Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) presentation dated 20 April 2026 outlining the MY Value Up Programme, a structured initiative to improve the valuation and competitiveness of Malaysia’s largest publicly listed companies (PLCs).
The core problem it addresses:
Bursa Malaysia has been significantly underperforming relative to regional peers. Since 2015, Malaysia’s total market capitalisation has grown by only 16%, compared with 256% in Korea, 284% in Taiwan, and 102% in Japan. Malaysia’s MSCI Emerging Markets Index weighting has also declined sharply — from a peak of 3.88% in 2013 to just 1.21% in 2025, with only 27 constituents remaining.
The key issues identified:
Malaysian PLCs trail regional peers on return on equity, carry broad-based undervaluation relative to their price-to-book ratios, attract low foreign shareholding, and many lack proper investor relations functions. Notably, 51% of listed companies operate without any IR structure.
Who Is Targeted
The programme covers 88 large PLCs, specifically those with market capitalisation above RM4 billion. Together they represent RM1.7 trillion or 82% of Bursa Malaysia’s total market cap. The 9 companies above RM40 billion alone account for 33% of the entire market.
What Companies Must Disclose
Each PLC is expected to produce a structured Value Up report covering four areas:
- Company Overview: A clear description of the business model, history, primary products and services, financial performance, and capital structure. The purpose is to provide investors with proper context before evaluating any value-creation claims.
- Current State Analysis: Companies must conduct an honest self-assessment using metrics such as ROE minus cost of equity and ROIC minus WACC. This includes reviewing historical trends, identifying value drivers, and mapping their competitive position. The SC wants companies to confront the data rather than present a curated narrative.
- Value-Up Strategies. This is the core of the disclosure, organised across four pillars:
• Capital Allocation — growth and investment priorities, disposal of non-core assets, balance sheet management, and a shareholder return framework. This is particularly relevant given that 22 of the 88 PLCs hold cash exceeding 30% of net assets, suggesting significant idle capital that could be redeployed.
• Operations — medium to long-term initiatives covering R&D, digitalisation and AI adoption, and key operating risks by business unit.
• Governance — board expertise and accountability, clarity between board and management roles, and succession planning. The upcoming revision of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) will reinforce this, shifting the board’s focus from pure compliance to growth-oriented strategic thinking.
• Communications — investor engagement mechanisms, senior-level analyst engagement, and regular progress updates. This is a significant gap currently. Among the 88 PLCs, 82% already maintain internal IR functions, but across the broader market, 51% of all listed companies have no IR function at all. - Monitoring and Review Companies are not simply asked to publish a plan and move on. They must periodically assess progress against stated objectives, disclose deviations with explanations, and provide revised strategies where targets are not met.
The Three-Phase Timeline
2026 — Familiarisation The SC and Bursa will run a clinic and workshop series directly with CEOs, CFOs and Chief Sustainability Officers of the 88 PLCs. The goal is to build a shared understanding of what disclosure is expected and to shift the mindset from compliance-first to value creation-first. Companies submit their first MY Value Up reports to SC and Bursa by the end of 2026, primarily for internal alignment purposes.
2027 — Public Disclosure Companies voluntarily release their Value Up reports publicly. This phase is designed to test the market’s response, gather investor feedback, and refine what information investors actually find useful. It also allows companies to build familiarity with the disclosure process before it becomes binding.
Beyond 2028 — Mandatory Requirements: A mandatory disclosure framework will be introduced for the 88 PLCs. The SC has left the specific requirements open pending lessons learned from the 2026 and 2027 phases. Participation is currently not mandatory for the broader market, though the SC intends to revisit this at the end of 2027.
Why the SC Believes This Will Work
The presentation draws directly on Japan and Korea as evidence. Both countries launched similar value-up programmes — Japan in 2023, Korea and Taiwan in 2024. Their markets responded strongly. Japan’s market cap grew 102% from the 2015 base, Korea’s 256%, and Taiwan’s 284%, while Malaysia’s grew 16% over the same period. The ROE-PBR matrix in the presentation shows that both Japan and Korea moved meaningfully up and to the right following their programmes, improving both returns and valuations simultaneously.
The MSCI dimension adds further urgency. With over USD1.4 trillion in global AUM benchmarked to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, Malaysia’s declining weighting from 3.26% in 2015 to 1.21% in 2025 indicates that passive funds are systematically reducing their exposure to Malaysia. Every 0.1% increase in MSCI weighting brings approximately RM5.7 billion in new passive inflows. Improving valuations and governance is the most direct path to reversing that trend.
The Bottom Line
The programme is essentially asking Malaysia’s largest companies to do three things: measure themselves honestly, communicate a credible growth plan, and be held accountable for delivering it. The SC is giving companies two years to build the habit voluntarily before making it a requirement.
https://ronsfinanciallab.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Enclosure-I-MY-Value-Up_Slides-1.pdf