Exiting Malaysia: the sale of MACROKIOSK (2020)

The price paid, and the terms of handing it back

Line up the figures and the full extent of the outlay becomes visible: about $10.3M (¥1bn) paid in 2016 for 70.0% of the voting rights; an impairment of ¥992.5 million in the year ended September 2019; a further impairment of ¥115.8 million and a ¥172.5 million loss on sale in the year ended September 2020; and the forgiveness of roughly ¥1 billion in loans and accrued interest. More money was lent and let go after the fact than was paid for the stake itself. The design was to run an EMS and carrier-billing business — different in technology and in regulation from the card processing built up in Japan — with a 70% holding and dispatched directors.

Since the exit, the company’s way of engaging overseas has changed. Rather than consolidating a local firm and managing it directly, it has leaned toward holding the relationship through investment and partnership, and selling the stake outright when necessary. Its accumulated investment in 2C2P, in Thailand and Singapore, came back as a gain on sale when the entire holding was disposed of in the year ended September 2022. The shares of Macro Kiosk Berhad — 70% of which had been bought for about ¥1,121 million in 2016 — were handed back to the three founders, Goh Chee Ken among them, with a debt waiver attached.