Author: Business News Asia

Japanese financial firm Nomura Holdings is exiting its local stock brokerage joint venture arrangement with listed bank BDO Unibank Inc as the Philippines is expected to experience its worst economic recession since the financial crisis. BDO is buying out Nomura’s entire holdings in BDO Nomura Securities Inc, according to a Philippine Stock Exchange disclosure. BDO currently owns 51 percent of BDO Nomura, with Nomura, through Nomura Asia Investment (Singapore), holding the remaining 49 percent. The original joint venture arrangement was inked in January 2016, with BDO Nomura commencing operations in October 2016. BDO said the transaction will enable it to…

SM Investments Corporation today declared cash dividends to shareholders worth P5.1 billion, equivalent to P4.25 per share, according to its filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange. The Board of Directors of SM approved the declaration of cash dividends to shareholders on record as of July 9, 2020 and payable on July 23, 2020. This is equivalent to 50 percent of its 2019 parent net income. As it maintains payouts amid the constraints of the pandemic, SM is hopeful of a recovery in business and on the return of vibrancy in consumer activity. “This pandemic has made us focus even more…

Aunt Jemima, one of the long-time brands of The Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc., today announced it will remove the image of Aunt Jemima from its packaging and change the name of the brand. Packaging changes without the Aunt Jemima image will begin to appear throughout Q4 of 2020. The name change will be announced at a later date and will quickly follow the first phase of packaging changes. “As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect…

New York-listed Eli Lilly and Company announced today that the first patient has been enrolled in a Phase 3 randomized, double-blind, placebo–controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of baricitinib, an oral JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor licensed from Incyte, in hospitalized adults with COVID-19. Baricitinib, marketed as OLUMIANT®, is approved in 70 countries as a treatment for adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Lilly expects to enroll 400 patients in the trial, with data expected in the next few months. The study will be conducted in the US, Europe, and Latin America and includes patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2…

Mobecom announced today an expansion of its initial agreement with Vodacom Group Limited, a deal that started in December 2017. In a disclosure to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the company said Vodacom has also agreed to develop a new enterprise extension for their “Switched On Benefits” (SOB) platform. “This will allow Vodacom to serve up deals and offers to a greater audience, incapsulating merchants, and allowing partners to view deals and promotions via event driven MicroService APIs,” the company disclosed. The technology will be underpinned by Mobecom’s newly developed “Mosaic” Enterprise Engagement Platform (EEP). Currently, SOB has approximately 1…

BANGKOK – B-Concept Media Entertainment Group has raised 5 million US dollars for its Bangkok-based marketing, events, production and ticket businesses. The company celebrates during the COVID Pandemic its 15th Anniversary. “We continue to implement our mission and create live experiences with digital solutions to connect fans and businesses to these events and technologies help these communities to have meaningful conversations online and offline, according to William Kuipers, CEO of B-Concept Media Entertainment Group Co., Ltd. The company recently acquired M Productions Asia, rebranded into B-Concept MPA, launched a social and teambuilding technology and is in the process of starting…

SINGAPORE – Leading women’s health company Naari Pte Limited (Naari), a Singapore-incorporated wholly owned subsidiary of Naari Pharma Private Limited, has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire 10 Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) for the US market from Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the largest privately held pharmaceutical company in India. Naari is a vertically integrated global women’s health pharmaceutical business focused on hormones and has development and manufacturing capabilities across intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage forms (FDFs). The strategic acquisition follows a period of significant growth and investment for Naari. Through the newly acquired portfolio, Naari…

Trax, a provider of computer vision solutions and analytics for retail, and Snooper, a crowdsourcing platform, announced an alliance to provide brands in Australia and New Zealand with a new store auditing solution combining the powers of image recognition and crowdsourcing. Through this partnership, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands can leverage the combination of Snooper’s on-demand, crowd-based workforce of over 75,000 shoppers acting as an extension of their traditional field team and Trax’s industry-leading computer vision platform to collect and analyse real-time data of retail execution in-store. Trax and Snooper are putting the power of artificial intelligence into the hands…

As the entire country prepares to ease lockdown restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dusit Hotels and Resorts in Davao launches Dusit Care – Stay with Confidence program to ensure guests always feel safe and reassured. The program, being rolled out at Dusit Hotels & Resorts worldwide including dusitD2 Davao and Dusit Thani Residence Davao, involves going beyond enhanced health and safety practices to deliver stay and dining experiences that facilitate social distancing while providing additional convenience, experience and value. It includes the introduction of new facilities, services and operating procedures across five distinct dimensions: Flexible Stays, Safety & Well-being,…

Healthcare firm Eli Lilly and Company announced that it has began the world’s first study of potential Covid-19 antibody treatment’s in human by dosing patients with the investigational medicine. In a statement, Lilly said the investigational medicine, referred to as LY-CoV555, is the first to emerge from the collaboration between Lilly and AbCellera to create antibody therapies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Lilly scientists rapidly developed the antibody in just three months after AbCellera and the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) identified it from a blood sample taken from one…

User experience has always been a thing, however, with the development of technology and shift in consumer behaviour, new trends begin to enter the market. We have seen a shift from newspapers to digital magazines and now is the time for technology to take a step further into digitising the world. Microinteractions You may have heard of the saying that everything lays within the detail. This is especially true when it comes to micro-interactions and the value that they add to UX. If you take a look around, micro-interactions exist in pretty much every website or application. They allow the…

Global fashion luxury group Capri Holdings Limited announced that all of its 288 Versace, Michael Kors, and Jimmy Choo stores in Greater China are already open, following the closure in late January due to the coronavirus pandemic. In Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Southeast Asia, the company began closing stores in February. Currently, nearly 70 percent of the 210 stores in these areas are open. “In Mainland China, where stores have been open the longest, volumes began to gradually build, with sales in April and May approximately flat to last year at Versace and Jimmy Choo, and approximately…

CALIFORNIA – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California has picked eight US manufacturers from a list of 100 applicants to make a new ventilator tailored for coronavirus (Covid-19) patients. The prototype, which was created by JPL engineers in just 37 days, received an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on April 30, NASA said. Called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), the high-pressure ventilator was designed to use one-seventh the parts of a traditional ventilator, relying on parts already available in supply chains. It offers a simpler, more affordable option for treating critical patients while…

SAO PAULO – Brazilian authorities said a record 26,417 new cases of the people infected with the coronavirus (Covid-19) were reported in the last 24 hours, raising the country’s total to 438,238. The Covid-19 related death toll also rose to 26,754 after the country’s health ministry said 1,156 infected patients died in the past 24 hours. At least 177,604 patients have recovered so far. For three consecutive days, Brazil has seen daily coronavirus deaths of over 1,000. Sao Paulo, the country’s most populous state, has registered 6,980 deaths and 95,865 cases. Rio de Janeiro followed with 4,856 deaths and 44,886…

MANILA – In recognition of the Philippines’ sound macroeconomic fundamentals going into the COVID-19 pandemic and its perceived ability to bounce back from the crisis, international debt watcher S&P Global today upheld the country’s “BBB+” rating with a “stable outlook.” The affirmation of the rating—which is a notch away from the minimum score within the “A” territory— and the stable outlook, at this time of crisis is a vote of confidence which comes amid a wave of credit rating downgrades and negative outlook revisions worldwide as the pandemic wreaks havoc on productivity of economies. The Philippines is badly hit as…

Ping An Voyager Fund, the Hong Kong-based investor in growth stage fintech and healthcare companies, has led the US$35-million Series C funding round in digital dentistry platform PlusDental, which seeks to boost innovation of digital dentistry in Europe. The funding round, which was also participated by existing investors HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and Lakestar, will be used to further develop PlusDental’s proprietary digital dentistry platform and continue its German and European business expansion. PlusDental is a Berlin-based health-tech company specializes in digital dentistry and aesthetic orthodontic treatments with clear aligners. It achieves medical treatment results through direct cooperation with local dentists.…

The number of Filipinos abroad who have been infected by the new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has now hit 2,845, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). On Friday, the DFA recorded 24 new Covid-19 infections while 11 people have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 947. Meanwhile, six new fatalities were recorded in Europe and the Middle East, bringing the death toll to 340 – two in the Asia-Pacific region, 91 in Europe, 97 in the Middle East/Africa, and 150 in the Americas. Currently, 1,558 overseas Filipino Covid-19 patients are undergoing treatment. The DFA said its…

Seoul – For global entrepreneurs and startups who want to explore business opportunities in South Korea and expand business in Asia, the Korean government’s ace program K-Startup Grand Challenge is an assured gateway. The program, supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), is now accepting applications for the program till June 25th, 2020. The program is an all-expense paid and the first of its kind in Asia with grand prizes for top five teams. The best winning team gets $120,000 and further assistance to develop business in South Korea. About K-Startup…

The property market in Phuket and Thailand, in general, is on a downward slide, due to the on-going global pandemic. However, the situation will not last forever, investors are ready and are preparing their investment in one of the most promising market in South East Asia. The assets of the real estate market in Thailand The global pandemic has caused serious concern among global and local real estate investors in Thailand, who were banking on a 5-7% growth this year. The popularity of Thailand as a tourist hub and growing center of manufacturing activity makes it a popular real estate…

SGX-listed Singapore eDevelopment Ltd’s (SeD; SGX:40V) wholly owned subsidiary Impact Biomedical Inc., announced today that their suite of antiviral and medical technologies, co-owned with its partners, is valued at USD 592 Million (SGD 841 Million). Impact Biomedical’s effective ownership of 64.53% in the suite of technologies equates to a value of USD 382 Million (SGD 542 Million). Following encouraging COVID-19 testing results, the groundbreaking technology was independently valued by recognized intellectual property valuation and licensing firm Destum Partners, known globally for its high level of expertise and capability in independently valuing and licensing pharmaceutical technology. The commercial assessment includes: 3F…