AirAsia-MAS share swap

AirAsia-MAS share swap: The barbarians have entered the gates — William Leong

SEPT 1 — In the 10-year war for control of the Malaysian skies, while a besieged MAS was desperately fighting for survival, someone opened the gates for the barbarians to enter.

Barbarians at the gates

The AirAsia-MAS share swap reminds me of the takeover saga of RJR Nabisco. The company was a merger of RJ Reynolds, the tobacco company selling "Camel", "Winston" and "Salem" cigarettes and Nabisco, the biscuit company selling "Oreos", "Ritz Crackers" and snacks.

The financial firm of Kohberg Kravis Roberts & Co (commonly referred to as "KKR") made a hostile takeover bid for the company. There was a fierce battle for control of the company. The board, in protecting the company's and shareholders' interest, drove KKR and the other bidders to increase their bids several times until KKR won with a bid of US$31.1 billion (RM93.3 billion). It was the largest leverage buyout in history and the record stood for 17 years. RJ Reynolds was subsequently spun out of RJR Nabisco due to tobacco legislation. Nabisco is now owned by Kraft Foods. The RJR Nabisco leverage buyout was considered to be the pre-eminent example of corporate and executive greed. The events were chronicled in a book called "Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco".

The fight for control of the Malaysian skies has been an uneven battle from the beginning. In the end those responsible for MAS's defence not only did not put up a fight but opened the gates to allow AirAsia into MAS's management. The share swap has given rise to concerns on the pricing and whether it will benefit the public-funded MAS.

Pricing issues

One of the favourite sayings of corporate raiders and businessmen is "OPM", that is to operate using "Other People's Money". In the case of the AirAsia-MAS share swap, it is the people's money because MAS is funded by taxpayers.

The pricing of the share swap has raised eyebrows. The parties, in using the August 5 closing market price of both airlines as the basis for the share swap, have raised several concerns.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in his August 10 article "MAS-AirAsia share swap deal raises serious concerns over effective control and governance", referred, among others, to issues of insider trading and asset stripping.

A look at the price charts of the two companies for the past six months supports Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's concerns. The MAS share price fell sharply on May 30, 2011 to RM1.34. It continued to be in the doldrums until August 5, the date of the share swap announcement. AirAsia's share price was on a steep and sharp climb from May. It surged to a height of RM4.20 on August 4, 2011. This is on the eve of the announcement.

There may be good reasons for the share prices of the two counters moving the way they did. However, it seems improbable for this to be coincidental. AirAsia's price was trading around its highest and MAS among its lowest when the share swap took place. AirAsia's price fell immediately after the announcement. It could be that those who held AirAsia shares did not like the deal. It could be whoever was playing up the AirAsia shares stopped doing so. There is therefore cause for investigations to be made.

Others have raised concerns with the price. Khazanah exchanged 20 per cent of MAS at RM1.60 per share for 10 per cent of Air Asia at RM3.95 per share. They believe the price should not have been based only on the closing market price of the two counters on August 5. They point out that MAS in fact is worth more than the price traded because it is an asset-backed corporation. It has a paid-up capital of RM3.34 billion represented by fixed asset value at RM8.4 billion, net asset at RM6.92 billion. AirAsia, on the other hand, is a debt-laden company. It has borrowings of RM7.7 billion. MAS's cash position is RM2.086 billion while AirAsia's is RM1.7 billion. Those who approved the deal will need to justify the pricing.

One other issue on pricing is the timing of the deal. The share swap was announced on August 9. This was within 30 days before both AirAsia and MAS announced their respective 2nd quarter financial results on August 23. Under the Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements, this is known as the "closed period". Those in possession of the financial results during the closed period are not allowed to deal with the shares until the results are announced. This is to prevent insider trading by those with possession of price-sensitive information. Those who trade in the shares with such information will be taking unfair advantage of the public who are unaware of the situation. Paragraph 14.08 of the listing requirements allows principal officers who do not possess the information to deal during the close period by giving the requisite notification. Although the listing requirements allow such dealings, it would have been more prudent not to enter into the share swap during the closed period.

If the share swap was made after the financial results of both airlines were announced, the market price may have given a better reflection of the share price of both airlines. This may be seen from the share price of AirAsia after the results were announced on August 23. Although AirAsia announced it made a profit, it was 48 per cent less than the previous year. The AirAsia share price fell to RM3.57 at 9.04am on August 24, the day after the results were announced. Those involved will have to explain why the share swap was done before the 2nd quarter results were announced.

Opening the gates for the barbarians

Unlike the RJR Nabisco takeover where there was a fierce battle for control of the company, in the fight for control of Malaysia's skies, AirAsia were allowed to enter the MAS gates without hindrance. The gates protecting MAS's control of Malaysian skies were opened wider and wider for AirAsia over the past 10 years due to inconsistent government policies.

Regulation determines airlines' fortunes

International air transport operates within the framework of the 1944 Chicago Convention for International Air Transport. Governments enter into bilateral agreements setting out the landing rights, restrictions on capacity and pricing. Sectors within a single country are normally denied to foreign airlines. This restriction is called cabotage. It is recognised that cabotage is the prerogative of the domestic carrier. The system of bilateral agreements between two governments has led to the aviation industry to be highly regulated. There has since been a change towards deregulation and liberalisation. Nevertheless, the industry remains one where regulation plays an important role.

Regulation is thus a critical determinant of an airline's performance. It can determine how competitive the market is as well as constrain an airline in its choice of fares, capacity and frequency. Most governments impose entry controls which are usually applied to particular routes. Most governments usually permit one airline to operate a route. The government therefore plays a critical role in determining the fortunes of an airline by deciding on the routes to be given to the airlines.

Golden service takes a beating

MAS's finance and operation problems to a significant extent are due to the government's inconsistent and contradictory air transport policy. Such decisions gave the MAS Golden Service a beating while AirAsia became the Golden Child.

The main asset of any airline is its route networks. The government first allowed AirAsia to compete with MAS and then gave MAS's domestic routes to AirAsia and had its route networks reduced while AirAsia increased theirs.

MAS's social and political obligations

In the fight with AirAsia, MAS had a handicap. As the national carrier it had to compete against a private-owned pure commercially-motivated AirAsia.

When Malaysian Singapore Airline ("MSA") split, the Malaysian government formed Malaysian Airline System ("MAS"). MAS, as the country's national carrier provided domestic flights at government-controlled prices. In performing its social and political obligations, it flew commercially unprofitable domestic routes. One of them is the rural air services. The airline suffered losses as a consequence. In return it made money in the lucrative international flights. Thus the international routes were a form of cross subsidy for the domestic sector.

It was thus assumed that MAS, as a national carrier performing national service, will enjoy exclusive rights to both domestic and international routes.

However, the government allowed DRB-Hicom to establish AirAsia to operate international flights. The original AirAsia management lost money. The present management of AirAsia then obtained approval from the government to take over the airline and to operate domestic and international services as a low-cost carrier.

This caught MAS by surprise because MAS never imagined that the government will allow such competition. In the absence of a clear policy MAS assumed it would operate domestic services subject to fares being controlled by the government. Idris Jala said in the MAS Business Turnaround Plan ("BTP") that studies showed incumbent airlines suffered a 30 per cent revenue decline when low-cost carriers were allowed to enter the market. What MAS did not expect was that the government would not allow MAS to mount an effective challenge to the low-cost competitor. The government did not allow MAS to lower its fares. As a result, AirAsia gained market share with its low-cost strategy. This continued until 2007 when MAS was allowed to determine its domestic fares. By then the red ink had sunk in.

Idris Jala warned in the BTP that political and social obligations presented the most overwhelming and significant constraints to MAS's ability to transform. As a government-controlled airline, MAS does not always have the freedom to act according to pure market principles. MAS is constrain from freely changing destinations, routes and pricing within the domestic sector. Even though there are no explicit constraints on international routes, MAS does not have the flexibility to make changes to destinations, schedules and pricing. Idris Jala said that while MAS was fully committed to serve the nation's interest, this did not necessarily fulfil MAS's commercial interest. At the time of the BTP, 66 of the 114 international routes were unprofitable and 114 of the 118 domestic routes were making losses.

Under the BTP, MAS proposed to the government that it be allowed to run the domestic routes and be given a free hand to operate them like AirAsia. The government, however, on March 28, 2006 chose instead to allow AirAsia to share 19 trunk routes with MAS while AirAsia was given 96 domestic routes to operate exclusively. This was called the domestic route rationalisation plan. Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy, the transport minister at that time, said the government wanted two national champions. The minister forgot that the aviation business is a tough business. There are no different divisions like a football league. There is only one where the fittest survive. In the battle for survival only one is finally standing.

MAS would have a tough time to implement the BTP but the domestic route rationalisation plan did not help. AirAsia was given 96 routes which included the rural air services. When the rural air services proved difficult to operate, AirAsia gave up and MAS was asked to resume the operations after one year. MAS had handed over to AirAsia the planes used for operating the rural air services. When MAS resumed operations, four out of seven Fokkers and one out of five Twin Otters were not airworthy. They were cannibalised and cost RM40 million to be repaired. MAS will always be called upon to undertake routes that commercial firms will not touch.

MAS had to perform social and political obligations and will be required to do so in the future. AirAsia, being a private-owned entity with the objective of making maximum profits for its shareholders, does not operate under such constrains. The government, in changing policies and priorities without taking into consideration the difference between the two entities, is forcing MAS to compete under a handicap. This is part of MAS's perennial financial and operation problems that have required three government bailouts.

Air transport policy needed

It cannot be denied that MAS has many problems and not all of them are due to government policy. It has a high cost structure, poor productivity yield and bad corporate culture. The latest results show the transformation talked about in the BTP has not occurred or had taken root. AirAsia's management has done very well in running a low-cost operation, employing a highly motivated workforce and operating an efficient organisation.

The government, in making its policies, must take into consideration that MAS, being government-owned, is financed by taxpayers' money. Public funds should not be put at risk in requiring a national carrier having to serve social and political commitments to compete with private carriers serving purely commercial considerations. The government must have a clear-cut policy. There is thus an urgent need for the government to come out with a comprehensive and transparent air transport policy. The policy should provide clear directions for the efficient development of the airline industry without imposing undue burden on the taxpayers and consumers.

The government, having allowed a rival airline to compete with MAS, cannot abdicate its responsibility to ensure that they are able to compete on a level-playing field. It cannot run away from this responsibility by forcing the two competitors enter into an unstable alliance. The AirAsia-MAS alliance is in truth an artificial solution to an artificial problem. The government needs to work with both MAS and AirAsia to resolve the issues which the government created. The government must remember it is not operating on OPM. It's the people's money.

The issue of national security — Lim Sue Goan

AUG 26 — Home Ministry Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein received two bullets and a threatening letter on Wednesday. The outlaw who dared even to threaten the minister in charge of the national security agency was really audacious.

Hishammuddin did not disclose the content of the letter. However, since he has recently engaged in the crackdown on human trafficking, including detaining immigration officials under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and repatriating Uighurs involved in such activities, the threatening mail is most likely related to human trafficking syndicates.

The act of sending threatening letters attached with bullets to political leaders has gone rampant. A wise response would be to hire foreign experts to teach the knowledge and skills to uncover the person responsible while curbing such threatening tactics.

From another perspective, the incident shows that the national security issue has reached a worrying stage.

In the 1980s, the country was also hit by security problems. Due to an economic recession and unemployment, many unemployed foreign workers had turned into robbers and thieves, forcing the people to stage a street protest.

Today, the nature of law and order problems has changed. It was criminal cases like arson and murder in the past but now, the police is facing organised, knowledgeable and intelligent international crime syndicates with international network, huge capital and human resources.

International crime syndicates are usually engaged in major criminal activities, including establishing drug factories in Malaysia and using Malaysia as a transit point to traffic humans and drugs. These activities have not only harmed the country's reputation, but also kept the police busy.

In early 2010, Malaysia arrested 10 terrorists, nine of whom were foreigners. In July this year, the authorities arrested a suspected Tamil Tiger leader and a Jemaah Islamiyah member through fingerprint scanning.

International crime syndicates have chosen Malaysia because of its weak border security, less-than-stringent visa requirements, lackadaisical immigration personnel and foreign student enrolment policies, as well as inefficient enforcement. As a result, Malaysia has become the world's most popular overstay paradise and the country is now notorious for rampant human trafficking.

The home minister is also aware of the seriousness of the problem and thus, the Biometric Fingerprint Identification System is introduced to collect fingerprints of legal and illegal workers, and curb the infiltration of international crimes and terrorists.

However, the Biometric Fingerprint Identification System would still be scuppered by human negligence if security along the border and coastlines is not strengthened, foreign student admission policy is not tightened, and the enforcement of foreign labour policy is not reviewed and improved upon.

The incident of the threat to the Home Minister should really not be taken lightly as it is related to the issue of national security. — mysinchew.com

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The Hidden Dangers N Safe Havens (Gold & Treasury Notes)

By Paul Sullivan, Monday, August 22, 2011

provided by

As Europe's debt troubles intensified earlier this month and United States debt was downgraded, many people rushed into gold and Treasury securities as a safe haven. It was the latest sign that in uncertain times, investors act in ways that can hurt them in the long run.

"They fled the perceived risk of falling stock prices right into the assured risk of overvalued assets," said G. Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist for the wealth management division at Brown Brothers Harriman.

What drove those decisions was not logic but fear — fear of a repeat of September 2008. And that fear may only have intensified when markets dropped again late this week, sending yields on 10-year Treasury notes to record lows and the price of gold above $1,800 an ounce.

Even if the fear is understandable, however, acting on it may not be the best long-term strategy.

"If you were right about the timing decision to get out, you're going to have to be right again about when to get back in," said Joseph W. Spada, managing director at Summit Financial Resources in Parsippany, N.J. "Even professionals have trouble doing it. If that's not going to be your strategy, then don't do it once."

But now that people have done it once, what are the risks of holding on to large positions in gold and Treasuries?

TREASURIES While the economy may seem bad to many people, it would not take much improvement for investors to lose money quickly on their investment in Treasury bonds.

A week and a half ago, the 10-year Treasury note was yielding only 2.10 percent, after Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States' credit rating. Since the yield of a bond moves in the opposite direction of its price, this meant demand for 10-year Treasuries was high.

If over the next six months, the yield were to move up another half of a percentage point to 2.60 percent, however, investors owning those bonds would have a negative 6.25 percent return, said Barbara Reinhard, chief investment strategist at Credit Suisse Private Banking in New York. If the yield curve were to move up a full percentage point during that time, the loss would be 14 percent.

She said such a quick increase could easily happen, as it did from October 2010 to January 2011 when the Federal Reserve began its second round of large-scale purchases of government debt, the program known as quantitative easing.

Now, plenty of people buy bonds with the intention of holding them until maturity. In doing that, it would seem that they would earn a return of 2.10 percent. But they would actually lose 1.5 percent, when the most recent inflation rate of 3.6 percent is factored in.

"That's assuming inflation doesn't rise," Ms. Reinhard said. "Right now, you're betting inflation will fall below 2.10 percent. You're betting against history because inflation has been around 3 to 4 percent historically."

This is not the brightest picture for people who added to their allocation of Treasury bonds. But many felt it was the only safe place.

J. D. Montgomery, a managing director at Canterbury Consulting, an investment consulting firm in Newport Beach, Calif., said he had a client who wrestled with where to put $5 million that he needed to keep safe. The client chose a three-month Treasury note, even though the interest was only $1,000.

There was at least some logic behind this. Most people who bought Treasuries were abandoning their investment strategy, and wealth advisers say that is more troubling than paltry returns.

"The risk of changing your strategy when it's being tested as opposed to changing it when it's not being tested is you risk derailing your long-term investment plan," said Gregg Fisher, president and chief investment officer of Gerstein Fisher, a wealth management firm in New York.

So what should nervous investors have done? Selling Treasury bonds when everyone else was buying them would have been a start. But that might have taken too much discipline. Moving to cash was the top option because at least investors would have money ready when they felt comfortable returning to the markets.

GOLD Investors in gold are a different breed. They often have a passion for the metal that goes beyond returns. And they are not going to be swayed by arguments that gold, hovering around $1,800 an ounce, is overvalued.

"When you buy gold you're saying nothing is going to work and everything is going to stay ridiculous," said Mackin Pulsifer, vice chairman and chief investment officer of Fiduciary Trust International in New York. "There is a fair cohort who believes this in a theological sense, but I believe it's unreasonable given the history of the United States."

As for the nonbelievers who piled into gold, they need to think practically now. Only about 11 percent of gold has an industrial use. While gold can get lost or buried, it does not get used up like oil or natural gas. And its actual cost is between a third and half of where it is trading. Dan Denbow, co-manager of the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund in San Antonio, said it cost about $600 to produce an ounce of gold, but that rises to about $1,000 when all the costs of mining are factored in.

Yet a bigger risk may come from exchange-traded funds for gold. While they let small investors buy gold easily — the price of one share of the GLD exchange traded fund is roughly one-tenth the price of an ounce of gold — that same ease of buying means investors can just as quickly sell their shares in a panic.

No one I spoke to would venture a guess as to how high gold would rise before it hit its peak. But most stressed that people forgot that gold's value was driven by sentiment.

"Gold doesn't have any intrinsic value," said Larry M. Elkin, president of the Palisades Hudson Financial Group in Scarsdale, N.Y. "It's this era's wampum. At one point you could buy Manhattan for beads."

(Mr. Elkin said what bothered him the most about investing in gold was how irrational it was, unlike buying a blue-chip stock whose value rises and falls based on what the company produces.)

That said, having gold in a portfolio is still a good buffer against swings in other markets. Mr. Fisher calculated that over a 43-year period ending in June 2011, the average annual increase for gold, accounting for inflation, was 3.82 percent compared with 4.92 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Gold, however, was 28 percent more volatile.

"The smoother the ride, the more likely the investor is going to stay in his strategy," Mr. Fisher said. "That produces a better result."

He said that from the perspectives of both return and volatility, a better strategy would have been to put 10 percent in gold and split the rest 60-40 between stocks and five-year Treasury bonds. Rebalancing the portfolio to maintain those ratios would have meant an average annual return of 4.66 percent, with more than half of the volatility of gold alone.

For those who fled to gold and Treasuries, the hardest part will be deciding when to get back into other securities. The best way in uncertain markets may be to go slowly in small chunks — a practice known as dollar-cost averaging.

"There are real and psychological benefits to it, because getting someone to take that first step is the hardest," said Christopher Wolfe, chief investment officer for the private bank and investment group at Bank of America. "With a five-year time horizon, it makes a big difference. You might get one of those wicked big down days you could benefit from. But if you have a 30-year time horizon it doesn't matter."

Of course, if people had thought on such a long time horizon they might not have rushed to buy gold and Treasuries in the first place.

MAS posts RM527m loss in Q2, doesn’t expect profit for 2011

August 23, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) today announced a net loss of RM527 million for the second quarter of 2011 due to higher fuel costs despite recording a better yield and a 9 per cent growth in passenger revenue from the same period last year.

This brings total losses in the first half of the year to RM769 million even as the airline said that profit outlook for the second half of the year appears bleak. 

Its main regional competitor Singapore Airlines, while also hit by higher fuel costs fared better with a S$44.7 million (RM108 million) net profit for the same period.

The flag carrier said its group total revenues increased to RM3.485 billion for the second quarter of 2011, or eight per cent more than the RM3.213 billion for the same quarter last year, while passenger revenue was RM2.086 billion for the same period this year compared to RM1.912 billion for the corresponding period in 2010.

"The airline's aggressive and consistent cost-control measures also yielded positive results, with a two per cent reduction in non-fuel-related expenses for 2Q 2011 compared to the same quarter for 2010," the airline said in a statement.

"The Board of Malaysia Airlines does not anticipate to make a profit for the 2nd half of 2011, although the anticipated losses will not be as severe as the first half of 2011," it added.

MAS suffered a net loss of RM242.3 million in the first quarter ended March 31, making it a total loss of RM769.3 million for the first half of the current financial year.

The MAS board had earlier cancelled a press conference to announce the results for what is its traditionally weakest business period. It posted a net loss of RM534.7 million for the second quarter of 2010.

The statement said fuel costs "continued to have the greatest impact to the group's operations, increasing by 41 per cent from RM1.102 billion for 2Q 2010, to RM1.550 billion for 2Q 2011."

The MAS board, meanwhile, will focus on finding strong leadership to steer the airline and is looking to fill the managing director, CEO and key senior management positions.

Other immediate initiatives will include capacity management, dynamic pricing to improve yields, a review of products and brand positioning and a review of Firefly's business to focus on its turbo-prop operations out of Subang.

"The management team shall have a serious review of its current network moving forward, and shall adjust deployed capacity accordingly," said MAS.

The airline will however continue with its fleet renewal exercise and has taken delivery of five new B737-800 aircraft and five new A330-300 aircraft as at mid-August 2011.

The first new A330 Freighter will be delivered in September 2011 and six more aircraft will be delivered in 2011 — two B737-800s, two A330 Freighters and two ATR72s. Beyond 2011, MAS has a firm order of 38 B737-800s, 10 A330s, six A380s and two A330 Freighters.

The national airline has been flying through turbulent skies the past decade after the government bought back the airline from former corporate high-flyer Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli at RM8 per share or about double the market price at the time.

MAS also suffered the indignity of having its market capitalisation surpassed by younger upstart AirAsia after its share price fell to record lows earlier this year.

In an attempt to bolster the fortunes of the flag carrier, state asset manager Khazanah Nasional Berhad swapped 20.5 per cent of MAS stock for a 10 per cent stake in Asia's biggest budget carrier AirAsia on August 9. The swap enabled AirAsia bosses Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and his partner Datuk Seri Kamaruddin Meranun to sit on the MAS board and will ostensibly help turn it around.

LIMA `09 MELABUH TIRAI DENGAN KEJAYAAN MEMBERANGSANGKAN

Oleh: Wan Mohammed Saupee, 15 Disember 2009

Langkawi, 1 – 5 Disember 2009: Pameran Udara dan Maritim Antarabangsa Langkawi 2009 (LIMA `09) baru sahaja melabuhkan tirai dengan mencatat kejayaan yang membanggakan. Pameran LIMA `09 yang diadakan selama 5 hari dari 1 – 5 Disember 2009 di Pulau Langkawi telah dirasmikan oleh Y.B. Menteri Pertahanan Dato' Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Pameran LIMA `09 melibatkan komponen aeroangkasa dan komponen maritim. Pusat Pameran Antarabangsa Mahsuri (MIEC) menjadi tempat bagi pameran serta penyertaan pempamer produk-produk aeroangkasa. Manakala pameran kapal-kapal perang dan demonstrasi bot diadakan di Awana Porto Malai.

 

LIMA `09 merupakan siri yang ke-10 berjaya menarik penyertaan 325 syarikat daripada 25 negara. Sebanyak 120 syarikat tempatan mengambil bahagian dalam pameran LIMA `09. Lebih membanggakan ialah syarikat Malaysia kumpulan NADI (National Aerospace and Defence Industries Sdn. Bhd.) muncul sebagai pempamer terbesar dalam LIMA `09 tersebut. Antara syarikat-syarikat pertahanan utama dunia yang menyertai LIMA `09 ialah EADS, BAE Systems, Finmeccanica, Rosoboronexport, Eurocopter, Thales, DCNS Group, manakala syarikat-syarikat tempatan antaranya ialah Airod, Boustead Naval Shipyard, CTRM, Sapura, System Consultancy Services, Zetro Services, Satang Jaya, Heitech Padu dan Malaysia Airlines System.

 

Kejayaan penganjuran LIMA `09 dibuktikan apabila merekodkan transaksi urusniaga berjumlah RM4.70 bilion dalam bentuk kontrak dan memorandum persefahaman (MoU) telah ditandatangani. "Jumlah ini adalah angka yang mengkagumkan memandangkan keadaan ekonomi global sekarang" kata Dato' Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi merujuk kepada kelembapan ekonomi dunia masa kini.

 

Y.A.B. Perdana Menteri Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak semasa sidang akbar selepas menyaksikan majlis menandatangani kontrak dan MoU antara syarikat pertahanan dan Kerajaan melahirkan rasa puas hati dan berbangga atas kejayaan LIMA `09 yang masih berupaya menarik penyertaan yang menggalakkan daripada syarikat-syarikat industri pertahanan antarabangsa dan tempatan. Beliau juga turut menyatakan LIMA `09 adalah yang terbesar dari segi jumlah penyertaan pesawat dan kapal iaitu 54 kapal terbang dan helikopter serta 99 kapal. Antara negara-negara asing yang menghantar pesawat dan kapal perang ke LIMA `09 ialah Singapura, Thailand, Filipina, Amerika Syarikat, Australia, Korea Selatan dan Pakistan.

 

Acara tarikan utama LIMA '09 yang tidak pernah ketinggalan ialah pertunjukan udara di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Langkawi dan demonstrasi mencari dan menyelamat melibatkan bot laju dan helikopter di jeti Awana Porto Malai. Orang ramai telah dipertontonkan dengan aksi-aksi aerobatik yang mendebarkan daripada jet-jet Sukhoi SU-30MKM, MiG-29, Pilatus PC-7 Mk II dan Aermacchi MB-339CM oleh juruterbang daripada Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM). Pameran ini juga memperlihatkan penampilan sulung Tentera Udara Diraja Singapura (RSAF) dengan jet penyerang Falcon F-16 dan helikopter tempur Apache Longbow AH-64D dengan aksi hebat menggegarkan ruang udara Langkawi. Kapal selam pertama negara KD Tunku Abdul Rahman turut memperlihatkan wajah sulungnya kepada awam di jeti Star Cruise, Awana Porto Malai selain daripada aksi-aksi hebat daripada pasukan khas Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) dan Agensi Penguatkuasa Maritim Malaysia (APMM) dalam demonstrasi menawan musuh dan menyelamat mangsa di laut. Demonstrasi terbang pesawat tanpa pemandu (UAV) juga tidak ketinggalan di mana syarikat CTRM dan Sapura menampilkan UAV masing-masing. Buat pertama kali juga orang ramai berpeluang menyaksikan pesawat pengebom jarak jauh milik Tentera Udara Amerika Syarikat B-52 dari dekat apabila pesawat tersebut membuat terbang lintas pada ketinggian rendah semasa hari pertama LIMA`09.

 

Sepanjang 5 hari LIMA `09 berlangsung telah berjaya menarik 38,000 pelawat perdagangan dan 40,000 pelawat awam sepanjang pameran berlangsung. Pameran aeroangkasa hanya dibuka kepada pelawat awam pada 5 Disember 2009 dengan yuran masuk RM10.00. Sementara itu, kelainan LIMA `09 kali ini ialah orang awam dibenarkan menyaksikan pameran segmen maritim melibatkan kapal-kapal dan demonstrasi bot di Awana Porto Malai secara percuma dari 1 – 5 Disember 2009. Orang ramai dilihat berpusu-pusu ke MIEC untuk melihat dari dekat kapal terbang, helikopter dan jet pejuang serta tidak ketinggalan kapal selam negara KD Tunku Abdul Rahman di Awana Porto Malai.

 

Bagi pihak Kementerian Pertahanan, Bahagian Industri Pertahanan selaku urusetia Jawatankuasa Penyelaras Induk bagi penganjuran LIMA `09 ingin merakamkan jutaan terima kasih dan penghargaan kepada semua warga awam dan tentera di Kementerian Pertahanan serta agensi-agensi Kerajaan baik di peringkat Persekutuan dan Negeri atas segala kerjasama yang diberikan dalam menjayakan LIMA `09 dengan lancar. Hasilnya LIMA `09 telah mencatatkan satu lagi kejayaan kepada negara dalam penganjuran pameran pertahanan antarabangsa dan mengekalkan status sebagai pameran udara dan maritim terulung di rantau ini.

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Negotiation: How To Get What You Want

The art of negotiation can be tricky skill to master. It takes effort, practice, intelligence and a considerably high level og self-control.

Learning the how-to's of effective negotiation can help you can large sums of money, a great job with a corner office or a great deal on a new car.

Lerning how to negotiation for what and how much you want can lead you to many great things in life, but it takes a dedicated student to master this. Here are four (4) effective negotiation techniques and strategies:

Be Prepared

One of the most important strategies when entering negotiations is to show respect both during the course of discussion and through ample and thorough preparation work.

Showing up at a negotiation well-prepared, with all of the facts, figures and data that you require to make a strong case for your point of view, will not only help influence your counterpart, it will also demonstrate that you value his time and participation, and that you have put consideraable forethought into your planning.

Define Your Goals

Before entering any negotiation, whether it is to close a deal, discuss salary or purchase a car, clearly and effectively define to yourself your goals for the negotiation, and delineate what you want to get out of it.

This way, you will be able to keep your eyes on the price and not allow your counterpart to distract you.

Be Flexible

The Japanese parable of the strength of a trees brance applies to the art of negotiation as well. The parable says that a branch that bends can withstand great force, while a branch that is rigid and inflexible snaps in the slightest breeze.

As part of your preparation work, plan out all the areas where you can safely yield your position to your couterpart. This will not only make you seem magninamous and will to deal, it will likely foster enough goodwill in your counterpart to convince him to "trade" something of his that you will want.

Avoid Theatrics

We have all seen those movies where the though-as-nails negotiatior enters the room, refuses to budge an inch, and unleashes an angry outburst that scares the other party and convinces him to give up everything.

That negotiation strategy doesn't always work in the real world. Such techniques only lead to a swift end to negotiations and no one gets anything. Calmness is a good negotiation skill to develop in the boardroom. -- Source: ST/ANN

Artcile by Joshua Uebergang, The Star, Tuesday 16 August 2011

Domino's Pizza 9 August 2011