Wells

Akasa Air continues to mourn Rakesh Jhunjhunwala but his passing will not affect its operations or growth, India’s newest airline’s chief executive officer and co-founder Vinay Dube said on August 17. Billionaire investor Jhunjhunwala, the biggest investor in the low-cost airline, passed away on August 14, exactly a week after Akasa launched its operations with a Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight. "Yesterday (August 16) we received our third aircraft in Delhi, which will be put into operation on the Mumbai-Bengaluru sector shortly. We will continue to grow our fleet by adding one new aircraft every two weeks," Dube said in a release to the media. Jhunjhunwala’s family holds around 45 percent stake in the airline through three trusts named after his children Nishtha, Aryaman, and Aryavir. Dube, a former CEO of Jet Airways, said Akasa Air was well capitalised with the financial means to induct 72 aircraft over the next five years. Close COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently … [Read more...] about Akasa Air well capitalised, Jhunjhunwala’s untimely demise won’t affect operations: Vinay Dube

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin It’s all about the gut these days when it comes to beauty and wellness. From digestion-minded intermittent fasting to gut health as a determiner of youthful skin, digestive health and function have taken center stage in the wellness conversation. Ben Goodwin, the CEO, co-founder and formulator of prebiotic soda OLIPOP , created his brand of functional and botanical soda as a healthful alternative to the public’s fixation with sugary drinks, and he’s on a mission to position his brand of next-generation pop firmly in the health and wellness categories. “People in the original colonies used to ferment botanicals and soda in the 1800s and they dispensed them out of pharmacies due to actual or perceived health benefits. So, in that way OLIPOP is bringing this historical beverage full circle by incorporating functional ingredients and botanicals in a highly accessible format,” Goodwin says. He’s done this by, first, … [Read more...] about Wellness Soda? How Olipop’s Academic Research Studies Cement Their Position As The True Functional Pop

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd's (KLK) net profit for the third quarter ended June 30, 2022 (3QFY22) slipped 28.78% to RM558.27 million, from RM783.94 million a year earlier, due to the absence of a disposal gain from an associate in the year before. In a Bursa Malaysia filing on Wednesday (Aug 17), KLK said the group's 3QFY22 pre-tax profit would be 20.4% higher at RM753.7 million against last year's RM626.1 million, if the fair value surplus of RM324.3 million on the disposal of Aura Muhibah Sdn Bhd was excluded from 3QFY21. Quarterly revenue rose 34.58% to RM6.96 billion from RM5.17 billion as its plantation segment reported a substantial increase in profit, driven by higher crude palm oil (CPO) selling prices, which rose 41%, as well as a 41% increase in palm kernel selling prices. KLK added that there was a higher unrealised gain of RM86.7 million in 3QFY22 (against an unrealised gain of RM18.7 million in 3QFY21) from fair value changes … [Read more...] about KLK 3Q net profit drops 29% to RM558 mil

- A + A HONG KONG (Aug 17): China's Tencent Holdings suffered its first ever quarterly sales fall on Wednesday (Aug 17), hurt by a government clampdown on game approvals and playing time as well as Covid-19 lockdowns and a weakening economy that squeezed ad sales. The contraction marks a nadir for the gaming giant and owner of the WeChat messaging platform which has reported double-digit growth almost every quarter since it went public in 2004, as Beijing's crackdown on big tech companies that began in late 2020 puts the brakes on its expansion. Tencent plans to sell all or a bulk of its US$24 billion stake in food delivery firm Meituan to placate domestic regulators, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The company said on Wednesday revenue declined 3% to 134 billion yuan (US$19.78 billion) for the three months ended June 30 from 138.3 billion yuan a year earlier. It has fallen for two straight quarters and analysts were anticipating the decline. "During the second … [Read more...] about China’s Tencent reports first revenue drop as gaming regulations and Covid-19 bite

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): Homegrown digital solutions and application development specialist Agmo Holdings Bhd (Agmo) has plans to expand in Singapore, targetting to set-up teams within 18 months of its listing on Bursa Malaysia’s ACE Market on Thursday (Aug 18). Agmo aims to raise RM22.10 million from its initial public offering (IPO). Its chief executive officer Tan Aik Keong said with a dedicated team in the city state, Agmo will be able to focus on growing the business and enhancing its customer relationships there. “We will expand our regional footprint by venturing into Singapore, where the mobile and web application development and digital solutions industries are expected to continue on a strong growth trajectory. “The establishment of our business presence there is expected to increase the group’s profile in the region,” he told Bernama . He said Singapore is a key global financial centre and also a regional base for many technology-related … [Read more...] about Agmo to set up Singapore teams within 18 months of listing

Chamath Palihapitiya - A + A NEW YORK (Aug 17): The news came with little fanfare. It was late on a sleepy summer afternoon last week, and few on Wall Street even seemed to notice the pair of filings when they hit the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) website. In terse, boilerplate language, the documents stated that two special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) launched by Chamath Palihapitiya needed to push back the deadlines they had set to make acquisitions. Palihapitiya was in no mood to trumpet the news. There were no tweets, no interviews, none of the braggadocio that came with so many of his big SPAC deals, back when the market was the hot new thing in finance, a sure-fire, money-minting machine, and Palihapitiya was its undisputed king. But if those euphoric moments two years ago represented the peak of SPAC frenzy — a phenomenon created out of the same ingredients (unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus) that gave us meme stocks and … [Read more...] about US SPAC king goes silent with his empire shrivelling

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has urged the government to delay implementing the amendments to the Employment Act 1995 from Sept 1, which it estimates will cost employers nationwide an extra RM110.99 billion per year. In a statement, the federation’s president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said economic growth in the second half of this year is expected to slow to between 5% and 6%, compared with 8.9% reported in the second quarter. In light of the challenging economic situation ahead, the government should reconsider implementing the amendments, he added. “Employers should be given time to reconsolidate and recover their businesses which were severely impacted due to the movement control orders implemented in 2020 and 2021 to contain the menace of Covid-19,” he said. He added that some employers were already struggling to fully implement the new minimum wage of RM1,500 per month that took effect in May, which was … [Read more...] about MEF urges govt to delay enforcing Employment Act amendments, estimated to cost RM111 bil per year

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): Sime Darby Bhd expects electric vehicle (EV) sales to increase from the current 3,000 units sold as at June 30, 2022, which contributed a mere 4.5% of its motor division revenue, according to Sime Darby Motors managing director Andrew Basham. "The organisations we are working with are trying to ramp up the production of the EV cars, so we will see the selling number of the EV cars increase in the next financial year, especially in Hong Kong”, said Basham, without disclosing any forecasts. He said about half of all cars sold in the global market will be EVs by 2030. "This will take a long time because of lack of capacity such as batteries and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). In European markets in particular, they expect more than half of their motor division's sales to come from EVs by 2030. "I suspect that in our region, as well as in China, at least half of the sales will come from EVs by 2030. That's just my guess," … [Read more...] about Sime Darby aims for higher electric vehicle sales

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): Teladan Setia Group Bhd's net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 (2QFY22) jumped 85.85% to RM14.24 million from RM7.66 million in the same quarter last year on higher revenue. Quarterly revenue soared 86.61% to RM75.61 million from RM40.52 million, mainly due to better sales from Taman Desa Bertam Phases 2, 3A and 3B as well as Bali Residences. The Melaka-based property developer declared a single-tier interim dividend of 0.6 sen per share, to be paid on Sept 19. For the cumulative first half ended June 30, 2022, Teladan Setia's net profit grew 60.58% to RM23.71 million from RM14.77 million, as revenue increased by 64.29% to RM134.51 million from RM81.87 million. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Teladan Setia's net profit leapt 50.4% from RM9.5 million in 1QFY22, while revenue increased by 28.4% from RM58.9 million in the immediate preceding quarter. Going forward, the group plans to launch four more projects with a … [Read more...] about Teladan Setia’s 2Q profit nearly doubles to RM14 mil, declares 0.6 sen dividend

Norges Bank Investment Management chief executive officer Nicolai Tangen - A + A OSLO/NEW YORK (Aug 17): Norway's US$1.3 trillion (RM5.81 trillion) wealth fund is still positive about the US technology giants, even after the sector led the investor to a record loss. "The US tech companies would typically be amongst our top 10 holdings and we continue to think they're well positioned," Norges Bank Investment Management chief executive officer Nicolai Tangen said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. The size of the holdings reflects their size in the benchmark for the fund, which is limited in how far it can stray from that index of global stocks, he said. The fund lost US$174 billion in the first half of the year, with Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, and Microsoft Corp the biggest single contributers to the decline, it said. These four are also the biggest single equity holdings of the fund. Technology companies as a whole lost 27.6%, as demand for … [Read more...] about World’s biggest sovereign wealth fund still upbeat about big tech