Media · Sports
On the front lines of crisis management, where timely decisions are critical, control rooms are evolving to meet the demands of today’s highly connected society. Moving beyond traditional monitoring, they have become centralized hubs that manage growing volumes of video and data while overseeing communications networks. From industrial operations to sports and critical infrastructure, organizations […]
Oct 15 · 03:18·Samsung
Finance · AI
Hong Kong, Oct 15, 2026 - As the “Double Eleven” shopping festival approaches, the e-commerce team of Jiangsu Athleta Sports Co., Ltd. is stepping up preparations for the launch of new seasonal apparel products and promotional campaigns. In the past, creating product main images required close coordination among graphic designers, models, and photo studios. Today, with the support of “Dabi AI” from Boundary Consulting, a subsidiary of Huitongda Network, virtual model try-on effects can be generated with one click, increasing the efficiency of new product launches by 5 to 10 times with sales in its e-commerce business increasing by more than 50%.
Starting with empowering lower-tier retail, Huitongda has consolidated its core foundation of township mom-and-pop stores while extending its comprehensive “AI + Retail” capabilities into online e-commerce scenarios. With the continuous penetration of e-commerce merchants into Huitongda's customer ecosystem, new growth opportunities driven by the implementation of AI applications are gradually emerging.
Integrating Capabilities: Synergies Between Member Stores and E-commerce Resources
The new achievement of Huitongda’s “AI + Retail” dual-drive lies in a successful capability grafting. Last November, Huitongda completed the acquisition of a 57% stake in Boundary Consulting, a leading e-commerce AI company. With 15 years of experience in the e-commerce sector, Boundary Consulting has developed the “Dabi AI” platform for e-commerce merchants. The platform integrates product analysis, competitor research, visual content generation, asset management and automated tasks, helping e-commerce teams carry out business analysis, content production and task execution within a unified platform.
This integration also creates synergies in both directions. Having deeply cultivated the lower-tier market for over a decade and serving more than 250,000 township member stores, Huitongda Network has accumulated authentic transaction data, short-chain supply chains, and retail scenario experience. What Boundary Consulting contributes, on the other hand, consists of e-commerce-side AI application services, customer resources, and operational expertise.
By connecting the two businesses, the retail capabilities developed through serving member stores expand the growth potential of the e-commerce business, while the algorithms and content creation capabilities developed on the e-commerce side, in turn, enhance offline store operations. The same AI capabilities can be applied across different customer groups and retail scenarios, reducing marginal costs while accumulating more scenario-specific data and creating a compounding effect. This is what fundamentally distinguishes Huitongda’s dual-engine “AI + Retail” strategy from standalone AI products.
Building a Competitive Moat Through End-to-End Integration
From the perspective of its product matrix, Huitongda’s AI matrix is no longer a collection of isolated tools, but an integrated network connecting online and offline channels as well as the end-to-end supply chain. On the e-commerce side, “Dabi AI” serves e-commerce merchants; on the offline store side, “Qiancheng Cloud AI” and the Qiancheng AI Super Store Manager, the latter integrating more than 24 scenario-based intelligent agents, continue to provide technological capabilities to physical retail stores; on the enterprise service side, “LeapoAI” integrates over 100 specialised features to serve brand owners and factories.
Underpinning these three business segments is Huitongda’s intelligent supply chain system, supported by years of experience in providing integrated operational services to retail customers. This system connects upstream supply chain partners and brand manufacturers with downstream retail stores, FMCG retail chains and e-commerce merchants, creating a closed-loop flow of commercial activities, data and AI capabilities across the value chain. In the first half of 2026, Huitongda’s AI-related revenue exceeded RMB 78.91 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 32.3% and accounting for more than 70% of its full-year AI-related revenue in 2025. These results demonstrate customer willingness to pay and progress in the commercial adoption of AI applications.
For Huitongda, the value of this network extends far beyond tool-level revenue. Scenario density, depth of data, and fulfillment capabilities mutually reinforce one another—the denser the scenarios, the more authentic the data, the faster the model iteration, and the lower the unit customer acquisition and service costs. This barrier, built upon real transactions and offline fulfillment, represents a core asset that general large models can hardly acquire and is difficult to replicate in the short term. Looking at the retail sector in the AI era, what the industry truly lacks is not general models, but professional enablers capable of embedding AI capabilities into real business scenarios and continuously generating scale benefits. Driven by the “AI + Retail” strategy, Huitongda is connecting offline member stores and online e-commerce merchants, leading the retail industry toward a comprehensive AI-driven upgrade.
Oct 15 · 03:09·ACN Newswire
Crypto · SaaS
Credentials often start in an engineer's local dev environments, then get copied into unscoped CI/CD variables to keep pipelines running. Stored there as a raw value rather than a reference to a scoped secret, a signing key reaches every job in the pipeline — compromised or not.
Standing up a standalone vault narrows that exposure but requires mirroring every change to project membership, protected branches, and production environments. When the vault falls out of sync, a pipeline breaks or an agent’s service account keeps access it no longer needs.
GitLab Secrets Manager tightens credential security without a second permission model. It is now generally available in GitLab 19.5 for Premium and Ultimate on GitLab.com and GitLab Self-Managed, with GitLab Dedicated coming soon. Built on OpenBao, it stores build-time and runtime credentials under the same permissions and audit trail as your code. Platform teams can offer developers self-service secrets, and security teams get credentials scoped to the jobs that use them, plus the pipeline and job ID on every CI/CD read.
"GitLab Secrets Manager lets us centralize secrets across CI/CD, Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code without standing up multiple vaults or maintaining separate integration points. It also strengthens our supply chain security by tightening which users and pipelines can access a given credential." - Jeremy Nauta, Software Architect, OneTrust
How Secrets Manager scopes build-time secrets to each job
Agents can take actions no one anticipated, so security teams need to regard every job as if its agents will use any credential it can reach. Secrets Manager narrows what agents can reach with the context GitLab already holds about each job: its project, the branch it runs on, whether that branch is protected, and the environment it targets.
A developer declares the secret a job needs with the secrets: keyword in .gitlab-ci.yml, and GitLab injects the value only into jobs that declare it and fall within its scope. Scope conditions accept wildcards on branch and environment, and they combine, so one rule can require a protected branch and a production/* environment before a job receives the credential.
Inside the job, GitLab writes the value to a temporary file and exposes only its path, which limits exposure in subprocesses, crash dumps, and telemetry. GitLab masks the value in job logs and discards it when the job ends. Unlike a CI/CD variable, a secret is never readable in your project configuration.
OpenBao encrypts secrets at rest with AES-256-GCM, so a copy of the secrets database holds only ciphertext. Jobs fetch values straight from OpenBao with short-lived tokens bound to each job’s identity, which keeps plaintext secrets out of the GitLab application.
See how to get started with Secrets Manager:
Revoke and trace an exposed credential
When the axios npm package was compromised, a SANS advisory warned teams to "assume all environment variables on affected systems were exfiltrated" and extend investigations to CI/CD runners and build infrastructure. Responders had to work out which credentials each affected job could read, how to cut off access, and which runs read them.
With Secrets Manager, when a job runs a poisoned dependency, the exposure stops at the secrets that job declared and was authorized to read. To clean up, revoke and replace the leaked credential, update the value in Secrets Manager, and audit that one job while other pipelines keep running. Secrets Manager prompts you to set a rotation reminder when you create a secret. Dynamic credentials are coming soon and will provide ephemeral access without manual rotation.
GitLab streams every secret create, read, update, and delete event to your audit event destinations and records changes in the audit trail. Each pipeline read carries the pipeline and job IDs, which tie to the commit, the triggering user, and the merge request, when there is one. Incident responders and auditors can trace a read to the change behind it without correlating logs from a CI system, a vault, and an identity provider. Audit events never contain secret values.
Govern secrets with the permissions that govern your code
As agents take on more work, platform teams field more requests for pipelines and service accounts that need credentials. When those requests queue, teams fall back on broad grants and shared secrets.
Secrets Manager uses the GitLab namespace as its isolation boundary. Projects inherit secrets defined in the groups above them, so you define a shared credential once. Owners grant read, write, and delete permissions to specific users or default roles, using the same membership model that governs the code. Remove a person or an agent's service account from a project, and that identity's access to the project's secrets ends.
Developers reference secrets through the project access they already hold. When a secret reference breaks, they fix it in the same merge request as the code, with no second repository, approver, or access ticket. With a governed credential one line away, fewer secrets end up in over-scoped CI/CD variables, local files, or the repository.
One store for pipelines and runtime workloads
Kubernetes, Terraform, and scripts often get separate secret stores, each with its own access model and logs. Secrets Manager serves runtime tools from the same store as pipelines, under the same permissions and audit trail:
Kubernetes, through External Secrets Operator. ESO re-fetches the secret on a set interval and updates the Kubernetes Secret in place, so a rotated value reaches the cluster without a pipeline run.
Terraform and OpenTofu. They read a secret as a data source at plan or apply time and keep credentials out of .tfvars files and CI/CD variables.
OpenBao and Vault CLIs, through the Vault-compatible API. Teams keep their existing scripts and point them at Secrets Manager.
Other runtime tools, through the Secrets Manager API.
Each runtime tool authenticates with a service account or an access token, and that identity needs project membership and explicit read permission for the secret. GitLab then issues a separate token, valid for five minutes, that the tool uses to fetch it.
How Secrets Manager fits with GitLab's supply chain controls
GitLab’s governed software factory connects code, pipelines, packages, and secrets on one platform, with one identity model and one record of how a change reached production. Dependency Firewall decides which packages enter a pipeline, Secrets Manager limits which credentials the pipeline can reach, and Artifact Central governs what you ship.
Secrets Manager supports two of the five stages in the GitLab Security Standard, GitLab's framework for letting agents earn autonomy: For Authorize, it binds each job to the secrets its identity and scope allow, and for Respond, it streams every CRUD event.
Secret push protection blocks commits containing credentials before they reach the repository, and Secret detection finds the ones already in your code and history. GitLab Duo Agent Platform triages what those scans find and flags likely false positives, so your team revokes, rotates, and audits only real leaks.
GitLab's existing integrations for HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, and Google Cloud Secret Manager keep working alongside Secrets Manager, so you can migrate at your own pace.
Get started
GitLab Secrets Manager is a paid add-on for Premium and Ultimate, billed through GitLab Credits: 1 credit per secret stored per month, and 1 credit per 2,500 read operations. An enterprise license agreement is available for air-gapped environments.
On GitLab.com, top-level group Owners can try GitLab Secrets Manager free for 30 days or 500 evaluation credits, whichever ends first. Go to your top-level group, select Secure > Secrets Manager, then Start 30-day trial.
On GitLab Self-Managed, your administrator must install and enable Secrets Manager, following the documented sizing and high-availability guidance.
GitLab Dedicated support is coming soon.
To find the first credentials to move, run the secret audit tool for CI/CD variables, which flags variables likely to hold credentials. A migration workflow for CI/CD variables is in development.
Have suggestions or feedback? Share them in the Secrets Manager feedback issue.
Oct 15 · 00:00·GitLab
Healthcare · Retail
An SGS Consumer Compact article discusses the impact of hazardous chemicals on workers in textile and apparel manufacturing and the importance of managing occupational health risks.
Oct 15 · 00:00·1888 Press Release
Healthcare · Industrial
Robbins LLP is investigating whether UNCY failed to properly inspect its third-party vendor's manufacturing facility per FDA requirements.
Oct 14 · 23:31·GlobeNewswire
Finance · Industrial
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today announced plans to create 6,000 jobs across the United States including 2,000 in Texas, as the company expands...
Oct 14 · 21:33·Lockheed Martin
Energy · Industrial
Robbins LLP is investigating allegations that FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL) misled investors regarding its manufacturing capacity.
Oct 14 · 20:42·GlobeNewswire
Finance · AI
Strong order backlog: New orders for liquefied gas carriers, ammonia fuel supply systems, floating LNG infrastructure, biogas liquefaction and emissions recovery reflect strong demand for NGS technologies and drive total order backlog to a record high of EUR 880 million.
Surging demand driven by converging industry trends, including rising global energy demand, a global focus on securing reliable energy supply and the continued focus on long-term decarbonization, energy transition and efficiency.
Clear visibility on 2026 and 2027 performance: Management of NGS expects revenues of over EUR 575 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately EUR 50 million for the full year 2026 and is confident of achieving double-digit annual revenue growth and a double-digit adjusted EBITDA margin in the full year 2027.
Standalone operations and profitability: Developing strategic initiatives across the NGS’s three business areas, together with harnessing the significant growth potential in the aftermarket business serving each business area, and implementing improvements in operational efficiency, have been key priorities since the acquisition by Mutares.
Strategic exit alternatives under evaluation: Mutares is evaluating potential strategic exit alternatives for NGS together with its financial advisors, including a potential public listing in the Nordics.
MUNICH, GERMANY - October 14, 2026 - Mutares SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A2NB650) (“Mutares”) announces that its portfolio company Nord Gas Solutions (“NGS”), a leading independent specialist in gas handling, fuel supply, regasification and liquefaction systems, has experienced surging demand for its gas solutions, including through new project awards, since its acquisition by Mutares.
NGS was formed from the Wärtsilä Gas Solutions business and is headquartered in Asker, Norway, with around 500 employees and nine locations worldwide. NGS is a global technology leader in gas solutions, providing gas and energy technologies to international shipyards, gas producers, energy infrastructure developers and industrial customers. Its main operational centers are located in Norway, Sweden and Poland.
Peter Wagner, CEO of NGS, comments: “Since becoming an independent company, we have materially grown our order backlog, which now stands at EUR 880 million. Our customers are investing in new gas infrastructure, and we are well positioned to deliver on our targets for 2026 and 2027.”
The growth of NGS is underpinned by three converging megatrends. Global energy demand is rising rapidly, driven in part by the expansion of AI and data-center capacity, and is driving a new investment cycle in LNG and gas infrastructure, shipping and regasification. At the same time, heightened geopolitical tension has sharpened the focus on securing reliable and diversified energy supply, increasing demand for energy security and fast-to-deploy solutions such as floating infrastructure. Finally, the continued focus on long-term decarbonization, energy transition and efficiency is creating demand for lower-emission gas solutions. Together, these trends are driving demand for NGS technologies across the gas value chain.
NGS: Strong progress in operational development
In the first nine months of 2026, NGS generated revenues of approximately EUR 459 million (PY: EUR 283 million) and adjusted EBITDA[1] of EUR 43 million (PY: EUR 20 million). As of 30 September 2026, NGS holds total assets of EUR 493 million, including a very strong cash position of EUR 194 million, a reported net cash position[2] of EUR 84 million and has no financial indebtedness.
Total annual revenues of NGS for the 2026 financial year are expected to exceed EUR 575 million, generating an adjusted EBITDA of approximately EUR 50 million.
Since the acquisition, Mutares has worked with the management of NGS to initiate and successfully implement targeted measures to strengthen NGS’s operational performance and strategic positioning. These measures reinforce its strong market position across the gas solutions value chain and support the expansion of aftermarket and service revenues. Improved sales and project execution support commercial effectiveness and operational efficiency, driving margin development.
NGS: Strong order backlog
NGS’s position is reflected in its fixed order backlog, which stood at EUR 880 million as of 30 September 2026, alongside an additional pipeline of potential projects amounting to EUR 1.8 billion.
NGS’s core marine business area remains a substantial part of the order book, while midstream infrastructure is growing rapidly. In marine, NGS was awarded a contract in August 2026 to supply cargo-handling and LPG fuel-supply systems for eight new liquefied gas carriers for BW LPG, each with a capacity of 90,000 m³. The vessels will be built at HD Hyundai, further strengthening the longstanding cooperation with the shipbuilding group and BW LPG. A further order, signed in June 2026, covers corresponding systems for two liquefied gas carriers for Byzantine Maritime, each with a capacity of 40,000 m³, with delivery scheduled for April 2027.
For the full year 2027, the management of NGS is confident of achieving a year-on-year double-digit revenue increase alongside a double-digit adjusted EBITDA margin, given that approximately 92% of planned 2027 revenue is already covered by NGS’s fixed order backlog as of 30 September 2026. The business of NGS is also on track to achieve its mid-term targets of over EUR 800 million in annual revenue and an adjusted EBITDA of over EUR 100 million.
NGS: Growth opportunities from midstream infrastructure and services business areas
Midstream infrastructure is a key growth engine for NGS, led by floating storage and regasification unit (“FSRU”) projects, where project scope is increasing and customers are moving towards full conversion scope. NGS is supplying the regasification module for Excelerate Energy’s conversion of the LNG carrier “Methane Patricia Camila” into an FSRU, with delivery planned for the first half of 2028, and has received an additional order from Exmar for a regasification system for a conversion project related to the expansion of the EemsEnergyTerminal in the Netherlands. These projects reflect NGS’s established position in international LNG import infrastructure, and the use cases for its midstream technology are broadening.
For the Texas GulfLink project in the United States, NGS is supplying volatile organic compound (VOC) recovery systems for two specially designed offshore support vessels, which capture emissions during crude oil loading and allow the recovered substances to be reused. In ammonia cracking, NGS and Höegh Evi have completed the first phase of performance testing of a pilot plant that converts ammonia into hydrogen, achieving a hydrogen purity of more than 99.5%.
Alongside this, NGS is placing a strong focus on its high-margin services and aftermarket business, where management sees substantial potential. With an installed base of more than 1,600 systems worldwide, NGS is well placed to grow recurring revenues from field services, maintenance, spare parts, retrofits and digital services.
Strategic alternatives
Mutares is evaluating potential strategic exit alternatives for NGS, including a potential public listing in the Nordics in the coming months. No final decision has been made, and there can be no assurance that or at what point in time any transaction will occur. Mutares has strong confidence in NGS's prospects and, in the event of a potential public listing, expects to remain a significant shareholder, subject to customary lock-up arrangements.
Company profile of Mutares SE & Co. KGaA
Mutares SE & Co. KGaA, Munich (www.mutares.com),is a listed private equity holding company with offices in Munich (HQ), Amsterdam, Bad Wiessee, Chicago, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Milan, Mumbai, Paris, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tokyo, Vienna and Warsaw, that acquires companies in transition that show significant potential for operational improvement and are resold after stabilization and repositioning. Mutares pursues a sustainable minimum dividend policy.
The shares of Mutares SE & Co. KGaA are traded on the Regulated Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “MUX” (ISIN: DE000A2NB650) and are included in the SDAX selection index.
Disclaimer
This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction. No decision has been made, and there can be no assurance that or at what point in time any transaction will occur.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions of the management of NGS and Mutares, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future, whether or not outside the control of the relevant company. Accordingly, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the development of the relevant company’s prospects, growth, strategies, industry and the effect of acquisitions may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement. In addition, even if the development of the relevant company’s prospects, growth, strategies and industry are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, those developments may not be indicative of the relevant company’s results, liquidity or financial position or of results or developments in subsequent periods not covered by this announcement. Forward-looking statements should therefore not be relied upon as predictions of future events. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Neither NGS nor Mutares undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.
For more information, please contact:
Mutares SE & Co. KGaA
Investor Relations
Phone: +49 89 9292 7760
Email: ir@mutares.de
www.mutares.com
Press Contact in Germany
CROSS ALLIANCE communication GmbH
Susan Hoffmeister
Phone: +49 89 125 09 0333
Email: sh@crossalliance.de
www.crossalliance.de
Press Contact in France
VAE SOLIS COMMUNICATIONS
Marie-Caroline Garnier
Phone: +33 6 22 86 39 17
Email: mutares@vae-solis.com
Press Contact in the UK and the US
14:46 Consulting
Tom Sutton
Phone: +44 7796 474940
Email: tsutton@1446.co.uk
[1] Adjusted EBITDA - Adjusted EBITDA is operating profit before depreciation, amortization and impairment, adjusted for items affecting comparability, such as carve-out, restructuring and transaction-related costs and other one-off items (including one-off bonuses). It is an alternative performance measure and is not defined by IFRS.
[2] Reported net cash is defined as cash and cash equivalents, plus contract assets and receivables from group companies, less borrowings and contract liabilities.
Oct 14 · 20:35·NewMediaWire
AI · Retail
The recognition includes 11 finalist placements spanning manufacturing, distribution, AI innovation, customer experience, and individual achievement
The recognition includes 11 finalist placements spanning manufacturing, distribution, AI innovation, customer experience, and individual achievement
Oct 14 · 18:04·GlobeNewswire
Energy · Industrial
Following rapid expansion of its customer pipeline and growing market demand, the Earthshot Prize winner is advancing manufacturing and preparing its first commercial Solid-State Generator for deployment in 2027. LOVELAND, Colo., Oct. 14, 2026 -- ATS Energy, developer of...
Oct 14 · 17:50·PR Newswire
Energy · Industrial
Industrial energy costs more than three times as much in the United Kingdom as in Saudi Arabia, the dearest and the cheapest of 33 economies, according to the Industry Economics & Competitiveness 2025 Annual Review, published today by Intratec Solutions.
Oct 14 · 17:05·PR Now
AI · Industrial
NVIDIA today announced semiconductor leaders are adopting NVIDIA CUDA-X™ libraries — including the new NVIDIA cuPotential library, which developers can use to build AI agents that simulate how atoms and molecules interact — to advance AI-defined fabs.
Oct 14 · 16:10·NVIDIA