in the participants’ understanding of the actual, performative difference between leadership and management. Their responses about behaviors and activities indicate a difference of focus within a set of foundational elements that are common to both leadership and management.

For example, interviewees often mentioned the character of the leader and the positive effects that her character and behaviors can have on her followers. When talking about management, they focused on the behaviors of the manager in terms of the objectives of efficient delivery of performance and the successful achievement of results. Moreover, management behaviors dominantly center on the manager: gaining trust, being accountable, being optimistic, being visible, and providing recognition and reward. Leadership behaviors focus on the staff: trust people, engage people, motivate and encourage people.

Attitudes toward delegation and development make this distinction even clearer. “Managers” delegated largely as a way to increase efficiency; “leaders” delegated as a way to empower subordinates. Interviewees also mentioned more behaviors that leaders undertook to develop their employees – 14 behaviors in all. Only five such behaviors emerged for managers, leading me to conclude that employee development is seen as more central to the job of a “leader.” These five behaviors center on developing staff capability and team coherence to achieve the work goals. In contrast, the 14 leadership behaviors described by the participants focus on staff development for the benefit of the team.

Even when talking about their own self-improvement, the view of “managers” is that they’re more focused on themselves and on results, while “leaders” are more other-focused. Specifically, managers were described as focused on autodidactic improvement (i.e., practicing patience, doing self-reflection, having realistic expectations), whereas leaders were described as learned from other people (e.g., through gaining feedback or having mentors).

These conversations made clear to me that we think of managers having a different focus from leaders. And yet this distinction blurs significantly when we look at the daily activities of these people in charge. The majority of the activities described were very similar, or even identical — delegating, learning, motivating, and so on.

So, are leadership and management different in practice?

I’d suggest that they aren’t that different in terms of how they actually play out in organizations. Certain behaviors and activities are common to the effective demonstration of both leadership and management. The crucial difference – maybe the only difference — is the focus of the person carrying them out. Focus more on people and you’ll demonstrate leadership, more on results and you’ll perform management; but what you’re actually doing may not be that different.