News In Brief

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Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs. Below are snippets of all the media releases that we received from April 25 till 29. Please check back throughout the week for more updates.

Virgin Australia Selects Sabre’s Revenue Optimizer

Singapore, April 25: Sabre Corporation(NASDAQ: SABR), a software and technology provider that powers the global travel industry, has announced that Virgin Australia is migrating to Sabre’s Revenue Optimizer solution to enable optimal pricing decisions and drive total revenue optimization to respond dynamically to today’s fluid travel environment.  
While previously, airline pricing and availability planning has typically relied on historical data, the pandemic has resulted in unprecedented changes to the global travel marketplace, making past patterns much less reliable.
Sabre Revenue Optimizer will enable Virgin Australia to take a 360-approach to forecast, analyze and optimize revenue streams by providing real-time visibility into the total revenue of every flight, market, and departure date.   
Currently, the Brisbane-headquartered carrier is using a number of different systems in its revenue optimization strategy.
The airline will be moving to Sabre Revenue Optimizer to drive its technological transformation and break down data silos to enable it to leverage intelligent decision support to recommend availability, customer choice-based demand forecasting, and competitive intelligence. 

Latest Update On The AFC Cup 2022 Group J

Sydney, April 25: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has taken note of the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA)’s decision to withdraw from hosting the AFC Cup 2022 Group J matches, which were scheduled to take place in Tainan, Chinese Taipei.
The AFC acknowledged the challenges caused by the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the growing cases in Chinese Taipei.
Subsequently, the AFC has commenced the process of selecting a new host to stage the AFC Cup 2022 Group J centralized matches, to be played from June 24 to 30, with further details of the new venue to be communicated in due course.
Group J will see East Zone clubs – MUST CPK of Macau, Hong Kong sides Eastern Long Lions and Lee Man as well as Chinese Taipei’s Tainan City FC battle for a place in the Inter-Zone Semi-Final.
Please click here for all the latest news and updates on the AFC Cup 2022 Group Stage.

Kenanga Digital Investing Crosses RM100m 

Kuala Lumpur, April 25: The newly launched Kenanga Digital Investing (KDI), crossed RM100 million in assets under management (AUM) after only two months since its launch in mid-February this year.
Developed to make investing simpler and accessible for Malaysians, the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) – driven digital investment management platform has received an overwhelming response with 6,500 successful signups.
“We are extremely pleased with the response from the public on KDI,” Ian Lloyd, Group Chief Digital Officer of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad said.
“Crossing RM100 million in AUM within such a short time is a significant milestone for us.”
Licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia, the newly launched Robo-advisor offers two products – KDI Save and KDI Invest.

Caely Announces Resignations Of Board Members

Kuala Lumpur, April 25: Caely Holdings Bhd, a local producer of women’s intimate apparel, has announced that its Independent Non-Executive Chairman, Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim, and Azri Azerai, an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Group, have resigned effective today.
“I would like to thank the board for welcoming me and giving me the opportunity to serve the Group. I am honored to have helped the board and worked beside my fellow directors and I wish the Group all the best in their future endeavors,” Lazim said.
“I joined the board of Caely with the intention of assisting in the expansion of the Group’s existing business by giving my perspectives and to help seek opportunities through my network,” Azerai said.
“The recent issues that have cropped up may have affected my ability to further assist the Group and I have made the decision to resign.
“I would like to express my thanks to the board and with the Group well in their future undertakings.”

TransUnion Selects Provenir 

Kuala Lumpur, April 26: Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software, has announced it has been selected to join TransUnion’s Strategic Alliance Distribution Program.
Through this alliance, TransUnion clients will be able to take advantage of Provenir’s industry-leading platform to gain deeper insights from more data sources to power a new level of decision speed and accuracy.
The way consumers interact with financial services products is changing, rapidly – consumers expect instant decisions, personalized offers, and automated, digital experiences.
Meanwhile, fraud losses hit $56 billion in 2020, and fraud attacks are only getting more sophisticated and widespread.
To address these challenges, financial organizations are increasingly seeking technology that provides flexibility, scalability, access to new data sources, and self-learning models. 

Seng Fong Obtains SC Approval 

Kuala Lumpur, April 26:  Seng Fong Holdings Berhad, a rubber processor producing and trading Standard Malaysia Rubber and premium grade block rubber, via its subsidiaries, is pleased to announce that the Company has, in the month of April 2022, obtained the approval of the Securities Commission Malaysia to list on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.
With a history tracing back to 1986, Seng Fong is principally involved in the processing of Standard Malaysia Rubber and premium grade block rubber as well as trading in block rubber, where its customers are mainly tyre manufacturers or international rubber traders.
The Company also operates a Malaysian Rubber Board-approved laboratory for the testing, grading and certification of the processed block rubbers. 
According to Seng Fong’s draft initial public offering prospectus posted on the Securities Commission Malaysia website, the listing exercise involves the initial public offering of up to 160.87 million ordinary shares comprising a public issue of 90.81 million shares and an offer for sale of up to 70.06 million shares.
The IPO shares are divided into an institutional offering of up to 118.68 million shares representing 22.9 percent of the enlarged issued shares and, a retail offering of up to 42.20 million shares representing 8.1 percent of the enlarged issued shares.

Carousell, Yellow House KL Launch Campaign 

Kuala Lumpur, April 26:  If you are one of many Malaysians who are deeply concerned about the disadvantaged whose livelihoods have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, consider how you can #SamaSamaSapot by donating work-related items that may help them in their job-hunting journey.
Aimed at bridging the gap between those in need and those who are able to offer assistance, the #SamaSamaSapot campaign is a rallying call by Carousell Malaysia, part of Carousell Group, the leading classifieds group in Greater Southeast Asia, in collaboration with not-for-profit community grassroots organization Yellow House KL.
“Carousell is excited to partner with Yellow House KL for #SamaSamaSapot by enabling our Carousellers to contribute their own underutilized items that the disadvantaged community may need as they look for jobs,” Tang Siew Wai, Country Head (Malaysia) for Carousell said.
Yellow House KL has identified a full list of items that would be useful for urban poor and disadvantaged individuals when they start working.
To find out more or to support the #SamaSamaSapot campaign, click on the campaign page or Yellow House KL’s official Carousell account. 

Free Webinar On “Fundraising In Malaysia” 

Kuala Lumpur, April 27: 1337 Ventures is organizing a free hour-long webinar to teach entrepreneurs on the ABCs of raising investment capital for one’s business.
Presented by 1337 Ventures CEO Bikesh Lakhmichand, the event would be held twice – both virtually and through a physical event at a venue to be determined later. 
Among the topics covered at this hour-long webinar would be the fundraising options for each stage, what investors look for in a business, and alternative forms of fundraising.
The virtual event would be held on April 28 from 2 pm – 3 pm while the physical event would take place on May 12 from 10 am – 11 am.
To RSVP to this webinar log on to https://bit.ly/1337fundraising. 

Fortinet Powers TIME dotCom 

Kuala Lumpur, April 27: Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions has announced that TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME), one of Malaysia’s top-ranked telecommunications providers, is now an Advanced Partner with Fortinet – empowering TIME to expand services with support from Fortinet’s world-class technology. In addition, Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solutions are now part of the virtualized networking services under TIME’s cloud infrastructure.
Malaysian enterprises that depend on TIME for managed security services (MSS) will be able to enjoy enhanced security, networking, performance, and support from TIME and Fortinet to better compete in the digital economy.  

What Malaysian Organizations Think 

Kuala Lumpur, April 27: Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, has announced the findings of its latest global Cyber Risk Index (CRI) for the second half of 2021, which revealed that 67 percent of organizations in Malaysia think they’ll be successfully attacked in the next 12 months, with 22 percent claiming this is “very likely” to happen. 
The findings from the semi-yearly report aim to measure the gap between respondents’ preparedness for attack and their likelihood of being attacked.
In the second half of 2021, the CRI report surveyed more than 3,400 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) as well as IT practitioners and managers across Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and South America.
To view the full report go to www.trendmicro.com/cyberrisk.

Kenanga Investors Completes Income Distribution

Kuala Lumpur, April 27: Kenanga Investors Berhad has declared a final income distribution of RM161.5 million for 18 retail funds until March 2022 adding to an earlier distribution and repatriation of RM298.3 million during the course of 2021, making it a total distribution amount of RM459.8 million for its clients for the financial year of 2021.      
“We are proud to declare an income distribution yields ranging from six percent to 10 per cent for equity and balanced funds while fixed income funds generated average yields of six per cent,” Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kenanga Investors said.
The income distribution was derived from the funds’ realized gains, dividends, and other income across equity, fixed income, and mixed asset classes, driven by outperformance despite prolonged market turbulence caused by the re-imposition of stricter nationwide containment measures towards the end of the second quarter.
Going forward, the fund house will continue to favor sectors with more resilient earnings by remaining positive on both secular growth tech companies and certain value/cyclical sectors such as tourism, travel, consumer, property, and financials.

Indonesia’s NanoByte Amazing Feat

Jakarta, April 27: NanoByte Token (NBT) launched in Indonesia last month aims to become a pioneer of crypto adoption in the fourth most populous country in the world.
As an affiliated with Nanovest, an investment application to trade US stocks and cryptocurrency-based in Indonesia, the platform has already gained the support of more than two million people in Indonesia during its beta launch.
Today, the company announced its latest innovation which is the first-ever instant fiat loan with NanoByte through a partnership with Danamas, a Sinarmas Financial Service company. 
Sinarmas Financial Service is a leading financial services provider in Indonesia that provides an integrated and comprehensive range of financial services, including Banking, Insurance, Financing, Capital Markets, Asset Management, Share Administration, Security, and Information Technology.
As a crypto project, Nanobyte Token (NBT) is now available through the centralized exchange platform Tokocrypto and Binance’s portfolio in Indonesia and is accessible globally through Pancakeswap dan Uniswap.

Zoo Negara’s New Friend

Kuala Lumpur, April 27: It was a happy day for giraffes Tilly and Gerald, and Malayan tiger Jagoh recently, when Zoo Negara welcomed Malaysia’s largest home improvement retailer MR. D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad (MR D.I.Y.) as its latest partner.
The retailer today announced the completion of a two-year contribution worth RM408,288 under its #DIY4ZooNegara initiative, which included funds for the adoption of the three animals. 
The funds, disbursed over 2021-2022, also went towards improving and upkeeping zoo facilities, upgrading the roof and tunnel floors in the tigers’ enclosure, and building gazebos for the use of visitors.
The retailer also contributed hardware tools, equipment, uniforms, and special edition face masks for the zoo’s 300 employees.
“Many of us have fond memories of childhood outings at Zoo Negara, an iconic landmark for generations of Malaysians,”  MR D.I.Y. Group Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Ong said.
“This #DIY4ZooNegara initiative helped to ensure current and future generations are able to continue enjoying the same experiences.”

Propel Global Confident Of Expansion Plans 

Kuala Lumpur, April 28: Propel Global Berhad is confident that the new corporate structure, as well as the cash reserve resulting from a regularisation plan, will see it take over the listing status of Daya Materials Berhad (“Daya Materials”) today and support expansion plans for both the oil and gas and building technical services businesses that the Group is acquiring from Daya Materials. 
The Group will trade under the stock name PGB and stock code 0091 from today on the Main Market of Bursa Securities Malaysia Berhad. The listing of Propel Global follows the approval by shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting (“EGM”) on Jan 21, 2022, of a regularisation plan for Daya Materials that had been proposed on Dec 31, 2020.
“We would like to thank stakeholders for keeping the faith with us on the corporate exercises that will conclude with the listing of Propel Global. We have seen the private placement representing 41 percent of our outstanding shares fully taken up by prominent investors and industry veterans,” Angeline Lee, Group Chief Executive Officer of Propel Global said.
According to the US Energy Information Administration’s recent Short-Term Energy Outlook, the international crude oil benchmark Brent is expected to trade at an average of US$108 a barrel in the second quarter of this year and US$102 a barrel on average in the second half of 2022.
Propel Global also has mid-to-long-term plans to venture into sustainable development and digital technology as part of the Group’s transition to a zero-carbon business focus that includes renewable energy and electrification.

HPE’s New Drop

Sydney, April 28:  Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) has announced the launch of HPE Swarm Learning, a breakthrough AI solution to accelerate insights at the edge, from diagnosing diseases to detecting credit card fraud, by sharing and unifying AI model learnings without compromising data privacy.
HPE Swarm Learning, which was developed by Hewlett Packard Labs, HPE’s R&D organisation, is the industry’s first privacy-preserving, decentralised machine learning framework for the edge or distributed sites.
The solution provides customers with containers that are easily integrated with AI  models using the HPE swarm API. Users can then immediately share AI model learnings within their organisation and outside with industry peers to improve training, without sharing actual data. 
“Swarm learning is a new, powerful approach to AI that has already made progress in addressing global challenges such as advancing patient healthcare and improving anomaly detection that aid efforts in fraud detection and predictive maintenance,” Justin Hotard, Executive Vice President and General Manager, HPC & AI, at HPE said.
“HPE is contributing to the swarm learning movement in a  meaningful way by delivering an enterprise-class solution that uniquely enables organisations to  collaborate, innovate, and accelerate the power of AI models while preserving each organisation’s  ethics, data privacy, and governance standards.” 

Fraser & Neave Records Higher Revenue

Kuala Lumpur, April 29: Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd recorded 1.5 per cent revenue growth for its second quarter ended 31 March 2022 (Q2 FY2022) to RM1,107.7 million from RM1,091.8 million in the same quarter last year.
Positive momentum from the recovery of economic activities in Malaysia moderated the stifled demand in Thailand affected by the Omicron outbreak. 
F&B Malaysia’s revenue for the quarter soared nine per cent to RM615.1 million (FY2021: RM564.2 million) on the back of higher sales from the Chinese New Year (CNY) festivities, driven by the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and effective on-ground activation and promotions.
Beverage sales surged double-digit for the quarter, supported by greater out-of-home consumption and improvement in sales to the HORECA channel.
Revenue for food products grew by double-digit from early sell-in for Hari Raya Puasa festive season and successful CNY promotion for its oyster sauce category.
Dairies sales registered improved revenue despite a volume decline following price adjustments undertaken in October 2021. 

Universal Robots Records Best-Ever Results

Singapore, April 28:  Universal Robots, the Danish producer of collaborative robots (cobots), has reported a record Q1 revenue of USD 85 million, 30 per cent up on its 2021 Q1 revenue.
‘Reporting record Q1 revenue at a time when businesses across the world are facing disruption from the pandemic, supply chain challenges and conflict is a testament to the role collaborative automation can play in helping our customers stay competitive,” the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Kim Nørgaard Andreasen said.
“In addition to record revenue, we have been pleased this quarter to welcome 80 new employees to our rapidly growing company.’
In January, Universal Robots reported 2021 revenue of over USD 311m, which is attributed to growing awareness of the contribution automation can make to productivity as well as to the role of cobots in supporting businesses facing workforce shortages.
‘When we consider the trends in both societies and businesses, everything points to a growing demand for automation.
“We are making plans to meet this demand, including starting work this month on new bigger headquarters in Denmark to help accommodate the company’s growth,” Andreasen said.

CNERGENZ Bhd Launches Prospectus 

Kuala Lumpur, April 29: CNERGENZ Berhad, an established electronics manufacturing solutions provider based in Penang, has launched the Company’s Prospectus today for its upcoming initial public offering on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.
Applications for the IPO have opened starting at 10.00 a.m. today following the Prospectus launch and will close on May 11.
The targeted IPO listing date of the Company on the ACE Market is on May 24.
At the IPO price of RM0.58 per share, CNERGENZ will have a market capitalisation of RM288.84 million ahead of its debut.

Ransomware Hit 79 Per Cent Of Organizations 

Kuala Lumpur, April 29: Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today released its annual survey and review of real-world ransomware experiences in the State of Ransomware 2022.
The report shows that 79 per cent of Malaysian organizations surveyed were attacked with ransomware in 2021, which is significantly higher than the global average of 66 per cent.
Thirty-nine per cent of Malaysian organizations that had data encrypted in an attack paid the ransom, which is a three-fold increase from 2020.
While the global average ransom paid by organizations that had data encrypted in their most significant ransomware attack, increased nearly fivefold to reach US$812,360, with a threefold increase in the proportion of organizations paying a ransom of $1 million or more. 

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