News In Brief

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 we received from July 22 till the end of the week. This article updates throughout the week.

Epson Triples Printhead Production

Sydney, July 23: Epson’s Group company, Akita Epson Corporation, has completed construction of a new factory, investing over AUD$33 million. This new facility will triple Akita Epson’s printhead production capacity.
Epson, known for its Micro Piezo inkjet technology, serves office, home, commercial, and industrial markets. The new factory responds to growing global demand for inkjet printers, particularly high-capacity ink tank printers and digital textile printing.
The factory, adjacent to the existing one, enhances efficiency in production and assembly of printheads, especially those equipped with PrecisionCore MicroTFP printheads. With a new optimal layout and Epson robots, production efficiency is set to increase by 30 per cent.
This expansion positions Akita Epson to meet the rising demand and collaborate closely with Epson’s R&D centers, sharing advanced production techniques globally to boost the company’s manufacturing capabilities.

Hektar REIT Recognized Again

Kuala Lumpur, July 23: Hektar REIT has been awarded the Highest Returns to Shareholders Over Three Years in the REIT sector at The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club Awards 2024.
This marks the second time Hektar REIT has received this honor, reflecting its strong financial performance and strategic growth.
The awards celebrate top-performing public-listed companies with market capitalisation under RM1 billion, recognising achievements in profit growth, shareholder returns, and return on equity. Previously, Hektar REIT won the “Highest Return on Equity Over Three Years” Award in 2019.
Hektar REIT’s consistent high returns to shareholders are a testament to its strategic initiatives and prudent financial management. The Manager of Hektar Asset Management expressed deep honor at the recognition, emphasizing their commitment to delivering above-average dividend yield and sustainable growth.
Looking ahead, Hektar REIT aims to enhance its assets, including Subang Parade, and has completed its first acquisition of a non-retail asset, Kolej Yayasan Saad Melaka. The REIT plans to double its portfolio size to RM3.0 billion by 2027.

Varia Wins RM555M Contract

Kuala Lumpur, July 23: Varia Berhad’s subsidiary, Pembinaan Teguh Maju Sdn. Bhd., has secured a RM555.0 million contract for a sewerage treatment plant project in Penang from Best Metro Builder Sdn. Bhd.
The project, spanning 57 months, involves the design, construction, and completion of the Mak Mandin sewerage treatment plant and associated infrastructure.
This contract boosts Varia’s 2024 order wins to RM653.4 million, enhancing its order book and revenue outlook.
Datuk Benson Lau, Managing Director of Varia, highlighted the project’s alignment with the company’s ESG commitments and its role in supporting Malaysia’s sustainable development goals.
The project aims to improve wastewater management, reduce local pollution, and support urban growth in Penang.
As of 23 July 2024, Varia’s share price is RM0.905, with a market capitalisation of RM377.4 million.

Malaysia’s First at SEMA

Kuching, July 23: Solarvest Borneo Sdn Bhd (Solarvest), Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus (Swinburne Sarawak), and the Centre of Excellence for Technology (CENTEXS) Sarawak, through their collaborative Team Green Gear-H, achieved a remarkable fourth-place finish at the Shell Eco-Marathon Asia Pacific & Middle East (SEMA) 2024. This event, held from July 2 to 6 at the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit in Lombok, Indonesia, challenged teams to construct the most energy-efficient ultra-lightweight car.
Team Green Gear-H is the first Malaysian team to pass rigorous technical inspections at SEMA. Competing against over 80 teams from 11 countries, they secured fourth place in the hydrogen fuel cell prototype category with a fuel efficiency of 185 km/m³. The innovative vehicle, inspired by the side profile of a bird in flight, features the largest single piece of carbon fiber made in Sarawak.
Sponsored by Solarvest, the team included students from Swinburne Sarawak’s Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, and the Faculty of Business, Design and Arts. Guided by Project Chief Advisor Ts. Dr. Muhammad Rafiq Mirza Julaihi, the team showcased exceptional engineering capabilities. Dr. Muhammad Rafiq expressed gratitude to the sponsors, highlighting their support in applying knowledge to real-world situations and gaining industry recognition.
Leon Liew, Solarvest’s Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer, emphasized the importance of investing in talent and technology for sustainable development.
“The achievement of this green hydrogen car signifies the great potential for low-carbon transportation,” he stated.
Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development, YB Datuk Dr. Annuar Rapaee, led the Sarawak delegation and emphasized the importance of collaboration between institutions and businesses to elevate Sarawakian expertise globally.
SEMA 2024 brought together 80 teams from 11 countries, showcasing innovation for a sustainable future. Team Green Gear-H’s success underscores the collaborative efforts of Swinburne Sarawak, CENTEXS, and Solarvest.

Epson Invests in Axelspace

Sydney, July 25: Epson and its subsidiary, Epson X Investment Corporation, have invested in Axelspace Holdings, a startup specializing in microsatellites.
This investment, made through the EP-GB Investment Limited Partnership, aims to support Axelspace’s AxelLiner and AxelGlobe initiatives, which focus on developing microsatellites and providing Earth observation data services.
The space industry is rapidly commercializing, with new venture companies and business models emerging in the new space sector.
Axelspace, known for its GRUS satellites, has successfully designed, manufactured, and now operates nine microsatellites, accumulating significant expertise in volume production.
Epson’s investment aligns with its “Epson 25 Renewed” vision, aiming to contribute to a smart society using its advanced technologies.
Epson sees potential synergies with Axelspace’s capabilities and aims to support the sustainable growth of space data and technology utilization.

Profectus Accelerates with Snowflake

Sydney, July 26: Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, announced that Profectus Group has significantly enhanced its client service and data insights delivery, achieving speeds up to 50 times faster using Snowflake’s platform.
Profectus, a technology-driven services provider, helps customers across various sectors, including retail, banking, mining, FMCG, and manufacturing, increase their bottom line through audit and compliance solutions. By automating the process of cross-referencing complex contracts against customer data sets, Profectus identifies payment irregularities or errors, helping clients recover underpayments or overcharges. Since adopting Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud in 2019, Profectus has dramatically reduced query times.
“What could take up to a week to query now takes minutes, up to 50 times faster.
Our analysts now get their results faster, which means we can identify errors and recover funds quicker for clients.
Profectus Group’s own data estimates that one in every five supplier contracts has transactional errors occurring during the course of day-to-day trade. In FY23, the company identified more than $72 million in missed income across its Australian and New Zealand client base,” said Abhinov Gulati, CIO, Profectus.
Recently, Profectus migrated all client data required for operational and audit purposes into Snowflake’s Data Cloud. This move streamlined data governance, accelerated data queries, enabled failover between cloud environments, and facilitated the development of cloud-native applications. Profectus is also trialing Snowflake’s Streamlit to create interactive data applications quickly.
“Choosing Snowflake enabled us to create a data foundation that can allow us to undertake any analytics work now and in the future, including potentially exploring AI solutions in the future,” said Gulati. “Streamlit helped us create an interactive dashboard which allows analysts to retrieve email data validation reports and easily confirm whether data is complete and of high quality.”
Theo Hourmouzis, Regional Vice President, Australia and New Zealand at Snowflake, added, “Profectus relies on vast streams of disparate data to understand the pain points of their customers, and the faster it can query it, the better. What they’ve been able to do since adopting Snowflake is not only speed up their already-superb service delivery to clients, but they’ve solidified their data strategy and pushed themselves to the forefront of innovation.”