Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) has made its first direct investment into a foreign company, according to The SunBiz. The civil service pension fund has injected US$30 million (RM123 million) into Uber Technologies, the United States-based company behind the growing ride-sharing app.
“We are delighted that KWAP of Malaysia, one of the biggest pension funds in Southeast Asia, is investing in Uber. Malaysia has demonstrated its forward-looking position in embracing new technology to help solve transportation challenges and create more economic opportunities, ” said Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick.
“Uber is an exciting company that is changing the way the world moves, and we believe ride-sharing has huge potential to transform the future of mobility,” said KWAP CEO Datuk Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad, who added that the investment is part of the fund’s efforts towards becoming a diversified global investor.
The ride-sharing app’s most recent Malaysian growth was into Sarawak, where it started service in the state’s capital city of Kuching earlier this month, despite the existing hurdles it has been facing. Uber currently operates in six cities in Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Penang, Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.
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fuh! like this it’s even harder for taxi drivers and associations kick out e-hailing apps.
wow..this is funny…
one side wants to ban them…one side invest in them :D
Taxi samseng start to strike soon
waiting for lame taxi drivers to express their disgust in 3… 2… 1…
Tak adil kerajaan invest dalam Uber. Apakah akan jadi dengan drebar drebar teksi kami? Sepatutunya Uber dan Grab tutup dan dilarang buka di Malaysia.
I hope Malaysians think about our teksi drivers. I feel for them. they protest because Uber and Grab is stealing their money
You do not have to be scared if you are really good.
Tak adil? Bro, life isn’t fair. The market is indifferent to anyone and Uber is created out of the demand of consumers (like me and you) who want better and safer solution to things.
If the taxi authorities actually cared more about their product and services, maybe things will be different now. But too bad they were not bothered and because of that innocent people suffer – includes both taxi drivers and passengers.
To hell with these taxi drivers.
Most of them are tourist scammers and give Malaysia a bad name . Our country has one of the worst taxi service in the world. We should be thankful someone is coming to clean up the mess for us.
Now the military has a stake. All those taxi gangsters, u screw around, the army will sedate u.
It’s not military, it’s a public servant’s pensions fund.
Military? This is KWAP fund not LTAT.
Nasib baik bkn KWSP..
Nasib baik masih ada sedikit hati nurani (liung sam).
The key words are: masih ada sedikit. And hope you understand what I meant.
Ha ha ha. first Khazanah invest. Then, KWAP invest. In other words, Government is ALL for Uber.
So, past few months, all the drama between gangster teksi drivers and SPAD…….is all Drama Minggu Ini. All planned drama for the rakyat.
Who suffers with strikes and massive trafic jams because teksi drivers have striked? it is the rakyat. All along, it is a show between SPAD and Gangster Teksi Drivers….wayang.
Your return is not important here
Taxi drivers will be demonstrating in front of KWAP hq?
Taxi Drivers should do a protest and boycott KWAP and boycott everything.
50,000 taxi drivers will not vote for BN this coming GE. A spokesman said.
Najib says: ada aku kesah ke?
If gov really into Uber kind of public transport, they should react and solve the issues regarding taxi drivers and ride sharing drivers fast. Things got messy now..latest video show taxi driver still bullied uber driver. Huhu. I drive uber for 1 week. After thinking about it, i stop driving. Because its risky..risk of being bully by taxi driver. This kind of taxi driver, they think uber drivers are criminal even many big2 company invest in it and gov support it.
Najib is taking down old man kronis one by one. He must be enjoicing every second.
Old stories, people knowed this already lah.
He does not have to catch him, he let him die a slow death.
You want to put a harimau inside kandang keluli, you don’t have to do so with a cat.
Its not easy dismantling 22 years of kronism, especially when he got a significant number of citizens than dun support his efforts. So I applaud him for taking the hardest most difficult road possible.
If you can’t beat them, join them. Existing taxi drivers may now join uber.. wait, before that, you need to cleanse your bad taxi attitude first. Trickiness, Egoism, hamsapness, road rudeness… list goes on and on..
What is this? Use public fund to help foreign company. Why not help Malaysian grown companies and entrepreneurs grow? Help Grab instead to be a large player in south east Asia and Asia. In Malaysia government don’t help their own people. I mean look at Air Asia, they did it on their own.
If you want to get rich relatively quick, would you invest in McDonalds or Marrybrown? Real businesmen care about returns, not about public service.
Fuhhhhh..a damn BIG slap to the taxi drivers association.
Smart move KWAP. There’s been talks on Apple (primarily) in purchasing Uber. Tho thats’ still far ahead but worth investing now rather than never. I applaud to this kind of investment.