Daily Briefing: SIA launches fifth weekly flight to India; Temasek's Pavilion Energy expands to Spain

And Vickers Venture Partners leads $14.9m round in UK-based Emergex Vaccines.

From TTG Asia:

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will introduce a fifth weekly flight to Kolkata, India, from March 29, 2020. On the same day, the airline’s regional wing SilkAir will cease services to the city.

From March 29, 2020 to October 24, 2020, the Singapore-Kolkata route will be available five times weekly on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. SQ516 will depart Singapore at 21.00 and arrive in Kolkata at 22.35, while return flight SQ517 will depart Kolkata at 23.50 and arrive in Singapore at 06.40.

Currently, SIA operates four weekly flights and SilkAir operates three weekly flights to Kolkata.

SIA’s Kolkata services will continue to be operated by the Airbus A350-900 medium-haul aircraft, which features 40 business class and 263 economy class seats.

Read more here.

From Reuters:

Temasek-owned gas importer and marketer Pavilion Energy said on Thursday it has started operations in Europe following its acquisition of gas assets in Spain, in its first major expansion outside Asia.

Pavilion completed the purchase of Spanish energy company Iberdrola’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas assets on Jan. 1, doubling its portfolio and giving it access to European regasification terminals as well as Atlantic supplies.

Pavilion joins other Asian companies looking for more flexibility to buy and trade LNG amid uncertainty over climate policies as countries grapple with the dilemma of using cheaper coal versus more typically expensive but cleaner gas.

Pavilion launched its new European headquarters in Madrid and said it has started LNG trading operations as well as supplying natural gas to the United Kingdom and Spain.

It appointed Iberdrola’s head of global gas Jose Simon as managing director for Europe, overseeing the company’s European gas trading and global LNG portfolio management and origination business divisions.

Read more here.

From e27:

Vickers Venture Partners, a Singapore-based global early-stage VC firm, has led an over $14.86m (US$11m) Series A funding round in UK-based Emergex Vaccines Holding.

Emergex is a biotechnology company that develops set-point vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases.

Professor Thomas Rademacher, CEO and Co-founder of Emergex, commented: “These new funds will support us to achieve some significant value-enhancing milestones as we progress our lead vaccine candidates into clinical development.”

Founded in 2016, Emergex focuses on developing vaccines that prevent virulent diseases such as Zika, Dengue Fever, Ebola and even pandemic Flu. Its T-cell vaccines elicit different responses than traditional antibody-producing vaccines, eliminating allergic, autoimmune or antibody-mediated side effects.

Read more here.