Market Newsdesk

Atlanta, Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) will host a conference call on Thursday, January 7, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. (EST) to discuss the Company’s performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, following the announcement of those results earlier that day.  Neil M. Ashe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Brands, will lead the call.  A live Webcast of the discussion will be accessible at the Company’s Website:  www.acuitybrands.com.  A replay of the call will also be posted to that site within two hours of the completion of the conference call and will be archived on the site. 

Ab
out Acuity Brands  

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We design, manufacture, and bring to market innovative products and services that make the world more brilliant, productive, and connected including building management systems, lighting, lighting controls, and location-aware applications.  Based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia, we are powered by approximately 11,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuitybrands.com.

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Company Contact:                                      

Pete Shannin             
Acuity Brands, Inc.    
(770) 860-2873                      
[email protected]

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — II-VI Incorporated (Nasdaq: IIVI), a global leader in engineered materials and optoelectronic components, today announced that the Company will present at the following upcoming investor conference:

MKM
Partners Virtual Conference

• Date:  Wednesday, December 16, 2020
• Time:  11:50 a.m. ET
• Place:  Virtual

Participants

• Dr. Chuck Mattera, Chief Executive Officer, II-VI
• Mary Jane Raymond, Chief Financial Officer, II-VI

A real-time audio webcast of the presentation can be accessed via the Investors section of the II-VI website at https://www.ii-vi.com/investors-events/. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Company’s website following the conclusion of the event.

About II-VI Incorporated

II-VI Incorporated, a global leader in engineered materials and optoelectronic components, is a vertically integrated manufacturing company that develops innovative products for diversified applications in communications, materials processing, aerospace & defense, semiconductor capital equipment, life sciences, consumer electronics, and automotive markets. Headquartered in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, the Company has research and development, manufacturing, sales, service, and distribution facilities worldwide. The Company produces a wide variety of application-specific photonic and electronic materials and components, and deploys them in various forms, including integrated with advanced software to support our customers. For more information, please visit us at www.ii-vi.com.

CONTACT:	Mark Lourie
	Vice President, Corporate Communications
	[email protected]
	www.ii-vi.com/contact-us

Sodexo joins CDP’s A List of global climate change leaders with key progress on its carbon strategy

Paris, December 10, 2020 – On the occasion of the 5^th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life Services, has secured a place on the global environmental non-profit Carbon Disclosure Project’s ‘A list’ of climate change leaders’.

For the first time, Sodexo scored an “A” grade, joining 270 high-performing companies out of more than 9,500. This recognition demonstrates key progress on its carbon strategy which includes a target aligned with the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, as well as concrete actions to cut emissions and transparency in reporting.

“Sodexo is the only company from the foodservices and facility management sectors to be part of this exclusive list of corporate sustainability leaders. This clear testimony to the efforts our teams are deploying alongside our suppliers and clients encourages us on our path towards fundamentally sustainable services,” said Maria Outters, Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility at Sodexo. “We are progressing in several areas of our carbon strategy, in line with our science-based and industry-leading target to reducing our total carbon emissions by 34% by 2025.”

Since 2017, Sodexo reduced its Scopes 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 15.9% and its Scope 3 Supply Chain carbon emissions by 10.5%*.

“The partnership between WWF and Sodexo on its carbon strategy over the last 10 years is showing results, and WWF is heavily invested in supporting Sodexo’s transformation and driving sustainable change within the foodservices sector”, said Marie-Christine Korniloff, Deputy Director for Economic affairs, WWF FRANCE. “The entrance of Sodexo in the CDP ‘A-list’ for Climate highlights the commitment of the Group in delivering progress on the reduction of its environmental impact, despite a challenging economic situation.”

Sodexo carbon strategy is built on four key actions:

1. 
   Fighting food waste with WasteWatch
   
   WasteWatch, Sodexo’s game-changing food waste prevention program has an ambitious objective of reducing food waste on our sites by 50% by 2025, through measurement and prevention. As the most comprehensive program in the foodservices sectors, Sodexo helped its clients and the consumers served avoid 2,468 tons of food being waste – more than 17,000 tons of carbon since the program started.

2. 
   Promoting plant-based meal options
   
   Sodexo has increased its menu mix target for plant-based meals to more than 30% globally to address the growing consumer demand for sustainable food and more natural, local and healthy ingredients. In 6,500 sites in 13 countries, Sodexo also offers menus based on “Future 50 Foods”, which are nutritious and have a lower environmental impact.

3. 
   Building a low-carbon supply chain
   
   With 49% of its emissions being linked to its supply-chain, Sodexo is working with suppliers and partners such as the WWF to build a more local and low-carbon supply chain. Sodexo has committed to a deforestation-free and conversion-free supply chain globally by 2030 for the following priority commodities: palm oil, soy, beef and paper products.

4. 
   Focusing on energy management and renewable energies
   
   Sodexo has committed to switching to 100% renewable electricity by 2025 at its directly operated sites. Sodexo is also supporting clients in this respect, through Sodexo’s energy management service that generates significant savings and significant returns on investment.

Partnering to act on climate change is part of the positive impact of doing business with Sodexo.

*More information on Sodexo’s reduction in carbon emissions are available on page 78 of the company’s Fiscal 2020 Universal Registration Document.

About the CDP A List

CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. A detailed and independent methodology is used by CDP to assess responding companies, allocating a score of A to D- based on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets.
The full list of companies that made this year’s CDP A List is available here, along with other publicly available company scores: https://www.cdp.net/en/companies/companies-scores

About Sodexo

Founded in Marseille in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organizational performance. Operating in 64 countries, Sodexo serves 100 million consumers each day through its unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits & Rewards Services and Personal & Home Services. Sodexo provides clients an integrated offering developed over more than 50 years of experience: from foodservices, reception, maintenance and cleaning, to facilities and equipment management; from services and programs fostering employees’ engagement to solutions that simplify and optimize their mobility and expenses management, to in-home assistance, child care centers and concierge services. Sodexo’s success and performance are founded on its independence, its sustainable business model and its ability to continuously develop and engage its 420,000 employees throughout the world.
Sodexo is included in the CAC Next 20, ESG 80, FTSE 4 Good and DJSI indices.

Key figures 19.3 billion euro in Fiscal 2020 consolidated revenues 420,000 employees as at August 31, 2020 N°1 France-based private employer worldwide 64 countries 100million consumers served daily 8.1 billion euro in market capitalization (as at October 28, 2020)

Contact

Media

Tugdual HOUEX Tel: +33 1 57 75 85 46 [email protected]

 

Attachment

• PR-Sodexo_CDP

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Payference, provider of AI-driven cash flow management solutions for finance and accounting teams, announced today that its cash flow application is immediately available in the Sage Intacct marketplace. Payference helps CFOs and finance teams manage and forecast cash flow with the highest level of accuracy automatically. Payference eliminates the need to manually update spreadsheets and is natively integrated with Sage Intacct and other leading ERP systems.

“We’re excited to offer Sage Intacct customers with autonomous cash flow management and forecasting capabilities,” said Prashant Kumar, Founder and CEO of Payference. “With Payference, customers can extend the investment in Sage Intacct and benefit from intelligent automation of cash flow management, actionable analytics, and an intuitive dashboard. We’re delighted to partner with Sage Intacct to serve mid-market companies.”

“We are pleased to have Payference available on the Sage Intacct marketplace,” said Eileen Wiens, VP of Business Development at Sage Intacct. “With Payference, our customers can confidently enter the future of cash flow management automation, driven by machine learning.”

Payference’s differentiated approach leads to real-time cash visibility and forecasting, resulting in improved and timely business decision making. Through seamless integrations with ERPs such as Sage Intacct and all major banks, Payference combines accounts receivables, accounts payables, purchase orders and bank transactions and uses AI and machine learning algorithms to view and optimize cash flows in real-time.

Payference’s unique proprietary technology, enables a more accurate prediction of cash inflow from the receivables as well as suggests ways to increase cash from payables. Payference helps you manage your receivables including assistance with the collections process.

“Payference has helped increase our productivity through more efficient cash management replacing the manual processes and Excel spreadsheets to manage burn rate and forecast cash,” said Wei Wang, Head of Finance at Ordr Inc. “Payference’s unique approach enables us to focus on higher value items.”

To learn more, visit the Sage Intacct Marketplace: Payference

About


Payference

Based in Silicon Valley, California, Payference’s AI-driven software enables companies to forecast cash flow and optimize working capital, freeing trapped cash flow to the bottom line. Payference’s mission is to provide financial visibility and enable data driven decision-making, while also making financial data easily accessible and understandable for anyone in the organization.

Learn more about Payference by visiting Payference.com. Follow Payference on LinkedIn.

Contact:

[email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vantiq today announced that it has created an innovation accelerator with Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, to help customers quickly build real-time applications for managing digital supply chains. Using pre-built digital domain and development frameworks, the accelerator will enable existing and new customers to rapidly develop innovative real-time applications in logistics and distribution optimization, connected maintenance, modern workplace transformation, real-time compliance and safety management.

The accelerator’s first pre-built framework is for connected maintenance, enabling rapid development of end-to-end systems for real-time railroad condition monitoring, in line with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration’s safety guidelines. The framework integrates live data streams from multiple wheel sensors and compares that data against safety guidelines. The framework also automates preventive, corrective or prescriptive actions in real time.

Infosys will extend its deep domain expertise and digital-first approach to support the innovation accelerator, in collaboration with Vantiq’s event-driven, edge-native development platform. Working together, the companies will help customers ideate, build and deploy real-time industrial applications in days or weeks, versus months or longer timelines.

“Now, more than ever, industrial businesses need connected real-time applications that can enable innovative strategies, drive new revenue streams, and ensure the safety of people and environments,” said Marty Sprinzen, co-founder and CEO of VANTIQ. “Vantiq and Infosys are excited to open the doors to our new Digital Supply Chain accelerator, where we can bring these powerful real-time applications to market that much faster.”

Ravi Kumar S, President at Infosys, said: “Today, we are seeing an increased need across the software industry for real-time application building to ensure success of many key digital projects. To further accelerate enterprises’ digital transformation agenda, together with Vantiq, we will help digitize the supply chain innovation for clients that will result in enabling smarter real-time economies. Through this collaboration, we will work towards delivering faster digital outcomes for businesses to improve their customer reach, achieving operational efficiency with real-time sensors, and creating immediate and data-driven business impact.”

“E-commerce and expedited demand for goods and services in the digital economy require agile and resilient supply chains,” said Shawn Fitzgerald, Research Director, IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation (DX) Strategies. “By enabling low-code development, traditional supply chain processes are transformed through high-productivity applications. In the digital economy, traditional approaches to supply chain software development management are not sufficient nor viable to enable today’s value chains. A great example of dynamic and digitally enabled low-code value chain enablement is this Vantiq and Infosys partnership, providing a jump start to companies looking to transform their supply chains and gain a competitive advantage through scalable low-code development.”

About
Vantiq

Vantiq enables customers to build next-generation applications that combine real-world data and real-time events. Their agile development environment allows complex applications to be created in weeks with minimal coding, taking full advantage of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing. Vantiq powers a broad array of applications for smart cities, smart buildings, oil and gas, telecom, healthcare and other industries. Vantiq was founded in 2015 by technology veterans Marty Sprinzen and Paul Butterworth, co-founders of Forte Software. Learn more at http://www.vantiq.com.

Media Contacts:

Dave Reddy, Big Valley Marketing for Vantiq, +1 (650) 868-4659, [email protected]

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TRACON Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TCON), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel targeted cancer therapeutics and utilizing a cost efficient, CRO-independent product development platform to partner with ex-U.S. companies to develop and commercialize innovative products in the U.S., today announced dosing of the first patient in the ENVASARC registration trial.

“We are pleased to initiate dosing in the ENVASARC registration trial of envafolimab in sarcoma,” said Sant Chawla, M.D., Director of the Sarcoma Oncology Center, Santa Monica. “Immunotherapy has radically changed the treatment paradigm for a number of cancers, and we believe envafolimab has the potential to do the same for sarcoma patients who have few treatment options.”

“Dosing the first patient in the ENVASARC registration trial within one year of executing the license to envafolimab fulfills our 2020 expectations for what has been a productive year of clinical development and regulatory interactions for our lead product candidate,” said Charles Theuer, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of TRACON. “We look forward to the availability of interim top-line data from this important study, which we expect in mid-2021.”

About
ENVASARC
(
NCT
04480502
)

Key elements of the ENVASARC registration trial include:

• Multi-center, open-label, randomized, non-comparative, parallel cohort study at approximately 25 top cancer centers in the United States.
• Eligible patients will have undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) or myxofibrosarcoma (MFS) and received one or two prior cancer therapies, but no prior immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
• Planned total enrollment of 160 patients, with 80 patients enrolled into cohort A of treatment with single agent envafolimab and 80 patients enrolled in cohort B of treatment with envafolimab and Yervoy^®.
• Primary endpoint of objective response rate (ORR) with duration of response a key secondary endpoint.
• Open-label format with blinded independent central review of efficacy endpoint data.

About
Envafolimab

Envafolimab (KN035), a novel, single-domain antibody against PD-L1, is the first subcutaneously injected PD-(L)1 inhibitor to be studied in registration trials. Envafolimab is currently being studied in the ENVASARC Phase 2 registration trial in the U.S. sponsored by TRACON, as well as in a Phase 2 registration trial as a single agent in MSI-H/dMMR advanced solid tumor patients and a Phase 3 registration trial in combination with gemcitabine and oxaliplatin in advanced biliary tract cancer patients in China sponsored by TRACON’s corporate partners, Alphamab Oncology and 3D Medicines. Alphamab Oncology and 3D Medicines submitted an NDA to the NMPA in China for envafolimab in MSI-H/dMMR cancer in November 2020. In the Phase 2 registration trial, the confirmed objective response rate (ORR) by blinded independent central review in MSI-H/dMMR colorectal cancer (CRC) patients treated with envafolimab who failed a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin and irinotecan was 32%, which was similar to the 28% confirmed ORR reported in the Opdivo package insert in MSI-H/dMMR CRC patients who failed a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan and the 33% confirmed ORR reported for Keytruda in MSI-H/dMMR CRC patients who failed a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin and irinotecan in cohort A of KEYNOTE-164.

About TRACON

TRACON develops targeted therapies for cancer utilizing a capital efficient, CRO independent, product development platform. The Company’s clinical-stage pipeline includes: Envafolimab, a subcutaneous PD-L1 single-domain antibody being developed in a registration trial for the treatment of certain sarcomas; TRC253, a small molecule drug candidate for the treatment of prostate cancer; TRC102, a Phase 2 small molecule drug candidate being developed for the treatment of lung cancer and glioblastoma; and TJ004309, a CD73 antibody in Phase 1 development for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. TRACON is actively seeking additional corporate partnerships whereby it leads U.S. regulatory and clinical development and shares in the cost and risk of clinical development and leads U.S. commercialization.  In these partnerships TRACON believes it can serve as a solution for companies without clinical and commercial capabilities in the U.S.  To learn more about TRACON and its product pipeline, visit TRACON’s website at www.traconpharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward‐looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding TRACON’s plans to further develop product candidates, expectations regarding the timing and scope of clinical trials and availability of clinical data, expected development and regulatory milestones and timing thereof, the potential benefits of product candidates, and TRACON’s business development strategy and goals to enter into additional collaborations. Risks that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward‐looking statements include: risks associated with clinical development; whether TRACON or others will be able to complete or initiate clinical trials on TRACON’s expected timelines, if at all, including due to risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic or other pandemics; the fact that future preclinical studies and clinical trials may not be successful or otherwise consistent with results from prior studies; the fact that TRACON has limited control over whether or when third party collaborators complete on-going trials, initiate additional trials or seek regulatory approval of TRACON’s product candidates; the fact that TRACON’s collaboration agreements are subject to early termination; whether TRACON will be able to enter into additional collaboration agreements on favorable terms or at all; potential changes in regulatory requirements in the United States and foreign countries; TRACON’s reliance on third parties for the development of its product candidates, including the conduct of its clinical trials and manufacture of its product candidates; whether TRACON will be able to obtain additional financing; and other risks described in TRACON’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the heading “Risk Factors”. All forward‐looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made and are based on management’s assumptions and estimates as of such date. TRACON undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Company Contact:	Investor Contact:
Mark Wiggins	Brian Ritchie
Chief Business Officer	LifeSci Advisors LLC
(858) 251-3492	212-915-2578
[email protected]	[email protected]