AsiaNet Daily Summary - Press Releases for Tuesday 16 April, 2002

SAN DIEGO: Optical equipment manufacturers LightPointe today announced "ISO 9001 certification" its company's U.S. and European facilities. John Griffin, LightPointe President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "LightPointe's ISO 9001 certification underscores the company's commitment to providing the industry's highest quality FSO products, services and manufacturing for carriers and businesses."

HAMILTON: Asia Global Crossing today announced that it has "determined to avail itself of the 30-day grace period for paying the interest due on April 15th on its $408 million of 13.375% Senior Notes due 2010", a media release said. The company said the "grace period will allow additional time for discussions with a committee representing the majority owners of its bonds regarding a comprehensive plan to restructure the Company's high-yield debt, and for discussions with potential equity investors".

ESPOO: Orion Corporation and Quintiles Transnational Corp. today announced an intent to form a drug development venture to "develop a portfolio of selected proprietary products currently in Phases I through III from Orion Pharma, the pharmaceutical division of Orion Corporation". The companies have "selected a portfolio of drug candidate projects from the R&D project portfolio of Orion Pharma and now will seek additional capital investment in the new venture to structure the company financially", a media release said.

NEW YORK: PricewaterhouseCoopers announced today it has become a charter member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) by becoming a charter sponsor of the organization's new secretariat, to be based in Amsterdam. The GRI is "a voluntary code governing sustainability reporting practices", and reports on economic, environmental and social performance.

HONG KONG: Action and Adventure channel, AXN, today released an invitation to the Hong Kong AXN Challenge 2002, an adventure race through Hong Kong's country parks and beaches. The race is on Saturday 20 April 2002.

BROOMFIELD: McData Corporation's Vice President of Marketing, Richard Search, will be speaking at the Network Storage/SAN Conference in Shanghai, China, to discuss his company's "vision for Fabric Virtualization, the future of the storage network as a service that transparently connects servers to storage, independent of the protocols, devices, or systems used", a media release said, today. The conference will take place on April 17.

ATLANTA: MAPICS, Inc. today announced the availability of its MAPICS Supply Chain Management (SCM) Solution for Japanese manufacturers. The new solution "enables manufacturers in Japan to make the best use of supply chain capacity and plan production across the entire supply chain, resulting in increased throughput, increased on-time delivery, reduced inventory and reduced operating expenses", the company said.

FREMONT: Services company, LaunchTide, has joined the Versant Corporation's IGNITE! Partner Program, it was revealed today. Versant "established the IGNITE! Partner Program to offer a combination of best-in-breed systems integration and consulting partners with Versant's leading object management solutions" and to "help IGNITE! Partners generate new business opportunities, extend technical competencies to include object-oriented technologies and to foster a network of leading-edge service providers", a media release said.

NEW YORK: PR Newswire Asia has added a supplement to its distribution circuits, the PR Newswire-First Call Wire, which enables Asian public companies to "distribute their news release in virtually real-time directly to 400,000 institutional investors, analysts and financial advisors". The service is the result of a strategic alliance between Thomson Financial and PR Newswire, and "enables public companies to send all news releases to Thomson's influential First Call Network of buy-side analysts and portfolio managers", according to a press release issued today.

TORONTO: Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. and Clarica Life Insurance Company today announced that "management of Sun Life Financial and Clarica propose to recommend to their respective Boards of Directors that a common record date for the next common share dividend be established as May 10, 2002". The common record date will "ensure that common shareholders of both companies on that record date will each be entitled to receive a dividend payment regardless of the date on which the proposed combination of Clarica and Sun Life Financial is completed", a press release said.

(AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited,translated press releases for worldwide clients. Contact: www.asianet.com.au for full-text versions).

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