Europe
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FILE PHOTO: The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Staff
April 16, 2019
By Medha Singh
(Reuters) – European shares gained for the fifth day on Tuesday, bolstered by bank and retails stocks while data out of China added to hopes of stabilization in the world’s second-largest economy.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.2 percent by 0928 GMT led by Germany’s DAX 0.6 percent rise while Spanish and Italian bourses were flat to modestly lower.
Also encouraging investors was a ZEW survey showing the mood among German investors improved in April, as the growth outlook for Europe’s largest economy brightened amid a resilient global economy and a delay to Britain’s departure from the EU.
Zalando jumped more than 10 percent, making it the top performer on the STOXX and pushing the retail sector 0.7 percent higher after the e-commerce company said it expected to post an operating profit for the first quarter.
Another major boost to STOXX 600 were banks, the best performing sector this month after auto stocks.
Big Wall street banks Goldman Sachs and Citigroup reported disappointing revenue estimates on Monday, sending their shares lower. Still, both lenders beat quarterly profit estimates.
“We saw a sort of a selloff in Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup but if you look at the earnings, you can clearly see the earnings were really really strong,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at TF Global Markets (UK) Ltd in London.
“This optimism is really feeding into the European banking sector as well. When they will start to announce their earnings, the expectations are high that we are going to see some good numbers coming out of the European banks after a long time.”
Italy’s top bank, UniCredit SpA, gained after it and two subsidiaries agreed to pay $1.3 billion to U.S. authorities to settle investigations of violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran and other countries.
Steel pipe maker Tenaris also led gains on the pan-region index after an Argentine court reversed a decision against the company’s chief executive and chairman.
Security company G4S gained after it reported a 4.8 percent rise in first-quarter revenue and said it had made good progress in a review to separate its cash business.
Italian utility Ascopiave rose after A2A and other utilities made a joint non-binding bid for its assets.
Lufthansa reversed early losses to edge up 0.4 percent. Germany’s biggest airline posted a loss in the first-quarter hurt by rising fuel costs and overcapacity in Europe.
Hays Plc tumbled 4 percent as the British recruiter missed expectations for quarterly net fee growth below due to weakness in its biggest market, Germany.
Oil stocks including BP, Total and Royal Dutch Shell were the biggest weights on the STOXX 600, tracking declining crude prices.
Investors breathed a sigh of relief last week after central banks in the United States and Europe maintained their dovish stance and Britain lawmakers got an extension on their country’s exit from the European Union.
Signs that Sino-China trade talks are in their final stages have aided the recent buoyant mood. Closer to home, the European Trade Commissioner said late Monday that the European Union is ready to start talks on a trade agreement with the United States and aims to conclude a deal before the end of the year.
The index of STOXX 50 volatility, the main gauge of market anxiety in Europe, fell for the sixth day to touch its lowest since mid-January 2018.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
April 16, 2019
By Anna Koper and Joanna Plucinska
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland is unlikely to exclude all Huawei equipment from its next generation mobile networks, a government minister told Reuters, in part to avoid increased costs for mobile operators.
Huawei, the world’s largest maker of mobile network infrastructure equipment, faces intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with China’s government and denies U.S.-led allegations that its 5G equipment could be used for spying.
Polish officials told Reuters in January that the government was prepared to exclude China’s Huawei from 5G networks in the wake of the arrest of a Chinese Huawei employee and a former Polish security official on spying allegations.
Karol Okonski, Poland’s deputy digital minister in charge of cyber security, said Warsaw is considering raising security standards and setting restrictions for fifth generation, or 5G, networks, with a decision likely in the coming weeks.
“When it comes to new investments, we are quite determined to set clear government expectations when it comes to the security of used equipment,” Okonski said.
This would bring Poland in line with the approach of the European Commission, which late last month shunned U.S. calls to ban Huawei from 5G networks, calling instead for tougher rules.
Poland’s telecommunications infrastructure relies heavily on Huawei equipment, in part because it offered lower prices than competitors. Operators are also using its gear in 5G trials.
Okonski said Warsaw is talking to operators about potential changes to existing telecom equipment, although the cost of eliminating existing Huawei equipment means the government could allow some of it to remain.
“Poland is not able to finance the replacement of Huawei equipment by the (telecoms) operators,” Okonski said.
COST OF BAN
Banning Huawei would increase prices and delay the implementation of new technologies, Poland’s biggest mobile operator Play has told Reuters and said it had not seen any evidence of security issues with its equipment.
Other Polish mobile operators, such as T-Mobile Polska, Orange Polska and Polkomtel, also use Huawei gear.
The U.S., one of Poland’s closest allies, has for months lobbied Warsaw and other European governments to ban Huawei.
In February, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the dangers of purchasing from the Chinese firm while in Poland and central Europe.
Robert Strayer, a U.S. State Department official responsible for cybersecurity, told reporters last week that the U.S. was happy with the EU’s recommendation on 5G networks, which does not call for an explicit ban on Huawei’s equipment.
U.S. officials said Poland needed to ensure the security of telecommunications infrastructure if it were to increase the presence of U.S. troops on Polish soil, pushing Warsaw to institute a Huawei ban, several officials have said.
The government is keen to have more U.S. troops stationed in Poland, in part to deter potential Russian aggression.
In September, Polish President Andrzej Duda asked President Donald Trump for a permanent U.S. military base in Poland and the countries could reach a deal guaranteeing a larger rotating presence of U.S. soldiers on Polish soil in the coming weeks.
Michal Baranowski, director of political think tank the German Marshall Fund in Warsaw, said how the United States responds will depend on whether it is willing to accept what it could view as “an imperfect solution.”
(Reporting by Anna Koper and Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw, Additional reporting by Sarah Lynch in Washington and Jack Stubbs in London. Editing by Cassell Bryan-Low, Justyna Pawlak and Alexander Smith)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: European Council President Donald Tusk leaves after holding a news conference following an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman
April 16, 2019
STRASBOURG (Reuters) – EU summit chair Donald Tusk on Tuesday called on Tuesday for the “dream” that Britain might give up on leaving the European Union not to be dismissed and urged politicians not to let exhaustion with Brexit negotiations make for a hasty exit.
Giving an account of last week’s summit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, European Council President Tusk said he was responding to a statement by one national leader who had warned “dreamers” not to think “Brexit could be reversed”.
“At this rather difficult moment in our history, we need dreamers and dreams. We cannot give in to fatalism. At least I will not stop dreaming about a better and united Europe,” said Tusk, long a vocal proponent of Britain having a chance to stay.
It was not immediately clear which leader he was referring to, but French President Emmanuel Macron stood out at the summit for pushing for Britain to be given only a few weeks more to decide whether to leave on negotiated terms or without them. The summit compromised by giving Britain another six months.
Tusk said: “I know that, on both sides of the Channel, everyone, including myself, is exhausted with Brexit, which is completely understandable. However, this is not an excuse to say: “let’s get it over with”, just because we’re tired.”
(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald and Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A Lufthansa Airbus A321-100 airplane takes off from the airport in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 29, 2018. REUTERS/Paul Hanna
April 16, 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa posted a loss for first three months of the year, hurt by rising fuel cost and overcapacity in Europe.
The company said in a statement on Monday evening that adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell to -336 million euros (-$380 million), compared to 52 million euros a year earlier.
Earnings were hit by a 202-million euro rise in fuel costs, as well as a strong comparison to the previous year when the airline benefited from the loss of capacity due to Air Berlin’s insolvency, Lufthansa said.
The airline said it expected unit revenues at constant currency to increase year-on-year in the second quarter, helped by favorable booking levels and a clear slowing of the market-wide capacity growth.
For 2019, Lufthansa said it still expected to report an adjusted operating profit margin of 6.5-8.0 percent.
Shares of the airline were indicated to open 5.5 percent lower in premarket trade on Tuesday morning at 0535 GMT.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Uttaresh.V)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Visitors check NIO ES8 displayed during a media preview of the Auto China 2018 motor show in Beijing, China April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
April 16, 2019
By Norihiko Shirouzu, Paul Lienert and Nick Carey
BEIJING/DETROIT (Reuters) – It took one 330 kilometer trip from Chongqing to Chengdu in his Nio ES8, a seven-seater all-electric SUV, for its owner Wang Haichun to be consumed with buyer’s remorse.
Despite being billed as capable of going 335 km on a single full charge, the ES8 didn’t get anywhere near that when driving on freeways at speeds above 100 km per hour (60mph), he said, adding that after 180 km, there was only 50 km of range left.
“We had to recharge the car once and drove with a high level of anxiety throughout, constantly having to keep an eye on the range meter,” the 44-year-old manager of a property firm said. Toward the end of the trip, he shut off the air conditioner and audio system to preserve power.
“I wouldn’t want to do that kind of trip again – ever.”
So unhappy was Wang, who paid 481,000 yuan ($71,700) for the vehicle, he sold it. He and his wife have since bought a Lexus NX300h gasoline-electric SUV.
Asked to comment on Wang’s experience, Nio Inc said in an e-mailed statement the ES8 can travel more than 200 km when constantly driven at a 100 km per hour and that battery swap stations are available for quick recharging. The statement did not address Nio’s advertising of 335 km on a single full charge.
In real world conditions, all-electric cars can sometimes fall far short of advertised ranges, car engineers say. That’s particularly so when driving at length on freeways or hilly terrain and in hot or cold weather.
The problem adds to drawbacks which have hindered wider acceptance – EVs have shorter driving ranges than gasoline vehicles anyway, are more expensive and take a long time to recharge.
China, Europe and the U.S. state of California have set ambitious requirements for automakers to dramatically increase EV sales over the next 5-10 years, but those goals are at risk unless EVs can come close to matching gasoline engine cars in cost and ease of use.
CHINESE AMBITIONS
In China, the country most aggressively pursuing the adoption of EVs and home to the world’s largest auto market, some of the industry’s biggest names believe pure battery electric cars will be as cheap as gasoline counterparts by 2025.
Those making that prediction include Ouyang Minggao, executive vice president of the EV100 forum, a think tank which is widely seen as the de facto voice of government policy.
“The turning point is coming. We believe that around 2025, the price of pure electric vehicles will achieve a big breakthrough,” he said in a speech in January.
Ouyang cited a reduction in battery costs to $100 per kilowatt hours from $150-$200 currently and a planned tightening of emissions rules in China which will make gasoline vehicles there more expensive.
But others in the EV industry are less optimistic.
“Chinese policymakers think EVs will become more like conventional gasoline cars as early as 2025. But that’s naive and all automaker engineers would agree with me,” said a veteran EV engineer at Honda Motor Co.
“Sure, there’s an EV boom but hybrids and plug-in hybrids will be needed as bridging technologies,” he said.
The engineer was one of five interviewed by Reuters for this article who believe it will take a decade before battery EVs achieve cost and performance parity with gasoline cars. Most were not authorized to speak to media and declined to identified when describing the shortcomings of EV technology.
But pressure to deliver parity will only grow as China rolls back subsidies while setting quotas for sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs). China wants NEVs – which also include hybrids, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles – to account for a fifth of auto sales by 2025 compared with 5 percent now.
CUTTING COBALT
For most automakers, battery cells cost around $200/kWh, the engineers said, although costs for Tesla Inc are believed to be around $150/kWh, partly due to its much greater scale of production. Tesla declined to comment.
To cut costs, firms are working on slashing the use of cobalt, the most expensive part in lithium-ion batteries.
Firms such as China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), BYD Co Ltd and South Korea’s SK Innovation Co Ltd are developing NMC 811 technology.
It uses 80 percent nickel, 10 percent manganese, 10 percent cobalt, while a conventional lithium-ion battery uses 60 percent nickel, 20 percent manganese and 20 percent cobalt. NMC 811 also delivers more energy density, meaning batteries will cost and weigh less.
Others are developing similar technologies with slightly different ratios. Batteries jointly produced by Tesla and Panasonic Corp substitute manganese with aluminum and use less cobalt than NMC 811.
Less cobalt and more nickel increases the risk that a battery cell will catch fire – a problem still being worked on. Even so, South Korean battery makers say the next generation of batteries due in three years or so will cost much less and offer much greater driving ranges.
But the engineers who spoke with Reuters caution that even if battery unit costs are brought down to $100/kWh, this would not necessarily translate into a steep decline in vehicle costs.
That’s because the investment to improve battery quality needs to be factored in, while the cars also need sophisticated battery management systems to prevent overheating and overcharging – adding thousands of dollars to their cost.
Toyota Motor Corp, which does not have a pure EV on the market currently, says it is concerned about battery durability. Battery capacity can drop by half over 5-10 years – the reason for low EV resale values, said Shigeki Terashi, executive vice president in charge of Toyota’s EV strategy.
“Falling EV battery capacity is not a major issue in China now because sales there have only recently begun, but in time this problem will likely become more evident,” he told Reuters in a interview.
RECHARGING TIMES
A longer term effort to improve batteries are solid state batteries, where the liquid or gel-form electrolyte in a lithium-ion battery is replaced with a solid. That could help double a battery’s energy density.
“That’s the holy grail,” says consultant Jon Bereisa, a former GM engineering director who spearheaded much of the automaker’s early lithium-ion battery development.
Many in the industry believe the technology is at least a decade away from mass-market commercial use.
“There are a lot of limitations to solid state drive..it will be very difficult to adopt the technology in the automotive applications used by the general public,” said YS Yoon, president of SK Innovation’s battery business.
Advances in recharging are also key to making electric vehicles mainstream. A big obstacle is heat, which increases resistance and in turn reduces the current.
Most EVs can get a partial charge in under half an hour, although several models due out in the next year can get close to a full charge in 20 minutes.
TE Connectivity is working with automakers to cut charging time to as little as 5 minutes and Chief Technology Officer Alan Amici says that goal may be attained in five years.
But others are sceptical. Bereisa thinks battery costs could achieve parity with gasoline cars by the late 2020s but his verdict on fast fueling parity is “maybe never”.
“It’s physics,” he said, adding that to charge an EV with the same amount of energy in the same amount of time as a gasoline car, you’d need a charger powerful “enough to run a small city”.
($1 = 6.7119 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing, Paul Lienert and Nick Carey in Detroit; Additional reporting by Yilei Sun and Beijing newsroom; Joe White, Hyunjoo Jin and Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Naomi Tajitsu, Maki Shiraki and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
April 15, 2019
By Christopher Bing and Jack Stubbs
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The United States will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for China’s Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks, according to people familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters.
The event and broader U.S. campaign to limit the role of Chinese telecommunications firms in the build out of 5G networks comes as Western governments grapple with the national security implications of moving to 5G, which promises to be at least 100 times faster than the current 4G networks.
The issue is crucial because of 5G’s leading role in internet-connected products ranging from self-driving cars and smart cities to augmented reality and artificial intelligence. If the underlying technology for 5G connectivity is vulnerable then it could allow hackers to exploit such products to spy or disrupt them.
The United States has been meeting with allies in recent months to warn them Washington believes Huawei’s equipment could be used by the Chinese state to spy. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Officials from more than 30 countries will meet May 2-3 to agree on security principles for next-generation telecoms networks, said Robert Kahofer, chief of cabinet at Czech cybersecurity agency NUKIB.
A U.S. official familiar with the plan said the Prague meeting marks a strategic shift in how the U.S. government plans to urge allies to drop Huawei and other 5G vendors in the future, which Washington believes pose a risk to national security. The official described the approach as “softer.”
A Huawei spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. proposals for the Prague meeting urge governments and operators to consider the legal environment in a vendor’s country, how much state support a company receives, transparency of corporate structure, and trustworthiness of equipment. It also calls on partners to prioritize security and work together on investigations into cyberattacks aimed at 5G architecture.
The documents do not mention Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker, by name, but U.S. officials said they hoped it would provide the “intellectual framework” needed for other countries to effectively bar Chinese vendors. In August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill that barred the U.S. government itself from using Huawei and ZTE Corp equipment.
“The goal is to agree upon a set of shared principles that would ensure the security of next-generation telecommunications networks,” said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The Prague conference has been organized by the Czech foreign ministry with support from NUKIB, said Kahofer. The foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Delegations from all of the European Union’s 28 member states, as well as the European Commission, NATO and around eight other countries including the United States and Australia are expected to attend, Kahofer said.
China and Russia have not been invited, he added, but stressed that the event was not “an anti-Huawei or anti-China conference.” Europe has emerged as a key battleground for the future of 5G, with the United States pushing allies and partners to bar Chinese vendors but European governments wary of the trade and economic consequences of angering Beijing.
Internet service providers have also warned that banning Huawei would incur huge costs and delay the rollout of 5G by years. A senior U.S. cybersecurity official said last week Washington wanted European governments to adopt “risk-based security frameworks”, citing recent moves in Germany to implement stricter security standards for all 5G vendors, and that doing so would effectively rule out using Huawei and ZTE.
“The United States welcomes engagement from partners and allies to discuss ways that we can work together ensuring that our 5G networks are reliable and secure,” said White House National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis. Officials in Britain, which last month exposed new security flaws in Huawei equipment but says it has found no evidence of Chinese state interference, have also spoken of “raising security across the board” for 5G. The European Commission said in March that EU nations would be required to share data on 5G cybersecurity risks and produce measures to tackle them by the end of the year.
(Reporting by Christopher Bing in WASHINGTON and Jack Stubbs in LONDON)
Source: OANN
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has indicated that he would like to see sanctions levied against European countries that do not participate in migrant ‘resettlement.’
Speaking with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, PM Löfven was asked about economic penalties for countries that refuse ‘refugees’ but receive European Union funding, such as Hungary.
“Yes, I am ready to do this,” Löfven said. “Because sooner or later we have to take joint responsibility for receiving migrants. One, two or three countries cannot bear it, we need to help with this.”
“If they are not ready to take responsibility, then it will come at a cost, it will not be possible to receive EU funds in the same way as today.”
“Hungary is one of the countries that gets the most,” Löfven continued. “It is unacceptable that the country that received the most support from the EU said, ‘No, we do not take responsibility for immigration.'”
During the 2015 crisis, Sweden received the highest per capita intake of ‘refugees’ in Europe, accepting some 163,000 migrants from mostly Africa and the Middle East.
Hungary, a nation that lies on the frontier of the Schengen Area, was deluged by tens of thousands of migrants in mere months, prompting a dramatically different reaction than Sweden, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s administration moved quickly to construct a groundbreaking border barrier and reduce Hungary’s migrant intake to nearly zero.
Italy’s Matteo Salvini recently said his nationalist party, Lega, is here to stay. Dan Lyman joins Owen to discuss the future of Europe and solutions for the migration crisis.
(PHOTO: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis arrives for a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Eva Plevier/Pool
April 15, 2019
By Jason Hovet and Robert Muller
PRAGUE (Reuters) – A year after embarking on a record spending splurge, the Czech Republic, one of the European Union’s star fiscal performers, is falling back into deficit and has started tightening its belt to prevent an economic slowdown from wrecking its budget.
The government is seeking savings worth 25 billion crowns ($1.10 billion), or half a percentage point of economic output, to keep its 2020 budget from breaching targets and, for the first time, forecasts a run of fiscal surpluses to end.
To critics, including economists from the state’s own budget council, the cost-cutting foreshadows uncomfortable budget choices ahead to offset slowing growth.
With a humming economy and record-low unemployment, Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s government had expected growth would pay for pension hikes higher than automatic adjusters, double-digit pay raises for a growing state workforce, and even free train tickets for seniors and students.
Instead, the Finance Ministry cut its 2019 gross domestic product growth forecast to 2.4 percent, from 3.1 percent, although that may still be optimistic as main trade partner Germany slices its own outlook.
The Czechs also cut predictions for an overall public sector surplus to 0.3 percent of GDP this year, from 1.0 percent.
The ministry sees a swing to a 0.2 percent deficit and deeper from 2020, according to a report for the European Commission seen by Reuters that erases previous predictions of surpluses.
(GRAPHIC: Czech fiscal balance to GDP – https://tmsnrt.rs/2IjoDX1)
That, critics say, is proof that Babis has wasted a strong economic stretch, failing to invest in roads and other critical infrastructure.
“We wasted the good times for (making) structural improvements and preparing for worse times… (and instead) we increased consumption expenditures and did not invest,” said David Marek, chief economist for Deloitte in Prague.
“We are eating our future.”
In surplus since 2016, Czech debt has fallen to the fourth lowest level in the EU, hitting 32.7 percent of GDP last year. Annual growth has ranged between 2.5 percent and 5.3 percent since 2015.
Babis, a chemicals and agriculture tycoon before entering politics, fought spending rises as finance minister in 2014-2017 when his ANO party was a junior government member and built his image with pledges to whip state finances into shape.
But after a landslide 2017 election win, he let rip.
BUDGET DEBATE
The 2019 budget earmarked a 141 billion crown spending rise over the 2018 budget, equal to 2.7 percent of 2018 GDP.
(GRAPHIC: Czech budget expenditures – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ilj9eA)
Critics complain that while spending surges, investments are lagging, below 4 percent of GDP annually since 2016. In nominal terms, 2018 investment spending was lower than in 2009, when the global financial crisis struck.
The central state budget – the main component of overall public finances that also include regional governments and some healthcare – posted a first-quarter deficit for the first time since 2012. Expenditure rose 13 percent against a 5 percent income gain.
Finance Minister Alena Schillerova wants savings to maintain a planned 40 billion crown deficit for 2020.
The Finance Ministry declined to say how the savings plan would look. It has until the end of May to submit a draft budget to the government.
So far, the ministry, besides calling for workforce cuts and administrative savings, hopes to raise around 9 billion crowns by increasing tax on cigarettes, alcohol and gambling.
The Social Democrats, the junior ruling party, wants a bank sector tax, which Babis opposes.
The Czechs are not alone in central Europe as others raise social spending, leading to an outlook of widening deficits in Poland while Slovakia may abandon its target of reaching a surplus next year.
But the state Czech Fiscal Council, which warned against exorbitant pension hikes, is still worried. Council member Richard Hindls said the government lacked a strategy and was avoiding reforms to ease future burdens.
“It is important to have priorities,” he told Reuters. “One thing bothers me… that this favorable period was not used to start with systemic (budget) change.”
(Graphics by Jason Hovet; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A Libyan man carries a picture of Khalifa Haftar during a demonstration to support Libyan National Army offensive against Tripoli, in Benghazi, Libya April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori
April 15, 2019
By Ulf Laessing and John Irish
TRIPOLI/PARIS (Reuters) – Military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s intended lightning seizure of Libya’s capital has stalled, but he is unlikely to face real pressure from abroad to pull back as the arrival of hardline opponents bolsters his war cry against “terrorism”.
Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli almost two weeks ago, predicting defections, victory within two days and joyful women ululating in the streets.
However, the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has managed to bog them down in southern suburbs, thanks largely to armed groups who have rushed to aid them from various western Libyan factions.
And instead of ululating, many women in fact joined a rally on Friday in Tripoli against the offensive.
Haftar, a 75-year-old former general in former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s army, has been building up troop numbers and intensifying air strikes in a campaign he is selling as necessary to restore order and eradicate jihadists.
That, however, is uniting Haftar’s enemies behind Serraj, who lacks regular forces and needs help, but may find them difficult to control the longer the war drags on, analysts say.
Renewed conflict has scuppered for now a U.N. peace plan for Libya, with a national reconciliation conference planned for this week postponed. It also threatens to disrupt oil supplies from the OPEC member and cause new migration across the sea to Europe.
Diplomats believe Haftar for now will face no pressure from backers including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and France, who still see him as the best bet to end the chaos and divisions since the ousting of Gaddafi in 2011.
ISLAMISTS IN TRIPOLI
Their case, which undermines calls by former colonial ruler Italy and others for a political solution, is aided by the arrival of militants in recent days to help Serraj’s forces.
One of them is Salah Badi, a commander from nearby Misrata port who has Islamist ties and possible ambitions himself to take Tripoli. In videos from the front line, Badi has been seen directing men as well as a U.N.-sanctioned people trafficker.
Some hardcore Islamists, previously affiliated to Ansar Sharia, have also popped up in the fighting, according to the videos. That group was blamed by Washington for the 2012 storming of a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.France, which has oil assets in Libya though less than Italy, has called for a ceasefire – albeit more reluctantly than Rome – while also echoing Haftar’s narrative that some extremists were among the Tripoli defenders.
“There is an oversimplification. It is not just Haftar the baddy against the goodies in Tripoli and Misrata. There are groups that are at the end of the day allied to al Qaeda on the other side,” said a French diplomatic source.
“Perhaps if those opposed to Haftar had done a deal with him in 2017, the balance of power would not have shifted against them,” the source said, referring to when France brought Haftar and Serraj together for face-to-face talks in Paris.
Serraj’s government has sought to downplay the presence of hardliners. “On both sides there are members accused of being violators,” Mohamed Siyala, his foreign minister, told reporters.
Haftar’s own troops are swelled by an estimated hundreds of Salafist Islamists, and one of his commanders is wanted by the International Criminal Court over the alleged summary execution of dozens of people in the eastern city of Benghazi.
It was there that Haftar in 2014 launched his “Operation Dignity” campaign, naming his forces an “army” to try and distinguish from “militias” elsewhere.
He won the Benghazi battle against mainly Islamists in 2017 with covert support from the UAE, Egypt and France, but some of his defeated foes are now in Tripoli seeking revenge.
“TINY MINORITY”
Neighboring Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi met Haftar at the weekend in Cairo and in a statement “confirmed Egypt’s support for efforts to combat terrorism.”
Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at German think tank SWP, said there was exaggeration of the presence of militants in Tripoli for propaganda purposes.
“These elements are a tiny minority of the forces that are fighting against Haftar right now, but this could become a self-fulfilling prophecy the longer this goes on,” he said.
“So anybody who has an interest in preventing jihadist mobilization in Libya should have an interest in stopping this war now.”
In the past, the UAE and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes in eastern Libya, but it is unclear whether they would do so in the current campaign, diplomats and analysts say.
For Paris, Haftar, or a perceived stable army in Tripoli, is key to its wider policy against militants in the Sahel.
France has some 4,500 troops in the deserts to the south and west of Libya, and wants to ensure the porous borders are locked as tightly as possible. Its support of Haftar will depend on whether it thinks he can win or how much civilian casualties can be contained.
Should those escalate and refugee numbers swell, then it may be forced to be more proactive in pressuring Haftar.
It will also depend on how UAE support evolves.
France has listened increasingly closely to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed’s views on Libya since President Emmanuel Macron came to power. An internal policy battle in France between the foreign and defense ministries prior to his arrival had until then blurred Paris’ lines.
“While France is keen to project its Libya policy as a home-grown policy, in reality France merely follows the UAE — more or less,” said Jalel Harchaoui, research fellow at the Clingendael Institute think-tank in The Hague.
“What this means today is: Unless MBZ decides that Haftar has blown his chance and failed irretrievably, Emmanuel Macron is unlikely to alter or subdue his pro-Haftar policy in Libya.”
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The Spotify logo hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange with U.S. and a Swiss flag as the company lists it’s stock with a direct listing in New York, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
April 15, 2019
By Esha Vaish and Simon Jessop
STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – A vibrant start-up scene, which has spawned stars such as Spotify, Skype and Rovio, is inspiring Nordic pension funds to invest more money with local private equity funds.
Managers looking to pump up their pension returns hope that this will plug them into the Nordic business world’s inner circle and help them to back the best prospects early on.
“With Spotify we got a call that maybe there were some shares for sale … We thought it was a great product so we said let’s dig into this and we made an acquisition with our friends at AMF,” Bo Selling, Alecta’s head of equities, told Reuters.
Swedish pension funds Alecta and AMF saw their 2016 investments in Spotify nearly triple in value when it listed in 2018. This success has helped fuel demand from other pension funds and encouraged some to change their investment parameters in order to be able to seek out the region’s next big hit.
As part of this shift, Sweden said earlier this year it will allow some of its largest state public pension funds, named APs 1, 2, 3 and 4, to allocate up to 40 percent of the about $140 billion they manage to illiquid investments, removing a 5 percent limit for unlisted instruments.
“We will most likely do more investments in private equity and venture (capital),” said Jenny Askfelt Rudd, head of alternative investments at AP4, which has about 3 percent of its assets in private equity.
Around a quarter of all assets raised in Europe so far in 2019 have gone to funds based in the Nordics, data from industry tracker Preqin showed, part of a global surge in demand that has seen total undeployed capital in the sector pass $2 trillion.
This is driven by institutional investors looking to shore up returns as global economic uncertainty roiled stock markets.
But it is not all one-way traffic. Last year, Norway’s government recommended against allowing its $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund to expand into private equity.
The ball is now in the hands of the country’s parliament, with the fund arguing the move could help improve its balance between risk and return, and naming Uber and Airbnb among missed opportunities due to the current restrictions.
For interactive versions of the graphics, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/2Fby9bT and here https://tmsnrt.rs/2O77Fv9.
Norway’s sovereign fund posted a negative return on investment of 6.1 percent in 2018, while AP4 posted its second negative result since 2008 last year and warned it faced significant challenges in delivering returns at levels achieved in the past decade.
A Swedish parliamentary committee that worked on the pension rule changes found that where listed equities generated returns of an average 6.9 percent, alternative investments have delivered a combined 12.3 percent.
Denmark’s PFA, which runs 75 billion euros ($85 billion) in assets, is already active, growing its alternatives investments from 1 billion euros in late 2015 to 5 billion euros now.
“We have an ambition to grow that significantly over the coming years,” Peter Tind Larsen, head of alternative investments at PFA, said.
Despite concerns that demand is fuelling a valuation bubble, Selling said Alecta believes there are still opportunities to grow its private equity portfolio, with just 0.5 percent of its 860 billion Swedish crowns ($93 billion) in assets in unlisted equities.
“A good company with a good model and good growth prospects can be deemed interesting even if it is priced at a higher multiple on the earnings,” Selling said.
GET WITH THE PROGRAMMERS
On the flipside, private equity firms are seeking partnerships with pension funds to bump up the valuation of assets without having to seek a market listing, bankers say.
Independent Vetcare (IVC), Europe’s largest veterinary services firm, was valued at 3 billion euros when Alecta and AP6 – a specialist in unlisted investments – bought 20 percent in February versus the roughly 500 million euros EQT paid to buy it in 2016, sources told Reuters.
So far in 2019, five Nordic-based funds have raised a combined 4.2 billion euros in assets, 22 percent of the total for Europe as a whole, Preqin data showed. That compares with 16 percent last year and 6 percent in 2017.
For an interactive version of the graphics, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/2VMu8jZ and here https://tmsnrt.rs/2Xeeaja.
EQT is the local sector leader and has seven of the ten biggest funds raised in the region, including EQT VIII, which last year raised 10.8 billion euros. Others include Nordic Capital, Altor, IK Investment Partners, Creandum and Northzone.
Much of their focus is on the region’s vibrant digital start-up scene. The European Digital City Index ranks Stockholm second to London in terms of support for digital entrepreneurs. Helsinki and Copenhagen also make the top ten.
“Being a programmer is the most common job in Stockholm, so it’s everywhere,” Ted Persson, operating partner at EQT Ventures, said.
Swedish payments company Klarna is seen by bankers as one of the hottest local firms to invest in ahead of a likely IPO, and pension funds seem primed to take a slice in its external fundraising this year.
Valued by bankers with knowledge of its recent internal fundraising at around 32 billion Swedish crowns, the firm counts private equity firms Sequoia and Permira, as well as rapper Snoop Dogg, as investors.
“A number of the largest pension funds have hired additional people with strong corporate finance expertise, and we … expect to see these funds taking the lead on larger transactions,” Klaus Thune, co-head of Nordic banking at JP Morgan, said.
(Editing by Alexander Smith)
Source: OANN
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