2025-10-01 07:19
ABU DHABI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Global investment firm KKR (KKR.N) , opens new tab has acquired a minority stake in the entity that leases Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's gas pipeline assets, it said on Wednesday, without disclosing financial details. KKR is acquiring the minority stake in ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets through its managed accounts, matching the type and tenure of the investment with long-duration capital, according to a company statement. Sign up here. The transaction follows KKR's 2019 investment in ADNOC's oil pipeline network, a first for a foreign asset manager in Gulf energy infrastructure. Together with BlackRock, KKR divested the holding last year, transferring it to Abu Dhabi-based Lunate. GULF COUNTRIES TAP FOREIGN CAPITAL FOR INFRASTRUCTURE ADNOC retains ownership and operational management of the pipelines. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have sought such partnerships to tap new pools of foreign institutional capital, while maintaining operational control over critical infrastructure. Saudi Aramco in August signed an $11 billion lease and leaseback agreement involving its Jafurah gas processing facilities with a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners, part of BlackRock. Last month, Kuwait's national oil company said it was seeking to revive a project to lease out and then lease back its crude oil pipelines. KKR, which manages over $90 billion in infrastructure assets globally, appointed General David Petraeus as its Middle East chairman earlier this year as part of efforts to grow its regional business and team. The company acquired a stake earlier this year in Dubai-based Gulf Data Hub, one of the biggest data centre companies in the region, with KKR and the company committing to support over $5 billion of total investment to build out data centre capacity. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/kkr-invests-adnoc-gas-pipeline-infrastructure-middle-east-push-2025-10-01/
2025-10-01 07:18
World Liberty Financial plans to launch debit card Firm 'actively working' on tokenising commodities like real estate, oil and gas World Liberty Financial '100% not a political organisation': Trump Jr. SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (Reuters) - World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, plans to launch a debit card as early as this year, CEO Zach Witkoff told a crypto conference on Wednesday. "We are definitely rolling out a debit card that'll bridge ... crypto assets with everyday spending ... we'll be rolling out a pilot program here in the next quarter, and that debit card will either be live (in) Q4 or Q1 26," he said. Sign up here. Witkoff was speaking on a panel at the TOKEN2049 crypto conference in Singapore alongside World Liberty co-founder Donald Trump Jr. Speaking to a full audience, Witkoff and Trump reiterated their bullish stance on cryptocurrencies and spoke at length about the progress the industry has made under the Trump administration. Their comments were at times met with cheers from the floor. Launched last fall, World Liberty's goal is to allow people to access financial services using cryptocurrencies - without intermediaries like banks - in what is called decentralised finance, or DeFi. In September, it launched a digital token, known as $WLFI, which allowed holders the right to vote on some changes to the business. The token last traded 0.5% higher at $0.2011, according to data from CoinGecko. In response to a question about tokenisation, Witkoff said the company is "working on it." "Whether it comes to tokenising some of these asset classes like real estate, oil and gas, etc., we're looking at actively tokenising that ourselves," he said. "But we also want USD1 to be the base pair for these assets, because we view it as the most trustworthy and the most transparent and the most cultured stablecoin on Earth," Witkoff said, referring to World Liberty's dollar-pegged stablecoin. 'NOT A POLITICAL ORGANISATION' Critics have said that the Trump family is profiting from crypto as the president eases regulations and enforcement on the industry. On Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. said it was "100% true" World Liberty is not a political organisation. Since the company's launch, the Trump family has made around $500 million from the project, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly disclosed deals. The U.S. president's name was invoked a number of times during Wednesday's panel discussion. "My father was the first guy to run as sort of a pro-crypto president," Donald Trump Jr. said. Witkoff said "nobody really believed in us in the beginning." He said that last year, during a panel discussion at TOKEN2049 that featured blockchain platform Aptos, "the old leadership ... sat up here and they called us a joke, they called us a memecoin." "They said we would never amount to anything," he said, before saying World Liberty met with the new leadership of Aptos and they "will be bringing USD1 to Aptos." https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/world-liberty-financial-launch-debit-card-early-this-year-2025-10-01/
2025-10-01 07:00
MOSCOW, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Russian firefighters have brought under control a fire at a major oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow, the local emergencies ministry said on Wednesday. The fire at what is one of Russia's largest refineries broke out earlier on Wednesday, Mikhail Yevrayev, the regional governor said. Sign up here. He said the blaze had not started as the result of a Ukrainian drone attack even though Kyiv has been systematically targeting refineries to try to disrupt petrol supplies and deprive Moscow of revenue. "Residents were concerned it might have been the result of an enemy drone attack," Yevrayev said on the Telegram messaging app. "But what happened has nothing to do with that...The fire is of a technological nature." He did not elaborate. https://www.reuters.com/world/fire-breaks-out-refinery-russias-yaroslavl-region-governor-says-2025-10-01/
2025-10-01 06:57
SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) , opens new tab expects to cut the number of its employees in Singapore by 10% to 15% and move its office to the site of its Jurong plant from downtown by the end of 2027, in global restructuring efforts, the company said on Wednesday. The plans for Exxon's Singapore operations come after the U.S. major announced on Tuesday it will lay off 2,000 workers globally, particularly in Canada and across the European Union, as part of a long-term restructuring plan that will affect about 3% to 4% of the company's workforce. Sign up here. "We are making changes to how we work so we can improve our competitiveness in an ever-evolving landscape and position the business for future success," Exxon Singapore said in an e-mailed statement, adding that the changes will reshape and restructure the primarily office-based organization. "While detailed planning is still underway and organizational design is not yet complete, we anticipate this will result in estimated employee redundancies of 10%-15% by year-end 2027," it said. Exxon now has about 3,500 employees in Singapore, so the expected cuts could hit up to 500 workers, although the company declined to give a firm number. The company, which started this month production at new facilities at its Singapore refinery complex to produce base stocks from residue fuel, said it will continue to maintain its manufacturing presence in the city-state. Exxon operates two refining sites in Singapore, one at Pioneer Road on the mainland and the other on Jurong Island, with a combined crude processing capacity of 592,000 barrels per day. As part of the change, Exxon plans to move employees based at its Harbour Front offices to the Jurong Refinery at Pioneer Road in new expanded facilities by year-end 2027, it said. https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/exxon-expects-cut-singapore-staff-by-10-15-by-end-2027-2025-10-01/
2025-10-01 06:44
Oct 1 (Reuters) - British food ingredients maker Tate & Lyle Plc (TATE.L) , opens new tab, one of the world's biggest producers of sweeteners, warned on Wednesday that its annual profit and revenue would fall due to a slowdown in demand in the Americas, its key market. Tate & Lyle now expects its revenue and adjusted core profit for the year ending March 31, 2026, to decline by low-single digits. The company had previously guided for revenue growth of at least or just below 4% to 6% and profit growth ahead of sales. Sign up here. The ingredient supplier to Splenda, a non-sugar sweetener that goes into Diet Coke and other sugar-free drinks, said there was a slowdown in market demand, particularly in the last two months. The London-listed firm reported annual revenue of 2.12 billion pounds ($2.86 billion) in fiscal 2025, and adjusted core earnings of 446 million pounds. ($1 = 0.7431 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/sweetener-maker-tate-lyle-expects-annual-profit-drop-tepid-demand-2025-10-01/
2025-10-01 06:28
Gold hits record high of $3,858.18 an ounce US central bank expected to cut interest rates this month ADP national employment report due later today Oct 1 (Reuters) - Gold prices hit a record high on Wednesday, supported by safe-haven demand as the U.S. government shut down most operations, while growing expectations of a cut to U.S. interest rates added to the metal's appeal. Spot gold gained 0.8% to $3,886.97 an ounce by 1055 GMT after touching a record peak of $3,898.18. Sign up here. U.S. gold futures for December delivery jumped by 1.1% to $3,914.50. The dollar weakened (.DXY) , opens new tab against a basket of other leading currencies, making dollar-priced gold more affordable for overseas buyers. "The dollar is weakening on the back of expectations of an increasingly dovish Fed," said ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista, referring to the U.S. Federal Reserve. "This dynamic has accelerated after a failed attempt to pass a spending bill triggered a government shutdown, which could weigh on economic output." The U.S. government shutdown, triggered by the failure of Congress and the White House to reach a funding deal, could lead to the loss of thousands of federal jobs and could also delay the release of economic data including Friday's non-farm payrolls (NFP) report. Non-yielding gold, viewed as a safe-haven asset in times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, thrives when interest rates are low. "Most likely the Fed doesn't really need the (NFP) report to make up its mind (on a cut to interest rates)," said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke, adding that the central bank has room for more monetary easing. Investors are pricing in a 95% chance of a rate cut this month, the CME FedWatch Tool shows. The ADP national employment report due later in the day is expected to offer additional labour market insights. In other precious metals, spot silver gained 1.2% to a more than 14-year high of $47.22 an ounce, platinum rose 0.4% to $1,580.55 and palladium was steady at $1,259.68. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/gold-hits-record-high-us-shutdown-risks-rate-cut-bets-2025-10-01/
