2023-12-15 20:06
HELSINKI, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) will pause all container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice, a spokesperson for the company told Reuters on Friday. "Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," the company said in a statement. Maersk on Thursday said its vessel Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while travelling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe. Earlier on Friday Maersk denied a claim by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia had struck a Maersk vessel sailing towards Israel. "The vessel was not hit," a Maersk spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement following the Houthi claim. The Houthis had claimed they carried out a military operation against a Maersk container vessel, directly hitting it with a drone. The Houthis, who made the claim in a statement, did not release any evidence. Maersk said the company was deeply concerned about the highly escalated security situation in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. "The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers," it wrote in the statement. (This story has been corrected after Maersk clarified that ships are not being rerouted around Africa, in paragraph 1) https://www.reuters.com/world/maersk-pause-all-container-shipments-through-red-sea-2023-12-15/
2023-12-15 19:45
SAO PAULO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - China's State Grid emerged as the big winner in Brazil's largest-ever electricity transmission line auction on Friday, snapping up the largest batch of projects up for grabs. State Grid (STGRD.UL) won a bid to build and operate 1,500 kilometers of lines, followed by a consortium led by Alupar (ALUP11.SA) to build 1,100 km of power lines. The auction is the second of a series of tenders planned by the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to increase the electricity transmitted from renewable sources generated in the northeast of the country to demand from southern sources. The northeast boasts both abundant sunshine and wind. "These lines will allow the northeast to continue to be the new frontier for the development of renewable energy in Brazil," said Sandoval Feitosa, head of electricity regulator Aneel, in a statement. State Grid (STGRD.UL), which only operates transmission lines in Latin America's largest economy, offered a discount of nearly 40% on the first lot's maximum annual revenue to build and operate 1,500 kilometers of lines. The winning bids for each lot were determined by the largest discount offered on the annual revenue, paid once facilities start operations. The tender, held at Sao Paulo's stock exchange building, saw little competition as the need for large-scale investments and tech expertise dissuaded bidders including Neoenergia (NEOE3.SA), Engie Brasil (EGIE3.SA) and Isa Cteep (TRPL4.SA). Eletrobras , Brazil's largest transmission line operator, did not submit any winning bids. State Grid already held 24 transmission concessions, 19 by itself and five in joint ventures, and overall operates more than 16,000 kilometers of power lines in Brazil. "We now have a very large project in our hands that we have a responsibility to implement, but we won't stop looking ahead to the next auctions," said State Grid's local vice president, Ramon Sade Haddad, specifically pointing to one scheduled for March. Other winners included consortium Olympus XVI, comprised of transmission firm Alupar (ALUP11.SA) and investment fund Mercury, which was awarded the second lot auctioned with an offered discount of 47%. The second lot covers 1,100 km of power lines in Goias, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo states and will require a nearly 2.6 billion reais investment. Lastly, Celeo Redes won the third and smallest lot covering 388 km in Minas Gerais state by offering a 42.4% discount, with an estimated investment of around 1 billion reais. All three projects should start five to six years after the 30-year contracts are signed. ($1 = 4.9417 reais) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-state-grid-wins-largest-batch-brazils-power-transmission-lines-auction-2023-12-15/
2023-12-15 19:39
LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has doubled down on his vision for cryptocurrency project Worldcoin, following reports the company was seeking $50 million in funding. Worldcoin says it aims to create a global identity and financial network. More than 2.6 million people have signed up to have their irises scanned by Worldcoin's "orb" devices in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency. Altman appeared as part of a virtual Q&A hosted by fintech-focused investment bank FT Partners on Thursday, a week after crypto news outlet The Block reported that Tools For Humanity, the company behind Worldcoin, was seeking to raise $50 million from investors. The company is raising funds by selling the project's crypto tokens at a discounted rate, according to The Block. "In a world with a lot of AI, knowing who is human matters more and more," Altman said on Thursday. "The belief was and is that as AI becomes an increasingly important part of our lives...the ability to identify unique humans was going to be more and more important." A spokesperson for Worldcoin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on The Block's report. The firm previously raised $115 million in a Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital, alongside a16z crypto, and Bain Capital Crypto. Various regulators, including in the United Kingdom and Germany, have said they were looking into Worldcoin following its launch in July. https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-ceo-promotes-crypto-project-worldcoin-after-fundraising-report-2023-12-15/
2023-12-15 19:38
MUMBAI, Dec 15 (Reuters) - India has decided to allow sugar mills to divert up to 1.7 million metric tons of sugar for ethanol production, government and industry officials said on Friday, as New Delhi aims to reduce disruptions in its ambitious biofuel program. As the world's second-biggest sugar producer, India had previously directed sugar mills not to use cane juice or syrup for ethanol due to concerns over production as drought hit key producing states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. However, on Friday, the government opted to permit the diversion of cane juice and B-heavy molasses for ethanol production, capping it at 1.7 million metric tons for the 2023/24 marketing year started on Oct. 1, according to officials. "A quota will soon be allocated for sugar mills and distilleries," said a senior government official, who preferred not to be named, following official rules. The available sugar supply would still be adequate to meet local demand, even with the diversion of sucrose for ethanol production, the official added. The government move will assist the industry, which has invested billions of dollars over the last five years to boost ethanol production capacity, said a senior industry official, also preferring anonymity. Uneven rainfall in the primary sugar cane-growing states of Maharashtra and Karnataka has sparked concerns about this year's output. Anticipated production decreases have driven local sugar prices to their highest levels in nearly 14 years. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-allow-diversion-up-17-million-tons-sugar-ethanol-2023-12-15/
2023-12-15 19:34
Dec 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal appeals court on Friday to reconsider a ruling that it said prevents the agency from clawing back ill-gotten gains in cases in which laws were violated but no victims were harmed. The SEC filed a petition asking the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to review the October ruling made by a three-judge panel in a case involving Aron Govil, former CEO of Cemtrex Inc. If left intact, the ruling risks letting players in the securities industry profit from illegal activity, the agency said. The question applies to a broad range of cases, including allegations that cryptocurrency industry participants were required to register as securities businesses. The SEC has the ability to recoup ill-gotten gains in its cases, a mechanism known as disgorgement. The U.S. Supreme Court set limitations in 2020, saying disgorgement cannot exceed the net profits of the conduct at issue. The court also said that disgorgement generally must be "awarded for victims.” The agency argued in its petition on Friday that the 2nd Circuit misapplied that decision in the case alleging that Govil misappropriated investor funds. Govil was ordered to pay $5.8 million in disgorgement last year. After he appealed, the 2nd Circuit said the SEC had failed to show investors were harmed. The SEC argued on Friday that disgorgement is about "restoring the status quo by depriving a wrongdoer of his ill-gotten gains, not redressing pecuniary harms of victims." Matthew Ford, an attorney for Govil, said the 2nd Circuit followed the Supreme Court's ruling. "If the SEC wants to seek a return of money to investors it claims lost money, it must show the investors actually lost money in the first place," he said. A spokesperson for the SEC did not immediately reply to requests for comment. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-securities-regulator-appeals-ruling-ill-gotten-gains-2023-12-15/
2023-12-15 17:59
FRANKFURT, Dec 15 (Reuters) - European Central Bank policymakers do not expect to change their message on the need for high interest rates before their March meeting, making any rate cut before June difficult, seven people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The ECB left borrowing costs at record highs on Thursday and President Christine Lagarde pushed back against market bets on a rate reduction as soon as March, albeit with limited success. The sources said they would need to see how the data pans out between now and, at the earliest, their March 7 meeting before considering the kind of 'dovish' pivot that the U.S. Federal Reserve performed this week by opening the door to future rate cuts. Weighing a rate cut before June, when most of the crucial wage data for next year will have been published, would be difficult, those people said. This is at least two months later than the market is currently anticipating - in a disconnect that has preoccupied policymakers at this week's Governing Council meeting, the sources said. Some explained that divergence could be boiled down to diverging views on inflation. While investors expect the recent, marked fall in inflation to continue, most central bankers thought it would prove temporary. One source said a cut may be possible even before June if inflation kept coming in lower than expected. Yet two others said the ECB should push back more forcefully against traders' view or risk seeing the central bank's tightening efforts, which have seen it raise rates 10 straight times in 1-1/2 years, be undone by the market. A spokesperson for the ECB declined to comment for this article. Lagarde said on Thursday the central bank would be "data-dependent" rather than "time-dependent", a view that other policymakers endorsed. Public commentary from ECB governors on Friday also suggested they were in no rush to cut rates. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said it was "too early to sound the all-clear" on inflation while his Austrian colleague Robert Holzmann dismissed a journalist's question about the timing of a rate cut as a "nice try". Banque de France's governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau did at least say that the next ECB move would be to reduce borrowing costs but also insisted the central bank would stay at the "plateau" for rates for a while and "enjoy the view". Money markets are pricing in a 50% chance of a first, 25-basis-point rate cut in March, followed by successive reductions at every meeting through December. This would leave the rate the ECB pays on bank deposits at 2.5% by the end of next year, down from 4.0% now . https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/ecb-governors-see-no-dovish-pivot-before-march-cut-before-june-sources-2023-12-15/
