DANAVEST

LOCAL
(Business Times) THE Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has implemented both Anti-Fraud and Whistle-blowing policies in the organisation as part of its efforts to combat fraud and wrongdoing. “The EPF is believed to be the first government agency in the country to have implemented both policies,” EPF head of public relations Nik Affendi Jaafar said in a statement.

(Business Times) SAUDI’S Al Rajhi Bank has received a Malaysian licence to do non-ringgit Islamic banking business, the bank’s Malaysian unit said today. The licence will be used by a new branch which will be the group’s regional Islamic investment banking base, its principal officer Leong See Meng said in a statement.

(The Edge) Astro All Asia Networks is confident of retaining the Barclays Premier League (BPL) rights for the 2010/2012 season when bidding starts in July, according to OSK Investment Research on April 17. It said this was given the fact that bidders are evaluated based on their distribution and content platform, with Astro’s pay-TV operation proving to be the most superior.

(The Edge) Bank Negara has revoked the money-changing licences of 19 money changers with immediate effect. The central bank said on April 17 the licences were revoked under the Money-Changing Act 1998. “Members of the public are advised not to conduct money-changing transactions with these companies as they are no longer licensed to conduct such business in Malaysia,” it said.

WORLD
(Yahoo! Finance) Volkswagen AG may have overtaken Toyota Motor Co to become the world’s top-selling carmaker in the first quarter, thanks to government incentives that fueled demand in VW’s major markets. Although overall VW deliveries to customers fell 11 percent to around 1.39 million vehicles, the Wolfsburg-based group dramatically increased its share of the global passenger car market by 130 basis points to 11.0 percent. Toyota has given no forecast for retail sales, but its latest estimate for shipments for the 2009 first quarter is 1.23 million vehicles, down 47 percent from a year earlier.

(Bloomberg) Citigroup Inc., the U.S. bank rescued by $45 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds, ended a five- quarter losing streak with a $1.6 billion profit on trading gains and an accounting benefit for companies in distress. The first-quarter profit compared with a net loss of $5.11 billion, or 34 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based bank said. On a per-share basis, the bank reported an 18-cent loss because of costs related to preferred dividends. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was a loss of 32 cents.

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