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18 May 2018

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

It has been an eventful two weeks.

Active politicians as directors of listed companies

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is clear with its Corporate Governance requirement that a director of a financial institution must not be an active politician.

An active politician refers to an individual who is a member of any national or state legislative body, or who is an office bearer of, or holds any similar office or position in a political party.

In fact, when it comes to Anti Money Laundering requirements, Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) are to be subjected to Enhanced Customer Due Diligence as opposed to normal Customer Due Diligence.

These requirements are testament to the fact that there is an increased risk when politics mixes with business and when we have politicians on the board of listed companies.

Even now, we can think of two or three listed companies, which have politicians or politically linked persons on their board, which are suffering negative publicity on allegations of fraud or malpractices.

11 May 2018

MSWG’S WATCHLIST

TH HEAVY ENGINEERING BERHAD (“THHE”)
The Board informed that the company is still formulating the regularisation plan. The Board had on 27 April 2018 submitted an application for an extension of time (“EOT Application”) to submit the company’s Regularisation Plan to Bursa Securities, the decision on which is pending as at the date of this announcement. The company will make the necessary announcements on further developments in relation to the Regularisation Plan in accordance with the requirements under PN17 of the Main Market Listing Requirements.
[Source: THHE’s announcement on Bursa Malaysia’s website on 3 May 2018]

04 May 2018

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Getting a new director on board

When speaking about independent directors, often two informal categories come to mind - independent directors (as the job title suggests) and the truly ‘independent’ independent directors.

This cynicism stems from the fact that majority shareholders are entitled to elect independent directors (except where companies adopt two-tier voting as advocated by the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG) for independent directors who have served beyond 12 years and wish to continue as independent directors).

Independent directors are typically sourced from three sources, namely (i) existing board members; (ii) within the management; and (iii) among the company’s major shareholders. Obviously, this begs the question of ‘how independent’ these independent directors can really be, thus sparking a fair bit of cynicism.

The MCCG now advocates the casting of a wider net when nominating independent directors and goes on to state that reasons must be given if a board chooses not to cast a wider net.

30.04.2018

MARKET AND REGULATORY UPDATE

BURSA MALAYSIA LAUNCHES BURSASUSTAIN, A ONE-STOP KNOWLEDGE HUB ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Bursa Malaysia has launched BURSASUSTAIN, a comprehensive online portal designed as a one-stop knowledge and information hub on corporate governance (“CG”) and sustainability.

BURSASUSTAIN was developed following extensive research, benchmarking and engagement with various stakeholder groups. The hub aims to provide a platform for users, such as listed issuers, investors and other key stakeholders, to have easy access to the latest information on CG and sustainability. Designed to be user-friendly, BURSASUSTAIN contains webcasts, case studies, commentaries, videos, reports, e-learning and weekly news updates from both local and international sources, to serve stakeholders with diverging needs.

The three key pillars housed in BURSASUSTAIN are as follows:

Corporate Governance pillar provides resources that help listed issuers understand the benefits and value of adopting good CG practices. Listed issuers can have a better understanding of managing and improving CG within their company with the availability of all relevant information under this section including the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance, CG Guide and other guidance as well as various literature.