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The Summit explored the trends reshaping customer expectations and the future of financial services. Discussions focused on rising wealth, increasing cross-border mobility, and the growing convergence of data, artificial intelligence and human expertise. Participants exchanged perspectives on how deeper partnerships can enhance customer outcomes and unlock new opportunities for the next phase of growth.

Chengdu’s history provided a fitting backdrop for the Summit. More than a thousand years ago, the city pioneered “jiaozi”, widely regarded as the world’s first paper money. Its success depended on trust in the promise behind it, a principle that remains equally important in successful partnerships today.

Dennis Tan, Regional CEO, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar; Group Partnership Distribution, Prudential plc, said: “Keeping promises sits at the heart of every partnership for Prudential. Founded on trust and strengthened through collaboration, these relationships help us meet customers’ increasingly interconnected health, protection and wealth needs.

“The Summit demonstrated the strength of Prudential’s partnership ecosystem and the opportunities ahead. By bringing together distribution expertise, digital capabilities and market insights, we are working to create better customer experiences and drive long-term, sustainable growth with our partners.”

The programme also featured guest speaker Pierluigi Collina, FIFA’s Chief Refereeing Officer and referee of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final. Drawing on his experience at the highest level of international football, he shared perspectives on leadership, accountability and sound decision-making in complex and rapidly changing environments.

Partnership distribution at Prudential

Prudential harnesses the strength of its partnership ecosystem to translate shared priorities into action, helping more customers achieve greater financial security and confidence for the future.

Partnership distribution has long been central to Prudential’s growth strategy. Since establishing its first strategic bancassurance partnership in 1998, Prudential has built one of Asia’s largest bancassurance franchises, comprising more than 180 banking partnerships across markets. In the first half of 2026, the bancassurance channel delivered US$586 million in new business profit, up 13 per cent on a constant exchange rate basis from US$505 million in the same period last year.

Hashtag: #Prudentialplc

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Prudential plc

Prudential provides life and health insurance and asset management in Greater China, ASEAN, India and Africa. Prudential’s mission is to be the most trusted partner and protector for this generation and generations to come, by providing simple and accessible financial and health solutions. The business has dual primary listings on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX: 2378) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: PRU). It also has a secondary listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX: K6S) and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: PUK) in the form of American Depositary Receipts. It is a constituent of the Hang Seng Composite Index and is also included for trading in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme and the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme.

Prudential is not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc. a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America, nor with The Prudential Assurance Company Limited, a subsidiary of M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom.

www.prudentialplc.com

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 0.16 per cent to 73,497.28, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 0.06 per cent to 22,738.55 during Tuesday’s trading. Losses were concentrated in technology stocks, although gains in several consumer and industrial companies helped contain the decline.

The Nifty IT index dropped approximately 1.8 per cent, making technology one of the weakest sectors. Infosys shares declined 2.8 per cent after the company lowered its revenue growth guidance for the financial year ending March 2027, prompting investors to reassess earnings expectations.

Other major technology companies also faced selling pressure. Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies traded lower as investors examined the implications of weaker growth expectations for outsourcing companies dependent on overseas corporate spending.

Crude oil prices remained another concern. Brent crude hovered near $115 a barrel, close to its highest level in six months, following attacks on Saudi Arabia that intensified concerns about energy supplies and geopolitical tensions across West Asia.

Elevated petroleum prices present significant challenges for India’s economy because the country depends heavily on imported crude. Sustained increases can raise transportation and manufacturing costs, complicate inflation management and weaken profit margins for companies unable to pass additional expenses to customers.

Oil-sensitive businesses, including airlines, paint manufacturers, tyre producers and petroleum marketing companies, face particular exposure to changes in energy prices. Investors are monitoring whether higher input costs will affect corporate earnings during the current reporting season.

Attention has also shifted towards the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, which begins on Tuesday and concludes on Wednesday. Financial markets broadly expect the central bank to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 3.75 to 4 per cent.

The accompanying policy statement and remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh will be examined for indications of future interest rate adjustments, particularly whether persistent inflation could require additional monetary tightening.

Higher US interest rates can influence investment flows towards dollar-denominated assets, potentially reducing foreign portfolio investment in emerging markets. Changes in American Treasury yields and the dollar’s exchange rate therefore remain important considerations for domestic equities.

Ponmudi R, chief executive of Enrich Money, has identified elevated crude prices, geopolitical uncertainty and the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook as major influences on market sentiment. He has cautioned that tighter American monetary conditions could constrain foreign investment flows.

Tuesday’s weakness followed a recovery in the previous session, when the Sensex advanced 482.92 points to close at 73,606.75 and the Nifty gained 153.20 points to finish at 22,753.20.

Monday’s advance ended four consecutive sessions of losses, during which the Sensex had declined 2.15 per cent and the Nifty 2.36 per cent. The rebound reflected renewed buying in selected companies after the earlier market correction.

Despite Tuesday’s benchmark declines, broader market performance remained comparatively resilient. Small-cap shares gained approximately 1.7 per cent, while mid-cap stocks advanced around 0.5 per cent, indicating that selling pressure was not uniformly distributed.

Company-specific earnings developments also generated substantial movements. Tata Consumer Products rose approximately 5.9 per cent after reporting quarterly profits that exceeded market expectations, attracting buying interest despite the weakness in benchmark indices.

Automotive components manufacturer Sona BLW Precision Forgings advanced around 6.3 per cent following improvements in quarterly revenue and earnings. The gains demonstrated continued investor interest in companies delivering stronger operating results.

Astec Lifesciences, meanwhile, declined approximately 2.5 per cent after reporting lower quarterly profits, reflecting the market’s selective response to corporate financial disclosures.

Institutional investment patterns remained under scrutiny. Exchange data showed foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth approximately Rs 1,462.49 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors purchased equities valued at Rs 2,609.57 crore.

Domestic institutional buying helped support Monday’s recovery, although foreign investment decisions remain sensitive to international interest rates, currency movements and geopolitical developments.

Market participants are also awaiting September industrial production figures, scheduled for Wednesday, alongside further quarterly earnings announcements from major listed companies.

The October monthly expiry of Nifty derivatives contracts falls on Tuesday, adding another trading consideration as investors adjust outstanding positions before settlement.

The results, announced by Iveco on Monday and disclosed by Tata Motors on Tuesday, show that shareholders tendered 238,157,212 shares before the offer closed on 26 October. Those acceptances represent 87.81% of Iveco’s total common share capital, exceeding the revised 80% minimum required for the transaction to proceed.

The 89.42% figure is calculated after excluding the 4,868,597 shares held in Iveco’s treasury. It represents the prospective ownership of TML CV Holdings B. V., the Tata Motors acquisition subsidiary, rather than a completed transfer of the shares. Settlement remains subject to confirmation of the provisional results and satisfaction or waiver of other offer conditions.

Iveco said the final results and the status of outstanding conditions would be published by 29 October, before trading begins. Payment for shares accepted during the initial tender period is scheduled for 30 October, when ownership will transfer against the agreed cash consideration if the conditions are met.

The acquisition vehicle offered €14.40 for each share, valuing the 238.16 million tendered shares at approximately €3.43 billion. The overall offer has been valued at about €3.9 billion, making the transaction Tata Motors’ largest overseas acquisition since its purchase of Jaguar Land Rover in 2008.

The acceptance threshold was initially fixed at 95%, but fell automatically to 80% following a resolution approved by Iveco shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting on 16 October. That decision provided a mechanism for completing the transaction without securing acceptances from nearly every shareholder.

The lower requirement proved important as the tender period approached its deadline. Although the preliminary level of support comfortably exceeds 80%, it remains below the original 95% target. The final ownership structure will depend partly on the number of additional shareholders accepting the offer during a second window. Any subsequent steps towards full ownership or delisting will depend on the applicable procedures and the level of shares ultimately acquired.

Iveco has scheduled that reopening for five trading days, from 2 November to 6 November, subject to confirmation of the initial results and the remaining conditions. Investors who tender during the additional period are expected to receive payment on 13 November at the same €14.40 price.

Tata Motors raised its cash offer by 30 euro cents a share on 9 October, from €14.10, after the acquisition timetable was extended. The revised price applied to all shares tendered during the initial period, including those submitted before the increase was announced.

The takeover covers Iveco’s commercial vehicle operations, including trucks and buses, but excludes its defence business, which is being separated. The proposed combination would give Tata Motors a much larger manufacturing and distribution presence in Europe while bringing Iveco’s established commercial vehicle brands into the wider group. The deal would also broaden the range of vehicles and markets served by the combined commercial vehicle operations.

Iveco’s board had unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer. Its largest shareholder, Exor, which held approximately 27.06% of the common shares and 43.19% of voting rights when the offer was launched, had committed to tender its holding and support the necessary shareholder resolutions.

The transaction nevertheless drew opposition from investment firm Petrus Advisers, which argued that the original price undervalued Iveco and failed to reflect sufficiently the potential benefits of combining the businesses. The increase to €14.40 did not eliminate the importance of shareholder participation in meeting the formal acceptance condition.

Tata Motors managing director and chief executive Girish Wagh described the revised price as the company’s best and final offer before the tender deadline. The company had indicated that a substantial proportion of shareholders might submit their acceptances close to the closing date, a pattern reflected in the final provisional tally.

The offer began on 7 September after Italy’s market regulator, Consob, approved the offer document earlier that month. BNP Paribas’s Italian branch coordinated the collection of acceptances and supplied the provisional figures disclosed by Iveco.

Iveco said the acquisition vehicle had not purchased any common shares outside the tender offer between publication of the offer document on 4 September and the closing date. The company’s treasury holding accounted for approximately 1.80% of its issued common share capital.

New capital positions the robotics and industrial automation group to expand hardware automation across KitchenBASE sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Australia

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 27 October 2026 – Six markets across Asia-Pacific stand to gain from a $1.7 billion investment into Atoms, the robotics and industrial automation group founded by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round, joined by Uber, Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and other institutional investors. The result strengthens a group that includes KitchenBASE, a commercial kitchen network spanning six of the most active food markets in the region.

New Capital, New Capability

The a16z-led round also adds Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the firm, to the Atoms board. This positions the group to push harder into robotics across food, mining, and transport. Within Atoms Food, KitchenBASE sits alongside hardware projects such as automated bowl-builders and order conveyance robots built to cut labour friction inside commercial kitchens. Fresh capital gives these projects more room to develop, with knock-on gains for the KitchenBASE network across Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Australia.

A Boost for Regional Operators

For operators across Asia-Pacific, the benefits are practical. KitchenBASE facilities come licensed and ready-to-fit, and this lets food businesses move in under flexible contracts without the capital outlay of a traditional lease.

Brands that want to test a single market or push into several at once find a foothold in high-demand delivery zones across all six markets. New investment from Atoms in hardware automation and physical workflow management is expected to further sharpen efficiency and reliability, giving KitchenBASE operators a faster path to scale.

Hashtag: #ATOMS

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Atoms

Atoms is an industrial automation and robotics company founded by Travis Kalanick. Atoms Food includes KitchenBASE alongside food-tech hardware projects. Autonomous haulage and machine systems sit under Atoms Mining. Robotic wheelbases and autonomous movement systems for heavy industry fall under Atoms Transport.

About KitchenBASE

KitchenBASE is the food infrastructure arm behind six brands trading across Asia-Pacific. Formally known as Freshlane in Hong Kong, Smart City Kitchens in Singapore, KitchenNow in Taiwan, KitchenBASE in Japan, Kitchen Valley in Korea, and Chef Collective in Australia. Each brand equips food businesses with licensed kitchen space built for speed to market, so operators can rely on a steady base to launch, test, and expand.

Nine exchange-traded funds widely associated with the country’s so-called national team recorded combined net inflows of 128.7 billion yuan ($19 billion) during the week ending 23 October. The total was the highest since nearly 140 billion yuan entered the same closely watched group during the tariff-driven market turmoil 18 months earlier.

The surge followed a punishing decline in mainland shares that pushed the CSI 300 benchmark into bear-market territory, conventionally defined as a fall of at least 20% from a previous peak. Investors have been monitoring large purchases of index-tracking funds for indications that state-backed institutions are seeking to contain further losses.

The figures measure money entering funds favoured by official investors rather than confirmed purchases by government-controlled entities. No public announcement has established how much of last week’s inflows came directly from the state, making the scale of official intervention difficult to determine precisely.

Central Huijin Investment, a unit of sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, is among the principal institutions associated with market stabilisation. Its investment activity has become an important signal for traders attempting to assess Beijing’s willingness to support share prices during periods of intense volatility.

The latest inflows were concentrated in exchange-traded products offering exposure to broad mainland equity benchmarks. Such vehicles enable institutions to acquire diversified holdings quickly, directing demand towards major listed companies without having to purchase individual shares separately.

Thursday’s trading illustrated the pressure facing authorities. The CSI 300 fell into a bear market as persistent selling overwhelmed earlier signs of institutional support. Funds favoured by state investors attracted approximately 46 billion yuan that day, highlighting the contrast between substantial new subscriptions and continuing weakness in underlying shares.

Friday brought a partial reversal. The CSI 300 finished 1.7% higher at 4,105.33 after falling by as much as 2% during the session. The recovery coincided with unusually active trading in several large index funds, although trading patterns alone cannot identify the buyers responsible.

One CSI 300 exchange-traded fund managed by E Fund Management registered turnover of about 19.5 billion yuan on Friday, its busiest session since October 2024. Heavy turnover can reflect purchases and sales by multiple participants and does not, by itself, establish the size of net state investment.

The rebound provided relief after a prolonged retreat that had already tested confidence in official market-support measures. The benchmark had endured a record sequence of weekly declines, leaving investors focused on whether additional institutional demand could interrupt the selling pressure.

Analysts at China Securities, including Yao Ziwei, had previously identified large subscriptions to leading broad-market funds and heavier activity towards the close of trading as characteristics consistent with institutional buying against the prevailing market trend. Their observations did not amount to confirmation of individual investors’ identities.

The scale of potential support has also attracted attention. Analysts including Rebecca Sin estimated that Central Huijin raised approximately $231 billion through exchange-traded fund sales during the first half of 2026 and redeployed about $43 billion after purchases resumed in July. Their calculations suggested considerable remaining capacity, although available resources do not guarantee further buying.

Those estimates underscore the distinction between market intervention and a sustained recovery. Purchases can provide immediate demand for shares, but their effect depends partly on whether other investors become willing to hold equities without continued institutional assistance.

The comparison with April 2025 is significant because that episode followed sweeping American tariff announcements that triggered sharp market losses. Authorities subsequently introduced measures intended to stabilise trading and confidence. Last week’s inflows approached the scale seen during that earlier emergency, despite the different circumstances surrounding the latest decline.

The nine-fund basket represents only part of China’s exchange-traded fund market. Subscription figures can vary depending on the funds selected, the valuation method and the period measured, while changes in units outstanding cannot establish the identity of the ultimate purchaser.

Mainland exchange-traded funds are listed securities whose prices fluctuate throughout the trading day. Their creation and redemption mechanisms allow authorised institutions to adjust the number of units outstanding as investor demand changes. These mechanisms can produce substantial changes in reported fund flows even when trading activity involves different categories of institutional and individual market participants.