2024-02-28 17:46

U.S. pushing to seize Russian assets or use as collateral France says seizure legally uncertain, eyes G20 support Germany calls for mention of Ukraine in G20 communique Brazil proposes coordination to boost taxes on super-rich SAO PAULO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Western powers butted heads over how to handle frozen Russian assets on Wednesday as G20 finance ministers kicked off a discussion of challenges for the global economy, trying to set aside deep geopolitical divisions. Brazilian officials hosting the two-day meeting in Sao Paulo sought to focus talks on economic cooperation to tackle issues such as climate change and poverty, proposing a joint statement that avoids direct mention of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Yet the geopolitical issues hanging over the event soon spilled into the open, with even close allies divided over what to do with Russian assets blocked by Western powers. Those fissures were visible after ministers from the Group of Seven major democracies gathered early on Wednesday before the G20 proceedings, debating whether the frozen assets could finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said she believed there was a strong basis in international law to unlock value from the Russian assets, as collateral or by seizure. But French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire argued on Wednesday that there is not enough basis in international law to seize the Russian assets, emphasizing that such a move would require the endorsement of G20 members and other countries. "We should not add any kind of division among the G20 countries," he told reporters. "If the legal basis is not sufficient ... you will create more divisions at a time when we need more unity to support Ukraine." Their disagreement underscored tricky geopolitical terrain for the G20 group of major world economies, whose foreign ministers last week in Rio de Janeiro vented deep divisions over the war in Ukraine and Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Brazil's coordinator of the G20 finance track in Sao Paulo, Tatiana Rosito, said negotiations for the economic portion of the group's communique were successfully completed by deputy ministers in a "very positive" atmosphere. A draft version of the communique, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, made only a passing reference to regional conflicts. But German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said his country will only agree on the G20 communique if geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine are mentioned. Speaking after the end of the G20's first-day session, Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs, Masato Kanda, said work on the G20 communique was still going on. "There are many areas that still need discussion, including those outside of geo-political issues. It's hard to predict how everything will play out," Kanda told reporters. Brazil is trying with its presidency of the G20 to shift discussions away from geopolitical tensions between major powers and toward a consensus on sustainable development, while trying to give developing nations of the Global South more voice. In his address opening the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad proposed a global minimum wealth tax, representing a potential new pillar for international tax cooperation. Haddad had already suggested the G20 tackle tax havens for the most wealthy and inheritance taxes favoring the super-rich. Brazil's central bank Governor Roberto Campos Neto called the fight against inflation a crucial tool for combating inequalities, one of Brazil's priorities in the G20 presidency. While acknowledging recent progress in disinflation since the pandemic, Campos Neto called for persistence. "There is still work to be done in the last mile, and risks remain ahead," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-warns-global-economic-challenges-g20-finance-chiefs-meet-2024-02-28/

2024-02-28 17:12

Feb 28 (Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group's (UNH.N) , opens new tab shares dropped about 5% on Wednesday following a report that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an antitrust investigation into the healthcare conglomerate. The Wall Street Journal reported, just ahead of market close on Tuesday, that investigators have been interviewing healthcare industry representatives in sectors where UnitedHealth competes to determine the possible impacts of acquisitions made through its health services arm, Optum. The reported investigation has added to investor jitters as an outage following a cybersecurity attack at its Change Healthcare unit extends into its eighth day. "It's been a tough past week of headlines for UnitedHealth," said Stephens analyst Scott Fidel. At $485.98, more than $25 billion was set to be wiped out in UnitedHealth's market value, extending a loss of about $11 billion on Tuesday after the WSJ report. The shares were the biggest drag on the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab on Wednesday. Fidel said the reported probe adds another layer of uncertainty for health insurers such as UnitedHealth that have recently warned of high medical costs due to a rise in care among older adults. Shares of rivals Humana (HUM.N) , opens new tab and CVS Health (CVS.N) , opens new tab fell nearly 1% and 2.4%, respectively, in morning trading. Morningstar analyst Julie Utterback said "CVS and Humana also have ambitions in caregiving, so this investigation may have implications for those two ... in particular, if the investigation eventually spreads". WSJ reported that investigators have asked industry representatives about issues including certain relationships between the company's UnitedHealthcare insurance unit and its Optum health services arm, which owns physician groups, among other assets. Separately, Change Healthcare said in an update on its status page on Wednesday that disruptions from the hack incident were expected to last at least through the day. A number of pharmacy chains, including CVS Health (CVS.N) , opens new tab, have said the outage had impacted their businesses. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/unitedhealth-shares-tumble-after-report-antitrust-investigation-2024-02-28/

2024-02-28 16:34

OTTAWA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Trans Mountain Corp [RIC:RIC:TMC.UL], the Canadian government-owned oil pipeline company, said on Wednesday it successfully removed a pipe from the final section of an expansion project that will nearly triple the flow of crude from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. The expanded pipeline's anticipated in-service date continues to be in the second quarter of 2024, Trans Mountain added in a statement. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trans-mountain-corp-says-successfully-removed-pipe-final-expansion-section-2024-02-28/

2024-02-28 14:12

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Investors cautiously welcomed Nigeria's long-awaited interest rate hike, but warned that the central bank must tighten monetary policy more in order to attract investment and tame soaring inflation and a plummeting currency. The 4 percentage point hike, to 22.75% (NGCBIR=ECI) , opens new tab, was the largest in absolute terms in around 17 years and the first since new Central Bank Governor Olayemi Cardoso took office in September. The central bank also raised banks' cash reserve ratio from 32.5% to 45%, in a bid to reduce liquidity in the economy. Investors said the rate hike was a long-awaited step to address an economic crisis that has deepened in Africa's most populous nation since President Bola Tinubu took office in May last year. Real interest rates remain deeply negative, though, with inflation having rocketed to a three-decade high, close to 30%. "We've been holding our breath a little too long after the elections and the central bank governor change, but the decision on the rate hike and accompanying changes gave a reason to be slightly more optimistic about what's to come," said Emre Akcakmak, head of frontier markets at asset manager East Capital. He said that the bank - and the government - had a long path ahead after "long years of stagnation" under the previous administration, which led to exclusion from some bond indexes. A string of African countries is still hiking interest rates to tame inflation, even as emerging markets elsewhere, which hiked earlier, have begun easing cycles. ` Nigeria's path has also been politically fraught. Tinubu fired the previous central bank chief, Godwin Emefiele, who now faces fraud charges levelled by the government. The administration is also working to quell public anger at spiralling food prices, the removal last year of most petrol subsidies and a naira currency that has hit record lows versus the U.S. dollar after two devaluations since June 2023. Labour unions are protesting this week , opens new tab against the rising cost of living, with many people struggling to feed their families. CATALYZING INVESTMENT JPMorgan said it viewed Tuesday's hike as a first step at taming inflation, which could remain "sticky above 30% over the next few months before some disinflation" during the second half of the year. "We think the CBN is likely to sustain these interventions in the short term with the hope that recent monetary actions will help catalyze some foreign portfolio investments and improve FX liquidity," JPMorgan's Gbolahan Taiwo said in a note. The CBN changes were welcome but more monetary policy tightening is still needed to boost foreign investment, said Yvette Babb, a portfolio manager at William Blair Investment Management. "Clearing the pockets of USD backlogs and keeping rates elevated amidst the inflationary environment in Nigeria will, in our view, be essential to attracting inflows," she said. But the changes so far could already get more cash into the country. The interest rate hike, combined with the naira devaluations, make buying the government's locally issued naira currency debt "a more interesting opportunity," said Kevin Daly, a portfolio manager at abrdn, which owned government naira debt from 2013 to 2016 and 2017 to 2020. A local debt auction next week will provide more information about how the CBN's action feeds into prices and yields, he said. "We have another MPC (interest rate decision) at the end of March, so there is potential for further rate hikes, in which case it could pay to be patient at this stage," Daly said, adding, "We might dip our toes in the water." https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/investors-cautiously-welcome-nigerias-big-rate-hike-2024-02-28/

2024-02-28 13:39

OTTAWA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Alberta, which produces most of Canada's crude oil, will ban renewable power projects on prime agricultural land and erect buffer zones to ensure wind turbines do not spoil scenic views, the provincial government said on Wednesday. The province gave few details and said more announcements would follow, prompting one green group to complain that "an uncertainty bomb" had been dropped on a once booming sector. Last year, Alberta temporarily halted approvals of major new projects amid concerns over renewables' reliability and land use, cooling investment in the industry and challenging the federal Liberal government's clean energy ambitions. The western province has led the country in building renewable capacity and is on track to eliminate combustion of coal for power this year, six years ahead of plan. Alberta's right-of-center government said the pause on approvals would be lifted on Thursday but it would from now on take an "agriculture first" approach with proposed projects. "We need to ensure that we're not sacrificing our future agricultural yields, or tourism dollars, or breathtaking viewscapes to rush renewables development through," Premier Danielle Smith told a press conference in Edmonton. Smith, complaining renewable projects are not as reliable as gas-fired plants, says Ottawa's drive to cut carbon emissions could wreck the provincial energy industry. Alberta will bar renewable generation projects on land it deems has excellent or good irrigation capability and will set up buffer zones of a minimum of 35 km (22 miles) around protected areas or what the government considers pristine views. New wind turbine projects will no longer be permitted within those buffer zones. More work needs to be done on the overall policy, which will not be finalised until end-2024. "(This) has dropped an uncertainty bomb on renewable project investors and developers in Alberta ... The new path forward leaves even more unanswered questions for the industry," said Evan Pivnick of the Clean Energy Canada group. Alberta generates most of its electricity from natural gas and produces more than 82% of the country's crude oil. The government, citing concerns about the cost of cleaning up renewables projects once they have shut down, says developers will have to put up a bond or security. In a note to clients, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Nelson Ng said the new rules could slow the pace of development. George Chalal, one of just two federal Liberal legislators in Alberta, said Smith was "continuing her ideological crusade against renewables" that would kill jobs. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-alberta-set-ban-renewables-projects-prime-land-report-2024-02-28/

2024-02-28 13:03

FRANKFURT, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The European Energy Exchange (EEX) and Turkish energy bourse Enerji Piyasalari Isletme A.S. (EPIAS) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding underlining their commitment to developing carbon emissions trading in Turkey. "We look forward to working with EPIAS in creating a robust emissions trading system (ETS) in Turkey by providing our expertise in carbon markets," said EEX chief executive Peter Reitz in a press release issued in Germany. "National ETSes are essential to create a global carbon price, and hence, an important market-based tool to drive decarbonisation," he added. His counterpart at EPIAS, Taha Meli Arvas, said: "...we are committed to develop and operate a well-functioning ETS that will collaborate with European energy markets." The timing of concrete steps and financial details of the cooperation were not disclosed. The EEX, a subsidiary of Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) , opens new tab, offers tools and technology to build platforms for carbon emission permits trading worldwide, helping regions achieve green transition goals by aligning relevant trade schemes with financial markets. Its carbon expertise spans most of the EU at member state and central levels, also reaching to Britain, New Zealand, the Asia Pacific and North America. That complements a raft of electricity, gas, hydrogen, freight and agricultural products. EPIAS, established in 2015, offers trading of power, gas and environmental commodities contracts. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/eex-work-with-local-bourse-carbon-trading-turkey-2024-02-28/