14/08/2026

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BIZ & FINANCE

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | AUG 14, 2026

Schneider pushes smarter cooling across East Asia

Halogen Capital launches Partner Portfolios for financial advisers KUALA LUMPUR: Halogen Capital, Malaysia’s pioneer licensed digital asset fund manager and a market leader in syariah-compliant digital wealth solutions, has launched Halogen Partner Portfolios (HPPs), a dedicated B2B2C digital suite. It is built to transform how licensed financial planners, corporate unit trust advisers (CUTA), and appointed marketing representatives refer prospective investors to professionally managed portfolios, helping to grow client wealth. Holding a dual-licence milestone as a Capital Markets Services Licence holder and a Digital Investment Manager licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), Halogen Capital enables advisers to bring institutional-grade, multi-asset strategies combining global equities, domestic bonds, gold, and measured digital asset exposure to everyday clients. Halogen Capital started in 2023 catering to sophisticated and high-net-worth individuals, but as of today, these diversified portfolios can now be offered across all types of investors, with a low entry barrier starting from just RM1,000. Serving as the discretionary investment engine behind every portfolio, HPPs eliminates operational and administrative burdens for financial planners. Instead of manually executing trades or tracking volatile markets, advisers match each client to a suitable risk profile, while Halogen Capital sets the allocation and handles ongoing monitoring, exposure management, and portfolio rebalancing. This allows advisers to spend less time on backend administration and more time building relationships and serving their clients. “Clients trust their financial advisers to guide them through increasingly complex markets, especially as interest in emerging asset classes like tokenised assets and cryptocurrencies grows,” said founder and CEO Liew Ooi Hann. He added HPPs give advisers a way to meet that demand with confidence, offering diversified, professionally managed strategies while they handle the portfolio rebalancing. “It lets advisers focus on what matters most, understanding their clients and growing those relationships,” said Liew. Adviser adoption has accelerated rapidly, with CUTAs and institutional partners already investing over RM30 million in AUM through Halogen Partner. Driven by expanding adviser partnerships and new multi-asset capabilities, Halogen Capital aims to achieve RM1 billion in total AUM in the coming year.

KUALA LUMPUR: As East Asia faces rising temperatures, growing cooling demand and increasing pressure on building energy performance, Schneider Electric is calling for greater focus on HVAC efficiency across commercial, industrial and critical facilities. “Cooling is becoming a strategic capability for economies across East Asia as urbanisation, electrification and AI increase demand for more efficient buildings and infrastructure. The challenge is not simply to add more cooling capacity, but to help customers operate more intelligently through responsive, energy-efficient systems that can adapt as their needs evolve,” said Schneider Electric East Asia zone president Xingjian Pang. Buildings need smarter cooling to manage rising energy and operational pressure. Across commercial, healthcare, transport, hospitality and industrial facilities, HVAC systems are expected to manage higher heat loads, changing o AI, data centre growth driving higher power density and more demanding HVAC requirements

within the automotive sector positions us to handle complex repairs, maintenance, and body work, and we look forward to delivering exceptional service at our first dedicated service centre for Zeekr vehicles.” Zeekr Malaysia general manager Eddy Lu said the expansion of their dedicated aftersales network is vital as their owner base continues to grow across Malaysia. “Our partnership with Carro represents a significant step forward in enhancing both our retail network and aftersales capabilities, ensuring our customers enjoy effortless accessibility and long-term ownership support,” he added. East Asia. “The future of HVAC will be defined by software, connectivity and intelligence. Open, software-defined automation allows systems to become more flexible and easier to integrate, while connected controls and real-time data enable operators to identify inefficiencies, anticipate maintenance needs and continuously optimise performance. This gives organisations a clearer path towards measurable operational improvements, including lower energy consumption, reduced downtime and greater adaptability across the system lifecycle,” said Schneider Electric industrial automation, East Asia vice-president Kyung Rog Kim. These capabilities can be applied across commercial buildings, infrastructure, industrial cooling and high-density data centre environments. “In Malaysia, rising investment in data centres, commercial buildings and advanced industries is increasing pressure on energy use, operating costs and infrastructure resilience. Smarter, integrated HVAC systems can help businesses improve efficiency in line with priorities such as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, while supporting Malaysia’s energy transition and Schneider Electric’s role as the country’s energy technology partner,” said Schneider Electric Malaysia country president Eugene Quah.

occupancy patterns and increasingly complex operating requirements. Cooling performance now directly affects energy costs, occupant comfort, equipment reliability and business continuity. In large or complex facilities – chillers, pumps, fans and air-handling units may continue operating at fixed or inefficient levels even when cooling needs are lower. Connected controls, real-time monitoring, data analytics and AI can help operators match cooling output with actual demand, identify inefficiencies earlier and reduce unnecessary strain on equipment. The rapid growth of AI and digital infrastructure is adding a new dimension to the region’s cooling challenge. Expanding AI workloads are driving significant investment in data centres, creating higher power density and more demanding cooling requirements. The International Energy Agency projects that electricity consumption from data centres could more than double globally by 2030, reaching approximately 945 terawatt-hours. McKinsey separately estimates that AI-related data centre capacity demand could reach around 156 gigawatts by the end of the decade. To help customers address these challenges, Schneider Electric is advancing a more intelligent, digitally integrated, and energy-efficient approach to HVAC across

Carro expands footprint with Zeekr service centre KUALA LUMPUR: Carro, Asia Pacific’s online automotive marketplace and Malaysia’s used car platform, has launched its first dedicated service facility for Zeekr in Sri Damansara. financial solutions. The Zeekr Service Centre Sri Damansara is a full-fledged service facility specifically equipped to handle the unique maintenance and repair needs of Zeekr’s high-performance electric vehicles.

This marks a major milestone in Carro’s growing partnership with Zeekr, since its appointment as an authorised dealer in 2025. By combining Zeekr’s innovation with Carro’s automotive expertise, this new facility represents Carro and Zeekr’s commitment to the future of sustainable transportation and EVs, as Zeekr car owners can now look forward to dedicated aftersales solutions, on top of the standard dealer warranty, insurance and

“This is a really exciting step for us as we continue to grow our presence and expand our business alongside Zeekr in Malaysia,”said Carro international marketplace CEO Fong Hon Sum. “We’re seeing a growing market for electric vehicles in Malaysia, and providing world-class aftersales care is essential if we want to give EV owners complete peace of mind. Our expertise

Education retains its importance in the Malaysian landscape for parents, students and stakeholders. The changes are fast paced with new developments in new fields of study such as cybersecurity, data protection, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning in education, digital education and artificial Intelligence. Leading the way are universities, who are invited to showcase their latest programmes, curriculum and content in our Education Focus for 2026.

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