Teledyne Geospatial's Galaxy Onboard delivers real-time quality-controlled data

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 (Bernama) -- Teledyne Geospatial has announced the release of Galaxy Onboard, a workflow-focused solution that enables airborne surveyors to deliver quality-controlled processed data in real time.

According to a statement, with Galaxy Onboard, Teledyne Geospatial has lowered the barrier of entry for organisations venturing into airborne mapping with a solution that does not require expertise or months of training.

Teledyne Geospatial Product Manager, Airborne, Malek Singer said Galaxy Onboard was engineered to delight the company’s customers by accelerating on-time final deliverables, reducing processing time, and automating manual and error-prone work.

“Onboard will generate confidence by revealing obscure information in real-time. Its intuitive design effectively showcases our user obsession and provides immediate efficiencies without compromising on productivity,” he said.

Through real-time quality control during acquisition, Galaxy Onboard enables faster than ever turnaround time for governmental wide area programmes and engineering-grade corridor applications.

In addition, life-threatening applications such as hurricanes, storms, power outages and floods will now have the benefit of Galaxy Onboard’s ability to process 3D data in real-time, making it available for recovery, rescue and restoration deployment while the plane is still in the air.

Comprising a rugged onboard computer, with a state-of-the-art real-time processing engine and quality control system, Galaxy Onboard extends the lidar sensor into a full solution accelerating workflow from airplane to office and instills organisational confidence in data integrity.

Teledyne Geospatial unifies the hardware and software expertise of both Teledyne CARIS and Teledyne Optech in which the new group provides customers with innovative integrated solutions.

-- BERNAMA

DIGITALBRIDGE’S KEY APPOINTMENTS REINFORCE GLOBAL CAPITAL FORMATION TEAM IN EUROPE, ASIA

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 (Bernama) -- DigitalBridge Group Inc has appointed Alice Franks as Head of Europe Capital Formation and Brian Lee as Co-Head of Asia Capital Formation at DigitalBridge Investment Management, effective immediately.

In a statement, DigitalBridge said these additions further strengthen the worldwide company’s capital formation team and its commitment to deliver greater levels of service and partnership to clients globally.

Franks and Lee joined DigitalBridge from AMP Capital where they were responsible for leading capital formation and investor relations across Europe and Asia, respectively, focusing on executing infrastructure equity and credit strategies.

Their appointments follow DigitalBridge’s recent acquisition of AMP Capital’s global infrastructure equity investment management business, which has been rebranded to InfraBridge.

“We are pleased to welcome Alice, Brian and their respective teams to DigitalBridge as we continue to build out our team in key regions globally.

“Both bring significant investor relations and fundraising prowess in their respective markets and complement DigitalBridge’s growing capital formation team as we maintain our focus on consistently delivering for our clients around the world,” said its Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, Kevin Smithen.

Franks, based in London, brings 20 years of experience in capital raising and investment management, including the last six years at AMP Capital, where she raised a series of fund vintages for the private infrastructure equity and credit platforms to European investors.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based Lee brings over 15 years of capital raising and investor relations experience, in addition to established relationships with institutional clients across Asia, developed over his eight years at AMP Capital.

Headquartered in Boca Raton, United States (US), DigitalBridge, a leading global digital infrastructure firm, has key offices in New York and Los Angeles (US), London (United Kingdom), Luxembourg and Singapore.

-- BERNAMA

AM Best affirms credit ratings of Japan’s Meiji Yasuda

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 (Bernama) -- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “aa-” (Superior) of Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company (Meiji Yasuda).

In a statement, AM Best said the outlook of these credit ratings (ratings) was stable.

The ratings reflect Meiji Yasuda’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assessed as strongest, as well as its strong operating performance, favourable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

Meiji Yasuda’s balance sheet strength assessment mainly reflects its risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) also is supported by the company’s low financial leverage, with an adjusted debt leverage ratio that is well below 25 per cent.

The stable outlooks reflect AM Best’s expectation that Meiji Yasuda will maintain its overall balance sheet strength assessment, supported by risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by BCAR.

The company’s stable in-force business and diversified products portfolio are also expected to support its consistent operating performance over the intermediate term.

Meiji Yasuda has a track record of a consistently strong operating performance, mainly supported by a stable trend of base profit and a five-year average return-on-equity of 6.2 per cent (fiscal years 2017-2021), as calculated based on comprehensive income.

Meiji Yasuda is one of Japan's leading life insurance companies that continues to maintain a strong and effective agency channel and aims to diversify its distribution channels further to achieve revenue growth and strengthen profitability in its domestic market.

-- BERNAMA

AM BEST ASSIGNS CREDIT RATINGS TO INDIA'S ICICI LOMBARD GENERAL INSURANCE

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 (Bernama) -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb+” (Good) to ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (ICICI Lombard), India.

AM Best said in a statement the outlook assigned to these credit ratings (ratings) was stable.

“The ratings reflect ICICI Lombard’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assessed as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management,” it said.

ICICI Lombard’s balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, which was at the strongest level as of fiscal year ending March 31, 2022 and is expected to remain at this level over the near to medium term, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio.

Positive balance sheet factors include ICICI Lombard’s robust regulatory solvency position and its track record of strong internal capital generation, with shareholders’ equity having exhibited a five-year average compound annual growth rate of 16.5 per cent, as calculated by AM Best (fiscal years 2018-2022).

In addition, AM Best viewed ICICI Lombard’s operating performance as strong, with a five-year average return-on-equity ratio of 18.5 per cent, as estimated by the rating agency (fiscal years 2018-2022).

Prospectively, AM Best anticipates underwriting performance to remain pressured by competitive market conditions; however, investment income is expected to continue supporting strong overall earnings.

The business profile assessment of neutral reflects the company’s position as the second-largest non-life general insurer in India, with an overall market share of 8.1 per cent based on fiscal year 2022 gross domestic premium income.

-- BERNAMA

AM BEST ASSIGNS CREDIT RATINGS TO INDIA'S ICICI LOMBARD GENERAL INSURANCE

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 (Bernama) -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb+” (Good) to ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (ICICI Lombard), India.

AM Best said in a statement the outlook assigned to these credit ratings (ratings) was stable.

“The ratings reflect ICICI Lombard’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assessed as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management,” it said.

ICICI Lombard’s balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, which was at the strongest level as of fiscal year ending March 31, 2022 and is expected to remain at this level over the near to medium term, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio.

Positive balance sheet factors include ICICI Lombard’s robust regulatory solvency position and its track record of strong internal capital generation, with shareholders’ equity having exhibited a five-year average compound annual growth rate of 16.5 per cent, as calculated by AM Best (fiscal years 2018-2022).

In addition, AM Best viewed ICICI Lombard’s operating performance as strong, with a five-year average return-on-equity ratio of 18.5 per cent, as estimated by the rating agency (fiscal years 2018-2022).

Prospectively, AM Best anticipates underwriting performance to remain pressured by competitive market conditions; however, investment income is expected to continue supporting strong overall earnings.

The business profile assessment of neutral reflects the company’s position as the second-largest non-life general insurer in India, with an overall market share of 8.1 per cent based on fiscal year 2022 gross domestic premium income.

-- BERNAMA

JPMD, FIMO JSC upgrade information platform, offer paid membership service

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 (Bernama) -- JP Media Direct Co Ltd (JPMD) and the First Innovation and Management Organization Joint Stock Company (FIMO JSC), have upgraded their jointly developed Hanoi PIVASIA beta version, an information platform for industrial real estate  to "PIVASIA 1.0".

According to a statement, the platform has been launched as a paid membership service, beginning Jan 16.

JPMD is a Japan Post Group company based in Tokyo whilst FIMO JSC is a Hanoi-based venture company from Vietnam National University.

The paid membership service provides more detailed area and industrial park information and search functions that include the ability to search for areas and industrial parks based on specific criteria, save search results to a list of favourites and compare information.

In addition, a new search function allows users to search for areas and industrial parks that meet their company's criteria efficiently, including the ability to compare information.

In conjunction with the addition of these features, JPMD and FIMO JSC also updated the facility information data for 359 industrial parks throughout Vietnam.

For PIVASIA membership fee schedule, the initial registration fee is 100,000 yen, with a six-month plan that costs 1,000,000 yen, whilst a 12-month plan costs 1,500,000 yen. (100yen = RM3.26)

The new interface and system display speed has been greatly improved and the duo will continue to strive to improve user satisfaction by continuing to provide highly needed data and functions.

More details at https://ip.piv.asia/en/

-- BERNAMA

CPaaS market reaches US$29 bln by 2025 - Juniper Research

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- The value of the Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) market will reach US$29 billion globally by 2025, rising from US$16 billion in 2022, according to a new Juniper Research study. (US$1=RM4.23)

The report, CPaaS: Market Outlook, Emerging Opportunities & Forecasts 2023-2027, urges CPaaS vendors to focus on the development of managed services over their platforms in order to capitalise on this substantial growth of 80 per cent over the next three years.

“These services must enable the creation and management of rich media content over channels such as Over the Top (OTT) business messaging, email and social media,” said Juniper Research in a statement.

As markets become increasingly saturated with CPaaS service provision, CPaaS vendors must expand deeper into the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) sector.

Research author Sam Barker said CPaaS vendors now competed on the capabilities of managed services to attract SMEs.

“As many of these smaller enterprises lack in-house development facilities, they will choose the CPaaS platform that provides the most comprehensive managed services for rich media channels,” he said.

SMS has historically been the cornerstone of CPaaS revenue, in which the report predicts SMS traffic revenue will still account for over 50 per cent of all CPaaS revenue by 2025, owing to its established reliability in termination for traffic such as Multi-factor Authentication.

However, the report forecasts that rich media channels, such as email and social media, will continue to expand, and account for over US$10 billion of revenue by 2025, representing over 40 per cent of the CPaaS market value.

“As a result, platforms that fail to include managed services for rich media services in their three-year plans risk missing out on the substantial growth predicted for the CPaaS market,” according to the report.

-- BERNAMA