Beyond Skin : All that glitters....

MALAYSIA's biggest initial public offer (IPO) this year, will have an aesthetic theme to it, with the potential listing of Big Caring Group Malaysia Bhd.

ABOUT a third owned by private equity firm, Creador, the Big Caring Group, whoes mainstay is its wide network of pharmacies, 626 stores all in all, across the nation .

REPORTED as a landmark IPO, Big Caring, among others also sells health products and vitamins - supplements, vitamins, herbs, as well as beauty and dermatology products - skincare, dermatology cosmetics.

MUCH has been, written on the nearly RM3 billion, Big Caring intends to raise, there is negligible literature, on why the IPO, is a test tube landmark share sale.

TO put matters into perspective, the Big Caring IPO is built on a foundation that requires new investors forking out RM140, for every RM1 earned by the company.

WITH a valuation which stretches towards the RM20 billion point, investors buys the shares will be doing so at a time, when the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, trades at price to earnings of 17.05 times.

THE broader Malaysian market has a PE of 13.10 times, against a less than flattering backdrop , which has seen Malaysia’s share in the MSCI Emerging Market fall to 1.21 per cent last year from a base of 33.78 per cent in 1988.https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/800874

AS a sector, the aesthetic business have the hallmark of a winner, though the caveats are too bold to ignore; all that glitters isn't gold.

PUBLICLY traded companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, involved in this sector either as pure plays or partial ones, seem to be cursed with the same malice; inconsistency in making a profitable buck.

EVEN in the case of In Nature Bhd, the leading retailer of Body Shop products, consistency is an archilies heel due to challenging retail environments and heavy investments in regional expansion and brand diversification.

SIMPLY Wall Street hits the nail to the coffin with its observation; "Earnings have declined by 19% per year over the past 5 years".https://simplywall.st/stocks/my/retail/klse-innature/innature-berhad-shares

LYC Healthcare Bhd, an operator of confinement centres and aesthetic clinics, appears to be facing significant challenges after years of  losses, crashing it's dream of a Nasdaq listing to much more humble realities.https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2026/06/13/lyc--from-nasdaq-dreams-to-gn3

At end-May 2025, LYC was classified as a GN3 company, a status that applies to financially distressed ACE Market companies. Based on its filings with the stock exchange, LYC has about four months to submit its regularisation plan.

TO make matters worst,Messrs Crowe Malaysia PLT quit as auditors over a dispute on how much it's services should be priced at.https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/794520

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Beyond Skin : Boom Time In Malaysia.

MALAYSIA's aesthetic sector is booming, with its Medical Aesthetics Market expected to top US$732.52 by 2032, growing at a projectef and CAGR of 12.66% from 2025 to 2032.

IN 2024, sales had reached USD 282.70 million, market researcher Data Bridge said in a report. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/nucleus/malaysia-medical-aesthetics-market.

THE irony though is that, we could have grown much more, then what has been achived if policy makers had taken the aesthetic sector much more seriously.

ONLY last month, did Malaysia get its act together by making it compulsary aesthetic technologies that once operated in a gray area now face rigorous pre-market authorization.

The Medical Device (Designated Medical Devices) Order 2026 (established under Section 26 of the Medical Device Act 2012 (Act 737), catogorise several devices popular in cosmetic and wellness industries are now strictly classified as regulated medical items which requires the ministry apprroval to be brought into the country.

AMONG them are : Medical Laser Systems: Alexandrite, Diode, Erbium YAG, Fractional CO₂, Nd:YAG, Pulse-Dye, and Ruby lasers.High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU): Systems used primarily for non-invasive skin tightening and facial lifting.Liposuction Devices: Equipment used for surgical body contouring and fat removal.

THESE though are mere baby steps, as much more needs to fast tracked, if we are to make that one giant leap into the orbit of the likes of Brasil and Turkey.

BOTH are super powers in aesthetic/medical tourism. Countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand has sough to weaponise their domestic aesthetic sector into pillars of economic diplomacy.

SOUTH Korea with glowmad brand, supported by state subsidiesed infrastructure and specialised visa regime while Thailand has been betting big with its healing is the new luxury campaign.https://www.tatnews.org/2026/03/thailand-redefines-health-and-wellness-tourism-through-healing-is-the-new-luxury-experiences/

HENCE, its a no brainer that these two nations are head and shoulders ahead of Malaysia in aesthetic health tourism, coming in at 4th and 5th place on the global stage.

MALAYSIA makes the top ten, by sneaking in at number nine .https://www.essos.com/blog/top-10-countries-for-affordable-and-safe-medical-tourism-in-2025-complete-rankings-for-hair-transplants-rhinoplasty-more

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State of the nation : Internet Fame & Moral failure.

THERE are very few crimes on the face of this earth which is equivalent to war crimes and genocide.

AMONG them is the crime of human trafficking.  In the 1980's one would have been fried by the public if one would hypothetically sit down with Adolf Hitler for a friendly debate.

IN  more recent times, that I'll gotten  dishonour has fallen to Benjamin Netanyahu.

SO imagine,  how today in present day Malaysia, we seem to be putting out the red carpet to those who have not cleared their name of being a human trafficker?

ALBERT Tei might be funny, he might even be cute to some, but those attributes doesn't give him a free pass from being involved in human trafficking.  READ : On July 1, 2019, Albert Tei was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) by the Semenyih Sessions Court but the survivors say, they too traumatised to ever return to Malaysia

EVERYONE deserves more than a second chance but opportunities can only be given when there is remorse. Albert Tei had never offered remorse to his victims

DON'T  get me wrong. I am not here to smash Albert Tei, but merely to pin point out that the new chief of JKOM (Jabatan Komunikasi Komuniti)  has lost his moral fiber for READ: initiating the possibility of having a debate with Albert Tei.

State of the Nation : The Great Up Date.

YOU can't teach an old dog new tricks, hit the G spot this week , when the MACC top men's great up date, hit a home run on the hollow charts.

THE easiest , definition of hollow is an empty space while on abstract terms it refers to something lacking substance.

Abdul Halim Aman's presser, begins with an excuse  READ :  that it has been a steep learning curve for the 69 year old.

PARDON me for being ignorant,  as I had the impression  that at this level, we are not going to sit across the fire and dish out some of meanest version of kumbaya.

WE aren't even half way yet to rock bottom and I am reminded by Google's Artificial Intelligence  on why Asset Declaration are deemed as toothless political gimmick by the people born in this century.

THE AI mockingly harps on how cryptocurrency blindspots will be having a field day with asset declarations.

SHOULD those declarations not be assessable to the public for scrutiny, should definitely place it on the year end bucket list for 2026 biggest waste of time.

MIND you the MACC is silent if the assest declarations are limited to those serving in the agency or does it include spouse, girlfriends, mistress and children and their partners too.?

State of the Nation : The Tanco barbarian at the gate

SHORT of an intervention from  providence, Tanco Holdings shares, come Monday will go down with a billion shares already standing at the gate. 

RETAILERS got burnt at levels , we should be alert on the possibilities of a suicide solution due to too heavy losses. 

BUT for once the biggest lovers are the bankers who are holding on to pledge shares by the major stakeholders. 

THE affected bankers are ; 

1 AFFIN HUANG

2 APEX securities

3 CGS sec

4 MERCSEC

5 MAYBANK SEC

6 ALLIANCE SEC

7 HSBC SEC

8 TA SEC

9 KENANGA SEC

State of the Nation : No More I Love You's

A full blown bromance between Housing Minister David Nga Kor Ming and Francis Leong Seng Wui, have shaken the Madani Government to its core .

SINGAPORE'S  CNA  even goes  on to state ,READ :the aftermath of the Corporate Mafia scandal, is a pull factor on an earlier then expected nation wide election.

THE bromance ,had monolistic tendencies , that allowed Francis Leong Seng Wui a seat as executive director in three Kreditkomuniti entities, as well as a plan to rehabilitate Revenue Group Bhd's broken reputation.

IT was around this time (Feb 2024) , plans were READ: announced to infuse Revenue Group into the nation's transit payments via Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) open payment system.

NGA Kor Ming,  eventually got cold feet, due to the pressure placed on yours truly,  but sadly though, the senior partner  in the Pakatan Harapan  venture , failed to read the tea leafs.

INSTRUCTIONS on the tea leaf was simple, READ  : do not pander to Leong Seng Wui. Instead detain him, and put him on trial. Failing to do so would result in the Malays losing their slowly being rebuilt confidence on Anwar Ibrahim and his Madani Government.

OF course some 848 days ago, or to be exact 28 months ago, not many people knew ,about the short wanker named Leong Seng Wui , but I did, and so did Nga Kor Ming.

 NGA Kor Ming these days is afraid to speak about Kreditkomuniti,  because he knows that the evidence trail is too thick to be erased.

ANWAR Ibrahim though, can still come out as the apex winner .  The Prime Minister should start with Francis Leong Seng Wui....

 

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WiseGuy inside The Corporate Mafia : Malaysia's Capital Market Requlator is a minnion.

From the top man  and below, there is something very damning about the Securities Commission. 

Fittingly, the SC is stuck with the wisdom of old ; ``He who turns his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination``

AZIZI Othman sows praise on the SC, only to further down the path to expose the SC minnion like submission. READ :SC has sophisticated technical capabilities comparable to international standards.

YET it's lack of a moral fiber, allowed the 1MDB  robbery to go unchallenged despite numerous securities laws being breached .

IF 1MDB was the exception,  the SC today would still be respected, but unfortunately it was the norm for the minnion disguised as a regulator.

DONT even have to jump on the Corporate Mafia saga, to see that the SC , has always been infamous  for paltry fines, in action and a lack of credibility. READ : Delloite's serious RM2.4 billion breach, met by RM2.2 million fine and no criminal action against the signing partner.

 SC, regardless on who the executive chairman is, a minnion thar is more than , happy to be subservient  to market  based syndicates.

KENNETH  Vun Yun Liun pushed DVM Bhd shares n in market cap, was fined about 10 per cent of the value, while John Soh Chee Wen's RM500 million drama, settled with a RM6 million fine.

STILL it did not end well for John Soh, who may have convinced himself that the stars were shinning on him again, following the SC bending backwards to accommodate John Soh's return to the high life.

JOHN Soh , then did what he did often in Malaysia,  in Singapore, which was instantly met with island requlator promptly sending out a Fxxk Around and Find Out notice to the tycoon.

READ :John Soh , gets 36 years prison sentence for Singapore SD8 billion penny stock meltdown 

INTERESTINGLY,  seven years latter, Kenneth Vun Yun Liun, exposed the SC  for what it is ; a minnion with no zeal for action.

THE Edge,  must have been at its dark humour best,  by describing the 2020 meltdown  in KL ,  being stirred by hidden hands.

THOSE hands belong to READ : Kenneth Vun Yun Liun, with nine companies with strange trades operating from the Sabahan's Menara Lien Hoe office.

AT Systemization Bhd, MLabs Systems Bhd, Focus Dynamics Group Bhd, mTouche Technology Bhd, Fintec Global Bhd, XOX Bhd, M3Technologies (Asia) Bhd and NetX Holdings Bhd — have their principal place of business, head office, business office or corporate office in Menara Lien Hoe, near Tropicana Golf Country Resort in Petaling Jaya.

WAS Kenneth Vun Yun Liun  ever charged? NO he was not but the journalist who broke the story, would have ended up in jail if the Attorney General's office had its way, some would say.

ULTIMATELY  if the SC was not fixed lovingly to its preferred role as the minnion moonlighting as a requlator with dignity and integrity had delivered on the role it's being paid  to do, Kenneth  Vun Yun Liun , would be in jail today and there would be no need for a witch hunt on  journalist.