2024-05-24 17:15

TRENTO, Italy, May 24 (Reuters) - Investments in power grids are attractive for Italian power utility Enel (ENEI.MI) New Tab, opens new tab and other groups that distribute electricity because, once approved by the authorities, they guarantee predictable returns, chairman Paolo Scaroni said on Friday. This was one reason why the Italian group announced last November it would focus on its grid business while becoming more selective on the power generation business. Scaroni said meeting the 2050 net-zero carbon emission global goal would require more than doubling high-voltage and distribution grids to transport an increasing volume of electricity, which should gradually replace fossil fuels. "The investments in grids are capital expenditures that both Enel, (Italy's power grid operator) Terna (TRN.MI) New Tab, opens new tab and electricity companies are happy to make because - once authorised - they enter the regulated asset base (RAB) and are partly funded by power bills," Scaroni said speaking at a business conference in Trento. The RAB is one of the key factors to calculate revenue for a regulated business. The top executive also said nuclear power would be key to meeting decarbonisation targets set globally for 2050, adding that Italy would need more than 20 nuclear power plants should it include atomic power in its energy mix. Nuclear power is a controversial issue in Italy where it was banned in a referendum in 2011. Speaking about China's dominance in the production of solar panels, electric vehicles and other components needed for the energy transition, Scaroni said he expected Europe would follow the U.S. and impose tariffs against cheap Asian products. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/enel-chairman-says-investments-grids-are-financially-attractive-2024-05-24/

2024-05-24 16:40

May 24 (Reuters) - Capital One Financial (COF.N) New Tab, opens new tab will no longer be the exclusive issuer of Walmart-branded credit cards, the companies said on Friday, as they scrapped their agreement following disputes. The world's largest retailer (WMT.N) New Tab, opens new tab had accused Capital One of being too slow in updating transactions in cardholders' accounts and failing to promptly replace lost cards. Walmart had tied up with Capital One in 2018 after ending its two-decade long partnership with Synchrony Financial (SYF.N) New Tab, opens new tab. Capital One started issuing the store-branded credit cards from 2019. The problems were uncovered in late 2022 and early 2023, while a lawsuit began in April 2023. A federal judge had ruled in March 2024 that Walmart can end its credit card partnership with Capital One early because the bank failed to provide the required level of customer service. Capital One, at the time, had said it disagreed with the decision and was evaluating its right to appeal. While Capital One and Walmart have ended their partnership, cardholders can continue to earn and redeem rewards, and previously accrued rewards will retain their value, the companies said on Friday. "The parties determined that the best path forward for our customers is to end the current partnership and convert existing eligible Walmart Card customers to one of Capital One's flagship branded rewards products," a Capital One spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Capital One will retain ownership and servicing of the existing credit card portfolio of about $8.5 billion of loans. Separately, Capital One had agreed earlier in the year to buy credit card issuer Discover Financial Services (DFS.N) New Tab, opens new tab in a $35.3 billion all-stock deal to create a global payments giant. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/walmart-capital-one-end-credit-card-agreement-2024-05-24/

2024-05-24 16:35

May 24 (Reuters) - Live Nation and its Ticketmaster unit have been hit with the first in a likely wave of new consumer antitrust lawsuits after the U.S. government and states sued to break up the two companies on Thursday. The first consumer class action to piggyback on the government cases New Tab, opens new tab was filed later on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, seeking $5 billion in damages on behalf of potentially millions of ticket purchasers. The cases accuse Live Nation of exerting monopoly control over the live events industry, threatening venues that work with rivals and boxing out competitors. Consumer cases related to U.S. or state attorneys general lawsuits can pile up quickly and put added legal pressure on companies. Lawyers for the class action plaintiffs at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Israel David did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Live Nation on Thursday called the government lawsuit “baseless” and said there was "more competition than ever" in the live events market. The case was assigned on Friday to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden who joined the court last year. Subramanian previously represented some plaintiffs in antitrust lawsuits at law firm Susman Godfrey, but the Live Nation case appears to be his first antitrust matter as a judge. Lawyers who reviewed the government complaint said Live Nation could base its defense partly on the Justice Department's decision to sign off on the company's acquisition of Ticketmaster more than a decade ago. Crowell & Moring’s Eric Enson, an antitrust lawyer who is not involved in the lawsuit, said the government's case raised thorny “legal and factual questions about whether a breakup is a legally permissible remedy.” The case might resonate with consumers who have long complained about ticket prices, he said, "but proving antitrust cases to juries can be difficult." However, antitrust legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth of Vanderbilt University said that while the public's opinion of Live Nation is legally unimportant, "appearances matter in cases, maybe especially when they are decided by juries." The Justice Department said its prior case in 2010 addressing Live Nation's merger with Ticketmaster involved a different antitrust law and that Live Nation had since shown “more expansive forms" of anticompetitive conduct. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/live-nation-ticket-buyers-sue-wake-us-justice-department-case-2024-05-24/

2024-05-24 15:47

CAIRO, May 24 (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthis launched attacks on three ships in the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Sea, the Iran-aligned group said on Friday, although the manager of the ship allegedly attacked in the Mediterranean said there was no sign of such an incident. The reported attacks are the latest in a months-long campaign of Houthi strikes against regional shipping in what the group says is solidarity with Palestinians fighting Israel in the Gaza war. The Houthis' military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech that Houthi forces had targeted the Yannis ship in the Red Sea, the Essex in the Mediterranean Sea and MSC Alexandra in the Arabian Sea. Houthis "fired several missiles at the ship Essex in the Mediterranean Sea while it was violating the decision ban that prevents entry into occupied Palestinian ports", Sarea added. He did not clarify when the attacks took place. The U.S. Central Command said on Friday that the Houthis had launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea on May 23, but no injuries or damage were reported. The Liberia-flagged Essex LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tanker was anchored off the coast of Egypt's Alexandria port in the Mediterranean on Friday, shipping data showed. The vessel is managed by Zodiac Maritime, which is controlled by Israeli magnate Eyal Ofer. A Zodiac Maritime spokesperson said: "The vessel is safely at anchor in Egyptian waters and there has been no sign of anything unusual." In an apparent reference to the Essex, British maritime security company Ambrey said in a note that the vessel had traded between Alexandria and Port Said, also in Egypt, and had not called at any Israeli port in recent weeks. "The tanker was not further offshore Egypt than 15NM (nautical miles) over the prior week. The Houthi language indicated they did not hit the vessel," Ambrey said. “While a variety of security sources have assessed that Houthi missiles and drones have adequate range to reach the EMED (eastern Med) from Yemen, they have also assessed that coalition and local military forces possess adequate air defence systems to counter this proposed activity,” top global ship registry the Marshall Islands said in a security advisory last week. Earlier this month, the leader of Yemen's Houthis, Abdul Malik al-Houthi had said that all ships heading to Israeli ports would be attacked by the Iran-backed group, not just those in the Red Sea region which it has sought to strike before. The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war. This has forced shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and has stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilise the Middle East. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-say-they-launch-attacks-3-ships-including-one-mediterranean-2024-05-24/

2024-05-24 15:47

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Danske Bank said on Friday it expects the European Central Bank only to cut interest rates twice this year, not three times, while Barclays also scrapped a call for a July reduction. Markets currently show traders are pricing in around 60 basis points' worth of cuts that would bring the ECB's benchmark interest rate to around 3.4% by December. Piet Haines Christiansen, Danske chief analyst and a closely followed ECB watcher, said in a note he expected a "political cut" in June, but nothing in September. "We have revised our ECB rate path for the first time in more than 12 months and now expect the ECB to deliver two rate cuts this year (June and December), and three cuts next year. This will bring the deposit rate at 2.75% by the end of 2025," he said. It was Danske's first change to its forecast in more than a year and Christiansen said his team expected the ECB to repeat its meeting-by-meeting and data-dependent approach to monetary policy beyond June. "The updated June staff projection is expected to suggest that the prevailing economic and monetary policy narrative stays broadly unchanged and we expect the rate cut to be formulated as a roll-back of the 'insurance hike' from September last year," Christiansen added. Markets had expected at least five rate cuts in 2024 just a few months ago, but traders have since revised those estimates due to a stickness in inflation and some bumper recent pay deals that suggest it could stay that way. Analysts at Barclays had also changed their ECB call late on Thursday due to the "elevated uncertainty" around inflation and with economic activity accelerating faster than anticipated. "We now think the ECB Governing Council will move more gradually this year." "We continue to expect 25 basis points of cuts at each forecast meeting (Jun-Sep-Dec), but no longer expect a cut at July's nonforecast meeting," they added, referring to the fact the ECB will not publish new economic projections in July. Inflation is slowing, but growth across the euro zone is picking up, which might limit the ECB's scope to cut rates. Two-year German bond yields , the most sensitive to changes in expectations for interest rates, are trading around their highest for six months, above 3%, having risen by nearly 70% so far this year. Despite the rejig to its forecasts Barclays said it did still expect 150 basis points of cuts over the duration of the ECB's rate reduction cycle. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/danske-bank-barclays-chop-ecb-rate-cut-forecasts-2024-05-24/

2024-05-24 15:47

May 24 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N) New Tab, opens new tab saw a six-fold increase in submissions from its employees raising concerns related to the safety of products and services during the first two months of 2024, compared with the same period last year, the planemaker said on Friday. The dramatic rise in these reports occurred after an incident on Jan. 5 involving a mid-air cabin panel blowout on a newly minted Alaska Airlines (ALK.N) New Tab, opens new tab 737 MAX 9 jet, Boeing said in its annual safety report. In February, an expert panel reviewing Boeing's safety management processes had found a "disconnect" between the planemaker's senior management and employees involved in its safety culture. "Our actions are focused on making further improvements to ensure safety, compliance and conformance of our products and services, without compromise," said Mike Delaney, Boeing's chief aerospace safety officer. The Jan. 5 incident has put Boeing under heightened scrutiny and has prompted U.S. regulators to curb production levels of the company's bestselling 737 MAX jets until it starts to address safety issues. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-sees-six-fold-rise-employee-concerns-product-safety-quality-2024-05-24/