Category: Local Business

iSend Logistics Malaysia Partners IKOBANA to Expand Delivery Business Nationwide

Customers guaranteed fast and reliable last-mile delivery

iSend Logistics Malaysia (iSend), a logistics and warehousing specialist and a subsidiary of MAA Group Berhad, is expanding its last-mile delivery services through a partnership with Ikobana Sdn Bhd (IKOBANA), a homegrown courier and freight forwarding services provider established in 2006, with 70 outlets across Peninsular Malaysia.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdowns, has quickened the pace of digital adoption among consumers as well as businesses, with an ensuing boom in e-commerce transactions. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, for the second quarter ended 30 June 2021, e-commerce income grew by 23.3% to RM267.6 billion compared to the same quarter in 2020 while compared to the first quarter ended 31 March 2021, income grew by 5.1%.

For the whole of 2020, e-commerce income grew by 32.7% to RM896.4 billion as the COVID-19 lockdowns boosted not only online retail transactions but also transactions among businesses particularly in the manufacturing and services sectors.

“Set against this backdrop, an important feature in this ‘chain’ is the delivery provider. Whilst online transactions are a fun – and occasionally, therapeutic – way of ‘surviving’ these gloomy times, what’s NOT so fun is waiting for that much anticipated delivery, and if you’re the sender, not knowing whether your items will be delivered safely – and in one piece – to the recipient,” said Zamri Rahman, iSend Logistics General Manager.

Tapping into this current landscape, iSend, a full-suite, land-based logistics provider and warehousing company, which has its main warehousing operations in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor and soon in Kuantan and Melaka, is offering personalised, cost-efficient, fast and reliable courier delivery services, not only to its corporate clients but also to the public.

“This strategic partnership between iSend and IKOBANA will provide an opportunity for us to demonstrate our position in Malaysia’s first and last mile delivery market. To keep up with the e-commerce boom in Malaysia, iSend will be focusing on partnerships, ramping up investment into technology and strengthening operations. We’ve identified gaps in consumer demand and will be offering exciting and newly improved products and services soon,” explained Zamri.

Elaborating, he shared, “We plan in the next five years to expand across Malaysia by having at least 99 satellite stations with the support of seven hubs in each region. We currently have six distribution centres and 60 satellite stations in Malaysia.” The company also has a presence and originates from the Philippines.

Customers using IKOBANA’s iShop to drop and send off goods can now select iSend as their fast and reliable last-mile delivery provider and enjoy special rates. At the same time, IKOBANA will provide the best shipping comparisons from reputable courier companies online and offline, which is good value for money especially for supply-chain customers, who will also save time in the decision-making process.

Ikobana President, En Nurhazli Ghazali, said, “iSend’s first/last mile operations enables point-to-point delivery service. IKOBANA outlets can now offer home pick-up for parcels using our mobile app. With the pandemic, customers are more familiar doing transactions on the internet and are happy not to go outside”.

Please contact the below for more information:
Hakim Juraimi
Tel: +60 12-318 5410
Email: h.juraimi@swanconsultancy.biz

Hektar REIT 2Q Revenue up 4.5%

Hektar Asset Management Sdn. Bhd., the Manager of Hektar Real Estate Investment Trust (“Hektar REIT”), today announced the second quarter results ended 30 June 2021 (“2Q 2021”). Hektar REIT recorded revenue of RM25.71 million, which is 4.5% higher than the RM24.60 million recorded in the same quarter of the preceding year.

Hektar REIT Summary of Financial Results for 2Q21 (unaudited)

Net property income meanwhile was RM10.21 million, a decrease of 14.8% compared to the RM11.97 million recorded in 2Q 2020. The reported decline was in line with other retail and hospitality REITs affected by the pandemic due to the implementation of various Movement Control Orders and mobility restrictions. Realized income for 2Q 2021 was 5.2% higher at RM1.58 million compared to the RM1.50 million recorded in 2Q 2020. Earnings per unit (“EPU”) of 0.34 sen was recorded for the second quarter.

While the operating landscape continues to be challenging for the retail industry due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, Hektar REIT is hopeful that the situation will gradually normalize and consumer sentiment will recover as the high vaccination rates among the population continue. The move by the Government to allow certain non-essential businesses to resume operations from 16 August 2021 while adhering to the standard operating procedures (“SOPs”) to curb the virus will give some breathing space to these businesses that have been badly affected and not allowed to operate since May 2021.

Hektar REIT remains cautious as daily infection rates continue to be high but view the introduction of vaccination for retail frontliners under the Retail Industry Vaccination Programme (RiVAC) as critical to the eventual full reopening of the industry. RiVAC is important for the safety of retail staff as well as safeguarding public health for those who have daily interactions with the public. The REIT will continue to monitor the situation while adhering to all SOPs and have implemented measures to ensure the business sustainability of the REIT as well as its tenants.

The outlook for Hektar REIT, as with the rest of the retail REITs, depends on the stabilization and recovery of consumer sentiment, which continues to be affected due to prolonged lockdowns along with other mobility restrictions. Retail Group Malaysia has also recently revised sales growth for the industry downwards to 4.0% for the whole year from 4.1% previously, which was also a downward revision from 4.9% released earlier in the year.

The Government should continue to find the right balance to accelerate the reopening of all economic sectors, which would kick-start economic recovery and enable employers to save and create more jobs whilst ensuring that the healthcare system is able to cope. It would also increase the confidence of businesses and consumers to boost the local economy, in line with the new Government’s focus on achieving two main objectives, i.e. raising the purchasing power of citizens and to return the private sector to its role as the country’s main driver of economic growth.

Hektar REIT remains committed to fulfill its obligation to ensure that all the business activities are performed to high standards of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Various energy utilization and optimization initiatives since 2017 have been put in place for all of its shopping malls, resulting in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (recorded as CO2e) and energy usage over the last five years. From 2017 to June 2021, the CO2E avoided was 14.3 million kg, equivalent to saving 369,368 trees. Overall, the Building Energy Intensity (“BEI”) for the portfolio is also on a declining trend. Hektar REIT is a constituent member of the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index and in its latest June 2021 evaluation, its ESG conduct has been recognized with a 3-star ESG rating by FTSE Russell.

Contact:
Hakim Juraimi
h.juraimi@swanconsultancy.biz

Princeton Digital Group Announces a $150 Million New Data Center in Indonesia

Singapore-based Princeton Digital Group (PDG), Asia’s leading data center provider, today announced plans for a greenfield development in Jakarta, Indonesia, as part of PDG’s plan to expand its footprint to serve its customers’ needs in the booming Indonesian digital economy. With 19 data centers across 5 countries PDG has built an unrivalled footprint in less than 4 years since its inception. The company recently announced an investment of USD 1 billion to open a 100 MW flagship data center campus in Japan.

The new 22MW data center, to be named Jakarta Cibitung 2 (JC2), is being built within the same 19,550m2 campus that houses PDG’s existing data center JC1. This expanded campus of 35MW is well-poised to serve global cloud companies, domestic internet companies and enterprises with unmatched scalability, connectivity and reliability.

The greater Jakarta area is experiencing increasing adoption of cloud-based services, among consumers, businesses and government. Indonesia is also home to some of the fastest-growing start-up companies of SE Asia.

“The Asia Pacific region is set to be the largest data center market in the world, and this announcement underscores our vision to be the market leader in this region,” said Rangu Salgame, Chairman and CEO of Princeton Digital Group. “Over the last four years, through our unique three-pronged strategy of acquisitions, carve-outs and greenfield development, we’ve built a strong portfolio of data centers across key Asian markets such as China, Singapore, Indonesia, India and Japan. PDG has become a partner of choice for hyperscalers across multiple countries. PDG’s growth in Indonesia demonstrates our continued ability to expand rapidly in markets that matter to our customers.

“Jakarta is an exciting market, Cibitung being the pre-eminent cloud cluster in the region. With the expanded campus, PDG has become a significant player in the Indonesian market. With the explosive economic growth and rapid digitalization by both government and private sectors in Indonesia, the market is core to PDG’s strategy,” added Stephanus Tumbelaka, PDG’s Managing Director of Indonesia.

According to Structure Research, the Jakarta data center colocation market is still developing, and the sector is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 23.7% through 2025. Jakarta is going to be a hyperscale market sooner than later.

About Princeton Digital Group

Princeton Digital Group (PDG) is a leading investor, developer and operator of Internet infrastructure. Headquartered in Singapore with presence and operations in China, Singapore, India, Indonesia, and Japan, its portfolio of data centers power the expansion of hyperscalers and enterprises in the fastest growing digital economies across Asia. For more information, visit www.princetondg.com

Media Contacts
Princeton Digital Group
Grace Chen
PR@princetondg.com

PRecious Communications for Princeton Digital Group
PDG@preciouscomms.com

Kitakerja.my Seeks Malaysians to Join Job Matching Initiative Assisting B40 Group

  • Website to help B40 Malaysians find jobs
  •  Seeking support from Malaysians for Malaysians

Kitakerja.my, a social initiative focusing on matching Malaysian jobseekers in the Bottom-40 (“B40”) income bracket to domestic employers, is calling for more Malaysians to join hands in building an ecosystem of jobseekers and employers while at the same time assisting in the economic recovery one job at a time.

From left: Co-founder Mohd Nizam Abdul Rahim, and Co-founder Choong En Han.

Kitakerja.my is the brainchild of two young Malaysians pooling their resources together to help fellow Malaysians in the B40 bracket who lost their jobs.

Kitakerja.my co-founder Choong En Han said, “Over the past 18 months, our whole nation has been focused on two numbers, COVID-19 new cases and death rates, but there is another number that has slipped into our lives without many people realizing it, and that is the nation’s unemployment rate.”

There are more than 770,000 unemployed Malaysians now in the country according to the Department of Statistics June 2021 report. It was also reported that about 100,000 Malaysians lost their jobs in 2020 due to the pandemic, according to former Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan in a report dated Dec. 9, 2020.

“We started kitakerja.my to give unemployed Malaysians primarily in the B40 income bracket a platform in which they can be matched to jobs offered by employers. Jobs have become scarcer given all the lockdowns we have endured since March 2020. Together with employers and jobseekers, we can assist each other while in our own way, help the economy to recover and progress, one job at a time,” Choong explained.

“We have seen firsthand how severely businesses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrenching employees is always the last resort for any business. We want to do our part in helping Malaysians affected by the pandemic to rebuild their lives, particularly those in the B40 group who are most vulnerable to financial shocks,” Choong added, “We need to act now and be a part of the solution and be the movement for a better Malaysia, otherwise, Malaysian household income levels will continue to deteriorate.”

Mohd Nizam Abdul Rahim, fellow co-founder who mooted the initiative with Choong, said, “Our resources are limited, and we really need the help of fellow Malaysians who have the skills to help us build, promote and develop this initiative. Currently, kitakerja.my is matching jobseekers and employers manually but we are seeking solutions to automate the process.”

“We are inviting tech-based experts, trainers and Malaysians in general to become a part of this movement. If you have the skills and ideas to make kitakerja.my a better platform to help Malaysians in need, please talk to us. Your contribution can also be as simple as sharing our website kitakerja.my or message via WhatsApp to keep the conversation going.”

“Many are suffering silently, but it should not be this way. Malaysians should come together this time with the aim to rebuild the nation as we celebrate the country’s 64th National Day. Hopefully employers that are hiring could give our fellow Malaysians a chance in getting employed. With jobseekers being employed, the multiplier effect of increased private consumption would be kickstarted and ultimately everyone wins in the country,” Nizam said.

Besides matchings for B40 jobseekers, kitakerja.my also has plans to make them more employable through training and development programmes in which vocational skills will be emphasized.

Kitakerja.my is a nation-building and social initiative by Malaysians for Malaysians. Kitakerja.my will be a social enterprise once all the infrastructure is in place. Choong and Nizam are open to discussing possibilities that can help B40 jobseekers upskill or reskill. #jomkitakerjabersama

Please contact the below for more information:
Choong En Han
Tel: +60 12-540 8338
Email: han@kitakerja.my

Comtel Rebrands to Quess Singapore with Focus on Local Job Creation in the City

Quess Corp, one of the world’s leading Business Service Providers, today announced that Comtel Solutions, the leading tech talent solutions Company in Singapore, and an affiliate of Quess Corp, has now become Quess Singapore and will operate as fully owned Singaore entity.

An affiliate of Quess Corp Limited, Comtel has been in business for over a decade and has expanded across the Asia Pacific and several industry verticals and sectors such as Banking, Hi-Tech Manufacturing, Telecommunication, Logistics, and Healthcare Industries. The company which partners with global market leaders, including Fortune 100 companies for services, solutions and focussed executive searches for technology staff, has been a part of Quess Group for five years and will continue to maintain its industry leading status in Staff augmentation in Singapore.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Quess Corp has been tirelessly working with a mission to help hire skilled and productive workers who are equipped to meet the dynamic market requirements of their clients across sectors. Quess has made significant investments in technology across the hire to retire cycle to provide manpower services that are already trusted by several customers globally. Its thrust on developing tools to improve productivity of frontline workers and boost employee engagement is helping create a grey collar/semi-skilled workforce that is more efficient and future-ready.

The workforce landscape is going through a massive change as talent and skills become the most important currency for organisations to drive growth and establish value differentiation. Through re-branding Comtel to Quess Singapore, the company aims to better communicate the breadth and scale of expertise that Quess truly represents.

Speaking on the company’s refreshed branding, Vikas Srivastava, Country Manager, Quess Singapore said, “COVID has completely made everyone re-think their talent strategy as companies now move to a more hybrid and asynchronous workforce that will help them make the most of the disruption to the labour economy to best meet their growth ambitions. Over the last few years, our technology-enabled solutions have been making search, selection, and management of contingent workforce easy in Singapore. With this new identity, we are confident of providing associates working for our clients with more career-enhancing opportunities through our ever-growing partnership with leading learning and development providers for their re-skilling and upskilling needs. This apart, we will help our clients manage and increase the productivity of their grey collar/semi-skilled workforce more effectively by introducing metric-driven, technology-led management through integrating our in-house mobile WorQ App into our standard offering.”

As one of the world’s leading Business Services Providers, Quess is known for its many milestones over the last 14 years; one of them being the fastest to become part of the coveted list of top 50 largest Global staffing suppliers ranked by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA).

Commenting on the potential in local market, Quess Corp CEO APAC Mr. Sandeep Sharma said, “We are focussed on “Thinking Global Acting Local”. The focus of Quess Singapore – is to be No-1 workforce solutions partner for clients in Singapore and the most preferred employer for associates and candidates. We will be more agile, technology-enabled, and look forward to boosting local employment. We are at the forefront of providing innovative workforce solutions to our larger customer base in South East Asia and stand by our mission of “Winning Together – In our client’s win lies our win” and bring it to fruition. We aim to transition to our new brand identity with the reassurance of consistent and efficient service delivery with no disruptions while looking forward to continued support from our existing clients.”

About Quess Corp

Established in Bengaluru in 2007, Quess Corp Limited (BSE: 539978, NSE: QUESS) is India’s leading business services provider – leveraging its extensive domain knowledge and future-ready digital platforms to drive client productivity through outsourced solutions. Quess provides a host of technology enabled staffing and managed outsourcing services across processes such as sales & marketing, customer care, after sales service, back office operations, manufacturing, facilities and security management, HR & F&A operations, IT & mobility services etc. Quess has a team of ~369,000 employees, serving ~3,000 clients across India, North America, APAC and the Middle East as on 31st July 2021.

Media contacts:
Namrata Sharma – namrata.sharma@adfactorspr.com
Neha Chaturvedi – neha.chaturvedi@adfactorspr.com

SEEK Invests in JobKorea, Korea’s Largest Recruitment Platform, as part of a Strategic Path to be the Best Digital Career Platform in Asia

SEEK Limited (SEEK), the Australian listed tech company which owns two leading online employment marketplaces JobStreet and JobsDB in Southeast Asia, today announced a USD48M investment in JobKorea, Korea’s largest online employment platform. SEEK will own a 10% stake, and Peter Bithos, CEO of SEEK Asia, will join JobKorea’s Board.

Peter Bithos, CEO of SEEK Asia (left) and Yoon Byung-joon, CEO of JobKorea (right)

Commenting on the investment, Peter said: “This partnership is a big win not only for SEEK and JobKorea, but more importantly for all jobseekers and employers in Asia. With JobKorea, the leading job marketplace in Korea, we can now touch the lives of an additional 25 million jobseekers and 5 million employers in one of the largest economies in the world.”

“Through this investment, we look forward to helping JobKorea with our market-leading insights into big data, how to leverage AI, and our commercial and technical experience building the leading jobs and career marketplaces across APAC,” he added. “We also look forward to learning from JobKorea as it continues to build on its leadership in one of Asia’s most dynamic, sophisticated markets.”

This investment will provide an opportunity for SEEK to add value to JobKorea’s market leading position, while SEEK focuses on its operations, fast-tracking its ongoing transformation and growth of its existing Asia businesses. SEEK’s digital teams continue to make major inroads in building products and solutions driven by AI and market data, which combined with SEEK’s deep local insights and resources in each location, differentiate it from other international players.

For JobKorea, this partnership will provide an opportunity to leverage SEEK’s experienced management team and their significant expertise in operating global online employment and human capital management platforms.

Yoon Byung-joon, CEO of JobKorea, said “We are delighted to have a partnership with SEEK, a company with a wealth of experience in the global online employment market. We believe that this relationship will be an opportunity for JobKorea to make a quantum leap to the next level. With competition becoming ever fiercer to hire talented people such as good managers, developers or tech specialists, JobKorea will move toward a global HR platform that connects the Korean employment marketplace internationally.”

The remaining 90% of JobKorea is owned by Affinity Equity Partners (AEP), a leading global private equity player and the largest in Korea. AEP acquired 100% of JobKorea in May 2021.

About SEEK

SEEK is a diverse group of companies, comprised of a strong portfolio of online employment, educational, commercial and volunteer businesses. SEEK has a global presence (including Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, South-East Asia, Brazil and Mexico), with exposure to over 2.9 billion people and approximately 27 per cent of global GDP. SEEK makes a positive contribution to people’s lives on a global scale. SEEK is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, where it is a top 100 company and has been listed in the Top 20 Most Innovative Companies by Forbes.

SEEK operates leading online employment marketplaces across Asia through JobStreet (https://www.jobstreet.com.sg/) and JobsDB (https://sg.jobsdb.com/), with presence in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Shenzhen, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The business has a strong brand and a significant presence in the South East Asia region, attracting 400 million visits a year. https://www.seek.com.au/about/

About JobKorea

JobKorea, established in 1996, is the largest online employment marketplace platform operator in Korea. The Company operates two online employment marketplaces, JobKorea (full-time) and Albamon (part-time), where employers place their job postings and candidates search through the platforms to find suitable positions. JobKorea is the only employment marketplace platform in Korea that services both full time and part time markets.

As the #1 player, JobKorea has 25 million jobseekers and 5 million employers with 11 million unique visitors and 110 million job postings in as of yearend 2020. https://www.jobkorea.co.kr/

KGiSL wins Common infrastructure for Brokers Back Office Project from Stock Exchange of Thailand

KGiSL, a global IT Products, Solutions, and Services provider, today announced the landmark contract that was won by KGiSL against significant competition from one of the largest stock exchanges in the ASEAN, The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). KGiSL will rollout Dolphin – a state of the art, cutting-edge technology back-office (BO) platform for brokers in Thailand. The platform will be hosted by SET and will be made available to brokers. The implementation is expected to be completed in the next 16 months.

KGiSL’s flagship product for Capital Markets – Dolphin, caters to 60% of the leading institutional brokers in India by supporting their back-office clearing and settlement operations. The new platform is set to become the one-stop-shop solution to the brokers of Thailand with its ability to handle multiple asset classes including Equities, Bonds, and Offshore Trading, for both retail and institutional brokers. The next generation technology platform has been tested for handling 5 million trades/ day and has the potential capability to scale vertically and horizontally, to support any increase in business volumes. Dolphin was chosen over the other leading global platforms, because it had a better fit to the requirements and also for the robustness, scalability, and automation capabilities, it offers.

Dr. Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President, The Stock Exchange of Thailand said, “This is one of our most ambitious and challenging projects to establish a common, streamlined infrastructure that will open up new possibilities for Thai brokers to revolutionize their back office business models. We strongly believe that continued support from participating brokers in providing valuable insights, along with KGiSL’s delivery capability are key ingredients to contribute the project’s success.”

On the association with SET, Prassadh Shanmugam, Director & Chief Executive Officer KGiSL said, “This is a huge win for KGiSL. Dolphin has been the undisputed market leader in India so far, but we have had limited successes in other markets. This order opens up the entire ASEAN & APAC market to create similar success stories like how we have done in India. KGiSL is poised to invest more in Dolphin’s capabilities by adding Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President of The Stock Exchange of Thailand and the rest of the management in placing their trust in KGiSL and Dolphin.”

About The Stock Exchange of Thailand: www.set.or.th

SET is the most liquid stock market in ASEAN with end-to-end services to empower seamless journey for all investors, securities brokerage companies and market participants. SET has transformed toward partnership platform by harnessing world-class technology and digital innovation to enable all parties to benefit from the Thai capital market in line with vision “To Make the Capital Market Work for Everyone”. A number of open architecture and interoperable platforms have been developed with aims at building ecosystem crucial for fundraising, wealth creation and the country’s development; widening business opportunities for operators in securities industry while offering investors convenient access to investment data, products and services.

About KGiSL: www.KGISL.com/gss

KGiSL is a global IT Products, Solutions, and Services provider in the BFSI space. KGiSL offers Software Products, Solutions and Services, Intelligent Automation, ERP (SAP), CRM, Business Intelligence and Analytics, Quality Engineering, IT Infrastructure Management and Custom Application Development. KGiSL has offices in India, US, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Thailand.

KGiSL is part of the $750 million business conglomerate KG Group with interest in Textiles, Engineering, Healthcare, Education, Real Estate, Entertainment, Software and Business Support Services. The Group employs over 25000 people and is known for its philanthropic services to the community for over 8 decades.
For further information, please contact:

KGiSL: Sampathkumar S | sampathkumar.s@KGISL.com | +91 9940069884

Adfactors PR (India):
Bhargav TS | bhargav.ts@adfactorspr.com | +91 9884883350
Shamitha Hegde | shamitha.hegde@adfactorspr.com | +91 9003107361
Adfactors PR (Singapore):
Namrata Sharma | namrata.sharma@adfactorspr.com | +65 8138 3034

Gaming platform Zupee closes Series B at over $500 Million valuation

Zupee, a leading innovator in India’s online skill-based gaming industry, has announced that it has raised $30 million at a pre-money valuation of $500 million in Series B funding round. This round of funding has been co-led by Silicon Valley based WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital, with participation from Matrix Partners India & Orios Venture Partners.

Dilsher Singh

This round comes within 6 months after its Series A round at a $100 million valuation, which is more than 5x increase in the company’s valuation. With total funds raised now at $49 million, Zupee is backed by some of the best in the industry – WestCap Group, Matrix Partners India, Smile Group and Orios Partners. The company has an existing user base of over 10 million users. This new round of funding will be used to enable scaling efforts through expanded product portfolio, deepening market reach and hiring global talent.

Founded in 2018 by graduates of India’s leading institution IIT Kanpur, Dilsher Singh and Siddhant Saurabh, and incubated with funding from Smile Group, Zupee innovates by reengineering time-tested games and enabling them to enhance skill, joy and hope. The company’s portfolio has innovative gaming formats of multiple popular board games. The flagship gaming app hosts live trivia quiz tournaments and has seen over 250 million gameplays.

Dilsher Singh, Founder and CEO, Zupee said, “Games inherently celebrate the journey and nurture self-expression. That’s what I am committed to building with Zupee – an organization which enables people anywhere in the world to enhance their intrinsic happiness through games. We innovate to ensure our games provide an intersection between skill and entertainment, enabling our users to earn while they play. We thank our investors for believing in our purpose and enabling us to progress on our journey to transforming it to reality. Our journey has just begun; 10 million happy users in India, billions more globally we want to touch through our innovative games.”

“WestCap remains a key strategic investor and operating advisor to Zupee and we are increasing our interest again as part of this most recent funding round,” commented Laurence A. Tosi, Founder and Managing Partner of WestCap and early investor in Zupee. “Dilsher and his world class team have innovated some of the most compelling and widely used mobile games of skill in India. The enduring appeal of the Zupee games brings engagement, enjoyment and empowerment to the widest audience of any gaming platform in the market. This funding will enable the Zupee team to invest further in innovation, expand its suite of games and aggressively pursue international expansion. Zupee has exponentially accelerated its growth over the last 12 months, making them one of the largest and fastest growing game companies globally.”

According to industry reports, the global online gaming industry is estimated to grow from $98 billion in 2020 to $272 billion in 2030. In 2020, the industry saw over 53 billion mobile gaming downloads worldwide, of which 17% came from India. By the end of this year itself, there will be 2.9 billion players worldwide.

About Zupee

Zupee is an online skill-based gaming platform startup based in India that is focused on innovating and creating games that engage, entertain and empower users.
More information about the company and its founder is available at https://www.zupee.global/

For further information, please contact:
Vikas Kumar – 9811054648; vikas.kumar@zupee.in
Himani Rautela – 9711306576; himani.rautela@zupee.in

Five HKTDC August fairs and ICMCM draw to a close

  • More than 370,000 visitors attend Food Expo and concurrent events

The HKTDC Food Expo, HKTDC Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair (Special Edition), HKTDC Hong Kong International Tea Fair, HKTDC Home Delights Expo and HKTDC Beauty & Wellness Expo, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), as well as the International Conference of the Modernization of Chinese Medicine and Health Products (ICMCM), jointly organised by the HKTDC and the Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association, have all drawn to a successful close. The five public fairs brought together over 900 exhibitors and attracted more than 370,000 visitors.

The Food Expo, Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair (Special Edition), Hong Kong International Tea Fair, Home Delights Expo and Beauty & Wellness Expo drew to a close today, attracting more than 370,000 visitors.
The Gourmet Zone at the Food Expo showcased exquisite high-end food products. Various star chefs demonstrated
Pavilions and exhibitors from overseas participated at the Food Expo through local representatives to promote speciality foods and beverages. Mainland China, Cambodia, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Thailand and Vietnam were among the countries and regions taking part.

Benjamin Chau, HKTDC Deputy Executive Director, said: “The Food Expo and concurrent fairs welcomed more than 370,000 visitors, showing that people are willing to spend and keen to use their consumption vouchers even though food and beverage sampling was not allowed in the fairground due to the pandemic. We were also encouraged to see a number of group pavilions participating through their local representatives to grasp business opportunities, confirming Hong Kong as an important trading platform.”

Purchases through e-payment become popular
The HKTDC interviewed more than 1,400 visitors during the fairs through random sampling. A positive appetite for consumption was reported, with 44% of the respondents spending HK$1,000 or more and the average per capita spending reaching HK$1,273. With 85% of exhibitors at the fairs accepting at least one consumption voucher payment method, the survey showed that nearly 80% of visitors made purchases at the fairs using electronic payment methods, while more than half of the respondents used their consumption vouchers, highlighting the growing popularity of e-payment services.

The Hong Kong & Kowloon Provisions, Wine & Spirit Dealers’ Association Limited (PWSA) and Nam Pak Hong Association set up a pavilion at the Food Expo for the first time, bringing about 20 food companies to promote their alcoholic beverages, canned foods, snacks, fruits and other food items. PWSA Director Michael Li said: “All our exhibitors adopted e-payment services to create a seamless shopping experience for customers. During the expo, around 80% of our sales were transacted through e-payment platforms. The Consumption Voucher Scheme has certainly helped to stimulate consumption and our sales result was better than expected. We plan to expand our participation at next year’s expo.”

Special temptations attract customers and boost sales
With great food and wine pairings in mind, some of the exhibitors at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair (Special Edition) said that running the fair in conjunction with the Food Expo had boosted exhibitors’ sales performance. John Lee, Director at Everrise International Trading Co Ltd and spokesperson for Wuliangye International (HK) Limited, said: “To engage more customers, we offered discount vouchers during the fair period which can be used when they make purchases at our stores at a later date. Our eye-catching booth also attracted many customers to visit. We expect our onsite sales turnover to reach HK$1 million.”

At the Home Delights Expo, exhibitor Bingo Leung, Customer Service Assistant at Smartech International Marketing Limited, Hong Kong, said the company’s participation in the expo over the years had helped promote its brand and new products to consumers. This year, Smartech launched new promotion plans tailored to the Consumption Voucher Scheme. “We provided discount offers, free gifts and four e-payment methods to tempt consumers to use their consumption vouchers for purchases. Our bestsellers included handheld vacuum cleaners, robotic vacuum cleaners and dehumidifiers. We are very satisfied with the results and expect the five-day expo to generate HK$500,000 in sales turnover.”

Since the Beauty & Wellness Expo debuted in 2016, Beauty Sensation Co Ltd, Hong Kong has participated as an exhibitor every year. Marketing Director Kin Wong expressed strong confidence in the company’s sales performance at this year’s event. “The expo provides an effective platform to raise brand awareness and promote our Australian skincare products to both existing and new customers,” he said. “Visitors were particularly interested in our organic skincare products this year and we expect our onsite sales turnover to exceed HK$1 million.”

Global traders view Hong Kong as an important trading platform
Despite the ongoing travel restrictions, numerous group pavilions participated at the Food Expo through local representatives, including the Ministry of Agriculture Trade Promotion Center, Shandong Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chongqing City from Mainland China which joined Japan, Korea and Poland to offer their food specialities to local shoppers. The Tea Fair also featured the Guizhou Pavilion to promote famous teas from the province. In addition to organising local buying missions, the HKTDC arranged nearly 200 virtual business matching meetings to enable global traders to stay connected and forge new deals.

Blanka Golebiowska, Deputy Consul-General at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Hong Kong, said the Food Expo had given them the chance to connect with local importers to explore further cooperation. “The expo is a great place for us to promote Polish food products and test the market. We really appreciate the HKTDC’s efforts in organising virtual business matching meetings to enable potential business development,” Ms Golebiowska said.

For more comments from exhibitors and buyers, please visit: https://bit.ly/3g4N8Xc
Websites:
– HKTDC Food Expo: https://hkfoodexpo.hktdc.com
– HKTDC Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair (Special Edition): https://hkwinefairaugust2021.hktdc.com
– HKTDC Hong Kong International Tea Fair: https://hkteafair.hktdc.com
– HKTDC Home Delights Expo: https://homedelights.hktdc.com
– HKTDC Beauty & Wellness Expo: https://hkbeautyexpo.hktdc.com
– The International Conference of the Modernization of Chinese Medicine and Health Products (ICMCM): https://icmcm.hktdc.com
– Photo download: https://bit.ly/3AKzJLX

About HKTDC
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body established in 1966 to promote, assist and develop Hong Kong’s trade. With 50 offices globally, including 13 in Mainland China, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a two-way global investment and business hub. The HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to create business opportunities for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the mainland and international markets. The HKTDC also provides up-to-date market insights and product information via research reports and digital news channels. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Twitter @hktdc and LinkedIn

Media enquiries:
HKTDC Communication & Public Affairs Department
Clayton Lauw, Tel: +852 2584 4472, Email: clayton.y.lauw@hktdc.org
Angel Tang, Tel: +852 2584 4544, Email: angel.hc.tang@hktdc.org
Sam Ho, Tel: +852 2584 4569, Email: sam.sy.ho@hktdc.org

Central Global Berhad Increases Production Capacity by 250% to Meet Fresh Demand

  • Machinery purchases increase tape manufacturing capacity from 20 mil to 70 mil sqm
  • Potential order book at 30 mil sqm

Central Global Berhad (Central Global or Group), a producer of industrial masking tapes and label stocks as well as general building contractor, is in the midst of finalizing the purchase of machinery that will triple the Group’s manufacturing arm’s capacity to produce industrial masking tapes.

Central Global executive chairman Dato’ Faisal Zelman

With the purchase of the new machinery, the Group’s factory in Kuala Muda, Kedah, will have a capacity to produce up to 70 million square metres (“sqm”) per year of tapes from 20 million sqm of tapes per year from the old machinery.

Central Global executive chairman Dato’ Faisal Zelman said, “This is perfect timing for us as we currently have new potential orders of up to 30 million sqm of masking tape orders from existing customers. The new machinery will make us even more productive and efficient while allowing us the capacity to grow the business.”

“We are also able to fulfil backlog orders worth RM10.0 million from July and August that had been delayed due to the enhanced movement control order that was extended by two weeks in parts of Kuala Muda to the end of July. We were only able to restart operations from 2 August 2021 and only at 60% capacity for employees, but we are pleased to announce that all our employees will be fully vaccinated by 23 August 2021.”

The purchase of new machinery for the Group’s factory in Kuala Muda will be partly financed through a private placement exercise of 18 million new shares which is expected to raise approximately RM26.0 million, which included financing for a construction project in Penang.

The production expansion of the Group’s manufacturing arm is in conjunction with Central Global’s growth initiatives for its construction segment. The Group signed an MoU in early June with Multi Scopes Engineering Sdn Bhd to form a joint venture to bid for building a RM250.0 million sewage treatment plant in Kwasa Damansara, Selangor and was awarded an RM101.0 million construction project in April 2021 to upgrade the water supply system in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Contact:
Hakim Juraimi
Email: h.juraimi@swanconsultancy.biz