AM BEST REVISES OUTLOOKS TO NEGATIVE FOR PT ASURANSI TUGU PRATAMA INDONESIA TBK

SINGAPORE, Dec 23 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- AM Best has revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-” (Excellent) of PT Asuransi Tugu Pratama Indonesia Tbk (TUGU) (Indonesia).

The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect TUGU’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. The ratings also factor in a neutral impact from TUGU’s ultimate majority parent, PT Pertamina (Persero) (Pertamina), a state-owned energy company in Indonesia.

The revision of the outlooks to negative from stable reflect the trend of deterioration in TUGU's underwriting performance over recent periods, and AM Best’s expectation for overall operating performance to remain constrained over the near to medium term.

TUGU’s balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), which remains at the strongest level. Capital adequacy is supported by its low net underwriting leverage and ongoing internal capital generation. TUGU’s investment portfolio is viewed to be of moderate risk and generally diversified. Cash, deposits and bonds made up more than half of its total investments in 2021, with the remainder in investment properties and equity investments. An offsetting factor is TUGU’s dependence on reinsurance to support the underwriting of large commercial risks, including aviation and energy business. The majority of reinsurance assets are of good credit quality although TUGU maintains some exposure to reinsurance counterparties that are not rated on an international financial strength rating scale.

AM Best views TUGU’s operating performance as strong. Profitable business from its parent group, PT Pertamina (Persero) (Pertamina), remains the key contributor to TUGU’s strong operating performance. However, underwriting performance has deteriorated in the two most recent financial years, accompanied by an increasing trend of operating expense ratio, and underwriting losses at its reinsurance subsidiary, PT Tugu Reasuransi Indonesia (Tugu Re). Pre-tax profits increased 15% in the first nine months of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021 supported by higher investment income although underwriting performance remains below historical achievements. Despite ongoing portfolio remediation measures, recovery in consolidated performance to the robust level of profitability seen prior to 2020 may remain challenged by claims normalisation, tighter reinsurance market conditions, and volatility arising from Tugu Re’s exposure to legacy credit, life and health reinsurance over the near to medium term.

AM Best considers TUGU’s business profile to be neutral. TUGU is a large insurance group in Indonesia, ranking number five by market share in 2021 in the domestic general insurance market, and additionally writes reinsurance through Tugu Re. TUGU has a strong market position in commercial and industrial risks, including the energy, aviation and engineering business segments, and benefits from favourable business access to affiliated business from the Pertamina group. Business diversification is expected to be supported by strategic expansion to the non-captive corporate sector and retail business over time, although this may also lead to greater underwriting volatility over the near to medium term.

Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website.

For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=45104

SHARP AT CES 2023

 

(Graphic: Business Wire)

LAS VEGAS & OSAKA, Japan, Dec 20 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Sharp Corporation (TOKYO:6753) is set to return to CES 2023 with an advanced technologies and products that embody the company’s ESG-focused management under the four themes of New Energy, Automotive, AR/VR, and TV.
 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221219005001/en/ 

Location of Sharp Booth:
Petrus Ballroom, Wynn Las Vegas Hotel
3131 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109, U.S.A.

Exhibit Dates and Time:
January 5 to January 8, 2023
(Thursday to Sunday); 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sharp will unveil for the first time outside of Japan the LC-LH (Liquid and Crystal Light Harvesting), an indoor photovoltaic device developed by integrating dye-sensitized solar cells and LCD technology. Sharp will also exhibit perovskite solar cells, which are attracting attention as the next generation of solar cells.

Passenger Information Display utilizing viewing angle control will be introduced as advanced automotive devices. Compound photovoltaic module with the world’s highest*¹ conversion efficiency is expected to be installed on vehicles such as EVs, as well as used in aerospace and aviation applications.

Ultra-lightweight head-mounted displays prototype for VR equipped with its latest devices, such as an ultra-high-resolution display, ultra-high-speed autofocus camera, and ultra-compact proximity sensor would be displayed at AR/VR corner.

Visitors can experience a new generation of images with outstanding brightness and color expression created by mini LED backlighting and quantum-dot technology for the flagship AQUOS XLED TV model for the global market. In addition, Sharp will unveil a prototype of one of the world’s largest*² 120-inch model*³ for the first time.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=45076

CLOUDFLARE PUBLISHES SECOND ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT

Report covers a year of expanding free access to security tools, new privacy innovations, and commitments to help build a more sustainable Internet

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today published its second annual Impact Report showcasing its commitment to helping build an Internet that is principled, accessible for everyone, and sustainable. Cloudflare began publicly reporting information about its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts in 2021. This year, the company focused on expanding the value and scope of Cloudflare’s Impact programs; supporting humanitarian and human rights causes, most notably helping protect Ukrainians’ access to the Internet by protecting against DDoS and other cyber attacks; and examining how the company calculates and validates emissions data.

“Cloudflare has built a team of employees dedicated to providing real, positive impact for the millions of users of our services and the billions of Internet users our decisions affect,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “In 2022, the company has jumped into action to help protect people in Ukraine, secure a fair and trusted midterm election so that cyber security was not a headline, and contribute to the development of privacy-enhancing protocols that will ripple far beyond our customers. Whatever next year brings, we’ll be ready to continue ensuring the Internet is accessible, safe, and reliable for all.”

Highlights of the 2022 Cloudflare Impact Report include:

·  Assistance to Ukraine: Cloudflare moved quickly to offer free services and support to Ukrainian government and infrastructure providers. In addition to protecting the .ua top-level domain, Cloudflare currently protects approximately 130 Ukrainian government and infrastructure domains, as well as providing free assistance to 79 Ukrainian nonprofit groups that are helping refugees, documenting war crimes, sharing information, and providing local services.
·  Giving back to the Internet: Rate Limiting, a tool that helps defend against bots and a variety of attacks, is available to all customers, including on the Free plan. The open beta of Turnstile provides a more seamless and accessible method for any website owner to confirm visitors are real people without relying on CAPTCHA. In October 2022, we announced that, as a beta service, all websites and APIs served through Cloudflare would support post-quantum hybrid key agreement.
·  Democratizing access to Zero Trust: The shift to remote work has further complicated all organizations’ abilities to defend against attacks, protect data, and maintain visibility and security controls over how users move and store data across cloud environments. To further support vulnerable nonprofits, independent journalists, and election administrators, Athenian Project participants now receive free access to Cloudflare’s suite of Zero Trust protections. A new Impact Initiative, Project Safekeeping, provides free Zero Trust security to small and medium critical infrastructure around the world.
·  Engineering privacy into the Internet: This year, Cloudflare pioneered implementation of numerous technologies designed to ensure Internet service providers (ISPs) and other network observers cannot track websites their subscribers visit. Privacy Gateway builds on those efforts by relaying encrypted data packets through our servers to obscure user IP addresses. In 2022, we partnered with a period tracker app to enable Privacy Gateway to prevent the ISP and app from being able to associate individual IP addresses with the tracker.
· Securing small businesses: Small businesses don’t always have the budget for security services; as of December 2022, we identified millions of free accounts responsible for roughly 70 trillion requests over the Cloudflare network in 2022. This is a value of $7 million of content delivery network services that they received at no cost.
·  Cloudflare services yield significant emissions savings: Preliminary findings from an upcoming study by Analysys Mason estimate that Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall (WAF) “generates up to around 90% less carbon than on-premises appliances at low-medium traffic demand.” 

To learn more, please visit the full report and read more from Cloudflare’s Impact Week: 

· Impact Report 2022
· Blog: Closing out 2022 with our latest Impact Report
· Cloudflare Impact
  

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=45079

actyv.ai appoints Abhijit Rao as global head of people

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- Singapore-headquartered actyv.ai has appointed Abhijit Rao as its global head of people to bolster employer brand and people growth.

“Abhijit’s passion for people development, domain expertise and leadership will drive synergies and help build a world-class organisation focused on a ‘people-first’ and winning culture. 

“As organisations are recalibrating people practices post pandemic and the current global scenario, these are exciting and challenging times to be a human resource leader,” said its founder and global chief executive officer, Raghunath Subramanian in a statement.

Meanwhile, Rao said with a purpose-driven vision of enabling the B2B supply chain ecosystem through technology, actyv.ai is helping spark imagination and build excitement for a more connected future.

“I am elated to be a part of this growth journey and look forward to building on the strong foundation laid down by the team,” added Rao.

As a people operations leader with over 18 years of experience, Rao has worked with some of the leading companies in the services (Infosys, Wipro) and products (Onmobile, UiPath) space in the information technology industry.

In his last corporate role as Head of People - APAC at UiPath, Rao was instrumental in the setting up and expansion of the people operations function.

actyv.ai is an artificial intelligence-powered enterprise SaaS platform with embedded B2B Buy Now Pay Later and insurance, transforming the global B2B supply chain by making business transactions faster and easier.

-- BERNAMA

Nikkiso CEIG Group gets DNV Certificate, ISO 9001:2015 certification

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- Nikkiso Clean Energy & Industrial Gases (Nikkiso CEIG) Group, a part of the Nikkiso Co Ltd (Japan) group of companies, has been awarded the DNV Management System Certificate and ISO 9001:2015 certification.

The award was presented to Nikkiso CEIG Group’s process systems unit president George Pappagelis, while the certificate was issued to its subsidiary Cosmodyne LLC.

Pappagelis said the company believes that quality is a continuous process that requires it to never stop trying to improve.

“Our internal corrective action system helps assure that all of our internal systems, future processes and designs are as trouble-free as possible,” he said in a statement.

ISO 9001 is defined as the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system, helps businesses and organisations be more efficient and improves customer satisfaction.

-- BERNAMA

UPDATE -- ICEOTOPE STUDY WITH META REVEALS EFFICIENCY OF PRECISION IMMERSION LIQUID COOLING FOR HIGH-DENSITY STORAGE DRIVES

 · First known study to test precision immersion cooling for high-density data storage successfully demonstrates efficiency

· Virtually silent operation helps mitigate acoustic vibrational issues associated with air-cooled solutions
· The introduction of sealed helium-filled HDDs opens the door for more effective precision immersion liquid cooling in storage racks 

SHEFFIELD, United Kingdom, Dec 14 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iceotope, the global leader in precision immersion cooling, announces a new study with Meta confirming the practicality, efficiency and effectiveness of chassis-level liquid cooling technology to meet the cooling requirements of high-density storage disks increasingly being deployed and utilised by hyperscale data centre service providers.

The recently published study with Meta suggests the advantages of improved thermal management, reduced vibration and equalised temperature across the JBOD, which leads directly to lower failure rates and costs for data centre operators. The hard drive systems supplied in a rack form factor in chassis drawers are an ideal fit for precision immersion cooling technology.

Neil Edmunds, Director of Innovation, Iceotope, said: “As demand for data storage continues to escalate, so will the solutions needed by hyperscale data centre providers to efficiently cool the equipment. The study demonstrated that liquid cooling for high-density storage successfully cools the drives at a lower, more consistent temperature for fewer drive failures, lower TCO and improved ESG compliance.”

High-density storage proliferating
With constant streams of data emerging from the Internet of Things, video, artificial intelligence and more, up to 463 exabytes of data is expected to be generated by each person, each day by 2025. How data is accessed and interacted with is constantly changing, causing a real impact on the processing and storage of that data. In just a few years, it's predicted that global data storage will exceed 200 zettabytes of which half will be stored in the cloud according to Cybersecurity Ventures.

This presents a unique challenge for hyperscale data centre storage infrastructure. According to Seagate, cloud data centres choose mass-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) to store 90% of their exabytes. Typically found in a 3.5-inch form factor, HDDs are a tried and tested technology which continues to offer data centre operators cost-effective storage at scale. Current top-of-the-range units provide 20 TB capacity, but this is expected to reach >120TB by the end of the decade.

More data storage means more spinning disks, higher-speed motors, and more actuators – all of which translates into more power being used. As disks go up in power, so does the amount of heat they produce. The introduction of helium into hard drive enclosures over the last decade has not only improved disk performance with less drag but with the units now sealed, the practicality of using liquid cooling solutions at HDD level has been opened. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=45009

Mary Kay completes reforestation partnership project

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (Bernama) -- Mary Kay Inc (Mary Kay), a global advocate for corporate sustainability and environmental stewardship, has completed a reforestation project in Madagascar in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, and the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership.

Chief Operating Officer of the Arbor Day Foundation, Katie Loos, said: “The impact of this partnership has allowed us to make significant strides in one of the most critical forestlands for biodiversity, with many species depending on these trees for survival.

“Mary Kay has continued to demonstrate their dedicated support towards strengthening our planet’s forests of greatest need. Protecting and preserving our most vulnerable species is essential to solving the current biodiversity crisis, and we are proud to work with partners who share this value,” she said in a statement.

The 42,000-tree project in Southeast Madagascar focused on reversing decades of forest destruction as the forest is also home to critically endangered lemurs and other wildlife species found nowhere else on earth.

Tree planting efforts were also intended to improve the resiliency of the forest and neighboring communities.

Last month, Mary Kay announced the completion of a 69-acre reforestation project to revitalise Florida’s Econfina Creek Wildlife Management Area in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.

Meanwhile earlier this year, Mary Kay also released a report detailing its long-standing partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation where together they have planted over 1.2 million trees across the globe, making a measurable impact on vital forest ecosystems.

-- BERNAMA