08/09/2025

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UAE to leverage weak dirham to woo home buyers from UK

CHINA TO REDUCE FEES IN US$4.9 TRILLION MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY SHANGHAI/HONG KONG: China aims to slash subscription and sales-related fees in the country’s US$4.9 trillion (RM20.7 trillion) mutual fund industry to reduce costs for investors and encourage long-term investment. Draft rules published by China’s securities regulator late on Friday will also guide investment towards equity funds, potentially adding fuel to a stock market bull run. Fees related to fund sales will be slashed across the board, according to the draft rules published by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). For example, subscription fees for equity funds will be capped at 0.8% of the invested amount, down from 1.2% pre viously. Sales service fees for exchange-traded funds and bond funds will be halved. Investors who hold funds for more than a year will no longer be charged sales service fees. The rules also offer incentives for distribution channels to promote equity funds. – Reuters OPENAI RAISES FORECAST ON CASH BURN THROUGH 2029 TO US$115B: REPORT BENGALURU,: OpenAI has sharply raised its projected cash burn through 2029 to US$115 billion (RM486 billion) as it ramps up spending to power the artificial intelligence behind its popular ChatGPT chatbot, The Information reported on Friday. The new forecast is US$80 billion higher than the company previously expected, the news outlet said, without citing a source for the report. OpenAI, which has become one of the world’s biggest renters of cloud servers, projects it will burn more than US$8 billion this year, some US$1.5 billion higher than its projection from earlier this year, the report said. The company did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. OpenAI will seek to develop its own data centre server chips and facilities to power its technology, The Information said. OpenAI is set to produce its first artificial intelligence chip next year in partnership with US semicon ductor giant Broadcom, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. – Reuters

BR I E F S

taxes, although the evidence so far is largely anecdotal. Senior London-based agents at CBRE and Knight Frank told Reuters Dubai was among a select group of top destinations for those leaving London, alongside wealth hotspots Monaco, Italy and Switzerland. In a bid to lure British buyers, Binghatti is offering flexible payment plans and special pricing to UK investors, while Damac has teamed up with Chelsea soccer club to launch branded residences in Dubai that appeal to British buyers. After a period of decline, British investment in Dubai homes jumped 62% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025, according to UAE brokerage Betterhomes. That made UK residents the emirate’s top foreign property buyers for the first time since 2023, overtaking Indian nationals, the brokerage said. Emirati property has emerged an unexpected winner from US tariffs, as investment flows into less-impacted emerging markets. Traditionally reliant on oil revenues that swell when the dollar is strong, the Gulf country is now leveraging sectors like property and tourism to draw in capital. After a run of soaring prices, some experts, however, predict a downturn in the Dubai market. In May, Fitch forecast a potential 15% contraction in Dubai property prices through late 2025 and into 2026. Some see London as a way to diversify operations as well as a sales hub, in another sign UAE developers are turning overseas as the local market becomes tougher. Damac, Aldar and Modon have all launched

o Dollar-pegged currency down about 8% to the pound since January real-estate developers are looking to lure British investors to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where a weaker dirham, pegged to the US dollar and battered by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, has made property significantly cheaper for buyers with pounds. Their push to target British investors locally with new London offices comes as UAE developers contend with a domestic market that has been one of the best-performing globally but is now prompting concern about oversupply and too few buyers. In the past year, UAE developers Binghatti and Danube have established sales offices in London, joining Aldar, Damac and Sobha. “The currency makes a big difference,” Danube chairman Rizwan Sajan told Reuters, referring to the weak dirham and strong pound. Binghatti CEO Muhammad Binghatti said he had seen more British investors enter Dubai as the dirham weakened. Trump’s sweeping tariffs have dragged down the dollar and, by extension, the dirham. The dirham is down about 8% versus the pound since January – handing British buyers an effective discount to enter the UAE’s property market. Property agents report a move by some wealthy people out of London due to higher DUBAI/LONDON: Emirati

Muhammad Binghatti says he has seen more British investors enter Dubai as the dirham weakened. – REUTERSPIC development arms for building properties in the UK through subsidiaries or joint ventures – most recently in January 2025. After setting up their London sales offices, both Danube and Binghatti told Reuters they were weighing similar moves into UK property development, despite the weaker dirham denting their buying power. Aldar’s UK-based subsidiary London Square has secured 15 new land sites and launched six developments since late 2023, according to chief executive Talal Al Dhiyebi. The UAE developers are using falling UK property prices to try and attract wealthy Emiratis, who now make up 3% of London investors – a fivefold rise from just 0.6% a year earlier, according to Knight Frank. – Reuters 11.31 billion a year earlier. PhysicsWallah filed draft papers with the market regulator through the confidential route to raise about 46 billion rupees, the Times of India newspaper said in March, citing sources. The startup did not disclose if it is downsizing its offering. After a slow start to the year, the Indian IPO market has picked up pace, with dairy products maker Milky Mist and Tiger Global-backed home and beauty services Urban Company filing to go public in recent months. – Reuters

Indian ed-tech platform PhysicsWallah files for IPO CHENNAI: Indian education technology platform PhysicsWallah has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) worth 38.20 billion rupees (RM1.83 billion), draft papers showed, as the market for new listings picks up pace. 31 billion rupees through fresh shares, with the rest coming from a sale offer by co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Boob, Saturday’s filing showed.

The platform, valued at US$2.8 billion in September last year, plans to use issue proceeds to set up physical coaching centers, cover rent, boost technology and marketing, and fund acquisitions. For the financial year ended March 31, PhysicsWallah’s revenue from operations jumped 49% to 28.87 billion rupees, with its restated loss narrowing to 2.43 billion, from

India’s ed-tech industry has weathered a challenging few years in which SoftBank backed Unacademy and Tiger Global-backed Vedantu cut staff while Byju’s U.S. lenders pushed the startup, once worth US$22 billion (RM93 billion), towards insolvency. PhysicsWallah, whose backers include WestBridge and Hornbill Capital, aims to raise

BMW will return to growth in China with new all-electric series: CFO MUNICH: BMW is confident it can return to growth in its largest market China with the all-electric Neue Klasse series, a major overhaul of the company’s portfolio that was kick-started last week with the launch of its first model. BMW expects an automotive Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes) margin of 5% to 7% in 2025 and Mertl said the goal was to raise that to 8% to 10% in the future.

“Looking at our future model range, I’m not worried,” Mertl said, after BMW took the wraps off its Neue Klasse iX3 electric sport utility vehicle on Friday, which will launch in China by summer 2026. The launch took place ahead of the 2025 IAA car show in Munich, where local car brands are battling with a growing Chinese presence to remain competitive. Batteries in the new vehicles were between 40% and 50% cheaper than those in existing models, Mertl said, a key factor in helping the group boost profitability. With the iX3 50, BMW could achieve margins equal to combustion engine equivalents – so-called margin parity – already in 2026, Mertl said.

The company plans to phase out its old models by the end of the decade with the roll-out of the Neue Klasse series. Turning to import tariffs in the United States, where BMW has its biggest production plant, Mertl reiterated that the duties would drag BMW’s profit margin down by 1.25 percentage points in 2025. The European Union plans to remove duties on imported US industrial goods in return for a US tariff rate of 15% on European cars - down from the current 27.5% – which automakers hope will apply retroactively from Aug 1. – Reuters

“We are more than competitive with this product,” chief financial officer Walter Mertl told Reuters. “With increasing availability of the Neue Klasse, we will see growth in China again.” Like its European peers, BMW has suffered setbacks in China due to aggressive local competition and a real estate downturn that has put wealthy Chinese consumers off buying new cars. In the first half of 2025, China sales at the German luxury carmaker slumped by 15.5%.

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse presenting the new model BMW iX3 electric car during the BMW Media and Stakeholder Days in Munich on Friday. – AFPPIC