Ground Labs appoints Nellie Manktelow as CEO

KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 -- The global expert in sensitive data discovery, Ground Labs has appointed Nellie Manktelow as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.

In the same statement, the company also announced that co-founders Peter Duthie and Stephen Cavey have assumed the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Evangelist roles, respectively.

Manktelow comes from a deeply rooted background in investment banking, previously working at European banks in Singapore, Hong Kong and London for over 12 years.

Before joining Ground Labs, she was the Director of Business Management at the Royal Bank of Scotland, responsible for the Asia Pacific region.

In Ground Labs, she has helped the company grow aggressively year-over-year in both revenue and headcount.

She has conducted business development research in key target markets, opened subsidiary entities in EMEA, North America and ANZ regions and helped place Ground Labs on the global map.

 In tandem with Manktelow’s appointment, Ground Labs has recently tapped Nazirah Akhtar as Head of Finance, Daphne Chaing as Head of Human Resources and Greg Kopotic as Global Head of Marketing, expanding its bench of veteran leaders.

-- BERNAMA

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Trax acquires Survey.com, creates closed-loop merchandising system for physical retail

KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 -- Singapore-based Trax, a computer vision and analytics solutions provider for retail has announced its acquisition of Survey.com, a provider of prescriptive sales activation and merchandising services for emerging/mid-market consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands.

According to a statement, Trax will combine both companies’ industry-leading technologies, product offerings and customer delivery to create a first-of-its-kind closed-loop merchandising system for physical retail.

This will enable CPG brands and grocery retailers to harness a computer vision powered, on-demand labour solution to immediately address important merchandising needs in any store, at any time.

Global retailers and consumer goods manufacturers leverage Trax’s in-store execution and retail analytics solutions to better manage on-shelf availability and optimise merchandising.

These solutions are powered by proprietary fine-grained image recognition algorithms which convert photos of retail shelves into granular, actionable shelf and store-level insights.

Trax chief commercial officer and co-founder, Dror Feldheim said: “With Survey joining Trax, we will strengthen our leadership in prescribing best-in-class, data-driven in-store strategies to brands and retailers, and become a differentiated provider of on-demand sales activation and merchandising services to the entire spectrum of CPG brands.

“In addition, this acquisition allows Trax to serve the unique needs of emerging/mid-market brands, a segment that is a significant source of growth in CPG today. We are truly excited to welcome Survey.com to the Trax family.”

-- BERNAMA

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PSAV® to align portfolio of companies under new master brand

KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 -- PSAV, a global leader in event experiences will align its portfolio of companies under a new master brand and assume the name, Encore. 

According to a statement, the move will unify the brands to more accurately depict the combined companies’ industry leadership, end-to-end event capabilities and service excellence.

“Encore is a strong brand in our family of companies and adoption of its name will better reflect the full suite of event capabilities we provide,” said chief executive officer, Mike McIlwain.

“Together, the brands in our portfolio provide creative, production, advanced technology and staging services to customers all around the world. We are very excited to begin this transition that strongly supports our mission to connect and inspire audiences.”

With a global footprint reaching more than 20 countries, PSAV has recorded tremendous growth in recent years extending the solutions it provides customers to create event experiences.

It has built a strong portfolio of event experience capabilities with the recent acquisitions of Encore Event Technologies and other leading brands such as Hargrove, Hawthorn, KFP, FMAV and Eclipse.

The new brand will be launched later this summer with an entirely new brand identity. Over the coming months, the migration strategy for the complete portfolio of companies will be defined, beginning with Freeman AV Canada, which will adopt the new brand name on March-end.

More details at www.psav.com.

-- BERNAMA

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Polyplastics offers DURANEX (R) PBT CG7030 for automotive applications

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 -- The Polyplastics Group is offering an improved polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) grade, providing improved tracking resistance for a range of high-voltage automotive components.

DURANEX (R) PBT CG7030 is a 30 per cent glass-filled grade which also delivers strong dimensional stability and highly stable electrical resistance and dielectric breakdown properties, according to a statement.

The automotive industry is undergoing drastic change with electrification gaining traction due to worldwide efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels and cut emissions. As car makers move increasingly to electric vehicles, demand for high-voltage components is expected to increase.

Polyplastics conducted extensive testing of both PA 66 and PBT in temperature environments ranging from -40 C to 140 C for electric car applications such as batteries, power control units and motors/generators.

Since the properties of PBT grades experience little change even in hot, moist environments, Polyplastics determined that they are more suitable than PA66 for use in high-voltage applications.

These results suggest that using PBT could produce less variation in electrical properties when environments change.

DURANEX (R) PBT CG7030 also exhibits highly superior dimensional stability. Polyplastics reports that both moisture absorption and dimensional change rates for PBT grades are around one-tenth of the values observed for PA66-GF33 per cent.

-- BERNAMA

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Entegris' manufacturing facility in Kulim receives NCOSH safety excellence award

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 -- Entegris has received a safety excellence award from the Malaysian National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH), the highest safety award a company can receive in Malaysia.

According to a statement, the award was presented after a six-month evaluation process and it was received by Entegris Malaysia managing director, Derek Ong.

“Together, we keep our focus on continuous improvement through weekly management meetings, safety Gemba walks to celebrate successes and identify areas for improvement, employee safety training, two-minute safety briefings during every shift and safety promotional campaigns,” said Ong.

Over 950 employees work in the Kulim, Kedah facility, developing systems and products to ensure the clean and safe delivery of the microelectronic components used in semiconductor manufacturing processes and other high technology industries.

It is Entegris’ largest manufacturing site and a part of the company’s Advanced Materials Handling (AMH) Division.

According to AMH vice-president of operations, Mike Lloyd, among the aspects that received recognition from NCOSH were senior management’s involvement in all safety matters, substantial commitment of resources to fund health and safety programmes, system to track incidents and proactive reporting metrics.

In addition, the company has a recognition programme that rewards employees who make suggestions for safety improvements, demonstrate good safety behaviour, address safety issues and coach other employees on safety issues.

Employees also engage in a community outreach programme that promotes health and safety for children that includes First Aid training.

-- BERNAMA

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Pinnacle Life Credit Ratings affirmed - AM Best

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 -- Pinnacle Life Limited (Pinnacle Life) New Zealand has the Financial Strength Rating of B (fair) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of ‘bb+’, resulting in stable outlook of these ratings.

This follows by the recent affirmation by the United States-based credit rating agency, AM Best in a statement.

The ratings reflect Pinnacle Life’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best described as adequate, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

Pinnacle Life’s balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, which AM Best expects to remain at the strongest level.

Despite this, the company has a small absolute capital base, which increases its sensitivity to shock events, as well as to changes in future performance and intangible assets.

In addition, AM Best views the company as having a high reliance on third-party reinsurance.

Prospectively, the agency expects controlled underwriting growth and a robust pricing strategy to support the maintenance of adequate operating performance over the medium term.

Pinnacle Life is focused mainly on term life insurance and funeral insurance. Its limited business profile assessment is largely a result of its small-scale operations, as well as limited product and geographical diversification in New Zealand.

-- BERNAMA

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Vesta hires Shabab Muhaddes to lead expansion into Asia Pacific region

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 -- Vesta, a pioneer in guaranteed payments and fraud detection, is expanding into the Asia Pacific region with Singapore’s new office, led by Shabab Muhaddes as the region’s general manager.

“Asia Pacific is a dynamic and diverse region, and its eclectic mix of economies and rapid growth has created an immediate need for our guaranteed fraud protection and payment solutions,” said Vesta's chief executive officer, Ron Hynes, in a statement.

Muhaddes, who has more than a decade of experience building relationships across the region, brings to his role key local and global insights from the financial services, fintech and payments ecosystems.

Throughout his payments industry career, Muhaddes has demonstrated a strong ability to create win-win value propositions that serve companies, their partners and their customers in high-growth Asia Pacific markets.

Muhaddes said: “Vesta is a global company that, for over 20 years, has provided real-time automated machine learning technology to organisations seeking to effectively detect and prevent fraud, maximise revenue, reduce costs and deliver a seamless customer experience. I look forward to bringing these same tangible, positive impacts to organisations and consumers across the Asia Pacific region.” 

-- BERNAMA

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Takeda completes sale of select OTC, non-core assets to Acino

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 -- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) has completed its previously-announced sale of a portfolio of select over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription pharmaceutical assets to Acino for a total value in excess of US$200 million (US$1 = RM4.20). 

The transaction includes approximately 30 select prescription pharmaceutical and OTC products in a number of Near East, Middle East and Africa countries within Takeda’s Growth and Emerging Markets Business Unit.

These products will continue to be made available by Takeda in other parts of the world.

Close to 270 employees, primarily sales and marketing professionals supporting the portfolio, are also transitioning to Acino. 

The parties also entered into multi-year manufacturing and supply agreements, under which Takeda will continue to manufacture the products on behalf of Acino.

The Japan-based Takeda has now announced several transactions as part of its efforts to deleverage and focus on its five key business areas.

In addition to the Acino transaction, Takeda completed the sale of Xiidra® to Novartis for up to US$5.3 billion, announced the sale of TachoSil® to Ethicon for US$400 million and announced its sale of non-core assets spanning the Russia-CIS region.

Takeda intends to use proceeds from these divestitures to reduce debt and continue to deleverage towards its target of 2x net debt/adjusted EBITDA within March 2022 - March 2024. 

-- BERNAMA

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Hillstone Networks to launch Intelligence squared at RSAC 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 -- Hillstone Networks is set to unveil its Intelligence squared campaign at the RSA Conference 2020 in San Francisco.

With this year’s theme being the Human Element, RSAC is the ultimate venue for the newest developments in cybersecurity.

Intelligence squared is based on Hillstone’s vision that AI and humans are better together as Intelligence squared.

According to a statement, it is a force multiplier, continually growing, adapting and defending enterprise.

“Intelligence squared expresses our commitment to our customers to stand with them to protect their organisation from the legions of ever-smarter attackers,” said Hillstone Networks’ CTO and Co-founder, Tim Liu.

“With Hillstone solutions, our customers will force multiply their security defences and protection. We are excited to share with the RSA audience the latest developments in Hillstone’s solution suite.”

Hillstone was recently recognised as a 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Network Firewalls.

-- BERNAMA

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Validity to acquire email analytics provider 250ok

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 -- Validity, the most trusted name in customer data quality has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire email analytics and deliverability provider, 250ok.

According to a statement, the acquisition broadens Validity optimisation capabilities across the global ecosystem of email service providers.

250ok enables marketers to get more email delivered, the right way to targeted recipients and enjoy greater conversion and return on investment as a result.

The Validity for Email solution is strengthened with 250ok technologies and services including deliverability and reputation, engagement analytics, DMARC deployment, design previews, and, list validation.

Validity also brings together some of the top talents in the email industry to help ensure messages stay out of the spam folder.

Validity chairman and chief executive officer, Mark Briggs, said: “Our combined analytics platform, email expertise, and reach across the broadest set of email service providers brings enormous value to marketers across the world.”

More details at https://250ok.com

-- BERNAMA

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US-based Advanced Energy starts manufacturing facility's operation in Penang

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 -- Advanced Energy Industries Inc has stamped its mark in Southeast Asia with the start of its commercial operations of its newest facility in Simpang Ampat in Penang, Malaysia. 

According to a statement by the United States-based company, the new 178,000 square-foot facility will serve semiconductor and industrial customers in the region, which is known for its rich community of high-tech manufacturing experts.

It is expected to employ approximately 550 on-site associates inclusive of key roles in operations, electronics manufacturing, test engineering and new product introduction, with an estimated 35 per cent of technical staff.

“The new facility in Penang will not only enable us to get physically closer to many of our customers in the region but also provide greater business continuity and redundancy,” said Advanced Energy's executive vice-president and chief operating officer, Neil Brinker.

The multinational company, with worldwide operations, provides power technology that enables the manufacturing of daily products in a variety of industries, including medical, automotive, consumer electronics, glass and steel.

More details at www.advancedenergy.com 

-- BERNAMA

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HeadSpin secures US$60 million funding, adds Nikesh Arora as Chairman of the Board

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 -- HeadSpin has announced a US$60 million Series C funding round led by Dell Technologies Capital and ICONIQ Capital with participation from institutional investors Tiger Global Management, Kearny Jackson, and Alpha Square Group. (US$1 = RM4.22)

The round brings the total amount raised since inception to US$117 million. HeadSpin will use the funding to develop new product offerings, expand into new market segments, and deepen position within cloud ecosystems.

Also participating in the round are leading angel investors, including LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner, We’s Shiva Rajaraman, Calm’s Alex Will, Notion’s Akshay Kothari, Bumble’s Derek Callow, Caviar’s Gokul Rajaram, Uber’s Manik Gupta and Stripe’s Amber Feng.

In the same statement, HeadSpin also announced that Palo Alto Networks’ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nikesh Arora, has joined the company Board of Directors as Chairman of the Board.

Understanding that connected experiences enabled by web, mobile, IoT, and 5G technologies have become the primary point of interaction between companies and their customers, HeadSpin developed the world’s first Connected Intelligence Platform™ to unify testing, monitoring and analytics across applications, devices and networks.

This enables companies to optimise the functionality and performance of connected experiences throughout the development lifecycle and across the increasingly complex ecosystem of software and infrastructure used to reach today’s global audiences.

Since launching in 2015, HeadSpin has doubled its annual revenue year-over-year, earning the trust of over 1,000 enterprise customers and telco operators. New HeadSpin enterprise customers include Microsoft, Tik Tok, Bandai Namco Studios, Yahoo! and Uber.

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

-- BERNAMA

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NIPPON EXPRESS USA RELOCATES WAREHOUSE TO LONG BEACH (LOS ANGELES)

TOKYO, Feb 25 (Bernama) -- Nippon Express USA, Inc. (hereinafter, "NE USA"), a local subsidiary of Nippon Express Co., Ltd., has relocated its principal location for West Coast ocean cargo transport and warehousing operations from Torrance to Long Beach, both in California. The new location in Long Beach, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, opened for business in January 2020.

Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/202002217132-O3-M9KxbID5

An opening ceremony was held at the new location on Tuesday, January 28.

Photo1: Opening ceremony
https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202002217132/_prw_PI1lg_1QSJx8da.jpg

Photo2: Exterior view of new location
https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M103866/202002217132/_prw_PI2lg_1TKqb67K.jpg

Reflecting the robust U.S. economy, the Port of Los Angeles area has been seeing a sharp rise across the board in warehouse demand. NE USA's previous location comprised three buildings on the same site, but the new location will use a single high-ceilinged building in the interest of greater storage and operational efficiency.

This consolidation of locations with a Nippon Express Group company, Associated Global Systems, Inc., is expected to produce considerable synergy by efficiently integrating the trunk transport of cargo to/from Los Angeles.

The new site in Long Beach sits alongside the Port of Los Angeles' "Heavy Container Corridor," a roadway on which overweight container loads can be transported without special authorization. NE USA will be seeking to take advantage of this siting to step up its business efforts in the transport of large plant equipment and other heavy haulage as well as various transloading operations, and to acquire new forwarding business.

The new location is an air-conditioned facility equipped with frozen (-20 C) and refrigerated (2 C to 8 C) temperature control, enabling storage of perishables, pharmaceuticals and other goods requiring temperature control.

NE USA remains committed to further enhancing its community-rooted logistics services worldwide to support its customers' diversifying global business operations.

Profile of new location
Name: Ocean Service Division & Logistics Service Division, Los Angeles Branch;
Household Goods Branch; Nippon Express USA, Inc.
Address: 1901 W. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, CA 90810, USA
Warehouse area: 16,570 square meters
Office: 1,535 square meters

Nippon Express website: http://www.nipponexpress.com/

Official LinkedIn Account: NIPPON EXPRESS GROUP
https://www.linkedin.com/company/nippon-express-group/

Source: Nippon Express Co., Ltd.

--BERNAMA

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