The stories Asian business won't put in the brochure.
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Vol. 43 · Independent Press · Southeast Asia
The stories Asian business won't put in the brochure.
A white and blue Pony.ai robotaxi on a Shenzhen street as a pedestrian walks past glass office towers. The Cover Story

Pony.ai and Uber will test Chinese robotaxis in London within weeks

Pony.ai's seventh-generation robotaxis start testing on London roads within weeks, ahead of an Uber service. It is the second city in a plan for more than 2,000 robotaxis across five European cities. The car is Chinese, the app is American, and the fleet belongs to someone else. For Malaysia, which still has no legal route for a driverless car to carry a paying passenger, that three-way split is the part worth studying.

By UnPublished Desk 9 min read Filed 17 October 2026
Retail

Salomon's CEO just declared gorpcore over. His company doubled its revenue on it.

11 min read · Filed 13 October 2026
Retail

Flower Knows just did what C-beauty tried for a decade. It out-designed K-beauty.

10 min read · Filed 03 September 2026
Big Shifts

A Chinese MRO supplier just quietly opened warehouses in Thailand and Indonesia. The Malaysian industrial operator should be reading which side of this build-out Malaysia ends up on.

9 min read · Filed 17 July 2026
APAC

A purple driverless van just started giving free rides in Punggol. The Singapore government put a state minister at the pickup point. The Malaysian transport operator should be reading what Singapore just decided.

9 min read · Filed 03 July 2026
Features

A model holds a chicken. A printed dress falls against a whitewashed wall. Celine's Pre-Fall campaign is the strategic case for luxury restraint, twelve years late and exactly on time.

10 min read · Filed 01 July 2026

The big shifts

All filed stories →

Founders & ventures

All filed stories →

Industry & operations

View industry beat →

Retail & commerce

All filed stories →
Most Malaysian businesses will not survive an 18-month downturn. The ones that will are not the ones you think.
★ The Editor's Brief

Most Malaysian businesses will not survive an 18-month downturn. The ones that will are not the ones you think.

We pulled three years of receiver filings, redundancy notices, and quiet wind-downs across Selangor and Johor. The pattern is so consistent it stops looking like coincidence. It looks like a checklist.

By UnPublished Desk 14 min read Filed 29 Apr 2026

Markets today

All reports →
01
Consolidation

GAC is buying FAW's half of Toyota's other China venture. Its own losses explain why.

7 min read · Filed 17 October 2026
02
Earnings

After roughly RMB 100 billion in losses, Nio just posted its third consecutive quarter of non-GAAP profit.

9 min read · Filed 13 October 2026
03
Earnings

Three KLSE-listed groups missed guidance this quarter. Two of them blamed weather. Neither answer holds up.

5 min read · Filed 01:12 · 18 May 2026
04
Insights

Why the ringgit's "stability" press releases are doing more damage than a clear depreciation would

6 min read · Filed 26 Apr 2026
05
Markets

Hong Kong's 2026 IPO wave is being led by Chinese AI companies. The question now is whether industrial AI can carry the rest of the year.

9 min read · Filed 22 May 2026
06
Markets

An ASEAN sovereign wealth fund has been quietly trimming Malaysian exposure for two quarters. The disclosure threshold has not been crossed.

4 min read · Filed 16 May 2026
07
Markets

A KLSE mid-cap had its credit rating cut. The cut was a paragraph. The implications run for three years.

3 min read · Filed 15 May 2026
08
Markets

A regional bank quietly delayed a syndicated loan it had been arranging for six months. The borrower is not the problem.

4 min read · Filed 12 May 2026

Listings & capital

All filed stories →

Earnings reports

All reports →
01
News

A regional EMS player's earnings call avoided the words "demand" and "outlook." Read what they did say.

5 min read · Filed 17 Apr 2026
02
Earnings

A Malaysian electronics retailer posted its first quarterly loss in seven years. The line items explain everything.

3 min read · Filed 04 May 2026
03
Earnings

A KLSE construction contractor withdrew capex guidance for the second half. The reason given is not the reason that matters.

4 min read · Filed 02 May 2026
, Our editorial position ,
The Malaysian press will tell you the economy is resilient. The Singaporean press will tell you it is cautious. The numbers will tell you neither word is doing any actual work. We print the numbers.
UnPublished · Vol. 43 · Independent

APAC Spotlight

Singapore · Indonesia · Vietnam · Malaysia
Amazon just phased out its Singapore fulfillment centre. Its Southeast Asia market share is 0.3 percent after nine years.
APAC

Amazon just phased out its Singapore fulfillment. Its Southeast Asia share is 0.3 percent after nine years.

Shopee at USD 83.2B. TikTok at USD 45.6B. Lazada at USD 18B. Amazon at USD 400M. Read the structural reasons.

Malaysia just issued its first public-road license for a Level 4 autonomous logistics vehicle.
APAC

Malaysia just issued its first public-road license for a Level 4 autonomous logistics vehicle. The trade press missed the strategic detail that matters most.

The license went to a Chinese company already operating at Changi. Simultaneous regional positioning is the story.

Singapore's mid-tier services sector is feeling something the GDP figures have not caught up to yet
News

Singapore's mid-tier services sector is feeling something the GDP figures have not caught up to yet

GDP numbers are lagging. The booking calendars are leading. The calendars know first.

Indonesia's commodity export pivot, and what it does to Malaysian producers nobody is hedging for
Features

Indonesia's commodity export pivot, and what it does to Malaysian producers nobody is hedging for

When your neighbour subsidises an export category, your margin moves before your strategy does.

Vietnam is not "the next China." It is the next Vietnam, and that is harder for Malaysian exporters than it sounds.
Insights

Vietnam is not "the next China." It is the next Vietnam, and that is harder for Malaysian exporters than it sounds.

The tax incentive race is over. What replaces it is execution speed, and that is not Malaysia's strength.

WeRide's Q1 revenue rose 58%. The number that matters is 12 countries and 40 cities. The robotaxi era is arriving asymmetrically.
News

WeRide's Q1 revenue rose 58%. The number that matters is 12 countries and 40 cities. The robotaxi era is arriving asymmetrically.

WeRide is now operating commercial robotaxis in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Switzerland, and four European markets. Goldman Sachs and Huatai both initiated buy ratings. Malaysian transport operators reading this should ask why the autonomous fleet rollout has not arrived in KL yet, and what changes when it does.

Halal Trade Watch

Gulf · KSA · Indonesia Crossroads
Hundreds of delegates in business attire networking beneath a large crystal chandelier in a Shenzhen hotel ballroom.
Gulf

Dubai brought its biggest overseas delegation to Shenzhen. It left with ten deals and a JD.com warehouse.

USD 99 billion in China trade. Ten MoUs, one AED 500 million logistics hub. Malaysia should compete on specialism, not scale.

Malaysian halal-certified exports to the Gulf rise modestly. The reasons are not all good news.
News

Malaysian halal-certified exports to the Gulf rise modestly. The reasons are not all good news.

Half the growth is from supply diversions, not new demand. Knowing the difference matters.

Why Saudi Vision 2030 procurement keeps disappointing Malaysian SMEs who pitch for it
Insights

Why Saudi Vision 2030 procurement keeps disappointing Malaysian SMEs who pitch for it

The deck looks promising. The procurement cycle does not. We pulled the data on which categories actually convert.

A Malaysian F&B brand finally cracks Jakarta retail. Three years late. Worth the wait. Here is what they did.
Features

A Malaysian F&B brand finally cracks Jakarta retail. Three years late. Worth the wait. Here is what they did.

No discount. No flashy launch. They rewrote the brand for an audience that does not care about KL.

Deals in brief

Full deals ledger →
17 Oct 2026

AXE bought three Osaka hotels, two of them shut, for JPY 10.7 billion. It just sold them for nearly double.

518 rooms reopened under IHG's Garner brand, sold to Creal for about JPY 21 billion. The value was in the reopening, not the buildings.

7 min read
3 Sep 2026

Excelland Robotics just launched a Hong Kong IPO. 5,100 customers served and 114,600 units shipped.

Trading expected Sept 9. Cornerstone investors from SenseTime and 58.com. Revenue RMB 318M in 2025. Malaysian hospitality operator should read carefully.

6 min read
1 Sep 2026

Bioactivx raised USD 3M. SMBC and Singtel Innov8 backed fileAI. Ajaib closed USD 270M from SBI Holdings.

Wound care spinoff. Enterprise AI file processing. Indonesian trading platform at USD 1.35B implied valuation. Plus five China embodied AI deals.

7 min read
25 Aug 2026

Buddy Bites raised USD 4.2M Series A. KCP closed USD 725M. Chandra Asri is buying Cycle & Carriage SG and MY.

Pet food subscription scaling. Sovereign-anchored Asia fund back. Indonesian petrochemicals absorbing SEA automotive retail. Three category shifts in one week.

7 min read
17 Jul 2026

A Swiss impact investor just wrote a USD 5 million check to a Malaysian insurtech. The Malaysian founder should be reading which door just quietly opened.

BlueOrchard adds USD 5M to PolicyStreet's Series C, closing at USD 26M. Plus PixVerse hits USD 439M, Ant takes 28% of Boohee Health.

7 min read
10 Apr 2026

A Klang Valley climate-tech raises a quiet Series A. The cap table is the part to study.

Two corporate VCs led. No celebrity angels. No press splash. That is usually the version that survives.

6 min read
9 Apr 2026

A regional B2B SaaS extends its Series B with a flat round. The framing is generous. The terms are not.

Liquidation preference moved up a tier. Founder vesting restarted. The press release said "strategic alignment."

5 min read
8 Apr 2026

A Malaysian agritech with steady revenue raises smaller than its peers, and is in a better position than most

Capital efficiency is back as a moat. The founders who never had cheap money do not have to learn this now.

7 min read