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Velocity Global Acquires Shield GEO in Second Growth Transaction This Year

  • Company continues to scale leading global work platform
  • Follows acquisition of iWorkGlobal in April
  • Combined company serves more than 1,000 brands and over 7,000 supported employees this year

DENVER, US – News Direct – 13 July 2021 – Velocity Global continues to scale its leading global work platform with the acquisition of Shield GEO, an established global Employer of Record (EoR) provider. This is Velocity Global’s second acquisition this year, after it acquired iWorkGlobal in April.

Velocity Global acquires Shield GEO

The company deployed capital from the $100 million growth investment from FFL Partners announced in April to complete the transaction. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Velocity Global adds scale to its global work platform that simplifies the employer and employee experience. The platform combines the company’s cloud-based workforce management technology, personalized expertise, and unmatched global scale. Users access automated technology as well as partner with a dedicated experience team for individualized solutions and expertise.

As the largest global EoR in 185 countries and all 50 United States, Velocity Global manages a client’s workforce by providing in-country and in-state compliance, payroll, and benefits for the supported employees. The company also offers Independent Contractor Compliance to assess a workforce and Agent of Record (AoR) to streamline payments to contractors globally.

“For the last seven years we built our platform to support how and where work gets done. This now allows us the strategic position to scale up to meet the accelerated demand from the shifting workforce,” said Ben Wright, Velocity Global founder and CEO. “Both sides of the employment equation — employers and employees — fundamentally changed in the last 18 months. It’s not just about working from anywhere, it’s about how to recruit, how to retain employees, how to grow revenue, and how to manage a newly empowered work-life balance.”

The “future of work” or gig economy is worth $4.5 trillion according to a 2020 report from Staffing Industry Analysts.

“Velocity Global’s continued profitable organic growth sets the foundation for further scale through strategic acquisitions,” said Cas Schneller, FFL Managing Partner. “Both of the company’s recent acquisitions were of profitable, strong businesses at a time when scale is needed to match the market. Velocity Global strengthens its leadership position in the future of work.”

The combined company serves more than 1,000 brands and over 7,000 supported employees this year. Velocity Global is registered in all 50 United States and continues to grow its footprint to include 50 wholly owned foreign legal entities in the most desired international markets by year’s end.

“We share a proud history of organic growth, and now was the time to combine the global reach of Shield GEO with that of Velocity Global, and deliver an even greater experience that the market is demanding,” said Duncan Macintosh, Shield GEO co-founder. “This combination multiplies the growth opportunity for our team.”

“We have known Ben and Velocity Global for a long time and we’ve always viewed our industry similarly, especially in terms of how we service our customers and the employees that we support for them,” said Tim Burgess, Shield GEO co-founder. “Delivering a great human-focused customer experience is important to all of us. We are excited by what our combined teams can do together.”

Shield GEO is based in Hong Kong with entities in the U.K. and Australia, and a global remote team. The combined company welcomes all 75 Shield GEO employees and is led by Wright under the Velocity Global brand. Burgess and Macintosh will support the integration of Shield GEO into Velocity Global.

ABOUT VELOCITY GLOBAL

Velocity Global accelerates the future of work beyond borders. Its global work platform simplifies the employer and employee experience through cloud-based workforce management technology, personalized expertise, and unmatched scale. As the largest global Employer of Record (also known as International PEO) in 185 countries and all 50 United States, more than 1,000 brands rely on Velocity Global to build global teams without the cost or complexity of setting up foreign legal entities or state registrations. The company offers additional services including Independent Contractor Compliance to assess a workforce, and Agent of Record (AoR) to streamline payments to contractors. Velocity Global was named a “Leader” in Global Employer of Record services by prominent analyst firm NelsonHall. Founded in 2014, the company has hundreds of employees in 27 countries. For more information visit velocityglobal.com.

Company Website

https://velocityglobal.com/

#VelocityGlobal

Hong Kong Baptist University secures funding from RGC Theme-based Research Scheme to build platform technologies for symbiotic creativity

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 13 July 2021 – A research project led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) entitled “Building Platform Technologies for Symbiotic Creativity in Hong Kong” has been awarded HK$52.8 million in research funding from the Theme-based Research Scheme (11th round) under the Research Grants Council (RGC) for a five-year project. This is the first time that major funding has been allocated by the RGC for an art-tech project.

The research team led by Professor Guo Yike, Vice-President (Research and Development) (right) and Professor Johnny M Poon, Associate Vice-President (Interdisciplinary Research) at HKBU has been awarded HK$52.8 million in research funding from RGC to develop platform technologies for symbiotic creativity.

The research team will develop platform technologies for symbiotic creativity, providing unlimited art content for humans, including an art data repository, an artificial intelligence (AI) creative algorithm system, a research theatre, a digital art and policy network, and some unique and creative application projects, to usher in a new era of art technology.

Led by Professor Guo Yike, Vice-President (Research and Development), and Professor Johnny M Poon, Associate Vice-President (Interdisciplinary Research), at HKBU, the research team will develop an immersive and interactive extended reality (XR) platform to capture human data during the artistic creation and appreciation process, which includes the cognitive and physiological data of artists and the audience, such as brain waves, body temperature and heart rates, gait and movements, etc. The platform will then convert the data into the descriptors of cognition, emotions, and behavioural patterns.

The researchers will associate and link the artworks with the descriptors to build a comprehensive and extensive data repository for artificial intelligence model training. It will enable machines to learn human aesthetics, instead of mimicking art created by humans.

The platform will also enable the audience to immerse themselves in a virtual world. They will be surrounded by images, sounds, etc, and have new artistic experiences. In addition, the immersive and interactive XR platform will be equipped with a number of sensing devices, which will help the artists to go beyond the traditional forms and boundaries and communicate and interact with the audience in new ways.

“This research project has secured funding from the RGC, demonstrating that Hong Kong attaches great importance to the development of artistic and creative technologies based on AI. This project stands at the forefront of the arts and science nexus, harnessing the power of science and technology to advance human and AI interaction in art creation. It will foster a new direction in art created by both humans and machines,” said Professor Guo.

“We will spare no effort in building a world-class AI art creation platform, and it will drive a new revolution that transforms the creative and cultural industries. It will enable Hong Kong to assume a leading position in art-tech on the global stage,” he added.

Under this project, HKBU will launch three application projects: the Super AI artist – the world’s first “Combined Music and Art Biennale”, which will host multidisciplinary musical works and artworks jointly created by humans and AI; Shared Mind and Empathetic AI – a concert series featuring a three-way collaboration between performers, the audience and machines; and Symbiotic Opera – a new form of opera that integrates with immersive XR technology, and it will be jointly created by humans and machines in an immersive virtual world.

Members of the multidisciplinary research team led by HKBU include cognitive scientists, AI and data scientists, media scientists, ethicists and art policy scholars from Yale University, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the University of Kent, Tsinghua University, the University of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong. The research team will also collaborate closely with industrial and musical partners, including Huawei, Microsoft, SenseTime and Opera Hong Kong.

#HongKongBaptistUniversity #HKBU

Johnson Electric reports Business and Unaudited Financial Information for the First Quarter of Financial Year 2021/22

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 13 July 2021 – This news release is made by Johnson Electric Holdings Limited (“Johnson Electric” or the “Company” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) for the business operations and selected unaudited financial information of the Group for the three months ended 30 June 2021.

The Board of Directors of the Company considers the publication of quarterly sales performance updates to be consistent with international corporate disclosure best practice. The objective of this announcement is to provide transparency and to ensure that investors and potential investors receive equal access to the same information at the same time.

The Group’s sales for the quarter ended 30 June 2021 were US$877 million compared to US$517 million for the same quarter in 2020, an increase of 70%. It should be noted that sales in the same quarter of the prior financial year were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excluding currency movements and acquisitions, sales increased by 61% to US$831 million. Foreign exchange rate movements had a positive effect of US$45 million on the Group’s sales for the quarter. This was mainly due to the impact of stronger average exchange rates for the Euro, the Chinese Renminbi and the Canadian Dollar against the US Dollar, compared to the same quarter in 2020.

The acquisition of E. Zimmermann GmbH (“Zimmermann”), a specialist automotive machining business based in Germany, on 31 May 2021 added US$1 million to sales for the quarter ended 30 June 2021.

Sales of Automotive Products Group (“APG”)

APG’s sales for the quarter ended 30 June 2021 increased by US$313 million or 87% compared to the same quarter in 2020. Excluding the acquisition of Zimmermann and currency effects, APG’s sales increased by US$270 million or 75% in the quarter, with the following changes by region:

  • Asia increased 21%
  • Europe increased 128%
  • Americas increased 157%

A large part of this increase was due to the rebound in light vehicle production volumes especially in Europe and the Americas where sales were significantly lower in the same quarter in 2020, when many customer plants were shut down due to COVID-19. Nonetheless, APG’s sales growth in the period exceeded the increase in production volumes for the automotive industry overall in all regions. Sales benefitted from new and recent programmes for window-lift, sunroof and power-lift gate, braking, seat and thermal management applications. APG also experienced increased customer demand for its products for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, lighting, steering and fuel cell applications.

Sales of Industry Products Group (“IPG”)

IPG’s sales for the quarter ended 30 June 2021 increased by US$47 million or 30% compared to the same quarter in 2020. Excluding currency effects, IPG’s sales increased by US$43 million or 27% in the quarter, with the following changes by region:

  • Asia increased 33%
  • Europe increased 24%
  • Americas increased 23%

Sales in the lawn and garden, white goods, window automation and other home-centric segments demonstrated particularly strong growth due to a combination of recent programme launches, new business wins and increased market demand. Sales in the medical segment increased, as automated surgical tools took some market share from manual medical devices.

Additionally, it should be noted that sales to some of IPG’s smaller customers and distributors were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the same quarter in 2020.

Chairman’s Comments on First Quarter’s Sales Performance and Outlook

Concerning the first quarter’s sales performance and outlook for the current financial year, the Chairman and Chief Executive, Dr. Patrick Shui-Chung Wang, said, “Johnson Electric’s positive business trajectory in the second half of the past financial year continued in the first quarter of FY2021/22. This was achieved despite ongoing global shortages of semiconductors that, combined with other supply chain bottlenecks, are hampering sales fulfilment for some of our business units. And, as noted in previous investor guidance, the sharp increase in commodity prices that accompanied the global economic rebound is also exerting pressure on gross margins in the shorter term.”

“Nonetheless, we continue to experience strong customer demand in all regions for our portfolio of innovative motion products and technology solutions that are designed to address the key growth drivers in the end-markets that we serve. In the automotive sector, these include electrification, emissions reduction, fuel economy, higher safety and greater comfort. In industrial and consumer markets, the focus is on energy efficiency, increased controllability and cost-effective solutions that improve health and well-being. Across each of these areas, I am confident that Johnson Electric is exceptionally well positioned to compete and win. In summary, the Group remains firmly on track to deliver healthy sales growth in the current financial year.”

Cautionary Statement

Shareholders and potential investors in the Company are reminded that the information provided in this news release, including information related to the expected outlook for the full year, is based on the Group’s unaudited internal records and management accounts. This information has not been reviewed or audited by the Company’s auditors.

Shareholders and potential investors should exercise caution when dealing or investing in the shares of the Company.

About Johnson Electric Group

The Johnson Electric Group is a global leader in electric motors, actuators, motion subsystems and related electro-mechanical components. It serves a broad range of industries including Automotive, Smart Metering, Medical Devices, Business Equipment, Home Automation, Ventilation, White Goods, Power Tools, and Lawn & Garden Equipment. The Group is headquartered in Hong Kong and employs over 35,000 individuals in 22 countries worldwide. Johnson Electric Holdings Limited is listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock Code: 179). For further information, please visit: www.johnsonelectric.com.

#JohnsonElectric

More COVID-19 Aid Arriving in Indonesia; Tanoto Foundation Donates Oxygen Concentrators

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – Media OutReach – 13 July 2021 – Following a donation of 500 tons of oxygen to hospitals in Indonesia last week, Tanoto Foundation joined Temasek Foundation and 14 other partners to donate 11,000 units of oxygen concentrators.

The first 1,500 units have been sent to Jakarta from the manufacturer in Shanghai today. Each unit can produce about 10 litres of oxygen per minute. The distribution of the concentrators to hospitals and health facilities are being co-ordinated by the Indonesia Ministry of Health.

Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Singapore Suryo Pratomo said, “A global pandemic like COVID-19 requires a global and collective response. We now have a very challenging situation, particularly in Jakarta. For my colleagues and I stationed overseas, we are eager to rally all friends of Indonesia and critical resources to tackle the situation. I am happy that the Indonesian community in Singapore are taking action to help our people in Indonesia.”

This is the second time Tanoto Foundation has collaborated with Temasek Foundation. In late 2020, Tanoto Foundation partnered Temasek Foundation to jointly donate one MGI RNA extraction machine, one PCR testing machine and 10,000 test kits to Indonesia-based social enterprise GSI Lab. The donation package supported an additional 600 tests per day.

“As the COVID-19 situation evolves, Temasek Foundation continues to support our friends and neighbours in the region in this fight against the pandemic. We are glad to be able to secure oxygen concentrators for hospitals in Indonesia to provide vital oxygen support to patients. Indeed, no one is safe till everyone is safe. We are grateful to our partners including Tanoto Foundation who have made this joint donation possible,” said Benedict Cheong, Chief Executive of Temasek Foundation International.

Last week, Tanoto Foundation, an independent philanthropy organisation established by Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto in 1981, donated 500 tons of oxygen produced by pulp and paper maker APRIL Group’s Indonesia operations based in Riau’s Pangkalan Kerinci.

J. Satrijo Tanudjojo, Global CEO, Tanoto Foundation, said, “Tanoto Foundation is working hard to help meet the most pressing needs to curb the pandemic in Indonesia. Since the pandemic started last year, our relief aid has evolved from securing masks and PPEs from overseas to donating COVID-19 testing machines and expendables, and now, oxygen. We share the global concern for this emergency. Private sector and philanthropic organisations are important partners in supporting the Indonesia government’s response efforts, and we urge more to come forward to assist in every way possible.”

About Tanoto Foundation

Tanoto Foundation is an independent philanthropic organization founded by Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto based on the belief that every person should have the opportunity to realize his or her full potential. Tanoto Foundation programs stem from the belief that quality education accelerates equal opportunity. We harness the transformative strength of education to realize people’s full potential and improve lives. Tanoto Foundation focuses on making an impact in three areas: improving learning environments, future leaders development, as well as medical research and sciences.

#TanotoFoundation

Carrefour Unlocks Customer Brand Loyalty with Appier

Appier Intelligent Conversion Booster Engine allows Carrefour to win new customers and attract existing customers successfully

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 13 July 2021 – AI SaaS company Appier (TSE: 4180) today announced the digital marketing campaign results in cooperation with the world’s leading retail group Carrefour. Carrefour Taiwan leveraged Appier’s retargeting advertising strategy and AiDeal’s hesitant buyer solution to successfully boost the conversion rate of its online shopping platform by 20%, with a CVR increase among new customers of 25% and of existing customers by 15%, respectively.

This demonstrates that the strategic use of coupons is key to winning new customers and attracting patronage from existing customers which comes in handy when a brand is trying to build brand loyalty where repeat patronage is rewarded. From the performance growth of new/existing customers, the threshold for new customers has to be lower than existing ones, presenting better conversions. Based on Carrefour’s case, the sprint range of discount conversion should be between “the threshold + USD$10”; marketers can adjust the threshold based on their experience to achieve optimal profit growth.

In response to the vigorous development of online shopping platforms and significant changes in consumer behavior in recent years, Carrefour launched its online store in 2015 in Taiwan and further set up a dedicated digital and e-commerce department to speed up its advancement in digital technology and strengthen its competitiveness. Regarding its marketing strategies, Carrefour Taiwan first adopted Appier’s cross-screen solution to increase the platform’s brand awareness and the number of visitors and then enhanced transactions and optimized Cost Per Conversion (CPC) by combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. However, with the rise of small and large e-commerce platforms and the saturated retail market, even a retailer like Carrefour, having operated in Taiwan for over 30 years, has to execute online marketing to precision, in order to solidify sales of newly acquired stores. Especially during the current pandemic, Carrefour could pivot its business models into online shopping and delivery seamlessly, to grow its zero-touch economy.

The pandemic has driven Carrefour’s online shopping scale to triple in 2020, with over 2 million online member subscriptions. After the Taiwanese government announced the Level 3 COVID-19 alert on May 12, 2021 [1] , the daily order volume of Carrefour Taiwan’s online shopping platform exceeded 23,000 per day in the first two weeks. The tremendous growth reveals that digital marketing will be a critical capability for the success of retail business.

  • Budget control: Marketing budgets would be blown out of proportion if using mass advertising as a tool, and even then, it could not achieve the desired performance.
  • Brand value retention: Spamming newsletters/coupons to all users would be blocked by mail systems and ignored by users, which is not an effective method of engaging customers, and lowers the brand value.
  • Campaign bombard: Consumers are fatigued by the endless marketing campaigns from the retail industry and email newsletters would be fighting for the attention of the customer in a very competitive online retail environment.

Appier uses three solutions to help Carrefour deal with the above challenges:

  • Targeting high-value customers : To focus on potential customers with higher purchasing power, Appier filtered the interest combinations related to buying scenarios and purchases, such as cooking, party, and hypermarket. Additionally, the AI system analyzed “the user profiles/interests of those new members who registered in the last 30 days” to find similar potential users for reaching a higher Ad Click-Through Rate (CTR).
  • Visitor retargeting : The global average ad CTR in e-commerce is only 2.6%, showing the tremendous business potential in online sales. To assist the client in allocating advertising budgets effectively, Appier utilized AI to analyze visitors’ behaviors on the site, listing millions of combinations to predict high-value customers who have higher buying potentials for retargeting.
  • Accelerate the conversion of hesitant buyers: Supermarkets/Hypermarkets are the sectors with the fiercest competition. Focusing on the new/existing website members to send coupons with AiDeal was the most effective and showed the optimal ability to control promotion budgets timely based on current customers’ buying power. After all, supermarkets/hypermarkets have to operate year-round; the key to standing out is controlling costs and encouraging sales, allowing them to boost sales in high seasons and stimulate consumption in low seasons.

Jess Huang, Carrefour’s E-commerce Project Manager, “AiDeal’s highly flexible hesitant buyer solution perfectly tackled retailers’ pain points in operation, turning brands from passive into proactive positions, deploying the room of profits timely, and avoiding the impact on overall profits from spamming coupons to all users. Moreover, with the retargeting advertising leading our strategy, Carrefour was able to gain customers and end up with better marketing budget allocation. With the support from the Appier team, we could design complementing digital strategies based on intelligence that fits our marketing needs in different campaigns, allowing Carrefour to come out tops in a competitive online retail environment.”

For more success stories, please visit Appier’s Success Stories page.

[1] Mirai Business Research Institute, Future Commerce (Dec. 13, 2020) Carrefour shifts its physical retail to online, performance overview.

About Carrefour

Carrefour, established in France in 1959, is the largest retail group in Europe and the second largest in the world. In 1989, Carrefour opened its first hypermarket in Taiwan. In response to the shopping habits of Taiwanese customers, Carrefour has developed various business models, such as supermarkets and online shopping, which have been popular among Taiwanese consumers. In the last two years, Carrefour has accelerated its expansion in the Taiwan market by completing the acquisition of Wellcome and Jasons Market Place to reinforce its supermarket coverage and attract mid to high-end customers. Further, the group has supplemented its business with an online shopping platform to grow toward its omnichannel strategic goal.

#Carrefour

About Appier

Appier is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence to power digital marketing for the world’s marketers. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, U.S. and Europe, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Visit www.appier.com for more information.

#Appier

Industronics To Tap On USD17 Billion Pre-Owned Luxury Watch Market With The Launch Of Its Own Luxury Watch E-Commerce Platform

  • Online sales of the luxury watch remain low at only 25% of the total sales for pre-owned luxury watch
  • Offers authenticity guarantees and certifications by professional and experienced watch appraisers
  • The venture into the e-Commerce platform would require a total investment of RM250 million, and the response from potential investors has been overwhelming

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Media OutReach – 13 July 2021 – Bursa Malaysia Main Market-listed company Industronics Berhad (“Industronics” or “Company” or “Group”), will tap into the USD17 billion pre-owned luxury watch market with the official launch of its own luxury watch e-commerce platform, watch-exchanges.com (“WatchExchange”), through Ecgo International Limited, its wholly-owned subsidiary in Hong Kong.

WatchExchange is poised to be the first luxury watch e-commerce platform that issues authenticity certificates for pre-owned luxury watches in Malaysia and Asia Pacific. Among some of the leading brands profiled include Audemars Piguet, Hublot, Patek Philippe, Tag Heuer, IWC, Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, Panerai, Rolex, Breitling.

According to management consultancy, Bain & Company, the global pre-owned luxury watch market was valued at approximately USD17 billion in 2018. However, less than 20% of that market is in the Asia Pacific region, while only 25% of the total pre-owned luxury watch sales were online transactions. Euromonitor International, an independent strategic market research provider, estimates the value of retail sales of timepieces in Malaysia to grow by some 5% per annum between 2019 and 2022, to reach a market value of up to RM2.5 billion.

Industronics Berhad Executive Director Datuk Chu Boon Tiong said: “Based on data and overall market performance, it is evident that the pre-owned luxury watch market has promising growth prospects with a potential boom ahead. We are excited to capitalise on the growing trend with the launch of WatchExchange and aim to pave the way for a streamlined trading platform that will not only revolutionise the transactions of pre-owned luxury watches but drive further growth in this industry.

“As we have seen over the last few years, pricing and demand for pre-owned luxury watches have been so strong that even high-end watch brands are moving into the pre-owned market themselves. However, the biggest challenge for the pre-owned luxury watch market lies in authenticating the watches. Our role here is to ensure that the shoppers can safely purchase luxury watches on WatchExchange without having to worry about the security and authenticity of the pre-owned luxury watches.”

Indeed, the robust primary luxury watch market has fuelled the rapid growth of its pre-owned counterpart. Further, with the increasing trend of monetising timepieces, especially during economic downturns, and the ever-growing demand for luxury goods, pricing and appetite for pre-owned luxury watches have gained traction over the last few years. In May this year, it was reported that Switzerland’s Chronext is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) that would value the online marketplace for new and pre-owned luxury watches at up to EUR1 billion (USD1.2 billion).

Despite the strong demand as evidenced in the pre-owned luxury watch market, only 25% of these transactions were conducted online shows that there is still much room for the online marketplace to grow. In line with current sales and marketing trends, the online space is set to be the primary sales channel for pre-owned luxury watches, raising e-commerce’s share of total pre-owned luxury watch sales eventually to the point of saturation.

Datuk Chu further emphasises that the industry’s biggest challenge is trust, as consumers tend to have reservations about the authenticity of pre-owned luxury goods. As such, Industronics Berhad, with its team of professional and experienced watch appraisers, aims to create a professional, safe trading environment that will elevate the customer experience of purchasing pre-owned luxury watches to a new level. Industronics will also set up offices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Canada and Europe, where sellers from all over the world could visit for physical appraisals of their watch collections.

“We have a team of professional and experienced watch appraisers, ready to help our customers to evaluate and appraise pre-owned watches. Upon confirmation of its authenticity, the Company will issue a globally recognised certificate to the new buyer. This is very important to ensure the value of the watch remains. It is our goal to ensure authenticity and to gain trust from our customers in order for the Group to achieve revenue growths,” he added.

The success of WatchExchange will depend on excellence in several key areas — stability, sustainability, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and new media marketing, all of which will help boost traffic to the Group’s platform. At the same time, the Group will directly benefit from a highly optimised official website and landing page that will set the Group apart from others in a market of homogeneous products. The Group’s venture into e-commerce will require extensive funding, which will be used to develop and enhance the Group’s platform and carry out both online advertising and offline promotional activities.

The Group is looking to set up a fund in Hong Kong to raise a total of RM250 million from potential investors. Proceeds raised will be utilised to purchase different brands of luxury watches for resale on the Group’s platform. Industronics aims to invest around RM25 million or 10% of the total funding required, together with Hong Kong Cyberport Fund, which will invest an equivalent amount as the Group or at a 1:1 ratio. The remainder of RM200 million will be open to other investment groups for investment. Industronics Berhad looks forward to collaborating with all its potential investors in achieving every success.

Datuk Chu believes that the competitive advantage for WatchExchange lies in the ability of the Group to build an entire “unicorn” ecosystem around the region.

“We do not think that the strength of the platform lies solely in the certification and authentication guarantees. We intend to replicate the business models globally via partnerships with a locally listed company in the respective countries. Among the markets that we are looking into are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and several emerging markets in Europe as well. Once our ecosystem matures, we will have so much more to offer to our customers, in terms of the variety of brands, models, and other services,” Datuk Chu said.

About Industronics Berhad

Industronics Berhad is an established electronics company well known in Malaysia and internationally and the Group is engaged in the design, manufacturing and installation of electronics and microprocessor-controlled products, telecommunication system, audio video multimedia systems, intelligent transportation systems and information communication technology related system.

Industronics has three subsidiaries and associated companies which are Industronics AV/ITS/Communications Division, which specialises in the provision and system intergration of various systems including Audio Visual Systems, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Conferencing Systems, Projectors and other Multimedia products, the Division also supplies and installs various digital communication equipment

Industronics Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, which provides full facilities and manpower to Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) covering design services, sub assembly services, final assembly services, testing services and packaging and delivery services;

and Ademco (M) Sdn Bhd, which provides products and system solutions for professionally designed security alarm and fire protection systems for industrial, commercial, government and residential complexes.


#Industronics

TOPBOX Mobile Self Storage kicks off limited offers in Australia – $100-$200 discount for a limited period

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Media OutReach – 13 July 2021 – Melbourne’s trusted mobile and self-storage service provider, TOPBOX is now offering between $100 and $200 discount for a limited period only. TOPBOX is best known for offering value for money services. TOPBOX’s Mobile Self Storage Box is 20% larger, which means customers get 20% more room for every dollar. Mobile Self Storage size; 1.8m Wide x 2.45m Deep x 2.2m High.

The demand for self-storage services has been rising over the past few years and the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in demand. According to CBRE Industrial and Logistics Australia, over $300 million of self-storage facilities transacted in 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

TOPBOX’s Office Administrator, Gomara Hawkins said, “The main factors driving demand are households that require new space to accommodate work from home arrangements and business owners who need to remove furniture to make space for social distancing in the pandemic landscape.” “In addition to that, the culture of consumerism, booming e-commerce activity, smaller living spaces and growing population are also driving demand from both individuals and families to store their personal belongings in a secure and convenient facility,” added Hawkins.

Customers are encouraged to simply book online or call TOPBOX to enjoy the $100-$200 discount on their Mobile and Local Self Storage Box using Discount Code:TOPBOXSAVE. This offer is only valid for new booking. There is also no rental truck needed as TOPBOX bears the transportation costs, saving time and money for its customers. Customer’s Mobile Self-Storage Box is also delivered upon requested date and time. Customers can then load their belongings into their designated Mobile Self-Storage Box at their convenience after which lock it and keep the keys. Once loading is finished, it is picked at the requested time and stored at TOPBOX’s secure warehouse, bringing convenience right to customer’s doorstep.

About TOPBOX

TOPBOX is a leading Trusted Mobile & Local Self Storage Provider in Melbourne since 2018. TOPBOX takes pride in offering the best price guarantee, better deal, with no hidden fees. Besides that TOPBOX also places security as its top priority with security surveillance in place and box delivery tracking. TOPBOX’s mobile and local self-storage is also accessible to its customers 24/7.

#TOPBOX

More Than 15 Percent of Lao Returnees Infected with Covid-19

Lao laborers return to Laos from work in Thailand
Lao laborers returning to Laos at the Mukdahan-Savannakhet Checkpoint in 2020.

Deputy Minister Sanong Thongsana said that more than 15 percent of Lao laborers returning from Thailand have been found to be infected with Covid-19.