The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Malaysia Airlines charts course for next 20 years
- KLCI streaks to another record high in early trade
- HP’s outlook disappoints
| Malaysia Airlines charts course for next 20 years Posted: 04 Oct 2012 06:18 PM PDT THEY say life begins at 40. This is the time when some choose to lift their foot off the accelerator to enjoy what they have achieved, and some begin to re-prioritise their lives. A group of former employees of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) they are certainly not 40 years old met for a game of golf and had a sumptuous lunch on Monday to mark the airline's 40 yearsanniversary. To them it was an important landmark because it was on that day four decades ago that MAS broke away from Malaysia-Singapore Airlines to chart its own flight path. More than 100 people had lunch together and reminisced about their days at the airline. Those at the lunch included Tan Sri Saw Huat Lye, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman (first and second GM/MD of MAS respectively), Datuk Kamarudin Ahmad, Datuk Resham Singh and Datuk Ahmad Don. They had reasons to celebrate. Amid all the turbulent years of falling into private hands and later back to the Government, this airline has carried a great number of passengers across the globe. Although it is undergoing restructuring, it is still flying unlike several other carriers that began about the same time. Many travellers have fond memories of flying with MAS and the one thing that continues to captivate many is the big smiles and hospitality of its crew. Despite its ups and downs, MAS was accorded three Skytrax awards again this year, including World Best Cabin staff 2012, There must be something that the crew and MAS are doing right. And at 40, MAS is beginning to build a new fleet that comprises the A380 to fight competition although it would in the red much of this and next year, so say the bosses at MAS. Interestingly at 40, there is still talk that MAS may be taken private once again. There is a long-standing rumour that MAS parent Khazanah Nasional Bhd would want to do a "Proton" i.e. sell its MAS shares to a businessman. Some say the suitors may include Middle Eastern investors. Others say Tan Sri Ahmad Johan of Nadi Sdn Bhd is keen to acquire a stake in MAS. His name has long been linked with a possible MAS sale, but it should be noted that he has partnered Indonesia's Lion Air to set up Malindo Airways, a low-cost airline that will begin operations on May 1 from KLIA2. At this point, any talk of MAS having a new controlling shareholder is mere rumour. However, come Saturday there is likely to be a retreat with some MAS union leaders. Ahmad Johan and Aziz have been linked to this. The venue of the retreat is said to have changed three times from Rompin to Bukit Tinggi and now it will be held at a hotel near MAS office in Subang. Aziz did clarify that it was a "brainstorming meeting". "They (the unions) want to know what's now and what's the future of the industry," he said. MAS is rebuilding itself once again. A lot has to be improved and even its directors are going help out. MAS still has a good brand. Its safety and security standards are respectable, and the A380 is a great morale booster. The enhancements in efficiency are slowly showing results in some areas. Those within MAS can help by improving their performance and staying united. A lot more can be achieved if they are all on the same page. Another retreat is on the cards after Saturday, but this will involve the MAS management as they map out the airline's flight path to 2030.
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| KLCI streaks to another record high in early trade Posted: 04 Oct 2012 06:12 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian blue chips rose at the start of trade on Friday, pushing the 30-stock FBM KLCI to a record high of 1,665 on fund buying of Axiata and CIMB. At 9am, the KLCI was up 3.70 points to 1,665.17. Turnover was 10.37 million shares valued at RM4.57mil. There were 55 gainers, 19 losers and 69 counters unchanged. Asian stocks rose, with the benchmark regional index set to gain a second day, after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank stands ready to buy bonds, easing concern over the debt crisis. The Bank of Japan ends a two-day policy meeting on Friday, Bloomberg said. On Wall Street, key indices closed higher as the S&P extended its gains for the fourth day. Bloomberg reported the gains on the S&P were due to better-than-forecast jobless claims and factory orders while the European Central Bank said it stands ready to buy bonds. At Bursa Malaysia, Axiata rose seven sen to RM6.77, CIMB five sen to RM7.68 while HL Bank added four sen to RM13.72. Petronas Dagangan rose six sen to RM22.42, PetGas added four sen to RM20.20 and KLK, also four sen to RM21.56. |
| Posted: 04 Oct 2012 06:10 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO: HewlettPackard Co's shares plunged to a nine-year low on Wednesday after chief executive Meg Whitman warned of an unexpectedly steep earnings slide in 2013, with revenue set to fall in every business division except software. Wall Street had hoped for quicker signs of progress on Whitman's turnaround plan, which centers on transforming the former industry powerhouse into an enterprise computing corporation that can take on IBM and Dell Inc. Whitman, who took the helm of HP just over a year ago after a failed bid to become governor of California, told investors that the company's recovery will start to become visible only in fiscal 2014, when investments begin to pay off. She blamed unprecedented executive turnover in past years for dragging out the Silicon Valley company's turnaround. Analysts say HP is struggling to shore up its credibility on Wall Street while battling crumbling margins in an increasingly cutthroat PC arena, tapering-off of IT spending, and an internal organisational overhaul that involves thousands of layoffs. "I was surprised that nothing new was really said in terms of strategy, and the problem here is there is lack of investor confidence in the current strategy," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee. Shares of HP, the largest U.S. technology company by sales, tumbled 13% on Wednesday in the biggest single-day decline since August 2011. HP gave a particularly gloomy outlook for enterprise services, its business providing services to corporations and a key component of Whitman's rescue plan. Revenue from that division will dive 11% to 13 % in fiscal 2013 and be barely profitable, with operating margins of zero to 3%. That stands in stark contrast to IBM, which raised its fullyear earnings outlook, reflecting its ability to manage costs, despite flat software revenue in the second quarter and a 2% decline in services. Whitman became HP's third CEO in as many years after taking over following Leo Apotheker's abrupt dismissal just over one year ago. She is trying to revitalise the former industry icon via layoffs, cost cutting, and expansion into areas with longerterm potential such as enterprise computing services. "The single biggest challenge facing HewlettPackard has been changes in CEOs and executive leadership, which has caused multiple inconsistent strategic choices, and frankly some significant executional miscues," Whitman told the investor conference in San Francisco. - Reuters "This is important because as a result it is going to take longer to right this ship than any of us would like," she added. HP has lost more than twothirds of its value since 2010, when its capitalization topped out at about $104.5 billion. Squeezed by crumbling demand for personal computers in a mobile era, significant leadership turbulence, and the advent of Apple Inc's iPad that year, HP's stock embarked on a steady decline. The company now has a market value around $30 billion. Since Whitman took the helm in September 2011, the stock has fallen about 35 %. HP has suffered through years of turbulence. Apotheker's 11month tenure was marked by an acceleration of departures from various divisions, such as networking chief Marius Haas, as he brought in former coworkers from SAP AG. Apotheker's predecessor, Mark Hurd, who is now president of Oracle Corp, also departed abruptly, after a sexual harassment scandal. HP, like rival Dell, is trying to transform itself into a major enterprise computing provider in the mold of IBM, while slashing expenses to boost the bottom line. Shares of Dell, the No. 2 U.S. PC maker after HP, fell 4.7 % on Wednesday, mired near nineyear lows. HP is laying off 29,000 employees over the next two years and has written off $10.8 billion mostly related to the writedown of its EDS services business. Meantime, its business continues to be hit by a slowing in corporate spending and personal computer demand worldwide. For 2013, the company forecast overall earnings, excluding restructuring charges and other items, at between $3.40 to $3.60 a share in fiscal 2013. That's well below the average forecast by Wall Street analyst of $4.18, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. A large part of the shortfall rests on the projected plunge in enterprise revenue, a division that sells myriad services to businesses and has seen an erosion in profitability. Operating profit fell 22 % in the July quarter, surpassed only by a 28 % slump in personal computers. Mike Nefkens, HP's acting global enterprise leader ,said fiscal 2013 "will be a fix and build year." "We expect longterm growth to be back in the 35 % range and longterm profit to be in the 79 % range," he said. The heads of other business units also addressed Wednesday's conference, touting both new products and challenges facing the groups. HP is battling formidable rivals on several fronts, particularly in cloud, or remote computing, products and services, with Oracle and IBM aggressively courting corporate customers. China's Lenovo Group Ltd may overtake HP as the world's biggest PC seller this year. Whitman vowed to reduce the number of product offerings and to cut costs as HP tries to recover in a worsening macroeconomic environment. She has said it will take five years for the turnaround to be effective. "All of this is fixable but it is going to take some time," she said. She said HP eventually will have to compete in the smartphone market, but stopped short of laying out a plan and said there were no plans to introduce a smartphone in 2013. Longer term, HP expects "to be a GDPlike growth company with key pockets of higher growth," said Cathie Lesjak, HP's chief financial officer. Its stock closed down 13 % at $14.91 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting By Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan; Editing by Leslie Adler) |
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