AKWEL DRIVES 26 PER CENT TURNOVER INCREASE IN 2021 FIRST HALF

KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 (Bernama) -- AKWEL, the automotive and HGV equipment and systems manufacturer, has posted consolidated turnover of €487.6 million in the first half of 2021, up by 26.0 per cent compared to the first half of the previous year. (€1 = RM5.031)

According to a statement, activity remains down by -13.9 per cent compared to the first half of 2019.

On first half, AKWEL saw its turnover increase by 88.7 per cent when comparing published figures (99.7 per cent when taking exchange rates and scope as constants). 

The group’s quarterly turnover is to be compared with a second quarter of 2020 in which worldwide vehicle production virtually ceased for two months and was down by -21.7 per cent compared to 2019.

Procurement difficulties for the main raw materials and electronic components are affecting the organisation of the entire supply chain, resulting in unplanned production stoppages among the manufacturers.

On a like-for-like basis, AKWEL continues to outperform its benchmark markets in its two main regions of operation, in Europe and North America.

On June 30, the AKWEL group had a record positive net cash position, at €95.9 million (excluding debts on lease obligations) after disbursement of the dividend.

AKWEL confirms it is expecting to see activity increasing over the year underway, in view of the favourable base effect for 2020, but remaining below that of the year 2019.

Operating in 20 countries across every continent, AKWEL employs almost 10,500 people worldwide.

-- BERNAMA

Riskified initial public offering pricing announced

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 -- Riskified Ltd (Riskified), a fraud management platform enabling frictionless eCommerce, has announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 17,500,000 Class A ordinary shares at a public offering price of US$21.00 per Class A ordinary share. (US$1 = RM4.226)

The offering consists of 17,300,000 Class A ordinary shares offered by Riskified and 200,000 Class A ordinary shares to be sold by one of Riskified’s existing shareholders. Riskified will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling shareholder.

The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,625,000 Class A ordinary shares from Riskified at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Based on a statement, the Class A ordinary shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 29, under the ticker symbol RSKD.

Meanwhile, the closing of the offering is expected to occur on Aug 2, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are acting as lead book-running managers for the offering.

Riskified empowers businesses to realise the full potential of eCommerce by making it safe, accessible, and frictionless. It has built a next-generation eCommerce risk management platform that allows online merchants to create trusted relationships with their consumers.

-- BERNAMA

Synchronoss appoints Christina Gabrys Chief Legal Officer

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 -- Synchronoss Technologies Inc, a global leader and innovator of cloud, messaging and digital products and platforms, has announced the appointment of Christina ‘Chrissy’ Gabrys as Chief Legal Officer, to oversee the company’s legal affairs.

She succeeds Ronald Prague who steps down after 15 years with the company to pursue other interests.

Gabrys most recently served as Synchronoss’ Assistant General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer where she worked with global customers and partners.

As the company’s Chief Compliance Officer, she updated its compliance programme to ensure best practices for corporate policies and procedures and governance across the organisation.

According to a statement, Gabrys joined Synchronoss as part of its acquisition of Openwave Messaging where she was legal counsel for the Americas and APAC.

 “I am honoured to assume the position of Chief Legal Officer and look forward to working with Synchronoss team members across the globe to empower our customers to connect with subscribers in trusted and meaningful ways,” said Gabrys, expressing sincere appreciation to Prague whose mentorship and diligent planning paved the way for a seamless transition.

Synchronoss President and CEO, Jeff Miller said: “Ron has put in place a thorough transition plan that will allow Chrissy to quickly assume her new responsibilities as we welcome her to the senior leadership team.”

For more information, visit www.synchronoss.com

-- BERNAMA

FASTLY UNVEILS BETA AVAILABILITY OF SIGNAL SCIENCES AGENT ON EDGE CLOUD PLATFORM

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Bernama) -- Fastly Inc, a global edge cloud platform provider, has announced beta availability of the Signal Sciences agent on the Fastly edge cloud platform.

This represents a critical milestone toward Fastly’s vision of empowering developers to protect apps and APIs in every environment — cloud, on-premise, hybrid and now at the network edge.

According to a statement, with this integration, customers will be able to leverage the powerful signal technology to write and push out rules in real-time to track suspicious requests and block attacks sooner.

“Fastly’s large global network, combined with Signal Sciences’ superior signal detection technology, makes it possible for organisations to enable a multi-layer or defence in depth strategy to protect every part of their business, no matter the environment,” said senior vice president of product and marketing at Fastly, Dana Wolf.

Through these advancements, customers will be able to access smarter detection capabilities as Fastly’s next-gen WAF offers superior detection capabilities by assessing attack indicators to better define traffic types.

It also enables faster, more targeted blocking, whereby the integration will support signal exclusion rules in Signal Sciences’ management console, informed by attack indicators fed through Signal Sciences’ technology, to ensure benign traffic does not get inadvertently blocked.

In addition, it will enable a multi-layer defence strategy. Fastly’s next-gen WAF technology, combined with its large scale network, is uniquely designed to absorb the largest DDoS attacks and prevent traffic from slowing down or completely stopping.

Fastly expects the edge-based agent for Fastly’s next-gen WAF to be available in production by year-end.

-- BERNAMA

NIKKISO CRYOGENIC SERVICES RECOMMISSIONS AIR SEPARATION PLANT IN INDIA

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Nikkiso Cryogenic Industries’ Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group (Group), a subsidiary of Nikkiso Co Ltd (Japan), has announced completion of the recommissioning of an Air Separation plant in Patancheru, Hyderabad, India.

This project was done in coordination with the Telangana government (TEL), and Greenko Foundation (GKO), according to a statement.

“We are proud to have played a role in this fight against COVID, and of the technology and teamwork it took to get this facility up and running in such short time,” said President, Nikkiso Cryogenic Services, Jim Estes.

Due to the ongoing pandemic crisis in India, the Indian government initiated a directive to restart the operation and LOX production to meet the urgent demands for medical oxygen.

GKO has taken the old shut-down Oxygen plant on rental basis from Air Water India Private Limited (AWI) for a period of two years.

In May this year, the Group partnered along with GKO in recommissioning of the plant.

Nikkiso Cryogenic Services provided critical technical support and spare parts, including nozzle actuators and vibration components, and Nikkiso Cosmodyne India Pvt Ltd provided field service support.

Critical components which typically take 12-14 weeks were provided in three days to support this urgent request. By June 22, the site was fully operational again.

Cryogenic Industries Inc (now a member of Nikkiso Co Ltd) member companies manufacture engineered cryogenic gas processing equipment and small-scale process plants for the liquefied natural gas (LNG), well services and industrial gas industries.

More details at www.nikkisoCEIG.com and www.nikkiso.com.

-- BERNAMA

Announced: Academy of Marketing Science Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation Awards

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 -- Mary Kay Inc continued its decades-long support of education and research with the announcement of the 2021 winners of the Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation and Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Awards at the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference held virtually last month.

For more than 25 years, the global beauty company has awarded these annual grants to provide doctoral candidates in marketing the opportunity to showcase their successfully defended dissertations in front of their peers, according to a statement.

“Supporting marketing professionals through the Academy of Marketing Science Dissertation and Dissertation Proposal Awards allows remarkable individuals to shine and advance their careers,” said Mary Kay Inc Chief Marketing Officer, Sheryl Adkins-Green.

“They are making tremendous contributions to the field of marketing and we are honoured to be able to support them in their pursuits,” she said.

“Each year, we receive dozens of submissions for the Mary Kay Dissertation Awards from marketing professionals looking to advance their career and receive critical feedback from their peers to help strengthen their dissertation,” said President of Academy of Marketing Science, Julie Moulard.

The 2021 Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award Finalists are Luo Bowen, PhD Candidate, University of Rochester, United States (Winner); Aleksandrina Atanasova, PhD Candidate, Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom (1st Runner Up); and, Riley Krotz, PhD Candidate, University of Tennessee, United States (2nd Runner Up).

Meanwhile, the 2021 Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation Award Finalists are Irene Nahm, PhD, University of Minnesota, United States (Winner); Constant Pieters, PhD, Tilburg University, Netherlands (1st Runner Up); and, Victor Lima, PhD, York University, Canada (2nd Runner Up).

Finalists are selected based on their final presentations at the AMS Annual Conference. Submissions are open to doctoral students from programmes at any recognised university, college of higher learning, business school or management school worldwide.

-- BERNAMA

Fastly launches highly-secure serverless JavaScript in Compute@Edge

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 -- Fastly Inc, a global edge cloud platform provider, has announced the availability of JavaScript in Compute@Edge, allowing developers to build with even more flexibility in Fastly’s serverless compute environment.

With more JavaScript developers in the world than there are for any other development language, the availability of a faster, more secure way of building with JavaScript brings Compute@Edge’s safety benefits and speedy execution to more workloads globally.

“When we launched Compute@Edge with a language-agnostic vision, JavaScript wasn’t one of the languages we evaluated for support, because at the time, it couldn’t compile to WebAssembly, meaning we wouldn’t have been satisfied with the security of JavaScript within our serverless compute environment,” said Fastly CTO, Tyler McMullen in a statement.

“However, since we released Compute@Edge, JavaScript has been the most requested language to add, so it was top of our priority list once WebAssembly supported it.”

Instead of relying on existing technologies for serverless compute - like reusable containers - Fastly built Compute@Edge using WebAssembly.

This high-performance technology allows Compute@Edge to scale with startup times that are 100x faster than other serverless offerings on the market, so customers can now execute JavaScript code without having to worry about cold start times.

With security in mind, Fastly developed a unique, highly-secure isolation technology that creates and destroys a sandbox for each individual request from JavaScript compiled through WebAssembly.

-- BERNAMA

IMRAN HAYAT IS BRANDSAFWAY EVP AND CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 (Bernama) -- BrandSafway, a global leader in access and industrial services, has announced the appointment of Imran Hayat as executive vice president (EVP) and chief legal officer (CLO), effective July 19.

“Imran has an excellent track record as a global strategic general counsel,” said president and chief executive officer of BrandSafway, Karl Fessenden in a statement.

“He has extensive experience building and managing legal, risk, compliance and governance teams, and developing strong partnerships internally and externally to drive enterprise and shareholder success.

“His strategic mindset coupled with his deep domain expertise makes him a great addition to our team.”

Most recently, Hayat served as EVP, general counsel and chief strategy officer for CHC Helicopter Corporation. Prior to CHC, he was in private practice where he advised some of the world’s pre-eminent public and private companies.

“I’m excited to join the BrandSafway team. BrandSafway is a dynamic and growing company with a strong executive team and a great internal legal and risk team. The company is well-positioned for continued success,” said Hayat.

Hayat earned his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and holds a bachelor’s degree in both economics and diplomacy and world affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles.

More details at www.brandsafway.com.

-- BERNAMA

LEADING FINANCIAL SERVICES, TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT FIRMS MERGE FORMING AITE-NOVARICA GROUP

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 (Bernama) -- Aite Group LLC and Novarica Inc have joined forces to create the leading advisory firm, Aite-Novarica Group.

The firm focuses on helping executives from banks, payment providers, insurers, securities firms and their respective service providers respond to important technology, market, operations, and regulatory changes, according to a statement.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to leverage our subject-matter experts’ hundreds of years of collective industry experience to advise financial services executives on their most critical decisions,” said a former Corporate Executive Board (CEB) executive who is the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the combined company, Kurt Reisenberg.

Meanwhile, former CEO of Novarica and head of Research Councils for Aite-Novarica Group, Matthew Josefowicz said: “Our entire team is looking forward to bringing additional insights from adjacent financial services verticals and specialised areas such as fraud, anti-money laundering, and cybersecurity to our insurer CIO clients.”

“We are excited about providing new depths of technology leadership experience and advisory capabilities to all of our clients, and about having more impact on decision-makers in the insurance industry,” said former managing partner of Aite Group and head of Products and Strategy for Aite-Novarica Group, Sang Lee.

The combined company offers over 70 analysts and industry practitioners based in North America and Europe with extensive expertise across all subsectors of the financial services industry.

It also offers a library of more than 3,000 reports covering the last 16 years of financial services technology innovations, and insights drawn from deep relationships with hundreds of banks, payments providers, insurers, and securities firms.

In addition, an executive advisory business based on deep relationships with hundreds of Chief Information and Technology Officers, and detailed analysis of leading vendors across nearly every financial services vertical are also offered.

The respective firms will continue to maintain their own separate web presences and research libraries through the end of 2021 at https://aitegroup.com and https://novarica.com.

More details about Aite-Novarica Group at https://aite-novarica.com.

-- BERNAMA

Madison Realty Capital provides US$105 million loan to Fort Partners

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 -- Madison Realty Capital, a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm announced it has provided a US$105 million loan to Fort Partners for the acquisition and modernisation of the Four Seasons Hotel Miami located at 1435 Brickell Avenue in Brickell, Florida. (US$1 = RM4.232)

The loan was originated from Madison’s income strategy that offers transitional loans to institutional sponsors. In 2019, Madison provided a US$210 million loan to Fort Partners for its construction of the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Fort Lauderdale.

“We are pleased to continue our work with Fort Partners, a best-in-class developer with a strong track record in South Florida, and deliver a timely, customised financing solution for this exciting project,” said Managing Principal and Co-Founder of Madison Realty Capital, Josh Zegen.

Meanwhile, partner with Fort Partners LLC, Michael Conaghan, said: “This is our second large loan with Madison Realty Capital, and again they executed quickly and delivered certainty of execution. Madison offered a highly competitive rate with a flexible structure that will allow us to effectively implement our renovation and repositioning plan for this strategic asset.”

According to a statement, the 221-key hotel is part of a 70-storey mixed-use tower that includes class-A office space, residential condominiums, an Equinox health club, retail space and a parking garage.

Millennium Partners developed the property in 2003 and Handel Architects led the design. The acquisition marks the fourth Four Seasons property in Fort Partners’ Florida portfolio alongside hotels located in Surfside, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach.

JLL Managing Director Jim Dockerty, Senior Managing Director, Kevin Davis, and Managing Director, Mark Fisher represented Fort Partners in the deal.

More details at www.madisonrealtycapital.com. 

-- BERNAMA

KYRIBA-BLACKLINE PARTNERSHIP TO STREAMLINE OFFICE OF THE CFO DIGITALISATION

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- Accounting automation software leader BlackLine Inc and Kyriba, a global leader of cloud-based finance and IT solutions, have announced joining forces to streamline the digitalisation of the Office of the CFO and improve collaboration between Finance and Treasury departments.

The partnership offers enhanced capabilities for mutual customers through their integrated solutions to accelerate bank connectivity, increasing cash visibility and enabling greater automation within the financial close and accounts receivable processes.

At a time when organisational resilience is more important than ever, Finance and Treasury leaders need their technology solutions to work more efficiently together across both the Finance and Accounting organisations, including Treasury and Risk.

BlackLine and Kyriba help companies adapt and respond to the changing landscape by streamlining processes, enhancing data integrity, optimising cash and liquidity management, and automating repetitive work to transform traditional close processes.

“Kyriba unlocks rapid integration capabilities with its innovation in connectivity and has created new ecosystems of value through global partnerships,” Kyriba chief revenue officer Joe Marcin said in a statement.

“Coupling Kyriba’s innovative treasury capabilities with BlackLine’s market-leading financial close and accounts receivable automation solutions is a natural evolution in financial close, analysis and reporting.”

Meanwhile, BlackLine Channels and Alliances senior vice-president Mel Zeledon said: “With our new partnership, BlackLine provides Kyriba customers with market-leading solutions that fuel treasury teams with real-time, reliable and data-backed analytics to automate bank reconciliation and other key financial close and accounts receivable processes.”

San Diego-headquartered Kyriba is a secure, scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial intelligence, automates payments workflows, and enables thousands of multinational corporations and banks to maximise growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce operational costs.

For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

-- BERNAMA

PREMIER LEADERSHIP, TALENT ADVISORY FIRM BOYDEN CELEBRATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- Boyden, a premier leadership and talent advisory firm, is celebrating its 75th anniversary, strengthening core services, further expanding its footprint and providing talent management solutions to clients worldwide.

“We are very proud of our longevity and the resilience shown by our partners and clients as we continue to grow our global firm,” said President & Chief Executive Officer of Boyden, Trina D. Gordon.

“Boyden is truly a purpose-driven organisation. Every partner is committed to being part of the solution to the varied and complex challenges faced by our clients and communities. Through our evolving strategy, we provide the intelligence, resources and expertise to meet our clients’ growth aspirations.”

According to a statement, the firm has evolved its strategy as the needs of business and leaders have changed, reshaping leadership and talent management through core services in executive search, interim management and leadership consulting.

In addition to executive search, demand for interim managers is soaring across Europe and worldwide as clients leverage different talent solutions for digital change and transformation.

As leadership is reimagined post pandemic, Boyden’s global leadership consulting Centre of Excellence provides a combination of innovation, scientific research and industry knowledge to global clients.

Boyden ranks among the top firms in its industry and is acknowledged as a leader in client service. Clients value the firm’s culture as a global boutique and the experience of working with partners known for being astute, collaborative, enterprising and worldwise.

Founded in 1946 in New York by Sidney Boyden, the firm has grown worldwide since the opening of its first international office in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1962.

More details at www.boyden.com.

-- BERNAMA

RISKIFIED ANNOUNCES INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING LAUNCH

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- Riskified Ltd (Riskified), a fraud management platform enabling frictionless eCommerce, has announced the launch of its initial public offering of 17,500,000 Class A ordinary shares.

The offering consists of 17,300,000 Class A ordinary shares offered by Riskified and 200,000 Class A ordinary shares to be sold by one of Riskified’s existing shareholders.

According to a statement, Riskified will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling shareholder.

The underwriters will have a 30-day option to buy an additional 2,625,000 Class A ordinary shares from Riskified at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

The initial public offering price is currently expected to be between US$18.00 and US$20.00 per share. Riskified intends to list its Class A ordinary shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ‘RSKD’. (US$1 = RM4.232)

Goldman Sachs & Co LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are acting as lead book-running managers for the proposed offering.

Meanwhile, Barclays Capital Inc, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc, Piper Sandler & Co, Truist Securities Inc and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. are joint book-running managers for the proposed offering.

A registration statement on Form F-1 relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.

-- BERNAMA

BLUE CALIFORNIA JOINS CONAGEN ON NICOTINAMIDE MONONUCLEOTIDE COMMERCIALISATION SUPPORTING INCREASED HEALTHSPAN

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- Blue California has joined with the innovative Massachusetts-based biotech company Conagen to announce commercialisation of high-purity, fermentation-derived nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN).

NMN is a nature-based metabolic component which has caught the attention of health-conscious consumers for supporting energy and longevity, according to a statement.

NMN supplements are highly sought-after for healthy aging applications, including brain health, vitality, heart health, metabolic health, and even cosmetics. However, current NMN ingredients used in products on the market are mostly produced by chemical synthesis.

“Our fermentation-derived offering is well-positioned to capitalise on the growing recognition of NMN as an important ingredient in the food and supplement spaces,” said Chief Science Officer at Blue California, Dr Priscilla Samuel.

“Because of the way we make it, Conagen’s NMN is of the highest purity and quality. It is also very cost-effective and compatible with clean-label trends, all of which demonstrates our strength as a strategic partner with Blue California,” said VP of Innovation at Conagen, Dr Casey Lippmeier.

While consumers are exploring dietary supplements for a holistic approach to health, they are also demanding clean labels from their supplements, and moving away from synthetic ingredients.

Blue California’s fermentation-derived NMN opens new opportunities for producers to consider consumers' health more holistically while acquiring a closer-to-nature position.

NMN serves as a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a coenzyme present in all living cells and critical for mitochondrial function.

Increased intracellular levels of NAD+ boost energy production and improve cellular health, but levels decline dramatically with age.

Replenishing NAD+ in the body with its precursor NMN has been proposed as a way to possibly combat age-related degeneration and increase healthy lifespan.

More details at www.bluecal-ingredients.com.

-- BERNAMA

AGRICULTURAL SESSION OF ECO FORUM GLOBAL GUIYANG 2021 TAKES OFF

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 (Bernama) -- The agricultural session of the Eco Forum Global Guiyang 2021 - Smart Agriculture Boosts Agricultural Innovation and Green Leading the Industry's Future was recently held in Guiyang, according to Guizhou Provincial Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department.

According to a statement, well-known experts, scholars and industry leaders from home and abroad discussed topics including the status quo of global food security and development of green Eco-industry against the background of rural revitalisation.

Also discussed were smart agriculture leading the sustainable development of green agriculture, and the road to green development of modern mountainous features and efficient agriculture.

In recent years, Guizhou followed the thought of ecological civilisation, insisted on ecological development, always put green development in the entire process of agricultural development, and kept on the track of modern mountainous characteristics and high-efficiency agricultural development.

Guizhou has now firmly followed the green concept, implemented the strategy of big ecology, and promoted the conversion of cultivated land to forests.

Guizhou promotes the overall management of landscapes, forests, fields, lakes and grasses and gives full play to resource advantages, expand green industries and insists on ecological industrialisation so that it can improve standards system and brand more green products.

It has also formulated ecological norms and standards covering various industries, promoting green development through scientific and technological innovation, and implements the ‘Internet +’ and enterprise integration development efforts.

Nowadays, smart agriculture in Guizhou is emerging, and the green industry is gaining momentum. In the undertaking of rural revitalisation, Guizhou has embarked on a new journey to developing modern and high-efficiency agriculture with mountainous characteristics.

-- BERNAMA

NATIONAL POLICY ON GOOD REGULATORY PRACTICE, AN AFFIRMATIVE REGULATORY REFORM EFFORT TOWARDS BETTER BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

PETALING JAYA, July 16 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Government is strengthening the regulatory reform agenda through the National Policy on Good Regulatory Practice (NPGRP) which has been approved by the Chief Secretary to the Government on 22 June 2021. Implementation of NPGRP is expected to boost national productivity level and global competitiveness, which in turn may garner better economic growth and foreign investments.

Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has been mandated to promote and support the implementation of NPGRP which includes undertaking outreach & promotion and providing advisory and training to assist regulators in complying with the national policy. MPC has also been the overseeing body for continuous regulatory reform efforts in Malaysia.

Dato’ Abdul Latif Haji Abu Seman, MPC Director General said, “NPGRP is a significant milestone for Malaysia’s journey in regulatory reform agenda. The national policy is expected to standardise and stabilise Malaysia’s regulatory environment as regulatory bodies are now instructed to align their practices to Good Regulatory Practice (GRP) as stated in Pekeliling Am Bilangan 1 Tahun 2021 effective 22 June 2021.”

NATIONAL POLICY ON GOOD REGULATORY PRACTICE, AN AFFIRMATIVE REGULATORY REFORM EFFORT TOWARDS BETTER BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

PETRONAS DAGANGAN BERHAD AWARDS NEARLY RM1 MILLION WORTH OF PRIZES TO OVER 350 LUCKY WINNERS

Unexpected Joy Amidst Challenging Times

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad (PDB) recently awarded close to RM1 million worth of prizes to over 350 lucky winners of its nationwide PETRONAS Primax 97 with Pro-Race Fuel Contest, including a brand-new condominium and a luxury car.

Azfar Abdul Aziz emerged as the grand prize winner of a unit at Verdi Eco-dominium worth almost RM600,000, courtesy of UEM Sunrise Berhad, while first prize winner Ooi Kin Shun won himself a brand-new Mercedes-Benz GLA 250 AMG Line worth close to RM300,000.

Commenting on his win, Azfar, an IT Consultant, said, “My job has me travelling a lot to meet clients and site visits. Hence, I am very particular with the fuel I use as I want to have a comfortable driving experience. The new PETRONAS Primax 97 with Pro-Race is exactly what I needed as I could feel the difference in response and it also gives me more mileage. When PETRONAS came up with the fuel contest, I thought this could be my chance to also win something because I refuel frequently and I’m a Setel user.”

PETRONAS DAGANGAN BERHAD AWARDS NEARLY RM1 MILLION WORTH OF PRIZES TO OVER 350 LUCKY WINNERS

SWEEGEN’S BESTEVIA® REBAUDIOSIDE M SWEET EUROPE APPROVAL FOR F&B

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Bernama) -- Sweegen’s footprint in Europe became stronger after the European Union Commission published its approval of Sweegen’s non-GMO Signature Bestevia Rebaudioside M (Reb M) for use in food and beverages.

According to a statement, the approval of Sweegen’s Signature Bestevia Reb M leads the future of wellness in food and drink in Europe.

Brands in Europe now have access to the best-tasting highly sought-after stevia sweetener. The availability broadens the toolkit for sugar alternatives to reimagine food and drink, opening new doors for creating healthy products for consumers.

“Sweegen’s Signature Bestevia Reb M approval is a celebration of good health and wellness for product developers and consumers alike,” said SVP of Sales, Luca Giannone.

“This is just one of our many milestones in Europe to transform products for having a positive and lasting impact on our ever-evolving health.”

In its further commitment to Europe, Sweegen has aligned the availability of its Reb M with commercialising the high-purity sweetener at its manufacturing facility in Europe.

The facility is open in Europe for helping food and beverage manufacturers with rapid production and low cost-in-use sugar reduction solutions.

To compliment the approval of Reb M, Sweegen invested in designing and building its Innovation Studio in Reading, England, near London.

The studio opened its doors in January this year with a full applications team to collaborate with food and beverage manufacturers on exploring the entire consumer landscape to understand what trends are driving consumer behaviour, and then provide inspirational ingredients to represent those trend drivers.

Sweegen’s Innovation Studios are open globally: Southern California, Mexico City, Reading (London) and very soon in Singapore.

These studios will leverage local tastes and knowledge while serving as creative centres to explore and discover product innovations motivated by consumer trends and regional tastes.

Sweegen offers brands cost-effective and rapid innovation for sugar reduction solutions for beverage, dairy, savoury and bakery with its Bestevia Taste Solutions for Europe.

More details at www.sweegen.com.

-- BERNAMA

POLYPLASTICS DEVELOPS TESTING METHOD IDENTIFYING GAS FORMATION DURING INJECTION MOLDING

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) -- Polyplastics Co Ltd, a leading global supplier of engineering thermoplastics, has developed a testing method that identifies gas formation during the injection molding process and helps reduce mold deposits.

The company's Gas Investigation Method in Injection Molding (GIMIM) facilitates continuous molding and improves production efficiency, according to a statement.

During the injection molding process, harsh conditions (high temperature, high speed) and deterioration of plastic additives can release high volumes of decomposition gases.

Mold deposits, gas burns, and short shots caused by pyrolysis gas can lead to quality problems, including undesirable effects on the dimensions and appearance of products, resulting in a higher defect rate.

Polyplastics' proprietary method captures and evaluates the gases formed during molding and identifies the mechanism by which pyrolysis gas forms during injection molding.

This simple system configuration is divided into the three stages of plasticisation, metering, and injection, and each unit is fitted with gas traps to seclude the gases that form within each part of the process.

GIMIM can reflect the actual circumstances during molding by directly trapping and analysing the gases formed during molding. GIMIM makes it possible to measure high-molecular-weight substances that can cause mold deposits.

Since this method directly analyses gases that are formed inside the mold during filling, the company believes it yields results that are closest to real-world conditions.

In further research, Polyplastics plans to examine other problems caused by pyrolysis gas such as short shots and gas burn defects, as well as mold deposits.

-- BERNAMA

Mediaocean enters definitive agreement to acquire Flashtalking

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 -- Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, and Flashtalking, the leading independent ad management platform, have announced entering into a definitive agreement in which Mediaocean will acquire Flashtalking.

The combined entity will infuse Flashtalking’s best-in-class solutions for primary ad serving, creative personalisation, identity management, and verification with Mediaocean’s modern system of record used by the world’s leading brands and agencies.

The announcement comes at a critical inflection point for the advertising industry as marketers seek trusted, independent solutions to manage the rise of big tech, according to a statement.

Mediaocean and Flashtalking customers will benefit from comprehensive and future-forward solutions for global strategic planning, omnichannel media management, closed ecosystems optimisation, and financial reconciliation across traditional media, open web, closed ecosystems, and connected TV.

“Bringing together Mediaocean and Flashtalking is an incredible opportunity for our customers, employees, and the industry at large,” said Mediaocean Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bill Wise.

“Flashtalking is the source of truth for digital and CTV ads and Mediaocean is the system of record for all media. Combined, we will deliver comprehensive and future-forward solutions for omnichannel advertising.”

Meanwhile, Flashtalking CEO, John Nardone said: “Together, our teams and complementary tech will help brands succeed in a future dominated by converged media and anchored on cookieless identity resolution.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as exclusive financial adviser to Flashtalking and Travers Smith LLP and Goodwin Procter LLP as its legal counsel.

More details at www.mediaocean.com.

-- BERNAMA

G-ASIAPACIFIC CROWNED AS 2021 AWS CONSULTING PARTNER OF THE YEAR - MALAYSIA

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Bernama) -- G-AsiaPacific Sdn Bhd ("G-AsiaPacific") was named 2021 Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) Consulting Partner of the Year (Malaysia) at the recent AWS Partner Summit, in recognition of G-AsiaPacific’s consistent contribution and robust growth in the development of AWS cloud solutions for enterprises, corporates, small and medium enterprises ("SMEs"), mid-market companies, and multinational companies ("MNCs") in Malaysia and across ASEAN.

G-AsiaPacific is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bursa Malaysia Ace Market-listed company K-One Technology Berhad. G-AsiaPacific and AWS have been collaborating since 2012, when the company was appointed AWS Consulting Partner and AWS Solution Provider. In 2017, G-AsiaPacific became AWS Advanced Consulting Partner. This was followed by joining the AWS Public Sector Partner Program in 2018.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of G-AsiaPacific, Mark Goh Kiang Kiat, said: "We are honoured to receive this 2021 AWS Consulting Partner of the Year – Malaysia – award. This recognition represents the strong commitment by AWS towards the AWS Partner Network (APN) community. I would like to take this opportunity to thank AWS.”

G-ASIAPACIFIC CROWNED AS 2021 AWS CONSULTING PARTNER OF THE YEAR - MALAYSIA

ZOHO ADVANCES BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, ANALYTICS MARKET WITH NEW SELF-SERVICE PLATFORM

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) -- Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, has announced its new Business Intelligence (BI) Platform — an AI-driven data analytics solution empowering businesses to surface precise and actionable insights through self-service data preparation and augmented analytics.

Combining newly launched Zoho DataPrep with an enhanced version of Zoho Analytics, Zoho's end-to-end self-service BI Platform enables organisations to cleanse, unify, and analyse cross-departmental data, obtain an encyclopedic view of the company, and ultimately move toward a more competitive business strategy based on real-time insights.

Zoho's BI Platform brings together pre-built, visual dashboards, comprehensive data integrations, data preparation, augmented and embedded BI, security and privacy capabilities, flexible deployment models (cloud or on-premise), and scalability.

There are four standout pillars of the platform, which allow businesses to perform better and remain competitive in their industries, namely Augmented Data Prep and Management; Data Stories; Augmented Analytics; and, Marketplace.

The new Zoho BI Platform is built for scale and is extensible to more than 250 data sources — including Zendesk, HubSpot, Microsoft, Mailchimp, Stripe and Google — allowing businesses to integrate and analyse data sourced from diverse third-party systems.

The BI platform gives users on-demand insight into operational data to inform critical business decisions with the support of Zia, Zoho's AI tool, according to a statement.

Zia augments data preparation and visualisation by using natural language querying and generation, text narration of key insights from reports and dashboards, and cognitive and advanced analytics.

With more than 50,000 organisations already using it, Zoho Analytics has consistently been one of the company's fastest growing products. Zoho BI Platform, which includes Zoho Analytics and Zoho DataPrep, is available immediately in two versions, cloud and on-premise.

More details at https://www.zoho.com/analytics/

-- BERNAMA

INOVA PHARMACEUTICALS SECURES BEST PLACE TO WORK INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATION

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) -- iNova Pharmaceuticals, a company that markets and distributes a wide range of over-the-counter and prescription medicines in Australasia, Asia and Africa, has recently been recognised as one of the best places to work organisations in 2021.

iNova achieved outstanding results in a number of assessment areas, and remains committed to using the feedback to continue fostering a culture where all employees can meaningfully contribute and reach their potential.

The assessment survey included questions relating to key areas such as leadership, HR practices, compensation, benefits, culture and development opportunities.

Amid challenges companies faced over the past year, iNova and its employees showed resilience, innovation, flexibility and perseverance adapting to the global pandemic.

Best Places to Work is an international certification programme, considered as the ‘Platinum Standard’ in identifying top workplaces worldwide, providing employers opportunity to learn more about employee engagement and satisfaction, and honour those delivering outstanding work experience with the highest standards in regards to working conditions.

“As a company that aims to improve the well-being of others, it’s important this vision extends to our employees. It is their talent, energy and commitment that allows us to keep growing and developing as a business, and we must ensure they are looked after at work,” iNova CEO, Dan Spira said in a statement.

Best Places To Work is the most definitive ‘Employer of Choice’ certification that organisations aspire to achieve, with the programme certifying and recognising leading workplaces in many countries.

For more information, please visit www.bestplacestoworkfor.org.

-- BERNAMA

INTERNATIONAL CONTENT MARKET SPP 2021 TAKES OFF ONLINE, JULY 12-30

The international content market SPP 2021 (https://www.spp.kr/) hosted by Seoul Business Agency is held online from July 12 to 30. SPP (Seoul Promotion Plan) is the largest B2B market where various content-related businesses are made. In SPP 2021, SPP connect, a new business matching platform will be introduced for the first time and various B2B programs such as online biz-matching, pitching, showcase, and promotional events will take place. The Asia Animation Alliance will strengthen the content business network between Asian countries through showcases of new animations from Korea, China, Japan, India, and ASEAN countries and briefing sessions to share animation market trends in each country. (Graphic: Business Wire)

 KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 (Bernama) -- The Seoul Business Agency (SBA), an organisation supporting SMEs that enhance the competitiveness of Seoul’s cultural content industry, has announced holding the international content market ‘SPP 2021’ online from July 12 to 30.

‘SPP (Seoul Promotion Plan)’, a market specialising in animations, characters, webtoons, and game content, is the largest market in Korea where various content-related businesses, such as purchasing copyrights, co-production, and investment attractions, are made.

Last year, 619 companies, including global companies such as Disney and Tencent, were joined and 4,092 biz-matching cases were made, the greatest achievement in history although it was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement.

“The newly established SPP connect will become an online platform that can play a key role in exporting domestic content amid prolonged COVID-19 pandemic,” said head of SBA Seoul Animation Center, Park Bo-kyung.

“In SPP 2021, we plan to provide supports to domestic companies to create substantial business results by pitching their projects to leading overseas buyers.”

Preemptively introducing an online system in 2017, SPP has provided high-quality biz-matching opportunities to domestic content companies with its advance scheduling function, allowing arranging meetings in advance and online screening function that allows viewing content videos in advance.

The SPP connect, newly established this year, has improved user convenience by implementing key functions necessary for non-contact business such as AI-based recommendation solutions and video conferencing solutions in addition to advance scheduling and online screening.

In SPP 2021, where SPP connect will be introduced for the first time, various B2B programmes such as online biz-matching, pitching, showcase, and promotional events will take place.

The Asia Animation Alliance will strengthen the content business network between Asian countries through showcases of new animations from Korea, China, Japan, India, and ASEAN countries and briefing sessions to share animation market trends in each country.

In addition, in the Global Ignite, a corporate-led promotional event, beneficial sessions are prepared for production, marketing, technologies, and investments in the field of content including animation.

More details at www.spp.kr.

-- BERNAMA

Kyalio launches Asia’s maiden Day-to-Day Endo-Laparoscopic VR Surgical Library

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 -- Kyalio and the Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA), a leading surgical association with over 2,600 members, jointly launched the Day-to-Day Endo-Laparoscopic Virtual Reality Surgical Library recently.

A first in Asia, the multi-platform VR Surgical Library, which utilises real-scene Virtual Reality, addresses the importance of continuous surgical training and enables cross-border surgical education to be sustained even in the face of COVID-19.

The library also supports long distance surgical training for young surgeons in developing countries and remote areas, according to a statement.

“The VR Surgical Library is major step forward in using technology to make surgical education accessible for surgeons around the world,” explained Prof Davide Lomanto, who is leading the digital education programme at ELSA.

“Continuous learning helps members to become more effective in their own surgical practice. Our partnership with Kyalio amplifies our global surgical education efforts in an affordable and accessible way."

VR technology allows learners from worldwide to gain exposure to a wide range of cases by placing them beside leading experts in the operating theatres, enhancing their knowledge and skills to improve surgical outcomes in their own practices.

More than half a million young surgeons in Asia stand to benefit from this technology.

Headquartered in Singapore, Kyalio was established in 2019 with the mission of creating affordable yet advanced technologies for large scale surgical education.

More details at www.kyalio.com.

-- BERNAMA

TFP GROUP OF COMPANIES TO BRING FINTECH SOLUTIONS TO THE B40 COMMUNITY AND UNDERSERVED SEGMENT VIA ONECALL

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- TFP Solutions Bhd (“TFP”), an ACE Market-listed financial technology (“Fintech”) provider, via its subsidiary - MBP Solutions Sdn Bhd offers a OneCALL Mobile Fintech solution in Malaysia that focuses on the bottom 40% household income group (“B40”) and the underserved community.

Unlike most mobile operators, OneCALL mobile FinTech helps to empower its users with an everyday FinTech lifestyle & the ability to generate passive income from its value-added products.

YM Puteri Munawarah Syammiyah binti Munir, the Group Executive Director of TFP, said, “The OneCALL mobile FinTech solution is curated to help the B40 community and the underserved segment to have easy access to some of the financial services.

The FinTech solutions offered will include a built-in and approved co-branded e-Wallet powered by MobilityOne eM-ONEi, which helps users to make prepaid top-up purchases conveniently, data plan top-up and other payment services. Furthermore, the e-Wallet can be used as a salary account and receive passive income from promoting our value-added products. There is also the remittance feature that allows foreign workers to easily send money back to their families in their home countries. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=40487

#MYMUDAH INITIATIVE EXPANDED TO FACILITATE DELIVERY OF 5,000 START-UPS AS TARGETED IN MALAYSIA DIGITAL ECONOMY BLUEPRINT (MYDIGITAL)

PETALING JAYA, July 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) has expanded the scope of #MyMudah initiative to collect and address regulatory concerns from start-up companies. The facilitation supports the government’s aspiration to create at least 5,000 start-ups by 2025 and increased market entry for new businesses as stipulated in Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDigital). Start-up companies are strongly urged to register regulatory challenges impeding their business growth at http://mymudah.mpc.gov.my/. Addressing the legislative issues relevant to start-ups is expected to ease their business operation in ensuring that innovation does happen within a supporting business environment.

#MyMudah has so far collected more than 450 issues from various sectors via the Unified Public Consultation (UPC) portal. Regulatory concerns for the service sector recorded the highest number of issues registered at 62%, followed by the construction industry at 23.6%. Issues registered from the agriculture industry are currently at 8.2%, whereas from the manufacturing and mining & quarrying sectors are at 5.1% and 1.1% respectively.

#MYMUDAH INITIATIVE EXPANDED TO FACILITATE DELIVERY OF 5,000 START-UPS AS TARGETED IN MALAYSIA DIGITAL ECONOMY BLUEPRINT (MYDIGITAL)

HATCH RAISES ONE MILLION CANADIAN DOLLARS FOR COVAX, UNICEF

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- Hatch employees came together in an eight-week-long campaign to raise funds in support of COVAX, helping them progress towards their goal of procuring and delivering two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally.

According to a statement, via the employees’ generous donations and a corporate match, one million Canadian dollars was raised. (1 Canadian dollar = RM3.336)

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization, alongside key delivery partner, UNICEF.

Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.

UNICEF is working with manufacturers and partners on the procurement and delivery of vaccine doses, as well as freight, logistics, and storage for countries.

With Hatch’s donation, UNICEF will be able to fully vaccinate (two doses) more than 187,000 people worldwide.

“To end this pandemic, we need to think globally and act locally to make a difference beyond our families and our company—this is the basis of real positive change around the world,” said Hatch’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Bianchini.

“As a global company, we are engaging great people who make a difference every day in their communities, with our clients, and with each other. Together, we saw the imperative to support the world’s largest mass health campaign to stop the COVID-19 virus and move forward into a better future.”

Hatch recently sponsored the ‘This is our Shot’ movement, a consortium of grassroots organisations, Canadian businesses, associations, healthcare professionals, community leaders, and influencers focused on educating and inspiring Canadians so that vaccine hesitancy is replaced with confidence.

More details at www.hatch.com.

-- BERNAMA

The Globe and Mail's Sophi.io bags WAN-IFRA's North American Digital Media Award

KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 -- Sophi.io, The Globe and Mail’s artificial intelligence-based automation, optimisation and prediction engine, has won WAN-IFRA’s 2021North American Digital Media Award in the category of Best Paid Content Strategy.

The North American Digital Media Awards honour news publishers that have delivered cutting-edge, unique and original digital media projects in the past year, according to a statement.

Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of The Globe and Mail, Phillip Crawley said: “Winning a WAN-IFRA North American Digital Media Award for the second year in a row demonstrates Sophi's ability to show the publishing industry what the future looks like.

“We are proud to be able to bring these AI and ML-powered tools to organisations across the globe.”

Sophi was developed by The Globe and Mail to help the newsroom make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of tools that includes Sophi Automation and Sophi for Paywalls as well as Sophi Analytics, a newsroom decision-support system.

Sophi is an artificial-intelligence system that helps publishers identify and leverage their most valuable content.

It has powerful predictive capabilities – using natural language processing, Sophi Dynamic Paywall is a fully dynamic, real-time, personalised paywall engine that analyses both content and user behaviour to determine when to ask a reader for money or an email address, and when to leave them alone.

As the North American award winner, Sophi is now a contender for the WAN-IFRA World Digital Media Awards, where the winners from North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, India, and the Middle East compete.

More details at https://www.sophi.io.

-- BERNAMA

​JDMAS TARGETS RMB 10 MIL IN SALES FOR BELANJAWAN 2021 INITIATIVE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MOF & MDEC TO SUPPORT MSMES THROUGH CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE

​KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 (Bernama) -- JDMas Commerce, platform for the Malaysia Flagship Store on JD Worldwide, part of China’s largest online & offline retailer is honoured to be selected as a partner for Belanjawan 2021, an initiative under the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). The partnership was announced by the Government of Malaysia on 5th of July 2021, and is effective from 1st July 2021 until the end of the year.

Belanjawan 2021 or B2021 features two unique initiatives to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), namely Go-eCommerce OnBoarding and Shop Malaysia Online (SMO). It aims to help local businesses to adopt e-commerce as the new way of doing business as well as widen their market reach.

JDMas has the capabilities and expertise to transform traditional business through its cross border eCommerce platform with JD.com, China’s largest retailer and the world’s third largest. These include digital promotions, epayments in China, cross border freight, warehouse and last mile logistics via JD’s sophisticated and holistic ecosystem in China.

MSMEs will also unleash the potential of their Malaysian brand with exposure to over 1 billion of JD’s registered users in China. This enables Malaysian brands and products to not only gain traction quickly but to scale their business in the world’s second largest economy.

JDMAS TARGETS RMB 10 MIL IN SALES FOR BELANJAWAN 2021 INITIATIVE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MOF & MDEC TO SUPPORT MSMES THROUGH CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE

NTHU team shines bright at the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 -- A team from NTHU’s Department of Computer Science has won the Championship in the online group of the 2020-2021 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge, outperforming over 300 teams representing prestigious universities worldwide.

According to a statement, the team won the competition for the second straight time following the victory in 2019.

ASC of China is one of the three most important worldwide supercomputer competitions for university teams along with the SCC of the United States, and the ISC of Germany.

Team adviser, Professor Jerry Chou said supercomputer competitions hone students’ ability to use software and hardware in solving various real-world problems.

In addition to basic skills, participants must also have strong knowledge of various related fields and know how to apply it in different situations — a strength which his teams have consistently demonstrated over the years.

This year’s team consisted of juniors Wang Tzuwen, Huang Wenyuan, and Chang Chenghsun, and sophomores Mou Chanyu and Chiang Liyuan.

Team captain, Tzuwen said the team began preparing for the competition in the summer of 2019, with training provided by senior classmates Hsiao Yicheng and Lin Ente.

He said competing online was more challenging, because the cloud platform wasn’t made available until the competition began. In addition to deciding on the optimal division of labour, the team had to quickly install and become familiar with the software so that they could start their computations.

NTHU, currently ranking second in the world, is a force to be reckoned with, in the circle of supercomputer competitions. The team also won several awards at SCC, including the Championship in 2010, 2011 and the Highest LINPACK Award in 2007, 2008, and 2014.

-- BERNAMA