Peter Bodin will lead Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL), the global entity of one of the world’s leading professional services networks with 47,000 people at member firms in over 130 countries, it was announced today. Bodin, the former CEO of Grant Thornton Sweden, will assume the role with effect from 1 January 2018 for a five year term, succeeding Ed Nusbaum who will retire at the end of this year after eight years as CEO.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170515005883/en/

Peter Bodin, Global CEO-elect of Grant Thornton (Photo: Business Wire)

Speaking from London where GTIL is based, Peter Bodin said, “I am honoured and excited to be given this opportunity to lead Grant Thornton into its next era of growth and expansion. I have always believed sustainable business success is built on having the right people, leadership and culture. My role will be to create an environment that allows Grant Thornton people and firms to collaborate, not just with each other but with clients and other stakeholders, to grow into the world’s best professional services organisation. That means building an innovative brand that stands out in the marketplace and having a resolute focus on digital transformation - - of our own business and for our clients around the world.”

Scott Barnes, Chair of GTIL’s Board of Governors (Board) commented, “As a former Chair of the Board, Peter has deep knowledge of the global organisation and will inspire confidence in our CEOs. He has a reputation for coaching and developing people at every level and I believe his passion for people and leadership and his open, transparent style will resonate with the next generation at Grant Thornton.”

Ed Nusbaum added, “I am delighted that the Board has chosen a strong, innovative leader in Peter who will inspire the people of Grant Thornton, our clients, and our communities throughout the world. I have worked closely with him over the years and I am confident that after a smooth transition he will continue the journey to execute our Growing Together 2020 strategy and continue to build an exciting future for this great organisation.”

Peter was the CEO of Grant Thornton Sweden for 16 years during which time the firm transformed from a traditional audit firm into a SEK1.3 billion professional services firm with over 1,100 people and a reputation for its strong brand, distinctive culture and its development of digital solutions. During this time, he also spent five years as Chairman of the Board. Peter, 51, received unanimous support from the GTIL Board, including CEOs of Grant Thornton member firms from 14 countries and two independent directors following a selection process carried out with the support of external experts.

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OpenLink, the global leader in trading, treasury and risk management solutions for the energy, commodities, corporate and financial services industries, today announced the launch of OpenLink Cloud – the world’s first and most comprehensive enterprise Cloud platform for trading, treasury and risk management.

OpenLink Cloud is designed to transform trading, treasury and risk departments, combining the best of OpenLink’s flagship products with an extensible and transparent platform for unprecedented agility and innovation. Delivering the highest standards of security for highly regulated, data-intensive organizations, OpenLink Cloud combines the strength and security of the Microsoft Azure platform with best-of-breed OpenLink security and tools to ensure that our clients’ mission-critical systems and data are protected at all times.

Patrick Reames, Managing Partner of Commodity Technology Advisory the leading CTRM market analyst firm noted: “While Cloud deployment of commodity trading solutions in the low and mid-tiers of the market has increased in recent years, the investment by OpenLink in the OpenLink Cloud will undoubtedly accelerate this movement across all tiers of the market. The commitment by many of the world’s largest energy and commodity trading firms to adopt OpenLink’s enterprise-scale Cloud solutions is a pivotal development in terms of how these systems will be deployed going forward.”

Jack Large, Cash and Treasury Management Consultant and Analyst for CTMfile, said, “The wait is over. There is now enough power and security in the OpenLink Cloud to move mission critical systems to their Cloud platform, combined with OpenLink’s functional strength in cash and treasury management, extensive trading, commodities and risk management, could make this combination a game changer. Time will tell.”

Developed in collaboration with over 50 of OpenLink’s largest and most sophisticated energy and financial services clients, OpenLink Cloud has been rigorously tested by those who place the highest demands on the software. Supported by a robust set of custom tools and services, OpenLink Cloud is designed to help clients of all sizes get up and running quickly and to simplify management, monitoring and support of both production and non-production environments. Customers will have immediate access to almost limitless computing power with the introduction of OpenLink’s dynamic scaling capabilities, providing advanced data management and richer analytics that enable greater market understanding, speed and evidence-based decision-making.

John O’Malley, CEO of OpenLink, added: “If you think you knew OpenLink, take another look. We have made a significant investment in OpenLink Cloud in response to our clients’ feedback. They are looking to reduce costs, advance risk analytics and scale their operations to transform how they run their businesses. The response from clients and pent-up demand from prospects has been staggering. OpenLink Cloud enables us to deliver our market leading solutions faster and with attractive subscription pricing models.”

Scott Rompala, Head of the Cloud Solutions Group at OpenLink, said: “The real untapped benefit our clients are sharing is how this new flexibility and efficiency will allow them to reimagine their business, take advantage of intraday volatility in the markets, and provide accurate and real-time views of their risk and exposures to management and the board on demand.”

OpenLink Cloud facilitates calculations of P&L and VaR-type metrics more frequently and with broader data sets. These enhanced capabilities will enable departments to produce real-time analytics and improved hedging strategies, optimize capital movement and provide greater insight into profitability drivers, enhancing overall the information available for decision-making.

The OpenLink Cloud platform integrates an ecosystem of multiple tools and partners to provide a complete solution with comprehensive security, supported 24x7 by OpenLink Cloud experts. With new subscription-based pricing and dynamic scaling our clients can now better manage cost, risk and implement a platform for unrivalled innovation.

For further information please visit openlink.cloud

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170515005240/en/

OT (Oberthur Technologies), a leading global provider of embedded security software products and services, today announces its partnership with Hoomano, a pioneer in social robotics, focused on real-world interaction robotic software, to deploy new services in a secure environment for the Internet-of-Things and the Robotics space.

Through this partnership, OT and Hoomano bring together their expertise to develop robot-agnostic software solutions in a secured hardware environment. Hoomano already enhances social robots with artificial intelligence, so that the general public and robots can interact instinctively. With OT’s solution, robots will not only interact in the best possible way, they will also benefit from an optimized connectivity and essential level of trust to answer requirements of industries such as Retail, Banking, Hospitality & Healthcare.

At the INNOROBO event, OT and Hoomano will showcase customized and seamless user experience through a plethora of services emerging thanks to robotics: easy and automatic train subscription renewal to avoid queuing at counters and customized user experience in shops and banks for example.

“Thanks to this partnership we will bring secured connectivity solutions for the Internet-of-Things and Social robots. OT’s ambition is to enable robot or device manufacturers not only to connect their objects, but also to deploy customized services in a trusted way.”, said Marc Bertin Chief Technology Officer at OT.

“Connectivity and security are key enablers to deploy the most engaging, instinctive interactions and build mutual trust with our customers.” said Xavier Basset, Founder & CEO atHoomano.

BlackBox for Robotics on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSqbRuUs6LY

Come and discover secured and interactive services for robotics at The INNOROBO event, in Paris, France, May 16-18 on Hoomano’s booth #Q10 Dock Pullman.

ABOUT OBERTHUR TECHNOLOGIES
OT is a world leader in embedded digital security that protects you when you connect, authenticate or pay.

OT is strategically positioned in high growth markets and offers embedded security software solutions for “end-point” devices as well as associated remote management solutions to a huge portfolio of international clients, including banks and financial institutions, mobile operators and governments, as well as manufacturers of connected objects and equipment.

OT employs over 6,500 employees worldwide, including almost 700 R&D people. With a global footprint of 4 regional secure manufacturing hubs and 39 secure service centers, OT’s international network serves clients in 169 countries. For more information : www.oberthur.com

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ABOUT HOOMANO

Hoomano is a pioneer in social robotics, focused on real-world interaction robots software. Hoomano design, develops and deploys software for social robots like Pepper and Nao (Softbank Robotics), Buddy (Blue Frog Robotics), Heasy (Hease Robotics), and Cozmo (Anki). Since 2014, their customers in retail, banking, transportation and healthcare are using every day social robots “powered by Hoomano”. The R&D team is focused on enhancing interactions with artificial intelligence. Hoomano has its headquarter in Lyon, France and an office in Tokyo, Japan.
For more information: www.hoomano.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170517005463/en/

PubMatic, the automation solutions company for an open digital media industry, announced the findings of its Q1 2017 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI) report, which found that increased global adoption of header bidding and private marketplaces (PMPs) drove significant monetization opportunities for mobile publishers. The report also provides insights for publishers and media buyers around mobile video and app inventory.

PubMatic’s most recent QMI analysis for Q1 2017 found that mobile monetized impression volume from header bidding rose 12X year-over-year, faster than the growth rate for desktop header bidding impressions, and that nearly 25 percent of total monetized header bidding impressions originated from a mobile device, up from 7 percent a year prior. Further, mobile header bidding eCPMs increased 55 percent year-over-year. As technology providers like PubMatic continue to innovate around header bidding, with in-app, server-side and video solutions being introduced to the market, publishers and buyers alike will reap substantial benefits.

“We are at an interesting crossroads where consumers are increasingly engaging with content via mobile devices and marketers are dedicating growing portions of their ad budgets to programmatic channels,” said Rajeev Goel, co-founder and CEO at PubMatic. “The new wave of brand buyers is demanding quality inventory and brand safety, as evidenced by the rise in programmatic direct. Buyers and sellers of digital media need to be sure to work with partners, like PubMatic, who are committed to transparency and maintain the highest quality standards in order to take full advantage of the inherent opportunities in mobile.”

Findings from the Q1 2017 report show that mobile PMPs are experiencing a long-term upswing in popularity, with impression volume growing more than 68 percent year-over-year. As demand for high-quality inventory via guaranteed channels such as PMPs rises, market economics continued to drive eCPMs up 58 percent year-over-year globally in Q1 2017, providing a premium of nearly three times the mobile average.

More Q1 2017 Quarterly Mobile index Highlights:

• Video eCPMs on mobile devices grew 7% quarter-over-quarter, proving resilient to post-holiday season drops.
• The impression volume difference between mobile web and mobile app virtually disappeared in Q1 2017, though mobile app continues to yield eCPMs 15% higher than mobile web.
• Android’s share of monetized mobile impression volume grew to 71% globally, with EMEA and APAC regions driving the majority of gains.
• In EMEA, mobile publishers saw significant growth with monetized mobile impression volume up 15% year-over-year while eCPMs rose 69% during the same period.

To view the full Q1 2017 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI), visit PubMatic’s website by clicking here.

QMI Methodology

By analyzing the billions of digital impressions that flow through the PubMatic platform each day, PubMatic can observe real-time developments in the mobile space that allude to broader digital industry trends. The company can then compare this information to other published data to further understand changes in the mobile landscape. PubMatic is committed to providing best-in-class mobile tools and services, and believes that information sharing is crucial in aligning the digital industry towards best practices and, ultimately, growth in mobile advertising.

About PubMatic

PubMatic is the automation solutions company for an open digital media industry. Featuring the leading omni-channel revenue automation platform for publishers and enterprise-grade programmatic tools for media buyers, PubMatic’s publisher-first approach enables advertisers to access premium inventory at scale. Processing nearly one trillion ad impressions per month, PubMatic has created a global infrastructure to activate meaningful connections between consumers, content and brands. Since 2006, PubMatic’s focus on data and technology innovation has fueled the growth of the programmatic industry as a whole. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, PubMatic operates 11 offices and six data centers worldwide.

PubMatic is a registered trademark of PubMatic, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release and the QMI may contain inaccuracies, and the QMI is based on operational data that has not been audited or reviewed by a third party. They may contain forward-looking statements about future results and other events that have not yet occurred. Actual results may differ materially from PubMatic’s expressed expectations due to future risks and uncertainties. PubMatic does not intend to update the information contained in this press release or the QMI if any information or statement contained herein or therein is or later turns out to be inaccurate.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170517005069/en/

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia is attracting a number of Indian financial services related firms, making it the destination of choice for them to access the region. This was reaffirmed during a special event on Wednesday 17 May where DIFC hosted a number of top-tier consultancy firms from India, aimed at further reinforcing the financial centre’s strong ties with the country.

DIFC’s links to India are already strong. From hosting just one financial institution in 2007, DIFC is now home to many Indian firms. DIFC’s 2024 strategy aims for even further growth, and has ambitious plans to attract more Indian banks, financial institutions and firms operating out of the centre.

A number of recent developments are evidence of DIFC’s strengthening position in terms of Indian business and finance.

UTI International, India’s largest asset manager, has just set up its latest fund in DIFC.

Praveen Jagwani, CEO of UTI International said, “We found that DIFC offers a comprehensive ecosystem required for a thriving asset management business – a world class regulator and a plethora of administrators, law firms, accounting firms and availability of talent.”

Current pricing incentives are designed to attract more Indian and other asset managers to Dubai, the largest fund regime in the region.

Recent changes to domestic regulations in India, and the India-Mauritius tax treaty, mean that Indian asset managers are seeking alternative fund jurisdictions. DIFC’s vibrant ecosystem, coupled with its efforts to improve ease of business and an enabling Qualified Investor Funds regime, has seen significant interest from Indian asset managers.

Recently, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank upgraded their representative office status in DIFC to Category 1 License, with HDFC Life and Axis Bank, the third largest of the private-sector banks in India, also strengthening their operations in the centre. DIFC is also home to leading Indian banks, financial institutions and fund managers including ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, IIFL Private Wealth Management, L & T Capital Markets Limited and Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Limited.

DIFC has also recently signed two separate MoUs - with Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), India’s first financial services centre, and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Developmental Authority (MMRDA), an urban town planning and development authority established by the Maharashtra state government. Both MoUs provide for the sharing of knowledge and international best practice.

These developments come against a backdrop of strengthened ties and co-operation between the two countries, with 14 wide-ranging, bilateral agreements signed in January this year.

Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer at DIFC Authority, said: “We are living in an era where UAE-India ties are accelerating. With 2.6 million Indian expats living in the UAE, 26,000 Indian firms and over 40,000 UAE-based firms owned by non-resident Indians, the bond between the UAE and India is already strong.

“Indian institutions make up the third largest community of financial firms in DIFC, behind the US and UK, and DIFC is the ideal platform for Indian businesses and institutions as it offers political and financial stability, an investor-friendly setting, strong regulation and an English common law base. DIFC is an important link for India in the South-South corridor, connecting the subcontinent to Africa and Central Asia. There is a huge opportunity for Indian firms looking to conduct business in DIFC.”

In the last year, high-level delegations from DIFC have made visits to India as well as China, Europe, the UK, India, Africa, the United States of America and countries in the Middle East, with participation in well over 100 different events driving knowledge sharing and demonstrating thought leadership across the globe.

*Source: ME NewsWire

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170518005609/en/

Management and technology consultancy BearingPoint, which ranks among the leading providers of Risk and Regulatory Technology (RiskTech/RegTech), announced today that the first institutions in early adopter countries successfully submitted their initial reporting under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) with BearingPoint’s tax reporting solution FiTAX.

The Common Reporting Standard was developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to maximize efficiency and fight tax avoidance. Over 100 countries worldwide have agreed to fulfill these reporting requirements by September 2018. The initial reporting for the first 53 countries, the early adopters, began in the first quarter of 2017. BearingPoint’s FiTAX-CRS module is dedicated to the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) and reporting under CRS. It enables financial institutions around the globe to comply with these new reporting requirements.

Given the complexity of the CRS reporting regime, the FiTAX-CRS module had already been delivered to clients in Q3/Q4 2016 in anticipation that incorrect or late report submissions could result in penalties. By receiving this module well in advance of the filing deadline, FiTAX users had a longer time period to sufficiently work with new processes and use the new module to properly prepare their reports.

“We are very proud that the first reports have been successfully submitted and that our clients were able to meet their reporting requirements under CRS and the Automatic Exchange of Information. We are now seeing rising interest in tax reporting solutions from many large financial institutions in the Americas as well as in Asia. Our experiences and lessons learned from the early adopter countries are especially valuable for the Asian-based institutions because many of them are in the second wave countries with first reporting due in 2018. These clients will be benefitting from the operation of FiTAX in European markets,” says Ronald Frey, Partner at BearingPoint.

BearingPoint’s tax reporting solution FiTAX has proven to be one of the most efficient and flexible solutions in the market. Created in 2001, FiTAX enables financial institutions to automate the regulatory reporting processes and to report for many countries from a single and centralized platform for QI, EUSD, FATCA, UK FATCA and CRS. FiTAX covers more than 85 countries for CRS reporting to local tax authorities, and as part of the continuous improvement of operability, it offers the possibility to directly upload report files to the tax authorities’ portals. A new web-client architecture (SOA ready) was already made available in September 2016. Several large international financial institutions have chosen FiTAX as their global QI, CRS and FATCA reporting software solution, and each year more than 2,500 financial institutions report with FiTAX.

For more information about BearingPoint’s RegTech product line, please visit: http://www.reg.tech.

About BearingPoint

BearingPoint is an independent management and technology consultancy with European roots and a global reach. The company operates in three units: Consulting, Solutions and Ventures. Consulting covers the advisory business; Solutions provides the tools for successful digital transformation, regulatory technology and advanced analytics; Ventures drives the financing and development of start-ups. BearingPoint’s clients include many of the world’s leading companies and organizations. The firm has a global consulting network with more than 10,000 people and supports clients in over 75 countries, engaging with them to achieve measurable and sustainable success.

For more information, please visit:

Homepage: www.bearingpoint.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bearingpoint

Twitter: @BearingPoint

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Charterprime, an international financial services and brokerage group based out of Australia focused on the Asia-Pacific region has recently launched a custom livery with AirAsia Berhad (MYX:5099) one of the largest carriers in the region. Charterprime’s logo and branding will appear on a AirAsia’s Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170517005787/en/

Charterprime and AirAsia (Photo: Business Wire)

Tune Group Sdn Bhd, the parent company of AirAsia (current market cap of $10.9 billion) recently partnered with Charterprime in an official brokering capacity for all financial spot and futures products, namely foreign exchange (FX) as well as commodities such as oil, both to reduce costs and to hedge against market volatility.

Charterprime Managing Partner, Mathew Tate said, “AirAsia has been a great success story in all of our key markets so this arrangement is an effective and high-profile way for us to build brand awareness and appeal directly to new clients. Charterprime is proud to partner with a business that shares the same values as we do and the synergies we have in common will ensure the continued growth of our market share in South-East Asia and beyond.”

Another of Charterprime’s Managing Partners, Simon Stephenadded, “The partnership with Tune Group has already delivered significant benefits to our business. It has also showcased our unique capabilities and expertise in financial spot and futures products. More broadly it aligns with Charterprime’s strategic goals to target key institutional partnerships that deliver exponential growth over the long-term.”

About AirAsia

AirAsia, the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia by passengers, services an extensive network of over 120 destinations. Since starting operations in 2001, AirAsia has carried more than 330 million guests and has grown its fleet from just two aircraft to over 200. The airline is proud to be a truly Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) airline with operations based in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines as well as India and Japan, servicing a network stretching across Asia, Australia and New Zealand and the Middle East. AirAsia has been named the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline at the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards eight times in a row from 2009 to 2016. AirAsia was also awarded World's Leading Low-Cost Airline for the fourth consecutive year at the 2016 World Travel Awards, where it also beat a field of full-service carriers to become the first ever low-cost carrier to win World's Leading Inflight Service.

About Charterprime

Charterprime is an international financial group specialising in the brokerage of financial products and foreign exchange. The company’s key objective is to maintain its award-winning Over-The-Counter derivatives offering and continue its expansion throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Charterprime will focus on upholding its reputation as a transparent and trustworthy provider as it grows its financial services offering and global reach.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170517005787/en/

BBPOS newly launched Retail Payment Solutions have evolved; it is extremely powerful and completely mobile. Merchants using mPOS solutions can open new checkout counters immediately to accommodate a sudden influx of customers or when a station crashes. BBPOS devices are so compact that associates can even work with customers while they stand in line to complete transactions.

Jimmy Tang, Co-Founder & Chief Software Architect of BBPOS shared, ‘On Easter Sunday, I went to Toys”R”Us® with my three-year-old daughter. After careful scrutiny, she chose a set of Legos® and we headed to checkout. All of the lines were long, but most were moving, except ours. The cashier, and the rest of us, were at the mercy of the payment hardware—it would not process the transaction. Eventually, the store manager moved the entire line to another register. We were all, to say the least, a bit annoyed and it certainly diminished our “customer experience.”’

We have all been there--in a retail shop, in a restaurant, at the grocery store---stuck in the slow line. And, as I observed during the Toys”R”Us® incident, some customers completed their purchases, while others left their items on the counter and left the store.

This small but common incident is a reminder to those of us in the payments industry that customer attention is short and their patience is even shorter. Transaction speed is critical to the bottom line! I could not help but smile, knowing that mPOS devices and systems can solve this problem.

BBPOS solutions also offer unique advantages that go beyond completing sales transactions. With mPOS, sales associates can move from behind the counter, and extend true “customer service.” This ability to engage with customers provides an opportunity to develop relationships and enhance sales. Above all, mPOS solutions enhance the entire customer experience and increase the likelihood of return business.

Study more at https://bbpos.com/solutions/

About BBPOS

BBPOS is recognized as an innovator, manufacturer, and worldwide distributor of end-to-end mobile POS (mPOS) solutions for retail, hospitality, delivery, transportation, and government clients. Jimmy Tang co-founded BBPOS in 2008. With almost 20 years of experience in research and development, Jimmy has extensive experience and unparalleled expertise in cutting-edge technology.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170518005511/en/

LumenLab, MetLife’s Singapore-based innovation center, this evening announced Uniphore as the winner of its inaugural corporate-startup engagement program, collab, following the demo day which took place today in Singapore. In addition to the overall winner, two outstanding projects, Democrance and Flamingo received the “Judge’s Selection” award.

collab launched in November 2016, attracted over 135 applications from 34 countries worldwide. Based on known challenges in the areas of customer engagement, sales process, operations, and new business model, 8 finalists competed to be the overall winner and receive a US$100,000 contract to implement their solution in MetLife.

“This competition brought out some of the best start-ups in the insurtech space. We believe that innovation platforms such as collab are key in identifying implementable solutions to better meet the changing needs of our customers,” said Chris Townsend, President, MetLife Asia. “We congratulate all of the finalists, and in particular Uniphore on winning this competition.”

Uniphore, founded in 2009 and with offices in India and Singapore is a speech recognition solutions company. Their solutions extend the power of speech to revolutionise human-machine interaction. This allows any software application to understand and respond to natural human speech, and facilitates both customer engagement and loyalty build. Uniphore has worked with over 70 enterprise customers and served over 4 million users.

During the demo day event, the finalists presented their business ideas to 9 senior MetLife executives. The finalists were allotted 30 minutes to make their pitch and evaluated on their fit to problem statements and the quality of their solutions. Other points of consideration were product differentiation, team experience, and the completeness of their implementation plan.

The 8 start-up finalists were Capabiliti, Democrance, Digital Fineprint, Flamingo, Good Parents, Shift Technology, Sureify, and Uniphore. The broad range of solutions showcased included artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics and wearables for kids. The finalists received coaching and training from Oliver Wyman, PwC’s venture hub in Singapore, and Velocity (ACP’s accelerator arm).

“The pitches from all our finalists were impressive, which made our job of selecting an overall winner very difficult,” said Zia Zaman, LumenLab CEO and Chief Innovation Officer of MetLife Asia. “Each finalist presented something exciting and ground breaking. The “open innovation” construct, combined with access to “champions” from across the business made for a mutually beneficial experience. We’re excited to work with Uniphore, Democrance, and Flamingo over the coming months to bring their solutions to life at MetLife and have them benefit from our business scale.”

For more information on Uniphore, Democrance, Flamingo and all the finalists, please visit http://collab.lumenlab.sg

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the largest life insurance companies in the world. Founded in 1868, MetLife is a global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. Serving approximately 100 million customers, MetLife has operations in nearly 50 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

About LumenLab

As MetLife's pioneers for disruptive innovation, LumenLab is charging ahead to create new businesses in health, wealth and retirement. Lumen, a measure of light, symbolises our commitment to illuminating a new path for solving the problems that the people of Asia face today. Through our focus on building new products and services grounded in technology and data, we aim to help people achieve richer and more fulfilling lives. For more information, visit www.lumenlab.sg.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170519005242/en/

The SoftBank Vision Fund (the “Fund”) announced its first major close with over U.S.$93 billion of committed capital. In addition to SoftBank Group Corp (“SBG”) and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“PIF”) as previously announced, investors in the Fund also include the Mubadala Investment Company of the United Arab Emirates (“Mubadala”), Apple Inc. (“Apple”), Foxconn Technology Group (“Foxconn”), Qualcomm Incorporated (“Qualcomm”) and Sharp Corporation ("Sharp"). The Fund is targeting a total of U.S.$100 billion of committed capital, with a final close within six months.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170520005010/en/

The SoftBank Vision Fund announces first major close. (Photo: SoftBank Vision Fund)

SBG created the SoftBank Vision Fund as a result of its strongly held belief that the next stage of the Information Revolution is underway, and building the businesses that will make this possible will require unprecedented large scale long-term investment. Additionally, the Fund’s portfolio companies are expected to significantly benefit from SBG's global scale and operational expertise, as well as its ecosystem of group portfolio companies (including Sprint and Yahoo Japan); this will thereby help them to accelerate their own growth profile.

The Fund will be SBG’s primary vehicle to realise its SoftBank 2.0 vision, with preferred access to investments of U.S. $100 million or more that meet the Fund's investment strategy.

Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. said:

“Technology has the potential to address the biggest challenges and risks facing humanity today. The businesses working to solve these problems will require patient long-term capital and visionary strategic investment partners with the resources to nurture their success. SoftBank has long made bold investments in transformative technologies and supported disruptive entrepreneurs. The SoftBank Vision Fund is consistent with this strategy and will help build and grow businesses creating the foundational platforms of the next stage of the Information Revolution.”

H.E. Yasir Al Rumayyan, Managing Director of the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, added:

“Our investment in the SoftBank Vision Fund alongside other sovereign and corporate investors is an important part of our overall investment strategy. We are building a portfolio that is diversified across sectors, asset classes and geographies, and expect the Vision Fund to act as a platform to access a range of exciting, emerging opportunities in the technology sector. We expect that this will, in turn, help enable the Public Investment Fund’s role in supporting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy to develop a diversified, knowledge-based economy.”

Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, said:

“Our participation in the SoftBank Vision Fund perfectly complements Mubadala’s strategy as a long-term global investor and partner to the technology sector’s high-growth companies. Technology and innovation are central to the UAE’s economic diversification strategy, and we believe the Vision Fund has the scale to deploy significant capital into these disruptive industries that are shaping the future.”

Investment Strategy

The Fund will target meaningful, long-term investments in companies and foundational platform businesses that seek to enable the next age of innovation.

The Fund will seek to acquire minority and majority interests in both private and public companies, from emerging technology businesses to established, multi-billion dollar companies requiring substantial growth funding.

The Fund is expected to be active across a wide range of technology sectors, including but not limited to: IoT, artificial intelligence, robotics, mobile applications and computing, communications infrastructure and telecoms, computational biology and other data-driven business models, cloud technologies and software, consumer internet businesses and financial technology.

The Fund will have the right to acquire certain investments already acquired (or agreed to be acquired) by the SoftBank Group, including 24.99% of its holding in ARM, and investments in Guardant Health, Intelsat, NVIDIA, OneWeb and SoFi.

Key Leadership

The Fund will be advised by wholly-owned subsidiaries of SBG, known collectively as “SB Investment Advisers”.

Rajeev Misra will serve as the CEO of SB Investment Advisers and will be a member of the Investment Committee. He will play a key role in all Fund transactions, supported by a highly-experienced global team across offices in London, San Carlos, and Tokyo.

Nizar Al-Bassam and Dalinc Ariburnu of newly formed Centricus, who advised on structuring and fund raising efforts for the Vision Fund, will continue their roles as advisers.

ARM group

• SBG’s commitment to invest U.S. $28 billion in the Fund will be partially satisfied through the in-kind contribution of approximately 24.99% of the shares in ARM Holdings plc, at a value of approximately U.S.$8.2 billion.
• ARM will continue to be a consolidated subsidiary of SBG. SBG will continue to control (directly and indirectly) 100% of the voting rights of ARM, through its retained ownership of approximately 75.01% of the shares and its ownership of the entities managing and advising the Fund.
• In the course of discussions with certain investors in the Fund, a portion of ARM was requested to be transferred into the Fund based on the shared vision on the huge growth potential of ARM
• There will be no change to the Board, governance structure or operations of ARM as a result of the transfer.
• The investors in the Fund will not gain any special commercial benefits from ARM’s operating business.

Relationship to SoftBank Group Corp.

• The Fund’s general partner is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBG, as are each of the SB Investment Advisers, including the Fund’s primary investment adviser, SB Investment Advisers (UK) Limited.
• SBG has subscribed for commitments of U.S. $28 billion to the Fund to be contributed through a combination of equity in ARM and cash on hand. The Fund will be consolidated by SBG for accounting purposes.
• While the Fund will be the primary investment vehicle for investments in excess of U.S.$100 million consistent with the Fund’s investment strategy, SBG (and its subsidiaries) may continue to make certain investments outside of the Fund, including (but not limited to) investments in early stage VC, strategic investments done at the operating company level, and/or other investments which do not fall within the Fund’s investment strategy and criteria.

This statement is issued by SVF GP (Jersey) Limited, as general partner of SoftBank Vision Fund L.P.

ENDS

Advisers

Linklaters LLP acted as fund counsel and provided tax support. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as US regulatory counsel to the Fund, and Carey Olsen as Jersey fund counsel. Mori Hamada & Matsumoto and Maples & Calder provided additional legal and regulatory support. PwC provided tax, operational build and programme delivery support. Aztec Group will provide ongoing administration services. Goldman Sachs International acted as financial advisor. Milltown Partners provided strategic communications support.

Legal disclaimers

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN (THE “INFORMATION”) IS SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMERS, NOTES AND QUALIFICATIONS.

No Offer. The distribution to you of the Information is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in SoftBank Vision Fund L.P. (together with, as the context may require, any parallel fund, feeder fund, co-investment vehicle or alternative investment vehicle, the “Fund”). The Information is not intended to be relied upon as the basis for an investment decision, and is not, and should not be assumed to be, complete. The contents of the Information are not to be construed as legal, business or tax advice, and each prospective investor in the Fund should consult its own attorney, business advisor and tax advisor as to legal, business and tax advice.

Forward-Looking Information. To the extent presented herein, any projections or other estimates included in the Information, including estimates of returns or performance, are forward-looking statements and are based upon certain assumptions. Other events which were not taken into account may occur and may significantly affect the actual returns or performance of the Fund and/or any of the companies in which the Fund, SoftBank Group Corp. (together with its subsidiaries, “SoftBank”) or any of their applicable affiliates have invested or may invest. Any assumptions should not be construed to be indicative of the actual events which will occur. Actual events are difficult to project and depend upon factors that are beyond the control of the Fund, SoftBank, the manager of the Fund (the “Manager”), the general partner of the Fund (the “General Partner”) and their respective affiliates, members, partners, stockholders, other beneficial owners, managers, directors, officers, employees, representatives, advisers or agents. Certain assumptions have been made to simplify the presentation and, accordingly, actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those presented herein. There can be no assurance that any specific investment referenced herein will be profitable, that the Fund will achieve results comparable to those presented or that investors in the Fund will not lose any or all of their invested capital.

No Reliance. None of SoftBank, the Fund, the Manager, the General Partner or any of their applicable affiliates makes any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the Information. SoftBank, the Fund, the Manager, the General Partner and their applicable affiliates will not be liable with respect to use or reliance upon any of the Information in the evaluation of a potential investment in the Fund or otherwise with the Manager, the General Partner, SoftBank of any of their applicable affiliates. The Information speaks as of the date hereof, or where applicable as of the date indicated herein, and none of SoftBank, the Manager, the General Partner, the Fund or their respective affiliates, members, partners, stockholders, managers, directors, officers, employees or agents have any obligation to update any of the Information.

Certain Estimates. To the extent presented herein, any projections or estimates regarding the number, size or type of investments that the Fund may make (or other similar information) are estimates based only on the Manager’s intent as of the date of such statements and are subject to change due to market conditions and/or other factors.

Date and Accuracy of Information. The Information contained herein speaks as of the date hereof or as of the specific date(s) noted herein, as applicable. The Fund, the Manager, the General Partner, SoftBank and their respective affiliates, members, partners, stockholders, other beneficial owners, managers, directors, officers, employees, representatives, advisers and agents do not have any obligation to update any of the Information. . None of the Fund, the Manager, the General Partner, SoftBank or any of their applicable affiliates makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, and nothing contained herein should be relied upon as a promise or representation as to past or future performance of the Fund, any investment or any other entity. The Fund, the Manager, the General Partner, SoftBank or any of their applicable subsidiaries or affiliates, and its and their respective members, partners, stockholders, other beneficial owners, managers, directors, officers, employees, representatives, agents and advisors advisers cannot be held liable for the use of, and reliance upon, such materials and information and any opinions, estimates, forecasts and findings contained herein.

Suitability. None of SoftBank, the Fund, the Manager, the General Partner or any of their applicable affiliate represents that the Information is all-inclusive or that the Information contains all information that may be desirable, necessary or required to properly evaluate a potential investment with SoftBank, the Fund, the Manager, the General Partner and/or their applicable affiliates.

Any investment or investment activity to which this Information relates is available only to (i) persons falling within any of the categories of “investment professionals” as defined in Article 14(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Promotion of Collective Investment Schemes) (Exemptions) Order 2001, as amended (the “CIS Order”) and Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the “FPO”); (ii) persons falling within any of the categories of “high-net-worth entities” as described in Article 22(2) of the CIS Order and Article 49(2) of the FPO; or (iii) any other person to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as “Exempt Persons”) on an invitation basis and will be engaged in only with such Exempt Persons. Furthermore, procedures are in place to assess the status of investment participants. Accordingly, persons who are not Exempt Persons (in particular, persons who would be classified as “retail clients” under the FCA rules) must not rely on this Information.

In the case of persons outside the United Kingdom, investments or investment services referred to in the Information are only available on an invitation basis and are subject to procedures to assess status and suitability. For the avoidance of doubt, investments or investment services referred to in the Information are not available to private or retail customers.

SoftBank and/or the Manager do not and will not act for you. In particular, SoftBank and/or the Manager do not and will not advise you or provide any other investment services to you and will not be responsible for providing you with any protections. No employee of, or other person associated with, SoftBank and/or the Manager has the authority to represent otherwise.

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• 67% parents found it inconvenient to go to the school or bank to pay fees
• 38% parents had to take office breaks to pay fees
• Receipts for cheque payments were given after clearance, which took several days
• 64% of the surveyed schools did not have any prevailing online fee payment facility

ABB announced today that its Board intends to appoint KPMG as its external auditor effective for the financial year 2018. This decision was taken following a year-long comprehensive external auditor tender process initiated in 2016 in line with international good governance practices. The proposal is subject to shareholder approval at ABB’s 2018 Annual General Meeting.

Ernst & Young has been ABB’s sole external auditors since 2001 and ABB’s Board would like to thank the firm and its auditors for their contribution and dedication over the years. Ernst & Young will audit ABB for fiscal year 2017 as approved at ABB’s recent Annual General Meeting.

ABB looks forward to a constructive and professional relationship with KPMG in the future.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing a more than 125-year history of innovation, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization and driving the Energy and Fourth Industrial Revolutions. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 132,000 employees. www.abb.com

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• Fully automated payment process
• Automatic Payment Updates
• Provides secure codes to enhance payment security
• Accepts all major credit and charge cards
• Integrates with best services
• Online reporting functions are available

Corporation Service Company^®, a world leader of business, legal, tax, and digital brand services headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, and operating from offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, today announced it has rebranded and introduced a new logo and brand identity. Effective immediately, Corporation Service Company will be known as CSC^®. Corporation Service Company will remain the legal trade name, while CSC will be how the company brands itself commercially in the marketplace.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170522005323/en/

CSC President and CEO Rod Ward (Photo: Business Wire)

CSC was founded in Delaware 118 years ago by two leading figures of the legal community to provide entity formation and statutory representation services to businesses. “Through the years, CSC has evolved from a regional registered agent firm associated with mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions to a global leader helping some of the largest companies, financial institutions, and law firms stay compliant, manage risk, and streamline their workflows,” says CSC President and Chief Executive Officer Rod Ward.

Ward said the time was right for CSC to make this move. “This is the first substantial change to our logo and brand strategy since our company’s founding,” says Ward. “In the past 10 years, we’ve doubled in size, made strategic acquisitions, and expanded our footprint to 17 countries. Our distinctive new look reflects the interconnected, evolving relationship we have with our clients. The infinity-style symbol helps us tell the story of our integrated solutions, and our ability to streamline operations, generate trust, and deliver exceptional results.”

CSC partners with its clients to help tackle their most complex compliance and governance challenges. Whether it’s supporting real estate, M&A, and other corporate transactional work; managing, promoting, and securing valuable brand assets against the threats of the online world; or providing a single tax and risk management platform to help clients better manage risk, and achieve greater automation and data transparency, CSC thrives on providing solutions that allow their clients to perform at their best.

CSC’s leadership believes that the rebrand and new logo, coupled with a new tagline, “We are the business behind business,” is emblematic of their commitment to taking care of their clients and their employees, delivering better ways of doing business, and creating a circle of success. In the past year, the company has focused on strengthening the culture of collaboration across its diverse business units around the world in order to bring the full scope of the company’s capabilities to their client base.

“Our new visual identity goes much deeper than just a logo, shortened name, and tagline” says Ward. “It also harnesses the same innovation and creativity with which CSC gets business done around the world. It’s not just about the transactions we make, it’s about the relationships we build. We pride ourselves on getting to know our clients’ businesses and becoming a true extension of their teams.” Ward added, “Our brand says: You can believe in our company, our people, and the solutions we provide.”

To coincide with the rebrand, CSC launched a newly designed website today, reflective of the new brand and visual identity, and debuted a video experience of the new brand, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFtFXXWuK8k. CSC can be found at cscglobal.com.

About CSC

CSC is the world’s leading provider of business, legal, tax, and digital brand services to companies around the globe. From keeping your business in compliance and streamlining operations, to protecting and promoting your brand online, we use our expertise and personal approach to help your business run smoother. We are the business behind business. We are the trusted partner for 90% of the Fortune 500^®, more than half of the Best Global Brands (Interbrand^®), nearly 10,000 law firms, and more than 3,000 financial organizations. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, since 1899, we have offices throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. We are a global company capable of doing business wherever our clients are—and we accomplish that by employing experts in every business we serve.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170522005323/en/

Global ATM software company KAL is delighted to announce the availability of new versions of its industry-leading ATM software with Cloud support. The new software allows backwards compatibility as well as Cloud support so that KAL’s customers can run the software in a private Cloud within the bank or even on public Cloud infrastructure such as Microsoft Azure if they wish to do so.

As the business of retail banking is being transformed, KAL ATM software is rapidly innovating to meet today’s challenges and be prepared for the next wave of technology. The current generation of ATM software is designed to run within the ATM much like running Microsoft Office on a Windows-based PC. As the software industry has evolved to include more Cloud-based offerings, banks are looking to leverage the advancements made to support those software models and build their next generation of ATM networks using new architectural concepts.

But moving to new architectures does not have to mean the loss of past gains. KAL software remains standards-based and continues to support open standards such as XFS and nexo as it moves to the Cloud. Not only that, KAL supports mixed architectures where some ATMs (eg off-premise ATMs on slow connections) can continue to use an IoT Edge architecture while branch-based ATMs can use a full Cloud implementation. All of this can be achieved along with KAL’s industry-leading ATM management and monitoring with KTC.

KAL’s Cloud architecture was first used by a major German bank in live production in 2016 and rollout has continued since then. Indeed, KAL also demonstrated with this project an additional feature of Kalignite Cloud – the ability to run on non-Windows ATMs. The hardware in this case was a mixture of Linux machines and firmware-based machines with no OS at all.

By using the best technology today and in the future, banks can ensure that their networks are highly efficient, always available and operate at the lowest cost. It is critical that banks of all sizes plan for their next generation ATM network incorporating the best ideas and technologies and KAL can help them achieve their goals.

To find out more about KAL Cloud, visit the KAL website.

About KAL

KAL is a world-leading ATM software company and the preferred supplier to world mega-banks such as Citibank, UniCredit, ING and China Construction Bank. KAL's standardized software gives banks full control of their ATM network, reducing costs and improving competitiveness.

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MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) announced that LumenLab, its Singapore based innovation center has won Celent’s Model Insurer Asia 2017 in the category of “Innovation and Emerging Technologies” at an awards event held today in Singapore.

Established in 2015, LumenLab is MetLife’s global innovation center focused on digital disruption based on customer insights. In the category of “Innovation and Emerging Technologies”, LumenLab is recognised for the development and application of new technologies and for generating new business models. LumenLab has incubated 12 projects spanning technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and virtual reality. In addition, LumenLab underscores MetLife’s commitment to embedding an innovation culture and supporting ideas that culminate in a better customer experience. Over 400 MetLife employees have taken part in workshops, bootcamps and leadership programs to “test and learn” and fast track delivery of solutions that will better meet the needs of the customer.

“MetLife is delighted to be recognized as a leader in Innovation in our industry” said Zia Zaman, LumenLab CEO and Chief Innovation Officer of MetLife Asia. “There is so much opportunity to benefit customers across Asia by reimagining insurance. Shifting the mindset of the industry to innovate more is essential. We would like to thank the panel of judges and Celent for encouraging innovation and for recognizing LumenLab.”

Hosted by Celent, a global research and consulting firm focused on the application of information technology in the financial services industry, the annual Model Insurer Award recognizes insurance firms that effectively utilize technology as a means to foster investment in innovation. Model Insurer is awarded for best practices of technology usage in different areas critical to success in insurance, and is the main award an insurer can win from Celent. Nominations are submitted by insurance companies and technology vendors, and undergo a rigorous evaluation process. Submissions are evaluated on three criteria: demonstrable business benefits; degree of innovation; technology or implementation excellence.

The award for Innovation and Emerging Technologies recognizes projects such as the expansion into previously untapped markets due to technology; the use of technologies not previously used in the insurance industry; or the development of an innovation culture within an IT organization. This category also includes Insurtech initiatives which are rapidly expanding development and application of new technologies and operating models with the aim to fundamentally change current business models, financial models, and/or industry ecosystem.

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the largest life insurance companies in the world. Founded in 1868, MetLife is a global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. Serving approximately 100 million customers, MetLife has operations in nearly 50 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

About LumenLab

As MetLife's pioneers for disruptive innovation, LumenLab is charging ahead to create new businesses in health, wealth and retirement. Lumen, a measure of light, symbolises our commitment to illuminating a new path for solving the problems that the people of Asia face today. Through our focus on building new products and services grounded in technology and data, we aim to help people achieve richer and more fulfilling lives. For more information, visit www.lumenlab.sg.

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• Adding tiotropium Respimat® improved lung function and asthma symptom control in children and adolescents,* regardless of their type of allergic asthma, compared to placebo^1,2
• The addition of tiotropium Respimat® improved airflow obstruction in adults with symptomatic asthma, independent of body mass index (BMI) compared to placebo³
• In all analyses, people experiencing uncontrolled asthma symptoms saw improvements in their breathing by adding tiotropium Respimat® to an ICS or combination ICS/LABA^1,2,3

Boehringer Ingelheim today announced new analyses that provide further evidence that adding tiotropium Respimat^® (Spiriva^® Respimat^®) improved breathing across diverse patient populations who experience uncontrolled asthma symptoms despite the use of another daily maintenance therapy in the Phase III clinical development program. These data analyses were presented today at the American Thoracic Society International (ATS) Conference in Washington, D.C., USA.

“These new analyses add to the wealth of evidence from the large-scale UniTinA-asthma^® clinical trial programme to show tiotropium Respimat^® is effective in a broad range of patients with symptomatic asthma, including those with allergies or a high BMI, which may make their symptoms more difficult to manage,” said Jennifer Haddon, Global Medical Advisor Respiratory at Boehringer Ingelheim. “Of those people already on asthma treatment, almost half still experience symptoms, highlighting the need for better management. These data underline the commitment of Boehringer Ingelheim to advancing our understanding of which patients may benefit most from our medicines.”

People with allergic asthma – the most common form of the condition – can experience inflammation and a tightening of the airways when exposed to common allergens. These patients may need other options that complement their existing therapy.

For further information, please see the press release distributed by Boehringer Ingelheim US.

* Note: Spiriva^® Respimat^® is currently NOT APPROVED for use in children and adolescents under 18 years of age in the EU and a number of other countries. Spiriva ^® Respimat^® has been approved for use in asthma in over 75 countries, including in the EU, U.S. and Japan. The label and doses vary by country. Please refer to the local product information.

About Asthma

Asthma is one of the most common conditions in childhood.⁴ There are fewer treatment options in paediatric asthma than in adult asthma.⁵

Asthma is not conquered. Almost 1 in 2 patients remain symptomatic despite their current maintenance therapies (usually ICS/LABA).^{6, 7, 8} These symptoms have a detrimental effect on their work, education, sleep, social life and relationships.⁹ Additionally, symptoms increase their risk of potentially fatal asthma attacks in the next few weeks by up to six times.¹⁰

For more information please see the latest infographic.

Intended audiences:

This press release is issued from our Corporate Headquarters in Ingelheim, Germany and is intended to provide information about our global business. Please be aware that information relating to the approval status and labels of approved products may vary from country to country, and a country-specific press release on this topic may have been issued in the countries where we do business.

For references and notes to editors, please visit:

http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/spiriva-respimat-improves-breathing-in-asthma

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Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), a Cambridge-based investor in technology and healthcare companies, announces that its CEO, Victor Christou, will be presenting at the Global University Venturing: Fusion event in London this evening.

Christou will address the current issues in venture funding, including the substantial gap between seed and scale-up. A recent study of over 1,000 UK science and technology businesses suggests that less than 10% of start-ups cross the chasm to scale-up stage. If more sources of scale-up funding are established in the UK, over time fewer early-stage UK businesses should be pressured to sell earlier than they would do in an ideal scenario.

A comparison across clusters in the UK shows that the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London is home to over 60% of UK science and technology businesses. Of these three, Cambridge has created the most early-stage companies in the UK, representing more than a quarter of the UK’s total.

Victor Christou, Chief Executive Officer of CIC, will comment: “Cambridge is well-positioned to be a leading source of scale-up stage companies, if the challenges in shifting from an early-stage business to a scale-up can be overcome. Situated at the heart of the Cambridge Cluster, we are uniquely positioned at CIC to invest in the best early-stage businesses and to support these investments through to maturity.”

CIC was set up in 2013 as a patient source of scale-up capital investing in IP rich companies emanating from the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Cluster. Since inception, CIC has invested in 19 promising early stage technology and healthcare companies in a founder-friendly strategy that aims to provide a fair and equitable return to all parties. With £125 million currently under management, CIC provides support from seed stage through scale-up to maturity.

About Cambridge Innovation Capital

CIC combines a unique relationship with the University of Cambridge with deep financial and industry links to invest in rapidly growing intellectual property rich companies in the Cambridge Cluster. The company is committed to building leading businesses from brilliant technologies - with the support of some of the most influential figures in the sector and a patient capital structure.

For more information visit www.cicplc.co.uk or follow @CambsInnovation

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