2025-07-28 07:16
July 28 (Reuters) - CK Hutchison (0001.HK) , opens new tab said on Monday it was in talks with a consortium pursuing its $22.8 billion ports business to add a Chinese "major strategic investor" to the bid, after Beijing flagged a probe into the deal amid heightened Sino-U.S. tension. The Hong Kong-based conglomerate made the comment the day after exclusive talks for a deal - which includes two ports along the Panama Canal - ended with the consortium, led by U.S. investment firm BlackRock (BLK.N) , opens new tab and Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte's family-run shipping company MSC. Sign up here. The canal's strategic value in global trade and U.S. President Donald Trump's call to end what he described as Chinese control over it has made the deal a flashpoint for U.S.-China trade tension, with media reporting , opens new tab that Beijing was unhappy , opens new tab with the deal and was reviewing it for security and antitrust issues. Owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing and founded and listed in Hong Kong, CK Hutchison has a global footprint with businesses in areas as varied as ports and telecommunications. Here is a look at its origins and current standing globally: ORIGINS Li Ka-shing established Cheung Kong Industries in 1950 at the age of 21. The tycoon acquired a controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa nearly three decades later , opens new tab. Hutchison Whampoa traced its roots to a small dispensary firm in China's southern Guangzhou that was established in 1828 and a dock and repair yard operator founded on the Pearl River in 1863. Li Ka-shing carried out a major reorganisation of the business in 2015 by merging his two flagship companies, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong. This created CK Hutchison, one of Asia's largest conglomerates with a global presence. GLOBAL STANDING CK Hutchison has interests in every continent and operates in more than 50 countries, employing over 300,000 people as of June last year. About half its operating earnings come from its telecoms and infrastructure operations, with three-quarters derived from countries and territories outside mainland China. TELECOMMUNICATIONS The telecommunications business is the group's most profitable segment and brought in a quarter of its operating profit in 2024 , opens new tab. Its CK Hutchison Group Telecom unit handles European operations, while Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are under Hutchison Asia Telecommunications. Italy and the UK are the top business contributors for the European unit, while Ireland and Sweden are the fastest-growing markets. Three, its telecom brand, operates in eight countries including Ireland, the UK, Austria and Sweden. Hutch in Sri Lanka and Vietnamobile in Vietnam are the prominent brands in Asia. INFRASTRUCTURE The group's infrastructure operations are anchored by CK Infrastructure (1038.HK) , opens new tab and contributed just under a quarter of its operating profit in 2024, making this segment the second-largest profit earner. CK Infrastructure manages assets across energy, transport, water infrastructure, waste management and other related businesses across the world. Its interests include UK Power Networks, Northern Gas Networks and Canadian Power. It is the largest foreign infrastructure investor in Australia, and also invests in toll roads and bridges in China, and infrastructure materials in Hong Kong. CKI holds the largest stake in Power Assets Holdings (0006.HK) , opens new tab which supplies electricity and gas to millions of consumers across continents. PORTS AND RELATED SERVICES The group's sprawling maritime empire , opens new tab extends across 24 countries, with interests in 53 ports and 295 berths. These include container terminals in five of the world's 10 busiest ports. CK Hutchison's busiest ports include Shenzhen's deep water Yantian port, Mingdong and Pudong terminals in Shanghai, Hong Kong's Kwai Tsing Port, container terminals in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, and Westports Malaysia. The network of ports and terminals is at the centre of increasing geopolitical sensitivity surrounding critical trade infrastructure. The preliminary deal with the BlackRock-led group included the sale of 43 ports comprising 199 berths in 23 countries. CK Hutchison, meanwhile, would maintain stakes in three of the world's 10 busiest container ports. Ahead of the deal, the ports business contributed around 15% of the conglomerate's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITA). RETAIL The conglomerate is a major player in the global health and beauty landscape with an expansive footprint of nearly 17,000 stores across 30 markets. Retail contributed 20% to the group's operating earnings in 2024. AS Watson, which owes its lineage to the old Guangzhou dispensary, has a diverse portfolio spanning personal care, health and beauty products, food and fine wine, and consumer electronics and electrical appliances. Its notable brands include health and beauty retailers Watsons, Rossmann and Superdrug, as well as the Hong Kong-based supermarket chain PARKnSHOP. FINANCE & INVESTMENTS, OTHERS The finance and investment portfolio serves as a strategic complement to CK Hutchinson's core operations, accounting for less than a fifth of its operating earnings. It manages substantial cash reserves and liquid investments while overseeing a number of partially owned enterprises spanning multiple sectors. https://www.reuters.com/business/ck-hutchison-global-conglomerate-caught-us-china-trade-spat-2025-03-20/
2025-07-28 07:15
Heavy rain causes landslides and flooding in northern China Over 4,400 people relocated due to extreme weather conditions China allocates 50 million yuan for disaster recovery in Hebei HONG KONG, July 28 (Reuters) - Swollen rivers, waterways and reservoirs across China exacerbated flooding and landslides on Monday which killed at least four people, as authorities warned of more intense rains and heightened disaster risks in coming days. Forty one rivers across the country have flooded, CCTV said, citing China's Ministry of Water Resources. The Ministry said it had issued flood warnings for small and midsize rivers and mountain torrents. Sign up here. Heavy rains intensified around Beijing and surrounding provinces on Monday, including those in central China such as Hunan and northern Inner Mongolia. Four people died in a landslide in northern Hebei and eight people are missing. In the suburban area of Miyun in Beijing, more than 4,400 people have been resettled after flash floods and landslides floored many villages, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Images circulated on China's Wechat app showed areas of Miyun where cars and trucks were floating on a flooded road where water levels had risen so high that it had submerged part of a residential building. Electricity cuts are also affecting more than 10,000 people, in the area, CCTV said. Northern China has seen record precipitation in recent years, exposing densely populated cities, including Beijing, to flood risks. Some scientists link the increased rainfall in China’s usually arid north to global warming. China's Central Meteorological Observatory said that heavy rainfall would continue to drench northern China over the next three days. Beijing issued its highest level flood alert on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said. The storms are part of the broader pattern of extreme weather across China due to the East Asian monsoon, which has caused disruptions in the world's second-largest economy. Xiwanzi Village in Shicheng Town, near Miyun Reservoir, was severely affected, CCTV said on Monday with an additional 100 villagers transferred to a primary school for shelter. It comes after the maximum flood peak flow into the Miyun reservoir reached a record high of 6550 cubic meters per second, Beijing authorities said on Sunday. Two high-risk road sections have been sealed in Beijing's Pinggu district, authorities said. WIDESPREAD In neighbouring Shanxi province, videos from state media showed roads inundated by strong gushing currents and submerged vegetation including crops and trees. Shaanxi province, home to China's historic city of Xian, also issued flash flood disaster risk warnings on Monday. Authorities are carrying out search and rescue work across cities including Datong, where a driver in a Ford car has lost contact while driving in the floods, the People's Daily reported. Two were dead and two missing in Hebei province, CCTV said on Sunday morning. Overnight rain dumped a record 145 mm (5.7 inches) per hour on Fuping in the industrial city of Baoding. In Hunan's Liudiequan grand canyon in Chunkou town, water rose so rapidly on Sunday that a tourist was swept away, CCTV said. China's National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday that it was urgently arranging 50 million yuan ($6.98 million) to support Hebei. The funds would be used to repair damaged roads and bridges, water conservancy embankments, schools and hospitals in the disaster area. The NDRC said it was "promoting the restoration of normal life and production as soon as possible." Chinese authorities closely monitor extreme rainfall and severe flooding are, as they challenge the country's ageing flood defences, threaten to displace millions and wreak havoc on China's $2.8 trillion agricultural sector. ($1 = 7.1675 Chinese yuan renminbi) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/intense-rains-lash-china-swelling-waterways-rivers-landslide-kills-four-2025-07-28/
2025-07-28 07:08
July 28 (Reuters) - Spanish renewable energy and water company Cox (COXGA.MC) , opens new tab has submitted an offer to take over Iberdrola's (IBE.MC) , opens new tab assets in Mexico worth around 4 billion euros ($4.69 billion), newspaper El Confidencial said on Monday, citing unnamed sources close to the process. Spanish utility Iberdrola hired investment bank Barclays to sell 15 renewable power plants in Mexico as it seeks to exit the country on concerns about the legal and tax stability in the country, El Confidencial reported last week. Sign up here. Iberdrola already sold 55% of its assets in the country to the Mexican government for $6 billion in 2024, which the Mexican government called at the time a "new nationalisation" of the electricity market. Iberdrola and Cox, which is present in Mexico, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. ($1 = 0.8532 euros) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/cox-makes-47-bln-offer-iberdrolas-mexican-assets-el-confidencial-says-2025-07-28/
2025-07-28 07:03
United States, EU avert trade war with 15% tariff deal US, China to resume tariff talks in bid to extend truce OPEC+ panel likely to keep oil policy steady, sources say SINGAPORE, July 28 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday after the United States clinched a trade deal with the European Union and may extend a tariff pause with China, relieving concerns that higher levies could have hurt economic activity and limited fuel demand. Brent crude futures inched up 61 cents, or 0.89%, to $69.05 a barrel by 0647 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $65.75 a barrel, up 59 cents, or 0.91%. Sign up here. The U.S.-European Union trade deal and a possible extension in the U.S.-China tariff pause are supporting global financial markets and oil prices, IG markets analyst Tony Sycamore said. "With the risk of a prolonged trade war and the importance of the August tariff deadlines being steadily defused, markets have responded positively," he added in a note. Sunday's U.S.-EU framework trade pact sets an import tariff of 15% on most EU goods, half the threatened rate. The deal averted a bigger trade war between two allies that account for almost one-third of global trade and could crimp fuel demand. Also set for Monday is a meeting in Stockholm of senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators aiming to extend before an August 12 deadline a truce holding off sharply higher tariffs. Oil prices settled on Friday at their lowest in three weeks weighed down by global trade concerns and expectations of more oil supply from Venezuela. State-run oil company PDVSA is readying to resume work at its joint ventures under terms similar to Biden-era licences, once U.S. President Donald Trump reinstates authorisations for its partners to operate and export oil under swaps, company sources said. Though prices were up slightly on Monday, gains were limited by the prospect of OPEC+ further easing supply curbs. A market monitoring panel of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies is set to meet at 1200 GMT on Monday. It is unlikely to recommend altering existing plans by eight members to raise oil output by 548,000 barrels per day in August, four OPEC+ delegates said last week, though another source said it was too early to say. ING expects OPEC+ will at least complete the full return of 2.2 million barrels per day of the additional voluntary supply cuts by the end of September. That would work out to a supply hike in September of at least 280,000 barrels per day. However, there is clearly room for a more aggressive hike. The producer group is keen to recover market share while summer demand is helping to absorb the extra barrels. JP Morgan analysts said global oil demand rose by 600,000 bpd in July on year, while global oil stocks rose 1.6 million bpd. In the Middle East, Yemen's Houthis said on Sunday they would target ships of companies that do business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality, in what they called a fourth phase of military operations against Israel over the Gaza conflict. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-rises-us-eu-deal-boosts-trade-optimism-2025-07-28/
2025-07-28 07:02
KYIV, July 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas major Naftogaz has signed its first deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR to import natural gas via the Transbalkan route, it said on Monday. "For the first time, a test shipment of gas is being delivered through the Transbalkan route along the Bulgaria–Romania–Ukraine corridor," Naftogaz said in a statement on its website. Sign up here. The Ukrainian company said the agreement was for a small volume of gas, and did not specify timelines. "This is a small volume but strategically important step that paves the way for long-term cooperation," Naftogaz CEO Serhiy Koretskyi was quoted in the statement. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ukraine-signs-first-transbalkan-gas-deal-with-azerbaijans-socar-2025-07-28/
2025-07-28 06:48
NEW DELHI, July 28 (Reuters) - India's top gas importer, Petronet LNG (PLNG.NS) , opens new tab, is looking to raise a 120 billion rupee (about $1.4 billion) local currency loan to fund the expansion of a plant, its head of finance, Saurav Mitra, said in an analyst call on Monday. The company is building a petrochemical plant in India's western state of Gujarat at the cost of 206.85 billion rupees. Sign up here. Petronet aims to spend 300 billion rupees in the next few years, and most of that on building a petrochemical project, Mitra said. Its capital expenditure for 2026-27 would be higher than the 50 billion rupees estimated for the current fiscal year to March 2026, he said. Last week, the company's board approved setting up a 5 million tons per year LNG import terminal in the eastern state of Odisha at the cost of 63.5 billion rupees. ($1 = 86.5050 Indian rupees) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-top-gas-importer-petronet-seeks-120-billion-rupee-loan-2025-07-28/
