AM BEST REMOVES FROM UNDER REVIEW WITH POSITIVE IMPLICATIONS, AFFIRMING CIC GUAM'S CREDIT RATINGS

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- AM Best has removed from under review with positive implications and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of ‘bbb+’ (Good) of Century Insurance Company (Guam) Limited (CIC Guam).

In a statement, AM Best said the outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) was stable.

The ratings reflect CIC Guam’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assessed as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

These ratings were initially placed under review on July 3, 2019 following an announcement that DB Insurance Co Ltd (DBI) entered into an agreement with CIC Guam’s parent company, Tan Holdings Corporation (THC), to acquire an 80 per cent stake in each of THC’s three insurance subsidiaries.

Based on AM Best’s recent exchange with company management, THC and DBI have terminated the pending acquisition.

This rating action follows AM Best’s completed assessment of CIC Guam’s recent financial condition and its current business plan.

The rating affirmation mainly reflects CIC Guam’s very strong balance sheet strength and adequate operating performance.

Overall, risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, is assessed at the strongest level.

CIC Guam mainly focuses on non-life insurance in Guam, primarily on commercial line businesses.

There is no significant concentration in its product mix, but the company’s narrow geographic focus is a major factor that has constrained its business profile assessment.

-- BERNAMA

NIPPON EXPRESS (CHINA) FIRST JAPANESE COMPANY ACQUIRES GDP CERTIFICATION IN CHINA

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- Nippon Express (China) Co Ltd (NE China), a local subsidiary of Nippon Express Co Ltd has obtained Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification for its Shanghai Pudong Airport CFS.

According to a statement, the certification makes it the first Japanese company in China to evidence its compliance with GDP standards for the proper distribution of pharmaceuticals in its short-term storage services.

China's pharmaceutical market, the world's second largest, is enjoying steady expansion driven by an aging society, increasing per-capita income and consequently rising medical spending, and further growth is anticipated in future.

The GDP certification obtained covers a full range of import arrangements extending from the arrival of import air cargo at the airport to customs clearance and bonded outbound shipment.

NE China uses a dedicated refrigerated facility belonging to Eastern Air Logistics Co Ltd, offering temperature-controlled storage in two temperature ranges: 2 C-8 C (refrigerated) and 15 C-25 C (room temperature).

Nippon Express will continue enhancing its services to meet ever more sophisticated and diverse pharmaceutical logistics needs, and strengthening initiatives on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry, positioned as a priority industry in the Company's management plan.

More details at http://www.nipponexpress.com/

-- BERNAMA

NEP, ASIAN TOUR MEDIA GO LIVE WITH ASIA'S MAIDEN GOLF REMOTE PRODUCTION

 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- With a successful delivery of HSBC Women’s World Championship golf in Singapore and the Honda LPGA Thailand production as a new proof of concept, NEP Singapore and Asian Tour Media have registered Asia’s first live-to-air remote production.

According to a statement, NEP Singapore will unveil its new transformational commitment to bring Remote Production to South East Asia.

Remote Production is a hybrid method of broadcasting, based on Internet Protocol (IP) technology. Locating equipment follows a distributed model in which IP provides the connectivity as opposed to physical cables.

President of NEP Singapore and India, Saeed Izadi said: “Innovation is the engine of our progress and I support it with a passion. Our brand focuses on being creative and ambitious — all of the design and implementation were done entirely by our in-house engineers and with the support of our global expertise in NEP.”

“Traditionally, we used to build TV control rooms with our fly-pack where the event was happening, being a golf course, a cricket stadium, racetrack or any sporting venue. It has always been logistics heavy.

“With this mould-breaking approach, we are able to reduce the volume of the broadcasting equipment at the venue tremendously, keeping the core of the system at base.”

Remote Production is more environmentally friendly. It addresses the pressing challenge caused by the COVID pandemic to meet safety requirements and provide social distancing, allowing crew to collaborate remotely and while based on different locations worldwide.

Completion of this event marks an important step forward in NEP’s strategic goal to become the worldwide leader in Centralised (Remote) Production and to deliver an expanding portfolio of cloud-based and virtualised production solutions and products.

 The company has an expanding network of connected centralised production facilities and datacentres worldwide, and it will continue to expand this network over the coming year.

-- BERNAMA

BLUESTAR GENOMICS CLOSES $70M SERIES C FUNDING, EXPANDS SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

 Additional Funding and Scientific Expertise Advance Company’s Clinical Development and Efforts Towards Commercialization


SAN DIEGO, May 17 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Bluestar Genomics, an innovative company leading the development of next-generation epigenomic approaches to early cancer detection, today announced the company had raised $70 million in new equity funding. Led with the increased funding by the current investor, Mattias Westman, founding partner of Prosperity Capital Management, the oversubscribed Series C round includes several existing investors and multiple new investors: Pathology Asia Holdings Pte Ltd (Pathology Asia), the largest independent medical diagnostics group in Southeast Asia, as well as a venture fund based in San Francisco, CA, and a large, diversified asset manager on the west coast, among others. VAHOCA Pte Ltd acted as a financial advisor to Bluestar Genomics.

Separately, the company announces the expansion of its Scientific Advisory Board, with the appointment of Drs. Felix Feng, professor of radiation oncology, urology, and medicine, University of California San Francisco, and Craig Venter, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute. With the new appointment, Feng and Venter are joining Alan Ashworth, Ph.D., FRS, president, Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco.

“As we continue to champion the development of next-generation non-invasive cancer detection, we welcome Drs. Feng and Venter to our team. Their leading scientific and clinical expertise will help accelerate our development and commercialization efforts,” said Samuel Levy, Ph.D., chief executive, and chief scientific officer at Bluestar Genomics. “Collectively, these milestones will extend our ability to deliver on our promise to improve on existing cancer screening and provide a new solution where none exists.”

Series C investments and scientific advisory board membership expansion are largely inspired by Bluestar Genomics’ groundbreaking technology platform that employs state-of-the-art machine learning coupled with the 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) as a screening method to detect cancer in multiple organs in men and women. The company’s novel approach has recently demonstrated positive results in two studies published in Nature Communications and earned the FDA’s breakthrough device designation for the company’s proprietary non-invasive pancreatic cancer detection test.

“The convergence of innovative technologies has pushed the cost of multi-cancer screening down by 20-fold, allowing for continued optimization of cancer detection via routine blood draw to improve patient early treatment options,” said Venter. “With the multi-cancer screening market projected to scale to more than $100 billion in the U.S. alone, Bluestar Genomics’ technology is uniquely positioned to address the needs of over 60 million patients. I am excited to become part of such a pivotal contribution to improving patient lives through completely unlocking the full potential of genomics.”

About Bluestar Genomics

Bluestar Genomics develops next-generation epigenomic approaches to detect deadly cancers, like pancreatic, early when curative therapies are possible. Founded based on the work of Dr. Stephen Quake, Bluestar Genomics combines novel epigenomic technologies with its innovative machine learning architecture to tackle the most urgent challenges such as cancer detection. Leveraging the ease of liquid biopsy technologies, the company’s cell-free DNA-based assays are targeting early cancer detection using simple and noninvasive blood draws to improve outcomes and save lives. Led by a team with decades of experience bringing products from concept to market, Bluestar Genomics is continuously seeking better ways to measure disease pathology and bring its technologies to patients, clinicians, scientists, and investors searching for tomorrow’s cures. www.bluestargenomics.com

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005879/en/

Contact

For Media Inquiries:
media@bluestargenomics.com

For Investor Inquiries:
Susan Berland
sberland@bluestargenomics.com

Source : Bluestar Genomics

JUMIO’S AUTOMATION EXCEEDS 1 MILLION VERIFICATIONS DAILY, RECORDS 118 PER CENT REVENUE INCREASE

 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 (Bernama) -- Jumio, an AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and eKYC solutions provider is now processing more than one million daily identity verifications, the vast majority of which are completely automated. 

By consistently setting new records, Jumio has already cleared over 100 million different transactions so far this year alone, with YTD revenue growing more than 118 per cent year-over-year.

Based on a statement, Jumio’s sophisticated machine learning models now catch the majority of fraud attempts found. 

Fraud detection has dramatically increased due to the state-of-the-art accuracy of Jumio’s Face Lookup feature.

This innovation flags potential fraudulent activity by the same face being used across multiple identity verification attempts, specifically targeting fraud rings and repeat fraudsters. 

Additionally, Jumio’s automation recently won gold for AI in Security in the 2021 Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards.

“Scaling to meet this explosive growth has required both innovation and execution. We have even had customers transferring volumes from other identity verification providers that are unable to scale and keep up with their high volumes,” said Jumio chief product officer, Bala Kumar.

“Powered by automation and an infrastructure that is faster and more reliable than ever, we are excited about the benefits that Jumio’s next-generation innovations will unlock.”

Building on top of existing AI powered automation, the company continues to accelerate its investments in innovation by leveraging the US$150 million round of funding recently raised from Great Hill Partners. (US$1 = RM4.134)

-- BERNAMA

SMARTSTREAM LAUNCHES LATEST REFERENCE DATA SERVICE FOR EXCHANGE NOTIFICATIONS

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (Bernama) -- SmartStream Technologies, the financial Reference Data Utility (RDU) solutions provider, has launched Exchange Notification Service (ENS) as part of its SmartStream RDU solution suite and developed in partnership with clients.

According to a statement, the ENS service has been designed to track, consolidate and normalise reference data notifications published by each exchange.

Globally there are more than 100 exchanges where derivatives are traded. Due to multiple exchanges and formats, managing all the subscriptions from each exchange is a mammoth task.

SmartStream in conjunction with several clients realised that missing exchange notifications in the reference data space can be very costly.

With ENS, a firm no longer needs to incur the operational overheads of manually monitoring these notices.

SmartStream RDU is the only service provider to produce a consolidated list of normalised notifications – providing a cost-effective, timely, complete and accurate service.

The ENS service supports intraday notifications, publishing them immediately.

The notifications help drive quality improvements across functional areas, such as trading, risk mitigation, validating vendor notifications for corporate actions and feed changes.

More details at www.smartstream-stp.com

-- BERNAMA

CSOP HANG SENG INDEX ETF LISTED ON HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 (Bernama) -- CSOP Asset Management Limited (CSOP) has announced the listing of CSOP Hang Seng Index ETF (stock ticker: 3037.HK) on Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 

According to a statement, 3037.HK will enable global investors to grasp investment opportunities brought by the largest and most liquid stocks listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

With listing price at around HKD28.40 per unit, trading lot of 100 units, and management fee as low as at 0.1 per cent per annum (same as total expense ratio), 3037.HK will start to trade today. (HKD100 = RM53.049)

Upon inception, 3037.HK has received about HKD162 million initial investment.

Launched on Nov 24, 1969, Hang Seng Index (HSI) was one of the earliest stock market indexes and the most representative index in Hong Kong.

As the most widely quoted indicator of the performance of Hong Kong stock market, HSI is also the benchmark index of Hong Kong equity market. 

As a leading ETF manager in Hong Kong, CSOP has already been dedicated to providing ETFs/ETPs to global investors for over eight years.

As of April 1, five out of 10 top traded ETPs (ranked by three-month average daily turnover) are issued by CSOP. 

With half of the top traded ETFs/ETPs in Hong Kong from CSOP, CSOP has already established its brand as a reliable ETF issuer in Hong Kong and even Asia.

-- BERNAMA