2024-09-26 23:22

SAO PAULO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Brazilian oil firm Prio (PRIO3.SA) , opens new tab said on Thursday it has reached an agreement to purchase a stake in the Peregrino oil field for $1.92 billion from China's oil and chemicals firm Sinochem [RIC:RIC:SASADA.UL]. In a securities filing, Prio said the parts have started the process of signing the deal's documents, adding it should be concluded on Friday. The Brazilian firm had announced on Wednesday a non-binding agreement for the deal, after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo had reported that the firm was looking to close this week a deal valued at as much as $1.9 billion for Sinochem's 40% stake in the field. Prio, however, had not confirmed the deal's financial terms until now. State-backed Sinochem has been trying, since 2017, to sell its 40% stake in Peregrino, an offshore field east of Rio de Janeiro, it bought from Norway's Equinor for $3.07 billion in 2010. Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab owns the other 60% stake and operates the field, its largest outside Norway, which last year reached a production of 110,000 barrels of oil per day. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/brazils-prio-pay-192-bln-peregrino-oil-field-stake-sinochem-2024-09-26/

2024-09-26 23:04

Sept 26 (Reuters) - Sports betting company DraftKings(DKNG.O) , opens new tab has agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty for selectively disclosing material non-public information on social media accounts rather than to all investors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Thursday. In posts on X and LinkedIn in July of last year, the company's public relations firm boasted of DraftKings' "strong growth" even though the company had not released its second-quarter financial results, according to the SEC. The company then asked for the posts to be deleted but did not disclose relevant information to all investors for a week, the agency said in a statement. "It is essential that, when companies disseminate material, non-public information, they do so fairly to all investors," John Dugan, associate enforcement director in the SEC's Boston office, said in the statement. If they choose to use social media accounts to release key information, companies must inform investors in advance as to which social media accounts will be used, according to the SEC. Representatives for DraftKings did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/draftkings-pay-200000-over-disclosure-violations-us-sec-2024-09-26/

2024-09-26 23:00

Rachel Kyte named UK's special representative for climate New government eyes renewed climate leadership role New facility to mobilise billions in pension and insurance funds for climate projects LONDON/NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Britain on Thursday named Oxford University professor Rachel Kyte as its new climate envoy and announced a new investment facility, the latest steps in the new government's efforts to bolster Britain's role in international climate politics. The appointment of Kyte, a climate policy professor, as the UK's special representative for climate comes six weeks before COP29, the latest annual U.N. climate summit. Countries from around the world will meet in Azerbaijan to try to thrash out new deals to halt rising global temperatures, mitigate the damage they have caused and raise funding for those who have been worst affected. In her career Kyte has focused on ways to generate energy in fair and sustainable ways. She previously worked for the World Bank in the run-up to the landmark Paris 2015 Paris climate agreement, and later as a special representative on sustainable energy for the United Nations secretary-general. "Rachel's expertise and experience in international and climate crisis roles will help drive UK international leadership on the agenda and across the world," British foreign minister David Lammy said. Earlier this week energy security and net zero minister Ed Miliband said Britain was "back in the business of climate leadership", criticising the previous Conservative-led government for rolling back some of its climate targets. Last week Lammy said Britain would put climate change at the heart of decisions about foreign policy, and appoint two new climate envoys: one for climate and one for nature. Kyte takes up the climate brief while the nature envoy has yet to be announced. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won a July election, also announced a new facility "to mobilise billions in pension and insurance funds to invest in boosting development and fighting climate change." British International Investment, Britain's development finance arm, will manage the facility, which aims to attract capital to invest in climate and sustainability-focussed projects in emerging markets by providing first-loss guarantees for the investments to reduce the risk. BII said the facility offers a novel approach to mobilising private capital because it is aimed at a previously untapped pool of investors which it will bring in directly to the projects at a much earlier stage of investment. "Public finance will never fully meet the needs, so we must use it as a multiplier to unlock much greater levels of private investment," Starmer said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-names-rachel-kyte-new-climate-envoy-2024-09-26/

2024-09-26 22:20

Sept 26 (Reuters) - Airlines in the United States have canceled or delayed thousands of flights on Thursday, as a strengthening hurricane Helene is expected to make a landfall in Florida's Big Bend this evening. A total of 1,218 flights were canceled and 4,146 delayed as of 5:59 P.M. ET, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) , opens new tab has canceled 201 flights, the most among the carriers, closely followed by American Airlines (AAL.O) , opens new tab and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) , opens new tab. Officials have issued dire warnings and urged residents in coastal areas along the hurricane's path to evacuate ahead of catastrophic winds and a potentially deadly storm surge. Airports across impacted regions such as Tampa International , opens new tab, Orlando International , opens new tab and Fort Lauderdale International , opens new tab have also put out posts on X, warning travelers of potential delays or cancellations. American Airlines has issued a travel advisory for airports situated around Southeast U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. JetBlue (JBLU.O) , opens new tab and Southwest Airlines, too, have issued similar advisories. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-airlines-cancel-over-1000-flights-due-hurricane-helene-2024-09-26/

2024-09-26 21:53

Sept 26 (Reuters) - A Connecticut oil and gas trader was convicted on Thursday over a nearly eight-year scheme to bribe officials at Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) , opens new tab so two Connecticut trading companies could win business, U.S. prosecutors said. Glenn Oztemel, 65, of Westport, Connecticut, was found guilty by a Bridgeport, Connecticut, jury on all seven counts he faced, including money laundering, conspiracy and violating the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Oztemel and another defendant, Brazilian-Italian oil and gas broker Eduardo Innecco, were accused of bribing officials to help Arcadia Fuels and Freepoint Commodities win contracts and learn confidential details about Petrobras' fuel oil business. Prosecutors said Oztemel paid more than $1 million in bribes that were split between Petrobras officials in Brazil and Rodrigo Berkowitz, a Petrobras fuel trader in Houston. The defendants allegedly used coded language such as "breakfast," "breakfast servings" and "freight deviation" to refer to bribes and bribe amounts. Prosecutors said the scheme ran from 2010 to 2018. Oztemel worked at both Arcadia and Freepoint, before retiring in 2020. "We are very disappointed in today's verdict," Oztemel's lawyer Nelson Boxer said in an email. "Glenn has had an unblemished record for 40 years in the oil industry, and we will continue to fight to clear Glenn's good name." Innecco is awaiting extradition from France to face U.S. charges. Oztemel's brother Gary Oztemel pleaded guilty to a related money laundering charge in June. Last December, Freepoint, based in Stamford, Connecticut, entered a deferred prosecution agreement , opens new tab and agreed to pay more than $98 million to resolve related U.S. bribery charges. Brazilian authorities had investigated Freepoint employees as part of Operation Car Wash, a seven-year investigation into suspected bribery involving Petrobras. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in February 2019 in Brooklyn to a money laundering conspiracy charge. He has yet to be sentenced, court records show. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/connecticut-trader-convicted-petrobras-bribery-case-2024-09-26/

2024-09-26 21:48

Sept 27 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. Will this week be Chinese President Xi Jinping's equivalent of Mario Draghi's famous "whatever it takes" moment? Only time will tell if China's volley of monetary, liquidity and fiscal stimulus shots this week sparks a sustainable economic recovery, but the rally ripping through Chinese stocks , opens new tab suggests investors are willing to give Beijing the benefit of the doubt. At the very least, downside risks to growth and inflation have been pared back. Remove the near-term pessimism, and the outlook is suddenly a lot brighter, regardless of the underlying fundamental and structural challenges China's economy faces. Couple that with a U.S. economy still seemingly on track for a 'soft landing' and a central bank determined to get ahead of the curve to deliver that outcome, the global picture is a lot brighter too. Risk assets around the world are responding accordingly. The MSCI World and S&P 500 both hit new highs on Thursday. In Asia, Shanghai's blue chip equity index is up 10.8% so far this week, which would be its biggest weekly rise since December, 2014. The broader Shanghai composite index is up 9.7%. A close at that level on Friday would mark its best week since November, 2008. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index's 4% rally on Thursday brings its weekly gains to 9%, the most in 13 years. An index of mainland Chinese property stocks, meanwhile, leapt 16%. The main potential brake on this momentum on Friday will be a wave of profit-taking ahead of the weekend, especially as it is coming up to the end of the quarter, and Chinese markets will be closed Oct. 1-7 for the Golden Week holiday. While the euphoria and relief are understandable given how beaten down sentiment and asset prices were, a sense of caution is warranted. Although Draghi's "whatever it takes" commitment in 2012 to save the euro greatly reduced the risk of financial and political catastrophe - bond yield spreads have been lower ever since - the actual policies behind it didn't fundamentally solve the euro zone's severe economic problems. Similarly, Beijing's measures this week won't fully solve China's property bust, banish the threat of deflation, or address its long-term demographic challenges. But that's for another day. Or year. The main Asian economic indicator on deck on Friday is Tokyo consumer price inflation for September, which is expected to show a fairly sharp slowdown in the annual core rate to 2.0% from 2.4%. Minutes from the Bank of Japan's July meeting on Thursday showed that policymakers were divided on how quickly interest rates should be raised again, highlighting uncertainty on the timing of the next increase in borrowing costs. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Friday: - Tokyo inflation (September) - Japan leading indicators (July) - German unemployment (September) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphic-pix-2024-09-26/