Maika Holdings Berhad was incorporated on 13th September 1982 and started business on 31st January 1983.
Touted as an economic vehicle and a miracle to lift the Indian poor from the shackles of poverty, Maika was launched with much hype and hope. The poor Indians -traditional MIC supporters, the lower middle-class and the working class Indians as well as a vast majority of plantation workers -were mesmerized into responding enthusiastically. The poor plantation workers put their life savings into the venture, some scraping the barrel, others mortgaging their property and pawning the last of their jewellery. A vast majority also took loans at exorbitant rates to invest in a venture that promised dreams of hopes and tantalizing prospects.
It’s not only the poor Indians who responded to this call to rally behind the MIC's efforts to secure seven per cent of corporate ownership for the Indian community -which at that time had been stagnating at under one per cent since 1960. Even the middle-class Indians who were wary of the caste and communal politics of MIC came forward to participate.
Although the original plan by the MIC was to ensure that at least RM30 million worth of Maika shares were subscribed, so successful was the promotion campaign that by 1984, a phenomenal RM106 million was raised from almost 66,400 shareholders. A large majority of the shareholders are poor plantation workers. The largest individual shareholder with almost 2.8 million shares was MIC president Datuk Seri Samy Vellu. The amount invested in Maika was even larger than that obtained by the MCA’s Multi-Purpose Holdings when the company commenced business.
When it started operations, Maika had one of the biggest cash reserves among Malaysian companies. At a time when business conglomerates like YTL, Berjaya, Malaysian Mining Corps, etc were practically unknown entities, Maika was already well known and if properly managed, would have been a billion dollar company now.
However, in its twenty-five years of tortured history, Maika investors have known nothing but pain and sorrow. The new dawn of a golden opportunity that was promised to the Indian poor never arrived. Instead, each passing year only witnessed dashed hopes and broken promises that littered the chequered history of Maika. Many of the investors had since passed away, their spirits broken by the betrayal of the leader they trusted.
What went wrong for a venture that took off in such a blaze of glory? Why is it in shambles today?
It is a case of a noble intention that has gone awry through bad management, poor investment, sheer arrogance and pure greed; which brooked no question and refused to be accountable to the shareholders. If proper business ethics had been observed, if honest criticism had been tolerated and accommodated, if from the beginning Maika was run by professionals rather than politicians, Maika perhaps may not have nose-dived into the hopeless situation that it is in today.
In spite of a number of major acquisitions made into some important companies -like the United Asian Bank (UAB), United Oriental Assurance (UOA), Malaysian Airlines System (MAS), Malaysian International Shipping Corporation (MISC), TV3 and Edaran Otomobil Malaysia Bhd (EON) -Maika’s performance has been mediocre.
It registered a tiny profit from 1984 to 1986 -the total amount was nothing to shout about and amounted to RM16.5 million only -which enabled Maika to declare three dividends which totaled 11 sen per share.
Touted as an economic vehicle and a miracle to lift the Indian poor from the shackles of poverty, Maika was launched with much hype and hope. The poor Indians -traditional MIC supporters, the lower middle-class and the working class Indians as well as a vast majority of plantation workers -were mesmerized into responding enthusiastically. The poor plantation workers put their life savings into the venture, some scraping the barrel, others mortgaging their property and pawning the last of their jewellery. A vast majority also took loans at exorbitant rates to invest in a venture that promised dreams of hopes and tantalizing prospects.
It’s not only the poor Indians who responded to this call to rally behind the MIC's efforts to secure seven per cent of corporate ownership for the Indian community -which at that time had been stagnating at under one per cent since 1960. Even the middle-class Indians who were wary of the caste and communal politics of MIC came forward to participate.
Although the original plan by the MIC was to ensure that at least RM30 million worth of Maika shares were subscribed, so successful was the promotion campaign that by 1984, a phenomenal RM106 million was raised from almost 66,400 shareholders. A large majority of the shareholders are poor plantation workers. The largest individual shareholder with almost 2.8 million shares was MIC president Datuk Seri Samy Vellu. The amount invested in Maika was even larger than that obtained by the MCA’s Multi-Purpose Holdings when the company commenced business.
When it started operations, Maika had one of the biggest cash reserves among Malaysian companies. At a time when business conglomerates like YTL, Berjaya, Malaysian Mining Corps, etc were practically unknown entities, Maika was already well known and if properly managed, would have been a billion dollar company now.
However, in its twenty-five years of tortured history, Maika investors have known nothing but pain and sorrow. The new dawn of a golden opportunity that was promised to the Indian poor never arrived. Instead, each passing year only witnessed dashed hopes and broken promises that littered the chequered history of Maika. Many of the investors had since passed away, their spirits broken by the betrayal of the leader they trusted.
What went wrong for a venture that took off in such a blaze of glory? Why is it in shambles today?
It is a case of a noble intention that has gone awry through bad management, poor investment, sheer arrogance and pure greed; which brooked no question and refused to be accountable to the shareholders. If proper business ethics had been observed, if honest criticism had been tolerated and accommodated, if from the beginning Maika was run by professionals rather than politicians, Maika perhaps may not have nose-dived into the hopeless situation that it is in today.
In spite of a number of major acquisitions made into some important companies -like the United Asian Bank (UAB), United Oriental Assurance (UOA), Malaysian Airlines System (MAS), Malaysian International Shipping Corporation (MISC), TV3 and Edaran Otomobil Malaysia Bhd (EON) -Maika’s performance has been mediocre.
It registered a tiny profit from 1984 to 1986 -the total amount was nothing to shout about and amounted to RM16.5 million only -which enabled Maika to declare three dividends which totaled 11 sen per share.
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