The 20.7m two-hulled yacht is notable for boasting more space than other yachts of the same length. Its living space of nearly 300 sq m is usually seen only in yachts above 24m in length. It is co-owned by Dr Julian Theng and his sister, lawyer Lisa Theng.

The siblings are renting out the Sunreef Supreme 68 Eagle Wings to defray its monthly maintenance costs of $60,000. This amount goes to maintaining a crew, boat maintenance and paying for parking, among other things.

They bought the boat to spend time with their extended family of 17 people and hope to use it once every two weeks. The family has had “great bonding time” every time they chartered boats in the last few years, said Dr Theng, 48, chairman and medical director at Eagle Eye Centre.

The boat-lover added: “The business aspect is secondary but yet we can’t leave it lying adock.”

The boat’s retail price is about $5 million, though Dr Theng purchased it at a discount.

His sister, 49, is managing partner of law firm Colin Ng & Partners.

Next month, the yacht will be offered at a promotional rate of about $3,750 for four to five hours. If demand allows, the siblings hope to gradually raise the rate to about $7,500. At those prices, 44 people can go on board and fine dining will be served at a further promotional cost of $60 per head for up to 20 people.

About 10 people have already expressed interest in renting the yacht, Dr Theng said.

Aimed at the luxury segment, the boat has an air-conditioned central area with glass walls, semi leather chairs and a wooden floor.

It comes with a karaoke set, a piano and a mahjong table. The ship also has four bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom, and an open-air bar. Bookings can be made at: http://www.eaglewingsyachtcharters.com.sg.

Yacht companies told The Straits Times that yacht chartering has been on the rise in the past few years. There are now more charter boats docked at marinas and at sail in the nearby waters, according to Brent Rubbo, general manager at yacht dealer and brokerage Premium Nautical. The number of charter boats here has recently increased by 15 per cent a year, he estimates.

Aqua Voyage Yacht Chartering told The Straits Times that charter inquiries have grown about 15 per cent from 2014 to 2015, even though the haze in late 2015 hit demand.

Desmond Choo, founder and managing director at YachtCharter.sg, said: “With growing affluence, there is definitely an increase in both the supply of yachts made available for charter, as well as the demand for rental of charter yachts in the past few years.”

With a population of over 90 million and 60 percent in their 30s or younger, Vietnam stands out as a market promising robust growth. A recent report by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said the Korean government is pursuing expansion of consumer goods exports to Vietnam to make up for the country’s slowing trade, describing Vietnam as a good opportunity for local firms.

CJ Group, whose affiliates range from entertainment to food and beverages, made an early start, opening an office in Vietnam in 1998. The group’s chairman, Lee Jay-hyun, declared in 2012 that the conglomerate will build a “third CJ” in Vietnam following South Korea and China. It is currently engaged in seven different sectors and maintaining its top position in three of them — bakery, home shopping and movie theaters.

In February, it took over Ong Kim’s, a popular kimchi brand in Vietnam. A month later, it acquired a 4.08-percent stake in the country’s meat manufacturer Vissan and is planning to obtain more.

The group produces some 700,000 tonnes of animal feed a year and, according to company officials, it has started to look into the local livestock industry. Last year, it partnered with Sumitomo of Japan to step into the milling market.

“We will be proceeding with our active investment in Vietnam across different industries,” a CJ official said. “We will expand the scale of investment, such as increasing milling factories, to raise our market status in Vietnam.”

A third super tall building is entering the scene, this time in Tun Razak Exchange (TRX).

Mulia Property Development Sdn Bhd, which is part of Indonesia’s commercial property developer Mulia Group, will be building its 92-storey Signature Tower in the 70-acre site that is being primed as Malaysia’s financial and banking district. When completed, it will be among the top 15 tallest buildings in the world while Merdeka PNB118 is among the top 10. When the Petronas Twin Towers were completed in 1998, they were the world’s tallest.

Mulia chief executive director W.H. Lai said Signature Tower, about 30 ft short of the Twin Towers’ 1,482 ft, should not be seen as competing with iconic buildings in the city.

“Signature Tower will complement them. When completed, it will offer a fresh and contemporary look to Kuala Lumpur’s landscape,” he said at a press conference on Saturday (April 30).

It was a milestone for Mulia. The company took the press for a site visit to view the pouring of a massive 20,200 cu m of concrete into its foundation or belly of the building, enough to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools.

About 1,500 workers were involved with work on a 22×7 schedule, said project director Roland Suckling.

Suckling said the Mulia Property Development had kept to that schedule since November/December last year in order to speed up construction. Signature Tower is expected to be completed by 2018.

Said Suckling: “It has to be done over the weekend or it will impose a significant strain on the city’s infrastructure. We wanted to minimise the impact of this ‘concrete pour’ on the city’s infrastructure. It is arguably one of the ‘biggest and longest pour’ in Malaysia’s (building and construction) history.”

The concrete pour, estimated to be among the largest recorded globally, involved 8.5 million kg of cement, 16 million kg of sand and 19 million kg of aggregate, Suckling said.

The Signature Tower, with a gross development value (GDV) of more than 3.5 billion ringgit (US$893.4 million), will have 92 storeys of column-free floors each averaging 34,000 sq ft, the largest configuration of column-free floor space in the city. It will have a gross floor area of 4 million sq ft and a net lettable area of 2.65 million sq ft.

“It will be the most luxurious skyscraper, built with some of the most advanced and fast-track construction strategies which we hope to share with other developers. We will have four lifts to take workers up and once they are up there, they will not be coming down until it is the end of their working day. Food will be delivered to them so that no time is wasted,” Lai said.

On the already oversupply of office space in the Klang Valley and the group’s rationale to spend more to go on a fast-track construction mode, Lai said the group was aware of the situation.

“But we are not benchmarking ourselves against the general current environment. Signature Tower offers a particular market segment like no other. In that sense, what Signature Tower is going to offer is not in oversupply,” he said.

Lai said the urgency to complete the project by 2018 would have its benefits.

“Once we start a project, we want to see fruition as fast as possible. The group will reap the benefits of spending additional money to fast-track its completion. If you look at the lifespan of the entire project on a 20-, 50- and 100-year basis, a little money upfront will have its benefits,” he said.

The group is eyeing banking and finance, information and technology, oil and gas sectors among its tenants.

On Mulia Group’s decision to buy the 3.4-acre site in May 2015 for 665 million ringgit, or 4,490 ringgit per sq ft, among the highest land deals in the vicinity, Lai said: “We ran through our financial model, and we looked at the market. Based on that and other considerations, it is a valuable project. There were incentives for developers and standard incentives, which were given to other developers in TRX. But there were no (special) incentives given specifically to us. They were incentives given to TRX as a whole.

“There were also incentives (given) to attract tenants into TRX. Not for Signature Tower per se but for tenants in general, and this (site of Signature Tower) is part of the financial quarter,” said Lai.

Mulia’s land has the highest plot ratio of 18.5 times compared with other TRX land parcels that were sold which ranged from 10.8 to 15.2 times. The group paid 77 million ringgit more for the piece of land to build the iconic tower compared to the earlier price on the table.

Initially, Tabung Haji Foundation was offered the land that came with the mandate to build the tower. However, the pilgrim fund turned down the offer and bought another TRX site slated for a residential development.

This is the second change of the tax calculation this year. The first was put into effect in January 1. The changes, which were made in such a short time, reportedly made it difficult for auto businesses to set up their future plans.

The petitioners are official suppliers of giant automakers in the world, including Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini, BMW and Mini, Jaguar and Land Rover, Luxgen and Baic, Maserati, Renault, Rolls-Royce, Subaru and Volkswagen.

In an urgent petition sent to the Prime Minister, the ministries of industry and trade and finance, and the National Assembly’s Economic and Budget Committee, they said the application of the revised law would face problems because the new tax calculation was unclear.

According to the current tax calculation method issued by a government decree, which went into effect in January, the special consumption tax increased 5 per cent in the price of imported cars.

However, this will change on July 1 when the revised law approved by the National Assembly takes effect. In the revised law, the rate will be calculated based on the average selling prices of dealerships with set price frames. However, the range of the price frames has not been specified.

Importers said there was not yet detailed information about the implementation of the law, even though it would come into effect in the next two months.

They said their transactions were based on a period of six months, from receiving the orders to delivering vehicles to the customers. Therefore, in this time, they cannot quote an exact price in Vietnamese Dong for those who place an auto delivery order after July 1.

“This will cause negative impacts on the auto importers’ businesses and reduce the State budget’s collection as well,” said the petition.

With such difficulties, they asked the government to keep the current method in place and delay the new tax calculation method until it is clearer.

This petition was not the first time auto importers called for help from the government. In November last year, eight auto importers sent a petition to relevant ministries about regulations on the calculation of special taxes, which took effect on January 1. This calculation has caused the prices of many cars to increase by 15 per cent to 30 per cent.

The auto importers asked the Ministry of Finance to issue detailed instructions and a suitable time frame for them to apply the new tax calculation smoothly.

They have also asked the ministry to host a public conference to get ideas from auto importers and domestic auto assembling factories before the new tax calculation is enacted.

Under the Special Consumption Tax, there will be many changes on auto tariffs. Taxes on vehicles with low engine displacement will be reduced, while taxes will be raised for vehicles with high engine displacement of more than 2,500cc.

In particular, vehicles with high engine displacement from 3,000cc to 6,000cc will be taxed from 90 per cent to 150 per cent.

For example, the model Mercedes S500L is being sold at a retail price of VND5 billion (US$224,900). As of July 1, when the new special consumption tax rate of 110 per cent is applied, a hike from the current 60 per cent, its price will raise to about VND6.6 billion.

The Finance Ministry said the tax adjustment was aimed at ensuring fairness as well as matching the country’s automobile industry development strategy, which encourages the production and consumption of vehicles with low engine displacement that are suitable for the country’s traffic infrastructure and middle-income people.

“Some roadside vendors are poor while some are relatively well off. The rents are so high – ranging up to Ks1 million [US$830] a month. There will be no confrontation. Instead, we will enforce the rules,” said an official of the YCDC’s West District.

The lists of roadside stalls from the old government are due to be updated and the authorities will continue to allow shops to open after 3pm.

Most of the shops are in Kyauktada, Pabedan and Latha townships and the shops that open before 3pm will be disciplined. Kyauktada has 80 YCDC staff members, Pabedan 90 staff and Latha 30 enforcing the rules from 6am to 4pm.

There have been confrontations between YCDC staff and shopkeepers with some cases going to court.

Roadside shops contribute to traffic jams with some specialists suggesting they should be placed in a new location away from the main roads.

The roadside stallholders have been exempt from tax since June 2011, but their opening hours are limited to five hours a day, from 3pm to 8pm. The state has lost an estimated Ks800 million in tax, according to the YCDC.

Yangon is home to over 100,000 roadside shops with the number increasing 10-fold under the previous government.

He emphasized that physical development was not enough to enhance the condition of the traditional markets, adding that management also needed to be professional and modern. “I want traditional markets to compete with malls,” Jokowi said during the inauguration of Amahami market in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, on Friday.

The President also stressed the needs for traditional markets managers across the nation to exchange information about the supply and price of commodities, citing the example that the onion price in Jakarta was more expensive than the price in Bima. “If onions from Bima are sent to Jakarta, it will benefit the farmers,” he went on.

Jokowi expressed hope that the local people would take part in caring for the market, as it had cost Rp 7.9 billion ( US$ 598,598 ) – Rp 7 billion from the state budget and Rp 900 million from Bima regional budget – to renovate.

“I entrust the Amahami market, I entrust our traditional markets, to you. I hope that markets will no longer be muddy, stinky and disorganized. Instead, a traditional market should be neat and well-organized,” Jokowi said.

In relation to the 500 or so traders who have yet to obtain kiosks in the market, he ordered the trade Ministry to expand the Amahami Market. “Expand it again so that all traders will be accommodated by the time I come here again next year,” he said.

CAG presented 23 awards across six categories to the aviation community at its annual Changi Airline Awards, which is now into its 11th year.

Chinese carrier Xiamen Airlines was named Partner of the Year, while Singapore Airlines, Tigerair, SilkAir, Jetstar Asia and AirAsia were the top five airlines in terms of passengers carried.

Singapore Airlines Cargo topped the list for the highest cargo volume, followed by FedEx Express, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines and Air Hong Kong.

Xiamen Airlines currently has the widest Singapore-China network, with flights to seven Chinese cities including Dalian, Fuzhou, and Tianjin, said CAG.

It is also the third largest airline for passenger carriage among Chinese carriers operating at Changi Airport, with more than 370,000 passengers recorded last year.

Over the past five years, it has achieved a compounded annual growth rate of 11 per cent in passenger traffic.

Last March, Xiamen Airlines added its fourth daily service (Xi’an-Hangzhou-Singapore), doubling its capacity on the Singapore-Hangzhou route.

The move was part of a three-year Memorandum of Collaboration inked between the airline and CAG to jointly grow traffic and connectivity between Singapore and China.

Said chairman and CEO of Xiamen Airlines, Che Shanglun: “Singapore has always been a strategic point in Xiamen Airlines’ Southeast Asian network … We look forward to continuing our strong collaboration with CAG to further the aviation development between Singapore and China.”

New award winners Air France and Tri-MG Intra-Asia Airlines were among the strongest growing airlines for passenger and cargo carriage respectively.

It was “a year of resilience and recovery” for CAG, which noted a turnaround in passenger traffic in the second half of 2015 after showing flat growth in the first half.

Led by the recovery in intra-Asian travel, the group welcomed eight new scheduled airlines and 10 new city links to cap the year’s annual passenger traffic growth at an all-time high of 2.5 per cent to 55.4 million passengers.

“The growth momentum has extended into 2016. We achieved growth of 10 per cent in the first quarter of this year, on the back of strong travel demand across all our major markets,” said CAG chief executive Lee Seow Hiang.

He also welcomed Singapore Airlines’ new services to Dusseldorf, Canberra and Wellington in the coming months.

“An improvement in global economic activity, stable oil prices and the delivery of longer range aircraft will present new growth opportunities for the industry,” he said.

The contract was signed between the Lao government and Long Van Company of Vietnam.

Attending the event were Lao Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Sisou Phanthong, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Geology and Mineral Resources Khampha Phommakaysone and Envoy at the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos Hoang Xuan Hai.

Following an initial survey of 600ha out of a total of 15,000ha, the Long Van Company has found a reserve of nearly 60 million tonnes of coal in Xam Neua.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Director of Long Van Company Pham Ngoc Long pledged to ensure the project’s efficiency in tandem with environment protection, and to generate more local jobs, which will contribute to furthering the traditional friendship and comprehensive co-operation between Vietnam and Laos.

Considering that the share price now is at 2 ringgit each, certainly, there would be queries at the upcoming shareholders’ meeting that would deliberate on the proposed placement to the founders – Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun – and not all the shareholders.

Assuming the share price continues its uptrend and sails well above the placement price of 1.84 ringgit (if adjusted for dividends, the price would go down to 1.80 ringgit), the beneficiaries of the placement shares would be sitting on a tidy sum of paper profit.

On this score, the placement looks favourable to the founders Fernandes and Kamarudin.

So, therein lies the reason why the AirAsia shareholders’ meeting to deliberate on the proposal could be an interesting affair.

The proceeds from the proposed placement is 1 billion ringgit. If the exercise is to send a signal of confidence to the market that the founders are prepared to fork out such a large sum to go into the low-cost carrier as they believe in the business model, then the message has been well-received. It is obvious from the buoyant share price.

However, there are other ways that the founders could have opted to send a sure sign to the market that they are in the airline for the long term.

The conventional method would be to mop up the shares from the open market.

But it may cost them much more than 1 billion ringgit to raise their stake to a fairly significant amount from the current 18.9%. This is because institutional funds and retail investors would start chasing the shares upon seeing the founders purchasing them from the open market.

Another hitch to an open market purchase would be the uncertainty that Fernandes and Kamarudin would get the required number of shares to raise their stake from the current 18.9 per cent to 32.4 per cent – the equity stake that the duo would have after the placement exercise.

Lastly, an open market purchase of shares would not benefit AirAsia as it would not get fresh funds.

The board of AirAsia has stated that the reason why it opted for a placement instead of a rights issue is because the former brings about certainty and there is no need for an underwriter. It also said that a US$1 billion multi-currency facility proposed in January was not feasible.

However, there is an argument that AirAsia does not need the money, as the low crude oil prices have resulted in the airline’s profits and cash flow soaring. In a nutshell, there is a view held by some that AirAsia’s debts of about 12.6 billion ringgit as at the end of last year are manageable.

But the view was very different a year ago.

When the ringgit skidded against the US dollar, AirAsia’s share price fell to a low of 78 sen. It was perceived that the airline’s debts would be unmanageable because they were largely denominated in US dollars while the bulk of AirAsia’s earnings were in ringgit.

The irony is, if the placement is completed, the debts would reduce to 12.3 billion ringgit, which is not very much lower compared to the present amount of 12.6 billion ringgit.

So, fears that AirAsia’s debts were insurmountable a year ago and is not the case now does not really hold water.

But what would matter is if the ringgit starts to weaken against the US dollar, which may happen in the second half of the year. then AirAsia’s shares would once again come under pressure, especially if the oil price starts to move up.

Such pressure could expose AirAsia to other vagaries apart from its business itself.

One reality is that it could even be a takeover target as the founders, who are also the prime movers of the airline, only own 18.9 per cent.

Having said that, if Fernandes and Kamarudin propose a placement exercise during a low price environment, they would come across as trying to purchase the shares cheap.

The proposed placement would raise the stake of Fernandes and Kamarudin to 32.4 per cent, an equity stake that would put them firmly in control against any possible takeover when the operating environment in the cut-throat airline industry goes bad.

A shareholding of 18.9 per cent is just too small for the founders, who are the main drivers of AirAsia, to be comfortable. It is vulnerable to a takeover if there is a downturn in the airline industry and things go bad for AirAsia.

Therein lies this question: Can AirAsia survive without Fernandes and Kamarudin?

It is something shareholders could ponder.

AirAsia depends on the duo for overall direction and they have a track record that proves their capabilities. Fernandes is smooth with the marketing of the airline, while Kamarudin is known to be a shrewd negotiator in getting the best financing deals.

They have a proven track record of navigating the airline through several crises and gyrations in the oil prices.

This may be one reason why shareholders would vote for the proposal, although there would be some serious deliberation at the meeting to discuss the placement.

One of it could be why Tune Air, which is their holding company, is disposing its stake in the market at about RM2 prior to the AGM? It does not look good for them to get placement shares at 1.84 ringgit when Tune Air is reducing its stake at 2 ringgit.

To be fair, in announcements to Bursa Malaysia, Tune Air has stated that the shares disposed were in favour of Datuk Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar, who is one of the founders of AirAsia.

The placement is being done to Tune Live Sdn Bhd, a company that is equally owned by Fernandes and Kamarudin only.

Some shareholders, however, would wonder why Fernandes and Kamarudin did not buy the shares from Aziz.

This is something for them to answer. Nevertheless, it should not derail the proposed placement to the founders.

The firm reported that it earned VND6.1 trillion (US$273 million) in revenue and VND203 billion profit after tax in 2015, adding that its sales and profits saw some reduction due to less consumption by central highland farmers under the impact of a prolonged drought and lower coffee prices.

This year the firm planned to produce more than 650,000 tonnes of fertilizer, up 17 per cent compared to 2015. It also scheduled a revenue of VND6.6 trillion and a before tax profit of VND369 billion, as much as a year-on-year increase of 9 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. BFC leaders told shareholders that if they met the plan, they would pay another 20 per cent dividend in 2016.

Also at the meeting, Binh Diền Fertiliser announced an issuing of 9.5 million bonus shares at the ratio of 5:1 for existing shareholders in 2016. After issuance, the total shares of BFC would reach 57 million, with a charter capital of VND570 billion.

In order to better serve the export and import of the products, the firm said it would accelerate the construction of a 3,000 tonne port in Long An Province where they transfer goods via a local river.

Market expansion

Binh Dien Fertiliser said after some introduction campaigns, its fertilizer brand Buffalo Head had gained a lot of trust from farmers in Cambodia and Myanmar, adding that sales in the two countries kept increasing.

BFC, one of the country’s leading fertiliser producers, canceled a fertilizer plant in Dong Nai Province due to local difficulties with infrastructure. Instead it would research and invest in a fertilizer factory in Myanmar to dominate the new market, said the director of the board.

The fertilizer firm also planned to make gains in Thailand’s market with special products that were developed to serve specific plantations. According to the firm, with its strong agricultural production, Thailand was a big market for three-component fertilizers that provided nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK fertilizer) products. However the local fertilizer products in Thailand were mostly generic for all plantation types, and were less effective than BFC products that are developed for specific types of plantations. Thus, the firm said the Thai market was a good destination for development.

Based in HCM City since 1973, the firm engages in the manufacture and trade of fertilizer, cattle-feed and aqua-products. It also produces, processes and packages insecticides. It is among the largest fertilizer firms in the country, serving 30 per cent of the nationwide NPK fertilizer demand.

With one plant in Long An, and four subsidiaries in other provinces, BFC has the capacity to produce over one million tonnes of fertilizer each year. Its distribution system of 200 wholesale points and over 2,500 retail points also included Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

On April 27, BFC shares ended at VND30,900 each on the HCM City Stock Exchange.