05/03/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | MAR 5, 2025

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Indonesia plans US$40b energy projects in 2025

from ACT,” it said in a statement. Seven & i said its“special committee is engaging constructively with ACT to determine if an actionable proposal can be achieved that addresses the serious US antitrust challenges that any such transaction would face”. Seven & i shares, which have been highly volatile since ACT’s approach was first announced, shed as much as 10% after the Tokyo market opened yesterday following the report. The Yomiuri reported the decision to reject the acquisition offer would be made soon at a board meeting. Board members would also replace CEO Ryuichi Isaka with outside director Stephen Hayes Dacus, it said, echoing reports in other outlets. Dacus has previously worked for Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing and US retail giant Walmart, and would be Seven & i’s first foreign chief. Seven & i, which last week said its founding family had failed to put together sufficient financing for a buyout to fend off ACT’s offer, on Monday said “no decision has been made” regarding management changes. – AFP Aramco flags sharp drop in dividends as 2024 profit falls DUBAI: Saudi oil giant Aramco said yesterday it expects to declare total dividends of US$85.4 billion (RM381.5 billion) in 2025, a near 30% drop from payouts in 2024 as it faced lower sales and higher costs. Aramco paid about US$124.25 billion in dividends in 2024 and had US$97.78 billion in payouts in 2023. Aramco’s dividends for 2024 included about US$43.1 billion in performance-linked dividends, a mechanism introduced in 2023 on top of base dividends that are paid regardless of results. The company declared US$200 million in performance-linked divi dends to be paid in the first quarter of 2025, a steep decline from the nearly US$10.8 billion declared for each quarter of 2024. Aramco reported a net profit of US$106.2 billion in 2024, down 12.39% from US$121.3 billion in 2023. “The decrease was primarily driven by lower revenue and other income related to sales, higher operating costs, as well as lower finance and other income. This was partially offset by lower income taxes and zakat,” Aramco said in a stock exchange filing. – Reuters Taiwan’s TSMC to invest at least US$100b in US plants WASHINGTON: Taiwanese chip making giant TSMC will invest at least US$100 billion (RM446 billion) in the United States to build “cutting edge” manufacturing facilities, President Donald Trump said on Monday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manu facturing Co’s new investment will come on top of their existing com mitments and will go into “building five cutting edge fabrication facilities,“ Trump said during a White House event, flanked by TSMC chief execu tive C.C. Wei. – AFP

than US$900 billion in assets, he said. “What is clear is that the purpose of investment is to create quality jobs, create added value and increase state revenue and our national eco nomic growth,” Bahlil said. Recently inaugurated Prabowo has pledged to take Indonesia’s annual growth from 5% to 8%, while ordering billions of dollars worth of cuts across government.

The government said Danantara would have an initial budget of US$20 billion and Prabowo said last month it would be used on “20 or more high-impact national projects” this year. Prabowo’s cuts, made to fund Danantara and other projects like an ambitious multi-billion-dollar free lunch programme, stoked student-led protests in multiple Indonesian cities last month. – AFP

o List of 20 includes plan to use coal to produce dimethyl ether as substitute for liquefied petroleum gas

JAKARTA: Indonesia plans more than 20 energy projects worth around US$40 billion (RM178.7 billion) this year, its energy minister said yesterday, as it tries to increase domestic refining capacity. The projects include a bid to use coal to create an alternative to a popular imported cooking fuel. Coal-dependent Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, is one of the world’s top emitters but President Prabowo Subianto last year committed to phasing out coal power generation over 15 years and reaching net-zero emissions by mid century. “We have presented approxi mately 21 projects ... with a total of around US$40 billion investment,” Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement published by the presidential palace yesterday after he met Prabowo. The projects are part of a bigger effort to grow Indonesia’s economy and create jobs by improving domestic capacity to refine com modities ranging from oil to nickel. Among the plans is a project to use coal to produce dimethyl ether (DME) as a substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). “We will do this so that the product can really be marketed domestically as an import substitute,” Bahlil said. Most of the LPG sold domestically in Indonesia in 2023 was imported. An oil refinery with a capacity of around 500,000 barrels and an oil storage facility will also be built, he said. DUBAI:- Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Austria’s OMV will merge their polyolefin businesses to create a US$60 billion (RM268 billion) chemicals power house, the companies said, as the Gulf state oil firm advances its aggressive growth strategy. The merged entity, Borouge Group International, will combine two joint ventures: Borealis, 75% owned by OMV and 25% by ADNOC, and Borouge, 54% owned by Adnoc and 36% by Borealis. It will also acquire Canada’s Nova Chemicals Corp from Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala for US$13.4 billion, including debt, as part of its strategy to expand in North America, the companies said in separate statements on Monday and yesterday. “These transformative trans-actions mark a pivotal milestone in Adnoc’s global chemicals strategy as we deliver on our international growth mandate,” Adnoc group chief executive Sultan Al Jaber said in a statement.

The projects will be funded in part by the archipelago’s new sovereign wealth fund Danantara, which launched last month to oversee more

SECOND BOURSE ... Nextrade's CEO Kim Hak soo gestures in front of a sign of South Korea's secondary stock trading platform, at its office in Seoul yesterday. A second stock exchange opened in South Korea, where consumers will eventually be able to trade top tech stocks like Samsung and SK hynix, ending a nearly 70-year monopoly of the country's sole exchange operator. – AFP

Adnoc and OMV agree to merge petchem firms to create US$60b giant

Seven & i says Couche-Tard’s takeover bid still under consideration

TOKYO: The Japanese parent company of 7-Eleven said yesterday that a buyout bid from a Canadian convenience store rival was still on the table despite a report that it planned to reject the multibillion-dollar offer. Seven & i, which operates some 85,000 convenience stores worldwide, last year rebuffed an offer worth nearly US$40 billion (RM178.7 billion) from Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) that would have been the biggest foreign buyout of a Japanese firm. The Yomiuri daily reported yesterday that a special committee scrutinising ACT’s sweetened offer of reportedly around US$47 billion has decided to say no to that too. Antitrust concerns were one reason for the decision, the daily said, given Seven & i and ACT’s overlapping store networks in the United States. But Seven & i did not confirm the report when contacted by AFP. “The company remains committed to exploring all opportunities to unlock value for shareholders and continues to assess a full range of strategic alternatives, including the proposal

governance and voting rights between OMV and Adnoc. “Together, OMV and Adnoc will build on a versatile and future-proof product portfolio and pursue signi ficant organic growth opportunities,” OMV chief executive Alfred Stern said in a statement. The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. Borouge Group International will look to raise up to US$4 billion of primary capital in 2026 to be included in the relevant MSCI index, the companies said. Nova is a polyethylene producer with 2.6 million metric tons of polyethylene capacity and 4.2 million metric tons of ethylene capacity. The companies expect Borouge Group International to generate annual cost savings of approxi mately US$500 million. Borouge’s expansion project, Borouge 4, “is expected to be a key growth driver” and will be acquired by the merged entity at cost, estimated to be around US$7.5 billion. – Reuters

The deal, subject to regulatory approvals, marks the conclusion of nearly two years of negotiations, during which key issues such as the listing venue, shareholding split and headquarters location become sticking points. “When combined, the three highly complementary world-class businesses will create the fourth largest global polyolefin group,” OMV said in its statement. As part of the deal, OMV will inject €1.6 billion (RM7.5 billion) in cash into the new company, which will be listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, with a dual listing on the Vienna Stock Exchange expected later. The injection, which will be adjusted by dividends paid out until completion, will equalise Adnoc and OMV’s shareholding. Both will own nearly 47% of the new entity, with the remaining stake available as free float. The new company will be headquartered in Austria, and have a two-tier board structure with equal