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The Star Online: Business

Radical MAS organisational revamp
Tough battle for eurozone
MBSB adopts best industry practices: CEO

Posted: 30 Sep 2011 07:56 PM PDT

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has radically revamped the line of reporting and divisions, where managing director/group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will focus on long-haul while deputy CEO Mohammed Rashdan Yusof will look after the airline's short-haul operations.

While Jauhari will oversee the entire operations at MAS, Rashdan will also assume the role of head of commercial, pending the appointment of a new commercial director. The commercial director's job is basically to drive sales, oversee its network and revenue management.

Datuk Eddy Leong, the managing director of community airline Firefly, has been appointed chief operating officer for the short-haul operations. There is, however, no indication whether the Firefly brand name will be retained or be renamed.

A share-swap deal in August saw the entry of AirAsia founders Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun as MAS shareholders with a 20% equity stake. They are now directors of the national carrier.

Following the shake-up, MAS will realign itself to be a preferred premium carrier, focusing on long and short-haul operations, while AirAsia will continue to focus on the low-cost sector, covering both long and short-haul routes.

The shake-up also involved a revamp of the MAS board with Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof becoming its chairman. Rashdan, who in August was appointed executive director, has been designated as deputy CEO. Jauhari came on board MAS as its MD/group CEO on Sept 19.

After nearly two weeks on the job, Jauhari has come up with a new organisational structure that has distinct operating responsibilities, since the key focus is to rev up revenues.

The new structure had five main pillars, sources said.

The first four pillars are wide-body operations to oversee operations and customer experience; narrow-body operations, comprising short-haul and turboprops operations; finance and commercial (finance, corporate finance and strategic procurement, and commercial); human capital and support functions (HR, internal audit, communication, strategy, legal/risks, safety and company secretary).

And the last pillar covers key operating subsidiaries, MASKargo, MAS engineering and maintenance (MAE) and MAS Wings.

Besides being fully in-charge of the entire MAS group and long-haul operations, Jauhari will also oversee customer experience, operations, human capital, strategy/communications/legal/risk and three key operating subsidiaries.

Rashan will look after the short-haul operations, commercial, finance, corporate finance and strategic procurement units.

The head of units have been retained. They include operations under Capt Mohd Azharuddin Osman, Datuk Mohd Salleh Ahmad Tabrani is tasked with customer experience, Mohd Azha Abdul Jalil, finance, Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar, corporate finance/procurement, and Raja Azura Raja Mahayuddin, human capital.

The heads of the key operating subsidiaries remain Shahari Sulaiman (cargo), Mohd Roslan Ismail (MAE) and Datuk Capt Mohd Nawawi Awang (MASWings).

Sources said the seven regional heads would now report to Rashdan.

Sources said MAS' new customer experience unit showed its seriousness in building customer relationship which is crucial in the premium business. The long- and short-haul operations would use widebody and narrowbody aircraft, respectively. MAS is expected to take delivery of the A380 aircraft next year.

Sources said a management committee chaired by Jauhari would be set up and it was expected to meet every Monday. With the setting up of the management committee, the exco formed earlier would be disbanded, they said.

Tough battle for eurozone

Posted: 30 Sep 2011 07:51 PM PDT

WHEN in a hole, dig deeper", world famous speculator George Soros once said this about reviving a struggling US economy.

In delivering his speech at the University of Columbia about a year ago, Soros was explaining that the only way to get the US economy back on its feet was to have the country's already highly indebted government to provide further fiscal stimulus which means incurring even more debt.

Soros put it this way: "When a car is skidding, you have to turn the wheel in the direction of the skid to prevent the car from crashing. Only when you have regained control can you correct the direction of the car."

His suggestion defies conventional thinking. But some economists think that countries in the 17-nation eurozone seem prepared to go down that path in dealing with the region's deepening debt crisis that has been dampening global market sentiment recently.

Over the week, German policymakers voted in favour to strengthen the region's 440 billion euros (RM1.91 trillion) bailout fund, known simply as the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF. Among other things, the approval means Germany's commitment to the fund will increase to 211 billion euros from the current 123 billion euros.

The latest development in the eurozone does bring about a sense of relief among global market players not so much because it is an immediate remedy to the region's lingering debt crisis, but because it signifies Germany's strong commitment towards the financial stability of the region.

Being the strongest and one of the very few fundamentally-sound economies in the eurozone, Germany's support is deemed crucial for the region. Yet, it has not been an easy journey to convince the Germans to extend further support (financially, that is).

"We can afford solidarity," Germany's Deputy Foreign Minister Werner Hoyer maintained in a recent interview.

"One should not exaggerate the problems (of eurozone's debt crisis). What's necessary is that we are already seeing the respective countries moving aggressively on their reform efforts," he said.

While the lending capacity of EFSF has been expanded, Greece will still have to wait until next month to know whether it will be getting another round of crucial bailout money from its neighbours to prevent it from defaulting on its obligations. The markets may have started pricing in a Greek default, but eurozone leaders seem bent on not letting that happen.

Experts think the bailout fund is merely a short-term remedy and does not prevent the same problem from cropping up again.

An economist with a foreign bank says this to StarBizWeek: "Most of the solutions that we have taken so far seem very much like the cause that got us into the mess in the first place, that is, debt after debt.

"Whether that will work, well, we won't be able to know until some years later, or maybe earlier than that. But one thing I know, it looks kind of scary sometimes," he says.

In the latest quarterly global poll of 1,031 investors by Bloomberg, conducted before the German's approval of expanding the EFSF, 53% think the eurozone crisis will worsen, and 56% say they will be reducing their exposure to euro in the next six months. About three quarters think the eurozone economy will fall into a recession in the next 12 months. Such numbers underscore the deteriorating sentiment that investors have towards the region.

Stock market performances in Asia over the past one month show how sensitive the region is when investor sentiment is down. The sharp pullback in foreign capital sent stock markets in the region on a downward spiral and the value of Asian currencies falling in tandem.

Suddenly, Asia's growth story was no longer in memory.

In a Credit Suisse report on Asia's risk list dated July 27, analysts say while a credit crunch could well be avoided in Asia in the event of major sovereign or financial sector problems in the United States and/or eurozone, Asian economies could still be affected due to an impact on confidence and external demand.

The global bank's latest report on Asia decoupling argue that Asian exports are not as diversified as many people perceive it to be.

Its research found that there is a corelation between exports of Asian economies (except Japan) to markets other than the United States and European Union and those into these countries.

"The increase in intra-Asia trade has been mostly about China, which has become a regional assembly plant' that re-exports to other parts of the world," itsays.

It adds that China is becoming an increasingly important source of final demand due to its robust domestic economy but only to some products, that is, food, fuels and basic manufactured products.

Hence, only exporters of these basic products to China will be better positioned to benefit from the country's growth resilience, and the good news is, Malaysia is one of them.

China's demand may not be a super engine of growth for Malaysia's economy, but at least, it will provide some cushion to the nation's declining shipments.

Being a relatively small economy, trade is definitely an important source of growth for Malaysia.

In the midst of global uncertainties, it is heartening to note that Malaysia's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak says his government is mindful of the fear of a global recession, and that they are keeping a close watch on the global situation.

Najib has even emphasised the need to boost domestic demand, especially on the private investment.

Najib said Malaysia needs domestic investments of about RM940bil over the next 10 years, or an average of RM94bil each year, to achieve the high-income status by 2020. Total direct domestic investment (DDI) achieved so far this year is still way below the annual target, with DDI in manufacturing from January to July totalling only at RM15.9bil, while RM11bil was poured into the services sector during the first quarter of the year.

It is undeniable that the country's Government Transformation Programme and Economic Transformation Programme are geared towards the objective of boosting domestic demand and private investment.

But, analysts point out that for those objectives to be realised, more effort has to be put in to execute reform measures more effectively.

MBSB adopts best industry practices: CEO

Posted: 30 Sep 2011 07:48 PM PDT

Saturday October 1, 2011

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) adopts the best industry practices when evaluating the creditworthy of a government servant and does not "simply disburse personal loans based solely on salary deductions," according to chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman.

He was responding to comments made by Malayan Banking Bhd CEO Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar in The Star yesterday in relation to "personal loans given out by non-bank entitites" which he felt was misleading to the public and conveyed a negative picture of MBSB, the oldest local financial institution in the country.

In a statement he said: "MBSB made an impact in the industry in mid-2009 when it re-entered the market and provided Personal Financing-i to government servants at the lowest rate of 4.90% per annum.

"This was markedly lower than most rates then which were above 7.50%. It was also significantly lower than another source of financing which is credit card at between 13.5% and 17.5% per annum or its cash advance withdrawals at the maximum of 18%."

"MBSB believes that the rate offered is the true reflection of the level of risks undertaken by MBSB as repayment is collected via salary deduction."

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Sabtu, 1 Oktober 2011