2025-07-24 09:21
KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Reuters) - Malaysia is aiming for the lowest possible tariff on goods exported to the United States, its trade minister said on Thursday, denying reports that it is targeting a rate of 20%. Malaysia is facing a 25% tariff on its goods unless it can reach a deal with Washington by August 1. Sign up here. Fellow Southeast Asian countries Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia have each reached their own agreements, with the Trump administration placing a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports, and 19% on Philippine and Indonesian goods entering the United States. Malaysia's Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said several sticking points remained in the U.S. talks, particularly on non-trade barriers, but discussions were progressing well and on track to meet the August deadline. "On balance, I think we can get to a number which we feel is fair for both parties," he told a press conference. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that Malaysia was seeking a tariff of about 20%, which Tengku Zafrul denied. "As low as possible... the target of 20% is not the target, the target is lower than that," he said. He said there were certain concessions Malaysia was unable to make as they may be detrimental to local industries, but the country was considering every demand that would help it complete the negotiations. He did not elaborate on what the concessions would be. Tengku Zafrul has previously said Malaysia was unwilling to cross certain "red lines" in the talks, referring to U.S. demands that he said encroached on domestic interests and national sovereignty. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/malaysia-targeting-lowest-possible-tariff-rate-us-talks-trade-minister-says-2025-07-24/
2025-07-24 07:45
BASRA, July 24 (Reuters) - PowerChina has won a contract worth around a $4 billion to build a large-scale seawater desalination plant in Iraq's southern city of Basra, in partnership with an Iraqi company, officials said on Thursday. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/land-use-biodiversity/powerchina-wins-contract-worth-around-4-billion-iraq-build-water-desalination-2025-07-24/
2025-07-24 07:41
MUMBAI, July 24 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee's recent fall looks overdone to analysts at Barclays while their counterparts at BofA Global Research reckon that portfolio flows and a weak outlook for the dollar may help the rupee rise over the remainder of the year. Both hedge funds and real money investors added long positions on the rupee last month, per BofA's proprietary flow indicators. The firm expects the rupee to strengthen to 84 per U.S. dollar by the final quarter of calendar year 2025. Sign up here. Barclays, meanwhile, argues the rupee's decline over recent months is "reaching limits over the short term," and recommends fading any weakness around 86.50-87.00 levels. Although the firm sees a near-term limit to the rupee's decline, it has maintained its view towards INR depreciation in the months ahead. The rupee is on course to log its third consecutive monthly decline in July and has fallen about 2% from a 6-month peak of 84.58 hit in early-May. On the day, the currency was up 0.1% at 86.33 as of 12:15 P.M. IST. While a rise in Asian peers helped the rupee strengthen, dollar bids from at least two large foreign banks, likely on behalf of custodial clients, limited the gains, a trader at a mid-sized private bank said. Analysts at both Barclays and BofA Global Research also pointed out that the rupee's valuation in terms of both the nominal and real effective exchange rates has declined. "Given its recent FX competitiveness improvement there is less need for a further near term drop in the currency," Barclays analysts wrote in the Thursday note. Data released by the Reserve Bank of India after market-hours on Wednesday showed the rupee's 40-currency real effective exchange rate (REER) declined to 100.36, the lowest since May 2023. A REER above 100 indicates overvaluation of a currency while a sub-100 reading indicates undervaluation. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/barclays-says-rupee-fall-overdone-bofa-global-research-stays-bullish-2025-07-24/
2025-07-24 07:32
MADRID, July 24 (Reuters) - Spain's Repsol (REP.MC) , opens new tab confirmed its shareholder payout target on Thursday after second-quarter adjusted profit fell less than expected, despite a 175 million euro ($206 million) hit from a massive blackout in April and other smaller power-supply issues. The April 28 blackout that caused traffic chaos in cities, and left thousands stranded on trains and in elevators across the Iberian Peninsula, also cut power supplies to Repsol's five refineries and three chemical plants in the region. Sign up here. Some of its facilities also suffered from external power supply issues on April 22 and June 16. Since it can take one or two weeks for such plants to be fully operational after these events, their utilisation ratios fell significantly in the quarter. "All businesses, both quarterly and half-yearly, have improved their results, except for Industrial, which was impacted by the general blackout on April 28 in Spain," Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz said in a statement. The company said it was already considering potential legal action once responsibilities related to the outage are officially determined. Spain's antitrust and energy watchdog is carrying out a probe into the blackout but hasn't said when it will release its findings. The company also said it had launched another 350 million euro share buyback, taking the overall amount for this year to 700 million euros, as it had previously pledged. Including dividends, shareholders will this year receive between 30% and 35% of the cashflow the company generates from operations, which is in the upper end of its target. Repsol booked a quarterly adjusted profit of 702 million euros, compared with 859 million euros a year earlier and a company-provided average forecast of 500 million. Net profit fell to 237 million euros from 657 million. The Spanish group also said it is selling its 40% stake in U.S. renewables developer Hecate. ($1 = 0.8494 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/repsol-keeps-payout-target-after-april-blackout-hits-quarterly-profit-2025-07-24/
2025-07-24 07:21
July 24 (Reuters) - Finnish biofuel maker and oil refiner Neste (NESTE.HE) , opens new tab reported stronger than expected core earnings for the second quarter driven by soaring sales of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), sending its shares rising 13% in early trading. Neste's comparable quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 42% from a year earlier to 341 million euros ($401 million). Sign up here. Analysts in a company-provided consensus had expected 302.5 million euros on average. "Our sustainable aviation fuel sales increased close to 80% quarter on quarter, benefiting from additional SAF production capacity at our renewables refinery in Rotterdam," CEO Heikki Malinen said in a statement. The rise in SAF sales drove the sales volume in Neste's renewable products unit to a new quarterly record of 1,096 thousand tonnes. The unit's sales volume margin fell 5% to $361 per tonne, but exceeded analysts' forecast of $329 per tonne. "We saw positive developments in the biofuel regulation both in the US and EU, largely supporting long-term renewables demand," Malinen, who joined the company last year, said. RBC analysts said in a research note that the second quarter was a "key litmus test" for Neste's new management, adding the results boded well for the investor sentiment. However, Malinen warned that the market environment was volatile and headwinds from global trade tensions were expected to continue. Neste has been battling an excess supply in the renewable fuels market, pressuring its sales volumes and leading to a reduction of around 510 jobs globally earlier in 2025. Alhough the group said it still expected its annual sales volumes to improve from 2024, it also forecast persisting oversupply in the renewable fuels market for the year. Oversupply, weak demand and high input costs had made Neste cut its forecast for the renewables sales margin three times in 2024. ($1 = 0.8500 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/finlands-neste-tops-earnings-forecast-soaring-saf-sales-2025-07-24/
2025-07-24 07:18
Macquarie says shareholders vote against executive pay Company may change pay systems after regulator intervention CFO, a possible CEO successor, unexpectedly leaves Shares down 5% SYDNEY, July 24 (Reuters) - Macquarie Group (MQG.AX) , opens new tab, employer of Australia's best-paid CEO, said on Thursday it will review its executive compensation following a regulatory compliance lawsuit as shareholders voted against its salary plans for the first time at its annual meeting. The investment bank also announced its chief financial officer was retiring, a surprise development which takes out one possible successor to current leader Shemara Wikramanayake who started in 2018, and reported a dip in first-quarter profit, pushing its shares lower. Sign up here. The rethink of its top-level pay reflects an unusual degree of investor pushback against a company nicknamed the millionaire factory due to its compensation as heightened regulatory scrutiny and weaker earnings at some of its global businesses stoke disquiet among shareholders. Macquarie said 25.4% of investors voted against the bank's remuneration report for the past year, meaning the bank will have a 'strike' recorded against it. If more than 25% of shareholders vote against an Australian company's remuneration report for two years running, shareholders can hold another vote on whether to dismiss the entire board. Macquarie shares closed down 5.1% at A$213.84, underperforming a 0.32% decline in the benchmark Australian index (.AXJO) , opens new tab. Cooling M&A activity and relatively subdued oil and gas markets have squeezed profit at two of Macquarie's four main operating units. Adding to the pressure on the investment bank, the Australian corporate regulator sued Macquarie in May accusing it of misreporting up to 1.5 billion short sales. Macquarie has said it picked up and reported the mistakes and is reviewing ASIC's claim. "It was always likely that there were going to be some observers who were going to say 'you should have gone more one way or the other'," Macquarie Chair Glenn Stevens told media before the annual meeting in Sydney. "I find it a little bit disappointing how many feel that, but it is what it is and we have to hear that message," Stevens, who was Reserve Bank of Australia governor from 2006 to 2016, said. At the meeting, Stevens told shareholders the "remuneration impacts ... will be an FY26 matter, about which the board will come to a view over the period ahead". CEO Shemara Wikramanayake earned A$30 million in 2024, making her the highest paid chief executive among ASX 100 companies and the only woman in Australia's top 20 highest paid executives, according , opens new tab to the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors. Macquarie said profit in the three months to June was lower than a year earlier due to lower contributions from its asset management arm and commodities and global markets unit. The company did not disclose specific profit figures in the limited trading update. "We see (Macquarie) as a great business caught in the midst of both its own transition and global realignment of geopolitical alliances and capital flows," said Jarden analysts in a client note. CFO Alex Harvey, asked by media to elaborate on his departure, said only that he had achieved what he set out to do and it was time to promote his deputy Frank Kwok. CEO Wikramanayake, asked about her future in the role, said: "I'm committed to Macquarie for as long as Macquarie needs me." https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/macquarie-shareholders-challenge-executive-pay-regulatory-earnings-stress-mount-2025-07-23/
