Last week, Tesla Energy Ventures, a new subsidiary of electric car maker Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), filed an application to become a retail electricity provider in the state of Texas. According to reports, the company plans to sell electricity drawn from the grid to customers and from its battery storage products. Its grid transaction software may also enable customers for its solar panels to sell excess electricity back to the grid.
AirAsia Group Berhad (Kuala Lumpur: 5099.KL) is pleased to announce that Dr. Stanley Choi Chiu Fai has joined the Group as a substantial shareholder via his wholly-owned entity Positive Boom Ltd. on 18 February 2021. He acquired 167.1 million AirAsia shares in the first tranche of the private placement, raising his shareholding in the group to 332.5 million shares equating to a 8.96% stake.
Dr. Stanley Choi is the Chairman of Head & Shoulders Financial Group, as well as the Chairman and Executive Director of International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), a company listed on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1009.HK). He is also the only co-founding member from Hong Kong for YunFeng Capital – a private equity fund started in 2010 by a group of successful entrepreneurs and influential industry leaders, named after its co-founder Jack Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba Group, and David Yu Feng, founder of Target Media.
His previous directorships include his appointment as Executive Director of Target Insurance (Holdings) Limited (stock code: 6161.HK) from 2014 to 2019, Director of ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co. Limited (stock code: 6060.HK) from 2013 to 2016 and Executive Director of Media Asia Group Holdings Limited (stock code: 8075.HK) from 2011 to 2015.
The successful businessman possesses more than 20 years of experience in financial services and merger & acquisition transactions, with a particular focus on private equity investment. He was a seed investor of Kidswant, a Chinese-startup that has now become a leading maternity, baby and children’s product retailer in China with a valuation of over USD3 billion.
Dr Stanley Choi, Chairman of Head & Shoulders Financial Group said: “It is my great pleasure and honour to gain a substantial ownership stake in AirAsia Group – the world’s best low cost airline and one of Asia’s biggest known brands that has successfully pivoted into digital business as well. I believe the worst period in the aviation industry’s history has now passed. I am confident that air travel will bounce back and that under Tan Sri Tony’s and Datuk Kamarudin’s leadership, and with vaccines being rolled out across the region and globally, AirAsia has a very bright future ahead. I look forward to working with everyone at AirAsia.”
Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, Executive Chairman of AirAsia Group said: “We are thrilled to welcome Dr Stanley Choi as a strategic shareholder of AirAsia Group, bringing an impressive track record and solid reputation as a business powerhouse to our Group. We are confident that he will add value to our digital business development in China through his vast experience and network with top digital players in the country.
Dr Stanley Choi graduated with a Master’s Degree of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, United States in 1996. In 2013, he obtained a Doctoral Degree of Business Administration from the City University of Hong Kong.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc <AMZN> Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions from the online retailer’s delivery operations.
Yet the company’s use of airplanes – the most climate-damaging mode of transportation – is on the rise, according to data provided to Reuters.
Amazon Air’s U.S. volume has risen steadily since its 2016 launch, according to an analysis of Department of Transportation data by Cargo Facts Consulting https://www.cargofactsconsulting.com, a Luxembourg-based advisory firm with a global staff and more than four decades of history.
It crunched data from Air Transport Services Group Inc <ATSG> and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings <AAWW>. Both supply planes and pilots for Amazon Air.
In July, Amazon Air flew 136 million lbs of goods in the United States, according to the data. That was up 29% from the year earlier and just 9 million lbs short of December 2018, when the peak holiday shipping season was in full swing.
For a graphic on more Amazon Air flights, click the link below:
Bezos has said Amazon will cut its use of airplanes as it builds more local warehouses and fills them with goods that it can deliver to customer doorsteps in one day, or even one hour.
But for the time being, Amazon’s air shipments are climbing as it speeds up deliveries to lure customers and pressure rivals like Walmart Inc <WMT> and Target Corp <TGT>.
In April, Amazon started offering no-minimum purchase, one-day free shipping to members of its Prime subscription service.
In the latest quarter, it saw delivery costs soar, and warned the holiday quarter would see costs for one-day shipping alone spike to $1.5 billion.
The Seattle e-retailer, which sends 10 billion packages a year, declined to say what percentage of its shipments travel by plane or give specific examples of how the latest drive to shave time off its standard two-day shipping affected air transport.
Last month, Amazon said its CO2 emissions in 2018 were 44.4 million metric tons and set a goal to be net carbon neutral by 2040.
“We expect the percent of total shipments to customers utilizing air transportation to reduce from year to year as we significantly increase one and same day shipments,” Amazon spokesman Sam Kennedy said, when asked about Cargo Facts’ data.
DELIVERY WARS
A standard package flown on a plane in the United States creates an estimated 6-10 times more CO2 emissions than one traveling by truck, said Jacques Leonardi, a senior research fellow in freight, logistics and sustainable distribution at the University of Westminster in London.
Amazon Air leases 47 planes and is expected have 50 by the end of the year. It operates roughly 110 daily flights in the United States and around 20 per day in Europe, according to Cargo Facts.
In June, shortly after FedEx Corp <FDX> said its planes would stop shuttling packages for the online retailer, Amazon Air announced plans to have 70 planes on lease by 2021.
But Amazon says it is getting closer to customers with an expanding network of well-stocked warehouses. Those local fulfillment centers underpin the company’s one-day and same-day delivery services.
In a news release issued Monday, Amazon said those options were “better for the planet” because there aren’t many miles in the trip to customer doorsteps.
Because those time windows are so tight, “you are eliminating the possibility of air transportation,” Amazon’s Bezos said in September. “Even though it’s counterintuitive, the fact of the matter is that shorter delivery times end up being less carbon-intensive than longer delivery times.”
Products from most of Amazon’s 158 U.S. distribution centers can be shipped to 65% of the population in one day, said Marc Wulfraat, president of supply chain consultancy MWPVL International.
Items like footwear, jewelry, auto parts and niche electronics come from 23 distribution centers that span the country – and will likely need to be moved by air for next-day delivery, Wulfraat said.
Amazon also depends on United Parcel Service Inc <UPS> for air shipments. The Atlanta-based delivery company has seen a bump in that business since Amazon began expanding free one-day delivery this spring, UPS executives and analysts said.
Domestic next day air volume at UPS surged more than 30% in the second quarter and was up nearly 24% in the third quarter – fueled by faster e-commerce shipping speeds and rival FedEx’s breakup with Amazon this summer.
“It’s not all from FedEx,” said Satish Jindel, the founder of logistics advisory firm ShipMatrix, noting that express and deferred air services revenue at UPS surged $852 million in the second and third quarters.
Amazon’s business was worth about $900 million to FedEx prior to their split, Jindel said. Express, which includes air shipments, accounted for roughly $540 million of that, he said.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Mark Potter)
DETROIT, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive LLC got a big boost from one of its investors on Thursday when Amazon.com announced it was ordering 100,000 electric delivery vans.
Before Rivian has even begun commercial production at its factory in Normal, Illinois, the Amazon order rocketed it to the forefront of electric vehicle makers.
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in Washington that as part of the online retailer’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2040 it would order the electric vans from Rivian, with deliveries starting in 2021. The goal is to deploy all the vehicles by 2024.
Rivian, a potential rival to Silicon Valley’s Tesla Inc, unveiled its electric R1T pickup and R1S SUV last November, but had piqued Amazon’s interest earlier. Bezos personally reached out to Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe last summer to express interest in an investment, sources previously said.
Plymouth, Michigan-based Rivian, founded in 2009, has raised close to $1.9 billion from investors, including a $700 million February round led by Amazon.
The deal solidifies Rivian’s place among EV builders, said Sam Fiorani, a vice president with Auto Forecast Solutions. “It helps boost the image of the (Rivian) brand,” he said.
Rivian aspires to be the first to produce a mass market electric pickup. It intends to begin selling its R1T by the end of 2020, a target that has not changed with the Amazon deal in place, said Rivian spokeswoman Amy Mast said.
Traditional U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co, a Rivian investor, and General Motors Co, as well as Tesla, are pushing to develop their own electric pickups.
The Amazon vans, under the exclusive deal, will be built at Rivian’s plant, a former Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Illinois, Mast said. The first vehicles will be delivered in 2021 and 10,000 should be on the road by late 2022, she said. The vehicles will be serviced by Rivian.
Scaringe has described the Rivian vehicle’s platform as a skateboard that packages the drive units, battery pack, suspension system, brakes and cooling system all below wheel height to allow for more storage space and greater stability due to a lower center of gravity.
Amazon is looking to speed packages to shoppers’ doorsteps regardless of spikes in consumer demand or shortages of delivery personnel. Last year, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz said Amazon had become the biggest customer of its Sprinter vans, securing 20,000 vehicles for delivery contractors.
Ford invested $500 million in Rivian in April with plans to use the Rivian EV platform to build a new vehicle in North America. Details of that vehicle were not disclosed. Ford is not involved in the Rivian deal, Mast said.
Cox Automotive Inc, the owner of the Autotrader online automobile market and the Kelley Blue Book car valuation service, invested $350 million in Rivian this month. The companies will explore partnerships in digital retailing, service operations and logistics.
Other backers include Saudi auto distributor Abdul Latif Jameel Co, Sumitomo Corp of Americas and Standard Chartered Bank.
Amazon’s reputation and the contract size would raise Rivian’s status with potential customers and investors, Fiorani said. It also offers the advantage of not having to chase buyers or ship vehicles all over the country.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by David Gregorio)
JetBlue sues Walmart for trademark infringement over Jetblack service FILE PHOTO: Walmart’s logo is seen outside one of the stores in Chicago
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JetBlue Airways Corp has sued Walmart Inc for trademark infringement, after the world’s largest retailer began using the name Jetblack for its text-based personal shopping service.
In a complaint filed on Friday night in Manhattan federal court, JetBlue called Jetblack a “transparent attempt” by Walmart to capitalize on the goodwill associated with the carrier’s trademarks.
JetBlue also said Jetblack was likely to cause “significant consumer confusion” as Walmart expands the service, and warned that Walmart intends further infringements by using additional “Jet+color” names such as Jetgold and Jetsilver.
Walmart did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment. The lawsuit also names Walmart’s Jet.com unit as a defendant.
Introduced in May 2018, Jetblack calls itself a “personal shopping and concierge service that combines the convenience of e-commerce with the customized attention of a personal assistant.”
Walmart launched Jetblack in part to help the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer expand beyond its brick-and-mortar base and compete with such services as Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Prime, especially among consumers in urban areas.
JetBlue is based in Long Island City, New York.
The case is JetBlue Airways Corp v Jet.com Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-05879.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas)
JetBlue sues Walmart for trademark infringement over Jetblack service FILE PHOTO: A JetBlue aircraft comes in to land at Long Beach Airport in Long Beach
