Reuters exclusively reported that Volkswagen has walked away from talks with Renault to jointly develop an affordable electric version of the Twingo car, in a setback for the EU carmakers’ efforts to fend off Chinese rivals.
Business
VW and Renault end talks to develop affordable EV
Automotive
17 May 2024, 10:01 am 1 minute
Market Impact
A potential partnership between Volkswagen and Renault would have brought together household names of Europe’s top two economies and formed a counterweight against Asian rivals muscling into the local market.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Automotive
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Transport & Logistics
Regions: Europe
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Important Regional Story
Business
Reuters reveals Chesapeake Energy to offload part of south Texas operations for $1.4 bln
Business & FinanceEnergy
18 January 2023, 9:21 pm 1 minute
Reuters was first to report that oil and gas exploration and production company Chesapeake Energy Corp agreed to sell part of its operations in south Texas to private equity-owned WildFire Energy for $1.4 billion in cash. After Reuters revealed the news, Chesapeake formally announced the sale of the operations to WildFire. Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake has been trying to divest its entire South Texas operations to focus on natural gas-producing acreage in other parts of the United States. The deal it has clinched falls short of meeting the demands of activist investor Kimmeridge Energy Management, which is among the 15 largest Chesapeake shareholders, to exit South Texas entirely.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & FinanceEnergy
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & Finance
Regions: North America
Countries: US
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
Business
US warned Raiffeisen access to dollar system could be curbed over Russia
Business & Finance
15 May 2024, 3:22 am 1 minute
Reuters exclusively reported that Raiffeisen Bank International was warned by the U.S. Treasury in writing that its access to the U.S. financial system could be curbed because of its Russia dealings.
Market Impact
The United States is the world’s most powerful regulator chiefly because it can sever a bank’s access to the dollar, a cornerstone of international finance. Losing access to the dollar would be likely to plunge any bank into a crisis.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & Finance
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & Finance
Regions: Europe
Countries: Austria
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
Business
‘No money and no answers’ two years after funeral firm’s collapse
Margaret and David Fee spent thousands of pounds on pre-paid funeral plans to lessen the trauma for their loved ones when they died.
But in 2022, they were among 46,000 people who discovered Safe Hands Plans Ltd – the company they trusted to organise their funerals – had collapsed.
Two years on, and while an ongoing fraud investigation is looking into the firm’s dealings, Margaret and David are no closer to getting a penny back, or to finding the answers that they are demanding about what went wrong.
And with a new government in place, a consumer group is calling for ministers to launch a public inquiry into the defunct funeral firm.
Margaret – a former bereavement services officer with the NHS – said the plans were paid for from David’s pension pot.
She said she only worked part-time, so had a “very small” pension pot.
The pair, both 78, are now retired and living in Ratby, Leicestershire.
They invested £2,745 each from David’s pension to pay for their funerals in 2015.
Safe Hands assured them their money was ringfenced and protected, with all aspects of the funerals accounted for.
But seven years later, the company went into administration and with it, went the couple’s money.
Funeral plans are designed to allow people to set money aside during their lives, to help their families pay for a funeral when they die.
Previous unregulated
The plans became particularly popular as funeral prices soared, but there were questions over the lack of protection if a provider went bust.
Since July 2022, providers have required approval to operate from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), giving consumers greater protection.
Safe Hands was one of dozens of companies operating in the previously unregulated pre-paid funeral sector, and collapsed four months before the measures came in.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened its investigation, which is ongoing, into Safe Hands in October 2023.
As customers who bought directly through Safe Hands, Margaret and David were offered the chance to pay half the amount again to renew their full plan with either Dignity or Co-op.
Margaret and David – a former electrical maintenance engineer – took up this offer, paying one plan upfront using money from David’s pension fund, and the second on a monthly payment plan, both with Dignity.
They say the firm’s collapse hit their monthly premiums and left them in a vulnerable financial position.
“We never thought we’d be in this position to pay off something monthly again. We thought we were comfortable. Now, we’re not getting into debt but there’s nothing left. There’s no money for treats,” said Margaret.
They believe their health has suffered because of it.
David, speaking tearfully as Margaret comforted him, said: “It gets you inside, stomach ulcers and that through worry, and all these things add up eventually.
“And sometimes you think, is it worth carrying on? But you’ve got to.”
Gill Marshall, a retired grandmother of four, paid £4,000 for a Safe Hands funeral plan.
Her husband, Paul, died suddenly aged 57 while on a trip in France in 2012.
The family did not have a plan, insurance or enough funds to pay for the repatriation.
To bring her husband home and organise his funeral, Gill – from Grantham in Lincolnshire – had to borrow the money, took out a bereavement loan from the government, and came close to losing the family home in the process.
“It was a really difficult time and I just did not want my children to be in that position,” she said.
So, for her funeral, Gill turned took out a Safe Hands plan.
She gave the matter no more thought until a letter arrived on 19 September 2022, informing her the company had gone into administration.
“You’re just lost aren’t you? Because the money’s gone,” she said.
“You thought you were set up, and then not only have you not got a funeral plan, but you haven’t got the money to put it into another one.”
The administrators for Safe Hands, FRP Advisory, declined to comment on the ongoing situation.
But it has issued four publicly-available progress reports since it took over administration of the firm.
In its latest report from May, the administrators stated it had “continued to pursue claims”.
The report states it has made “substantial progress with the process of adjudicating planholders’ submitted claims”.
However, the firm has not yet been able to return any money to Safe Hands customers.
Prior to the collapse of Safe Hands, there was no industry regulation as long as the money was kept in a trust, meaning it would be carefully handled by account trustees.
But by July 2022, all pre-paid funeral firms had to get approval to operate from the FCA.
Safe Hands applied, but the company then withdrew its application. Unable to trade without regulation, the company went into administration in March 2022.
FRP Advisory told the BBC planholders are owed an estimated £70.6m – and the expected returns are between £8m and £10.9m.
No repayment terms
The administrators’ progress documents show a series of financial transactions made prior to the collapse of Safe Hands.
Of the tens of millions owed to planholders, the documents show £45.1m of investments were made in the Cayman Islands – where there is no UK jurisdiction.
In addition, in 2018, a loan of about £3.5m was received by the company’s previous owner, Malcolm David Milson. According to documents filed by Safe Hands on Companies House, it was issued without any repayment terms.
The BBC has invited Mr Milson to comment on the payment, but he did not respond.
Lara Gee – financial expert and associate professor in accounting at the University of Nottingham – says the company had plenty of time to get its finances in order, to be able to comply with regulation.
“In 2017, Safe Hands themselves were part of the original group of funeral care plan issuers that came together to discuss the future of the industry and how it should be regulated,” she said.
“With that in mind, you would expect that they would look at what the FCA might require of them, they would be making investments in line with the regulation requirements so they would be ready, well ahead, as many other providers did.”
Both former owners of Safe Hands – Mr Milson and Richard Philip Wells – were contacted about the company’s finances, but they did not respond.
Consumer group Fairer Finance says with a new government in place, it will now push for a public inquiry.
It says it warned the Treasury, and the FCA, in a meeting back in 2017 about the financial situation with Safe Hands and the risk of it collapsing.
It believes if the organisations had taken action, the significant loss for planholders could have been avoided.
The FCA says at the time, it had limited powers as Safe Hands was not regulated.
Meanwhile, a Treasury spokesperson said: “Once concerns were raised about the funeral plan market, we made it illegal to sell pre-paid funeral plans without authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority – protecting 1.6 million customers and their families.”
In response to its ongoing inquiry, the Serious Fraud Office told the BBC that its “active criminal investigation into alleged fraud” by Safe Hands and its parent company SHP Capital Holdings Limited was progressing.
The organisation has not given any indication as to how long the investigation could take, which is of little consolation to those who have lost money – like Margaret and David.
“I think they want criminally prosecuting – to tell the truth,” Margaret added.
“They’ve caused so much pain to such a vulnerable age group.”
Business
What a Huawei laptop reveals about China’s dream of tech self-sufficiency
China’s demand that the public sector step up use of domestic semiconductors can best be seen within Huawei’s Qingyun L540 laptop.
The “safe and reliable” device features a self-designed processor and a Chinese-made operating system, having stripped out foreign-made components and software as much as possible.
The computer, which is being snapped up by governments and state groups across the country, has become the signature model of China’s localisation campaign known as Xinchuang, or “IT application innovation”.
For decades, Chinese officials have dreamt of creating a domestic tech supply chain, especially in building-block components like semiconductors. Progress was slow. But Washington’s ratcheting embargo on high tech goods has spurred Beijing to redouble its efforts.
“We must ramp up R&D efforts in semiconductors, machine tools and foundational software,” President Xi Jinping exhorted top scientists and policymakers this summer. “They provide the technological backbone for independent, secure and controllable supply chains,” he said.
Chinese officials are now combining the heft of state spending and financial support with top-down directives to buy local tech, particularly in semiconductors.
Late last year state buyers were directed to phase out computers powered by American processors.
Since implementing the directive in March, central agencies have transitioned from exclusively purchasing laptops running on Intel and AMD processors last year to now acquiring three-quarters of their devices with chips from Chinese companies like Huawei, Shanghai Zhaoxin and Phytium, according to public records. Huawei’s Qingyun L540 has won a majority of the orders.
What kicked off as a campaign to cut foreign tech products out of the offices of governments and state-owned groups has gradually expanded into a wider array of products.
Automakers, including major European groups which produce cars in joint ventures with Chinese state-owned firms, have been directed to step up their use of domestic semiconductors, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Two of the people said they had been given a target to use Chinese chips for 25 per cent of the total by next year, though there were not yet consequences for failing to do so. Nikkei Asia previously reported this directive.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is leading the country’s tech localisation efforts, has outlined a plan for national auto chip standards. The goal is to “provide space for our country’s indigenous innovation in auto chips”, MIIT said in December.
An engineer at a major European vehicle maker said they have begun to inventory their components and where their chips came from. “It will not be easy to design-in Chinese chips,” the person said. “But if we are able to do so successfully, I expect they will be pushed into global products because they are so much cheaper.”
Major foreign telecom kit makers are also being encouraged to substitute domestic semiconductors into their gear to maintain sales, two people familiar with the matter said.
State-backed China Telecom recently tendered for 150,000 servers for its network. Two-thirds of the order was reserved for servers equipped with domestic processors, procurement records show.
Huawei’s Qingyun laptop, tested by the FT, also contains Chinese software running on the local hardware. The device ran on the Chinese-made Unity Operating System, based on Linux. Users can play music, edit photos or create word documents and spreadsheets, similar to a Windows machine. But all of the applications are made in China.
The laptop’s Word-like application is made by Chinese software group Kingsoft and saves text files as “.wps” instead of the “.docx” format used by Microsoft. Chinese agencies like MIIT, the State Tax Administration and Maritime Safety Administration have started to publish some government documents in the format.
But Huawei’s Xinchuang laptop is not yet fully divorced from foreign technology, showing the challenges ahead for Xi’s campaign.
Its Huawei Kirin 9006C processor was manufactured in Taiwan in 2020 ahead of tighter US export controls to the Chinese national champion, which came into effect in September of that year, according to an examination by research group TechInsights. Huawei stockpiled a mass of the 5 nanometre chips ahead of the sanctions cut-off.
The laptop’s USB controller hub comes from American company Microchip while two memory chips come from South Korean company SK Hynix. The 512GB storage was packaged in December 2020, according to TechInsights.
SK Hynix said it strictly complies with the US export controls and has suspended transactions with Huawei since they were announced. Microchip did not respond to requests for comment.
Lin Qingyuan, a Chinese hardware expert at Bernstein, said that while Beijing’s Xinchuang policy had accelerated adoption of local tech, Washington’s sanctions were actually having a more pronounced impact.
“When companies have no choice, it creates a market for the local players, like for AI chips,” he said.
TechInsights’ analysis showed that most of the important chips were designed by Chinese groups, representing about $109 of the $182 worth of integrated circuits in the laptop.
Stacy Wegner, a senior technology analyst at TechInsights, said it was not what you would typically find in a laptop. “This was a very Chinese IC heavy laptop,” she said. “That’s for sure.”
Business
Reuters reveals ValueAct calls for Seven & i to spin off 7-Eleven retail chain
Business & Finance
19 January 2023, 9:07 pm 1 minute
Reuters was first to report that hedge fund ValueAct Capital urged Seven & i Holdings shareholders to back a spin-off of the company’s 7-Eleven convenience store chain, arguing the move would improve the conglomerate’s valuation and corporate governance. The U.S.-based investment firm, which owns a 4.4% stake in the Japanese company and has been urging it to make changes for at least a year, called on shareholders, in a letter reviewed by Reuters, to express their opinions on the matter to Seven & i’s board.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & Finance
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & Finance
Regions: North America
Countries: JapanUS
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
Business
US, Vietnam discuss supplying Hanoi with C-130 military transport planes
Business & FinanceDeals
24 July 2024, 7:44 am 1 minute
Reuters exclusively reported that the United States and Vietnam are discussing the sale of Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military transport planes to Hanoi, in a sign of closer security cooperation between the two former foes.
Market Impact
The discussions show the United States’ growing efforts to gain influence with Hanoi, nearly half a century after the end of the Vietnam War.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & FinanceDeals
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Aerospace & DefenceBusiness & Finance
Regions: Asia
Countries: Vietnam
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
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