BREXIT
Report outlines scenarios
A no-deal Brexit would drag the UK economy to a near standstill next year, according to a new report. If Britain leaves the EU without an agreement, reverting to the WTO’s most-favored-nation status rules, GDP would increase only 0.3 percent next year, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said on Friday. By contrast, a trade accord that preserves most of the current arrangements would mean the economy will grow 1.9 percent next year, more than the think tank’s previous forecast of 1.7 percent.
MINING
Chile approves lithium deal
Chile’s constitutional court gave the green light on Thursday to Chinese group Tianqi Lithium Corp’s (天齊鋰業) proposed acquisition of a 24 percent stake in Chile’s lithium producer SQM for US$4.1 billion. The court rejected an appeal to halt the sale by SQM’s controlling shareholder, the Pampa Group, which argued that such a deal would break competition rules as Tianqi also owns a stake in Albermarle, a direct competitor of SQM. Chile has the world’s largest reserves of lithium and alongside Australia produces about 80 percent of total global output.
CHEMISTRY
BASF confirms weak year
German chemicals giant BASF AG yesterday confirmed a full-year outlook for weaker profits after a slowdown in the third quarter, adding that one-off factors weighed especially strongly on its bottom line. Net profit at the Ludwigshafen-based group fell 10 percent year-on-year, to 1.2 billion euros (US$1.36 billion), in line with forecasts from analysts surveyed by Factset. Operating profit before special items fell 14 percent to 1.47 billion euros, although revenues were 8 percent higher at 15.6 billion as BASF raised prices and sales volumes.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitfury mulls initial listing
Cryptocurrency-mining start-up Bitfury is weighing strategic options including an initial public offering in what could be Europe’s first major listing in the industry, according to people familiar with the matter. Bitfury has reached out to global investment banks as it explores making its trading debut in Amsterdam, London or Hong Kong as early as next year, the people said, asking not to be identified, as the details are not public.
MEDIA
Czech eyes ‘Le Monde’ stake
Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky’s Czech Media Invest (CMI) is to buy a 49 percent stake in Le Nouveau Monde, the main shareholder of French daily Le Monde, a spokesman for Kretinsky said on Thursday. The spokesman declined to provide further details on the transaction. Kretinsky is the majority owner and chief executive of power and infrastructure group EPH, which owns power plants across Europe.
BANKING
RBS raises Brexit provision
Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) has taken a ￡100 million (US$128 million) impairment provision to account for greater economic uncertainty in the first concrete sign that Brexit is clouding the outlook of a big British bank. The provision, announced with RBS’ third-quarter results, took the bank’s impairments for the period to ￡240 million, up from ￡143 million last year. It also reported a pre-tax profit of ￡961 million and an attributable profit of ￡448 million. That was below the ￡507 million expected by analysts.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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