03/06/2026

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | JUNE 3, 2026

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SMEs must tackle financial blind spots AS BUSINESSES face growing global volatility – from rising energy costs to disrupted trade and supply chains – the focus often centres on how large companies respond, from

another currency. That may feel manageable in normal periods. But when exchange rates move and several payments are due at once, owners realise very quickly which costs are more exposed than they thought. For example, when I was raising USD capital for my Thailand wellness brand Yinyang Wellness (not related to I-Health), the sharp movement of the USD and THB affected the planning of our capital fundraising and also supplier payment in China. The third is timing. Not just whether a payment is made, but when it clears, when it is confirmed, and how sure the business is about what has actually gone out and what is still pending. In good times, a delay can feel like an admin issue. In tighter conditions, it becomes a survival issue. Many growing SMEs do not have the cash buffer to last more than a few months. Stretching out the cash conversion cycle increases business risk significantly. I remember a marketing agency that was growing aggressively and secured many new

starts. Not in having a perfect forecast, but in being able to see pressure early enough to act on it – or at the very least having a single dashboard to know what to look for. The problem with banking across different countries is that when using multiple banks, the picture is often unclear and takes time to build a consolidated view. Also, fraud and cashflow risk builds beneath the surface. From my Shopee experience, I have seen many ecommerce sellers where owners were so focused on sales that they did not realise margin was being chipped away elsewhere – through fees, FX, delayed settlement, or changes in supplier behaviour. It is understandable. Sales are easier to see. But in uncertain periods, what hurts a business is often not the order you lost. It is the cost and timing pressure building underneath the orders you still have. That is why this is not just a finance issue. It is an operating issue. It affects how confidently a business can buy, price, hire, negotiate and grow. No SME can control the external environment. But every SME can get clearer on where the pressure points are inside the business. And in periods like this, that clarity is practical, not theoretical. It tells you which supplier conversation to have first, which cost assumption to revisit, which payment process to tighten, and where you may be relying too heavily on hope instead of hard numbers. For many business owners, financial cashflow is the last thing that they look at because they are focused on growing the topline. But financial cashflow management risk is the real hidden risk when volatility hits – it can be the difference between survival and failure. This article is contributed by Airwallex Southeast Asia Expansion head Andrew Chim ( pix ).

works while delivering reliable renewable generation. Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) using Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology, as deployed at Safran Landing Systems Malaysia, takes a different route – unlocking value from energy already available in industrial processes. For clients, this improves cost efficiency and operational performance. For Kinergy, it creates recurring income through long-term contractual arrangements. Malaysia’s energy transition also faces a trilemma: grid reliability, cost efficiency and decarbonisation. Solar capacity remains important, but it cannot solve every part of the equation on its own. Kinergy has built a diversified platform across mini hydro, biogas, waste heat recovery and solar, while strengthening its role in gas-fired transition assets. Kinergy’s founder, executive deputy chairman and group managing director Datuk Lai Keng Onn, said:“The energy transition is not about sacrificing cost efficiency for sustainability, or the other way around. It is about engineering solutions that deliver both.” That period made one thing clear – single clinics are highly vulnerable, and scale is necessary to withstand volatility. But there’s an irony: while volatility exposed our weakness, scaling also increased our exposure, as cashflow became more strained. We expanded to a second clinic, believing the Delta wave marked the end of Covid. Instead, the Omicron wave hit, and within three months, our main doctor left for vaccination centres offering higher wages. We were forced to shut the second clinic, losing S$350,000 in capital expenditure. Despite that, we pushed through and now operate five clinics under I-Health Group in 2026. This is the reality for most SMEs – you’re often caught between a rock and a hard place. If you don’t grow, you risk stagnation. If you grow, you risk overextension. Volatility is inevitable, and navigating the balance between growth and cashflow risk is one of the hardest parts of building a business. The volatility risk expresses itself in a few ways. The first is supplier terms. In uncertain periods, suppliers get more cautious. They may ask for faster payment, bigger deposits, or less flexibility than before. For an SME, that changes more than just the payment schedule. It affects inventory planning, cash reserves, and sometimes whether the business can continue to serve its customers in a timely fashion. The second is foreign currency cost. Many SMEs already have some form of cross-border exposure, even if they do not describe the business that way. They may be paying for stock, software, ads, shipping, or specialist services in

campaigns. They were at the mercy of the bank. That stuck with me because it captured the real problem. The business was not short of demand. It was short of certainty and quick resolution. Every day of delay meant thousands of dollars lost for the agency and the client. This is why I think SMEs need to stop asking only, “Will this affect my business?” and start asking, “Where will I feel it first?” A practical way to do that is to look at four things. Which payments would hurt most if they had to be made earlier? List your top supplier and vendor payments. Which ones are large, regular, and hard to delay? Which ones are paid in foreign currency? If a supplier changed terms tomorrow, would you be able to manage it without disrupting something else? Which costs move when the currency moves? Do not just look at the invoice amount. Look at the categories that are exposed: stock, shipping, digital tools, advertising, contractor fees. Many owners know they have FX exposure in theory, but have never sat down and worked out where it actually sits. Where can one late incoming payment create a knock-on effect? For some SMEs, one delayed receivable means pressure on payroll. For others, it means postponing stock purchases or stretching supplier relationships. Knowing this in advance matters. How fast can you get a real picture of your position? If something changes this week, can you tell by Friday what has been paid, what is delayed, what it cost, and what needs attention next? Or does that take several systems, several people, and several days? That, to me, is where resilience

As the country works towards its 2050 net-zero target, the energy sector must deploy substantial upfront capital while preserving return thresholds required by investors, lenders and project owners. At the same time, decarbonisation, energy security and infrastructure modernisation remain national priorities. For Kinergy Advancement Bhd, the issue is not cost versus sustainability. The real test is whether both can be integrated in a way that is technically executable and commercially defensible. This is where engineering discipline matters. While shaped by financing structures and offtake agreements, capital discipline is equally embedded in technology choices. Run-of-river mini hydropower, where site conditions permit, can reduce capital intensity by avoiding large-scale civil contingency planning to strategic shifts. SMEs do not always have that luxury. For many owners, uncertainty does not result in board strategy discussions. It shows up in supplier calls, late payments, rising costs and day-to-day frictions such as withdrawal of credit lines that threaten business survival. Managing volatility is often a life and death decision for small and mid-sized firms. In my career, I’ve founded my own startups, worked in consulting, and operated in marketplace e commerce with Shopee and TikTok Shop across different countries in Asia. Cashflow management has always been critical. As the old adage goes – turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king. Trade-offs are inevitable, and most growing companies are constantly managing them while remaining vulnerable to external shocks. For example, during the tech winter of 2022, tech companies across Southeast Asia – including Shopee – were forced to prioritise self-sufficiency as investors questioned cash-burning business models. Almost overnight, teams were rationalised and costs drastically reduced. For SMEs, such external volatility is even more dangerous. I experienced this firsthand. In March 2020, 14 months after launching my first clinic under the I Health Medical Clinic brand in Singapore, we recorded our first monthly profit of S$10,000 (RM31,000). By April, that flipped to a monthly loss of S$20,000 as Covid hit – patients stayed home and clinic visits dropped sharply. Without the Singapore government’s support in collateralising SME loans, we may not have survived.

performance marketing accounts but faced a huge bottleneck when their corporate card was blocked by Meta, stopping ads for multiple accounts at the same time. They had to wait a few weeks before a new card was issued by their bank and this disrupted all of their client’s

Growth ambitions extend beyond engineering KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s energy transition is underway, but the harder question has never been whether to transition. It is how to fund it without weakening the economics that make it viable.

That approach is increasingly visible in Kinergy’s numbers. Its Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES) segment grew from RM107.8 million, or 49% of group revenue in FY24, to RM328.2 million, or 69% of group revenue in FY25. The increase of more than RM200 million shows that the shift is now being reflected commercially. Kinergy’s credibility is also supported by its relationship with Petronas-related entities, including three awarded projects and two gas fired power plants that serve as transition-enabling infrastructure. These projects bridge Malaysia’s current energy mix and long-term decarbonisation ambitions. For industrial businesses, energy strategy is no longer a utility decision. It shapes cost structures, competitiveness and compliance outcomes. Companies need solutions that reduce emissions without compromising reliability or financial discipline. Kinergy’s evolution from an engineering-led business into a diversified energy platform is therefore not a reinvention. It is the

Malaysia’s path to net zero will depend on technologies and business models that can deliver cleaner energy without compromising economic returns. – UNSPLASH PIX

never only about engineering,” said Lai. Malaysia’s transition will require companies that can balance capital intensity, technical execution and long-term returns. For Kinergy, engineering was never the destination. It was the beginning.

natural extension of its engineering foundation. “Our entry into the Independent Power Producer space and our technical alliance with B.Grimm mark the next deliberate step in that journey. They are the natural progression of a strategy that was