AccorHotels, the world-leading travel & lifestyle group, is strengthening its Asia Pacific presence in the luxury hotel space with six confirmed luxury and upscale openings in the next three months. 

The upcoming openings will see the expansion of the Sofitel and Pullman brands, which fall under AccorHotels’ luxury and upscale collection. Raffles Hotel, Fairmont, MGallery by Sofitel, Swissôtel and Grand Mercure brands complete the group’s high-end offerings.

School Places (schoolplaces.com.au), Australia’s first ever private school marketplace, announced its arrival into Malaysia with the backing of OSK Technology Ventures, the venture capital and private equity arm of OSK Berhad. 

The expansion into Malaysia will see School Places, an innovative online private school marketplace, assist Malaysian parents and international families in their search for private and international school options for their children in Malaysia or for families relocating to Australia in need of a private school enrolment. 

Barracuda Networks, Inc, a leading provider of cloud-connected security and storage solutions; cautions small medium enterprises (SME) to beware of ransomware threats as they are the most prone victims of the malicious attacks. 

The caution comes as more than 300,000 incidents of ransomware attacks had been reported in over 150 countries in a massive ransomware attack in May by a relatively young ransomware called WanaCrypt0r or WannaCry.

As Malaysia gears up for the on-going transformation towards a fully digital economy, Cybersecurity is of paramount importance. 

Recent public and private partnerships including Malaysia Digital Economy Corp's (MDEC) partnership with Alibaba to establish an e-hub under the world's first Digital Free Trade Zone; and the partnership between Cybersecurity Malaysia, the national cyber security specialist and technical agency, and Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation highlight how cyber security awareness is a top priority for both the public and private sectors.

UMW Holdings Berhad’s Automotive and Equipment segments remained profitable in the second quarter of 2017 despite challenging operating conditions due to intense competition, lower margins and weaker consumer demand.  

The Manufacturing & Engineering segment continued to perform reasonably well but was affected by pre-operating expenses incurred by the aerospace business.  

CIMB Group Holdings Bhd reported a Profit Before Tax of RM3.05 billion for the first half of 2017 (1H17). 

On a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, the Group’s 1H17 operating income expanded 13.9%, translating to a 21.4% Y-o-Y improvement in pre-provisioning operating profit (“PPOP”) and a 35.3% Y-o-Y growth in Net Profit to RM2.28 billion. 

BIMB Holdings Berhad (BHB”), the country’s only Islamic financial holding company, reported a PBZT for the six months ended 30 June 2017 of RM461.4 million, representing a growth of 5.3% or RM23.2 million compared with the corresponding period in 2016 of RM438.2 million. BHB registered an annualised pre-tax Return on Equity (ROE) of 20.0% and after-tax ROE of 14.2%.

The net profit attributable to shareholders grew by 2.8% or RM7.8 million to RM286.8 million during the same period. Consequently, net asset per share also improved to RM2.69 as at 30 June 2017 compared with RM2.44 as at 31 December 2016.

As part of Coca-Cola Malaysia’s investment of RM500 million to expand the size and production capacity of its current plant at Bandar Enstek, the company has commissioned Swisslog for a flexible, robotic, data-driven automated warehouse that will drive the future of intralogistics for Coca-Cola in Malaysia. This makes it the first PowerStore System deployment in South East Asia.

Coca-Cola’s plant in Bandar Enstek serves as the halal production hub for the Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei markets. The plant at Enstek will help the company achieve it’s objective of increasing density in an existing warehouse and consolidate operations in Singapore and Brunei.

Malaysia’s pioneering convention bureau, Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB), partnered with global airline Qatar Airways – named 2017 Airline of the Year by Skytrax - under the boldest worldwide branding campaign for exotic Sarawak to date, Redefining Global Tribes. 

Amelia Roziman, SCB’s Chief Operating Officer, elaborates on the relevance of partnering with Qatar Airways. “A huge campaign about global tribes needs a global airline in tow to create the significance needed to tell the world Sarawak is serious about growing inbound business travel and hosting business events of an international caliber.”  

Lenovo Mobile Business Group and Motorola Mobility Malaysia announced its latest partnership with Lazada Malaysia to launch Motorola’s official e-store.

“As the e-commerce trend develop and grow, more and more shoppers are going online to shop to purchase products and services. We believe that this is the right time to partner with the nation’s leading e-commerce platform, Lazada Malaysia, to launch our official Motorola e-store. There is no doubt that our e-store will bring more convenience and accessibility to our customers to experience the best in mobility through our products,” said Lydia Foo, General Manager of Lenovo Mobile Business Group and Motorola Mobility Malaysia.