Regulator or Business? The Travails of Being a Stock Exchange Operator

Bursa Malaysia CEO Dato Tajuddin Atan discusses;

- Transition from RHB banker to market regulator and stock exchange CEO;
- Journey from RHB to Bursa - process - headhunt;
- Self analysis -- 13 months on the job - challenges - wins;
- Business plan - KPIs and yardsticks;
- Operations - trading volume - velocity - comparable - details;
- Strategies - increase - retail interest;
- Regional Standing - Reputation - SG (F1, Manchester United) and HK (Prada, Wilmar) - whither Malaysia;
- Malaysia market weighting - MSCI Emerging Market Index increased from 2.9% to 3.2% - but historically much higher - concerns;
- Lack of liquidity - Malaysia increasingly off the radar;
- Government divestment program - whether on track;
- Whether going into 'appropriate' hands: Pos Malaysia - Proton - TS Syed Mokhtar;
- Sime - E&O - husband of SC Chairman - market perception - information unevenly distributed - selectively - poor regulatory oversight;
- Low retail interest - tycoons - ‘cronyistic’ or monopolistic businesses - Xian Leng - presence MCA Chairman’s brother;
- Penny Stock - UMAs - designations - Proton - Naim Indah - Harvest Court;
- Listing - De-listing - valuations - whether relisting conditions should be imposed;
- Conflict - issues - regulator - commercial entity;
- Enforcement - penalties - whether too lax;
- Whether legislation should be amended - courts and judges to be educated;
- Financials - drops in securities clearing fees and listing fees - whether weak year financially - outlook;
- Other Q1 key drivers - weakening - number of IPOs (2 from 9) - trading velocity (34% from 42%) - visibility for rest of year;
- Last FY: 95 per cent payout - policy is 70 per cent - outlook policy;
- Regional competition - raising capital;
- Market friction - vis-a-vis SC.