CSG Systems International Approves Quarterly Dividend
Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. Announces Pricing of $100 Million Public Offering of Common Stock
Coupang key officers rang the opening bell of the NYSE(New York Stock Exchange)
Alibaba Stock Grows by 80%, Valuation Surpasses $800 Billion
Bentley Files Registration Statement on Form S-1 for Proposed Initial Public Offering of Its Class B Common Stock
Market Cap of Three Largest Tech Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange Dropped by $14.9bn in Six Months
World’s first Mobility-as-a-Service operator MaaS Global Completes €29.5M Funding Round
CONTACT Software acquires majority stake in ISKO engineers AG
Suspension of Two Sanctions Against Samsung BioLogics Is Confirmed, and It Accelerates Global Business
VComply, an Integrated GRC Solution Provider, Secures $2.5 Million in Seed Funding
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Peak Capital invests EUR 450,000 in Happyprinting
The Dutch online printing company Happyprinting has received a €450,000 investment from the Dutch venture capital firm Peak Capital. The investment will be used to accelerate Happyprinting’s international roll out and further develop its online printing platform. “We are excited to partner with Peak Capital. Peak has proven to be the right smart capital investor for fast growing companies such as Catawiki and Studocu, and therefore also for us.”, according to Sven Rusticus, CEO Happyprinting. Printing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Happyprinting started in 2017 to develop a highly intuitive online printing webshop, including the brand and the marketing. This platform is now offered as a service to printers worldwide that want to benefit from the high growth in the online printing market and accelerate their business by partnering with Happyprinting. “Globally, the shift from traditional to online order placing in print has only just started. With our platform we make it easier, more efficient, more sustainable, and more fun for both the printers and their customers. It’s our mission to create happy customers and happy printers, worldwide with our platform. That’s why we are Happyprinting.”, according to Rusticus. Johan van Mil, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Peak Capital: “We are impressed with the Happyprinting platform and the international business model that the founders of Happyprinting created. The team has vast entrepreneurial experience and knows the market very well. They were capable to rapidly develop and enter eight European and Asian countries, fully self-funded and in a short amount of time. We are thrilled to assist Happyprinting in growing even faster and fulfilling their global ambitions.” Franchising online printing Happyprinting offers its brand, the marketing and the webshop in a franchise agreement to printing companies worldwide. This enables Happyprinting to grow quickly, without investing in printing equipment, and allows printers to grab their share of the online market by leveraging the brand, the marketing and webshop from Happyprinting. “We created an innovative franchise concept in the e-commerce sector. Where Starbucks franchises bricks and mortar shops, we franchise our country online print shops.”, according to Rusticus. It’s the company's vision to create a global network of in-country printers that all share the Happyprinting brand, the marketing and the Printing as a Service platform. This vision will also enable multinationals to distribute printed products overnight to any country in the world. In contrary to centralized printing, local printing minimizes transportation and hence lowers the carbon footprint of print. “We stop putting print in planes.”, according to Rusticus. “And through our global partnership with HP Indigo, we are able to ensure consistent print quality, anywhere in the world.” Online Print market explodes towards 2025 The global print market is calculated at $980 billion and is close to the size of the global car industry. Despite what many people think, “Print is big, here to stay and still growing”. The global Online Print market is growing even faster and is expected to explode in the coming five years. For example, in Western Europe, for 2018, 19% of all printed matter was ordered via online printers. The market share of online printers is expected to rise to 42% in 2025, according to Bernd Zipper, Europe's recognized expert in the field of online print. In emerging markets like Asia and Eastern Europe, the growth is expected to be even higher.
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gumi Inc. Acquires Shares of Blockchain Game Developer double jump.tokyo
gumi Inc. today announced that through its subsidiary, gumi Cryptos Inc., it has acquired shares of double jump.tokyo from DLE Inc. gumi first entered into a capital and business alliance with the double jump.tokyo in December 2018. Today's acquisition announcement reflects its efforts to further strengthen the partnership between gumi Cryptos and double jump.tokyo and expand its blockchain game business. As part of the acquisition, acquisition agreement, gumi Cryptos received 891 of non-voting shares from DLE with the price of ¥200,500 per share for a total consideration of ¥179,536,500 (shareholding percentage: 22.61%). In 2018, gumi's consolidated subsidiary, gumi X Reality Inc., which changed its trade name from gumi VR Inc. to gumi X Reality Inc., acquired 1,760 shares of double jump.tokyo (shareholding percentage: 44.67%). These shares will be transferred to gumi Cryptos Co., Ltd. on July 1, 2019. After the share transfer, gumi Cryptos will hold 67.28% of the shares of double jump.tokyo. Since some of the shares held are non-voting, double jump.tokyo does not fall under an affiliate of the company of gumi. Founded in 2007, gumi Inc. set out to become the world's No.1 entertainment company in the information revolution through offering new amusements and richness in everyday life. gumi Inc. has focused on increasing its earning capacity of mobile online game business, which is its current main revenue source, and expanding its business by entering in early stage VR/AR businesses, blockchain businesses and other new businesses. For its blockchain business, gumi aims to make strategic alliances with companies offering new technologies inside and outside of Japan, mainly by capital injection via gumi Cryptos to obtain future income sources. Double jump.tokyo is a leading game development company in the blockchain industry, having launched My Crypto Heroes, which went into its pre-sale period on September 21, 2018. In its first 24 hours, the game achieved the number one ranking for the quantity of Ethereum transactions in Decentralized Applications Game (DApps game), which includes games on distributed application, and live on blockchain platform. Also, after the launch of My Cryptos Heroes on November 30, 2018, in DApps game, it achieved number one in first day daily active users (DAU) and in the quantity of Ethereum transactions, taking the lead in the blockchain gaming industry. Partnering with gumi Inc. is the natural next step in double jump.tokyo’s growth as they look to expand globally and break new ground in the blockchain industry.
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ING Life IPO Press Conference
On the afternoon of the April 19th, ING Life's IPO press conference was held at Conrad Hotel in Youngdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The press conference is prepared by ING Life, which is scheduled to be listed on Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI), to present its information and disclose its future goals and plans for listing, and ING Life CEO Jung Mun-guk, vice president Park Ik-jin, and executive director Lee Sung-tae attended. ING Life CEO Jung Mun-guk, who organized the event, said, "ING Life has maintained management that pursues an optimal balance between profitability, growth, efficiency, capital and risk under the vision of 'reliable financial partner for customers' dreams'." And, "This listing will contribute to make ING Life's position in insurance industry stand out and will become a momentum that further differentiates our values." ▲ ING Life's IPO press conference was held. ▲ CEO Jung Mun-guk said, "This listing will become a momentum that further differentiates ING Life's values." According to the announcement, ING Life will carry out demand forecasting expects on April 6-21, after submitting registration statement on March 23, and will be listed on the KOSPI market in May after making a subscription on the April 27th and 28th. The number of public offering stocks is 33,500,000, which is equivalent to 40.9% of the total stock, and they will be proceeded with 100% secondary distribution. The bid price for public offerings is 31,500 won to 40,000 won (par value 1,000 won) and the offer price is 1,552 billion won to 1,330 billion won. The main organizers for this listing are Samsung Securities Co., Morgan Stanley Securities International, Seoul branch, and the co-organizers are Mirae Asset Daewoo, KB Securities, and Goldman Sachs, Seoul branch. Founded in 1987 and celebrated 30th anniversary this year, ING Life has exceeded its total assets of 30 trillion won in 2016, and its risk-based capital (RBC ratio) is recording 319% as of the end of 2016. Especially, as it presents asset & liability management (ALM) strategy, it has financial solidity that is optimized for changes in the regulatory environment. For example, if the financial authorities tighten the RBC, RBC ratio will be increased. In addition, it has maintained excellent profitability through continuous product innovation, strengthened FC channel and system innovation for future growth. ING Life generates profits from all three profit sources of life insurance companies: death rate, working expenses, and interest rate. In 2016, its net profit is 6.8%(excluding one-off factors such as accidental death benefit payment for suicide), which is above the average of listed life insurance companies’ average of 2.8%. Based on this, ING Life has made a lot of effort to create shareholder profit by raising the dividend payout ratio from 45% in 2014 to 58% in 2016, increased by 13%. In aspect of external growth trends, ING Life showed an average annual growth rate of 26% over the past three years based on ‘Annual Premium Equivalent (APE)’. Moreover, the company’s main channel, FC Channel, is leading the company’s business growth through virtuous cycle, including improving product mix and FC productivity, increasing monthly incomes per operating FC, and improving the retention rate and persistency rate.
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Netmarble Games IPO Press Conference
On the afternoon of the April 18th, Netmarble Games (Netmarble) held a press conference at Conrad Hotel in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The press conference was prepared to present information of Netmarble, which is in the process of being listed on KOSPI, and clarify its future goals and listing plan. CEO Kwon Young-sik, Vice-President Beak Young-hoon, Director Do Gi-uk, and Business Strategy Manager Choi Chan-seok attended the event. Kwon Young-sik, CEO of Netmarble, said, "Today, we are introducing the status, performance, and core competitiveness of Netmarble, preparing to be listed on KOSPI. We hope you to give a lot of encouragement and support to the challenge of Netmarble, trying to grow into a global game company." ▲ Netmarble Games IPO press conference was held. ▲ Kwon Young-sik introduced about Netmarble's performance and core competitiveness According to the announcement, Netmarble submitted a securities declaration to Korea Exchange for listing on KOSPI on March 20. The main organizers for this IPO are NH Investment & securities Co., J.P. Morgan Securities(Seoul Branch), and the co-organizers are Korea Investment & securities Co., and Citigroup Global Market Security. As a part of offering progress, Netmarble is in the process of company IR for domestic and foreign investors, and after demand estimation by April 20th and competition for stocks on April 25-26, it will be listed on May 12. The total number of stocks to be offered is 16,953,612 (100% new stocks offering), and the estimated price is 121,000-157,000 won. The total offering amount is 2,051.4 billion won at the bottom of the band and 2,661.7 billion won at the top of the band. Next, Kwon Young-sik introduced about Netmarble's core competitiveness. First, it is introduced that general global mobile game companies heavily rely on a single game. However, Netmarble has a well-balanced portfolio with 6 games that account for more than 5% of total sales, such as 'Seven Knights', 'Everyone's Marble', 'Lineage II Revolution', 'Marvel: Future Fight', 'Cookie Jam', and 'Panda Pop'. He then emphasized that Netmarble is outstanding in PLC management ability than other game companies. 'Everyone's Marble,' launched in June 2013, achieved the greatest sales in February 2016, 32 months after launch, and 'Seven Knights,' launched in March 2014, achieved the greatest sales in July 2016, 28 months after launch. Moreover, with more than 2,500 of global development manpower from 17 development studios such as Netmarble N2, Netmarble Neo, Netmarble Monster, Netmarble Nexus, Jam City, Kabam, etc., lots of new line-ups, perfect localization, and excellent development and publishing capabilities that enable periodic updates are mentioned as Netmarble's strengths. He also stated that it is entering North American market through successful M&A as well as improving market dominance in the major mobile game market in Asia based on its successful localization. In this regard, Kwon Young-sik analyzed that, "Netmarble achieved average sales growth of 104% from 2014 to 2016, which is even better than domestic Internet and major global game companies." And, "This is because we applied effectively managing and operating PLCs by the same publishing model as PC online game to mobile, and dominated the genre by analyzing user preferences and trends."
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