27/10/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | OCT 27, 2025

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P&G latest to flag diverging consumer spending

Kyrgyzstan launches national stablecoin BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan has launched a national stablecoin and a central bank digital currency in partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Binance, President Sadyr Japarov said on Saturday. A mountainous former Soviet republic of around seven million people traditionally dependent on labour migrants in Russia, Kyrgyzstan has in recent years positioned itself as a cryptocurrency leader in Central Asia. A5A7, a stablecoin backed by the Russian rouble and based in Kyrgyzstan, has been placed under sanctions by Western governments who say it is used to facilitate avoidance of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, was appointed as an adviser on digital assets to the president of Kyrgyzstan in May. Zhao said in a post on X on Saturday that the Kyrgyz national stablecoin had been launched on the BNB Chain and that the digital version of Kyrgyzstan’s currency, the som, was ready for use in government payments. He said a cryptocurrency reserve had been established, which includes Binance’s BNB token. US President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned Zhao, who had previously been convicted of money laundering-related offences. Kyrgyzstan was traditionally the most democratic of the five former Soviet Central Asian republics, but Japarov has clamped down on dissent since coming to power on a wave of street protests in 2020. It is due to hold a snap parliamentary election on Nov 30, with allies of Japarov aiming to expand their dominance of the legislature. – Reuters SoftBank approves remaining US$22.5b of OpenAI investment TOKYO: SoftBank has approved a second installment of US$22.5 billion to complete its US$30 billion investment in OpenAI, tech news website the Information reported on Saturday. The Japanese investment group’s board has approved the installment as long as the artificial intelligence startup completes a corporate restructuring that would pave the way for an eventual public offering, the report said, citing a person with knowledge of the decision. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. SoftBank and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The money would fill out a US$41 billion financing round that was announced in April, according to the Information report. SoftBank had earlier agreed to fund OpenAI with US$10 billion in mid-April and an additional US$30 billion in December, contingent on the AI firm transitioning to a for-profit structure by the end of the year. However, the tech investment firm had said that if OpenAI’s restructuring fails, the investment amount would drop to US$20 billion. – Reuters

o Company exits laundry bars business in India and Philippines

Core earnings per share topped estimates by 9 cents at US$1.99, as P&G banked on its strategy of introducing improved products at higher prices such as Tide Evo detergent tiles and Olay premium body wash, with sales growing in the grooming and beauty segments. “Some consumers are still feeling the pinch and pulling back, but it looks like the wider swath of consumer America is hanging in there,” said Brian Jacobson, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, a P&G shareholder. Schulten said while underlying market conditions in China were still challenging, with a low level of consumer confidence, the company still managed to report double-digit growth in baby care, helped by premium diapers. As part of an on-going restructuring aimed at cutting costs, P&G is pulling out of certain markets such as laundry bars in India and the Philippines, and shut down manufacturing in Pakistan. P&G is also on track to reduce about 7,000 non-manufacturing roles over the course of the next two years. The company expects about US$1.5 billion to $2 billion in before-tax restructuring costs over two years, with about half of them incurred by the end of fiscal 2026 and the rest in fiscal 2027, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. Quarterly revenue rose 3% to US$22.39 billion, edging past estimates of US$22.17 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. – Reuters

products as essential items and shoppers might feel happy paying a little extra if they think the goods are superior to cheaper competition,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. P&G has raised some prices in the US, its biggest market, by 2% to 2.5% to help offset tariffs, relying on demand for essential products such as Dawn dish soap and Pampers diapers. Schulten said lower-income and higher-income US consumers were both looking to save money on pantry staples. Those with higher incomes are buying bigger sizes, while those living pay cheque-to pay cheque are seeking smaller pack sizes. P&G is also facing more discounting from rivals in the US and Europe in laundry detergents and diapers, and was looking to compete by enhancing its products. “I would say the consumer environment is not great, but stable. If you want to quantify that in market growth rates, the US consumption across our categories has slowed a little bit over the most recent reading,” the finance chief said. The investments to cater to value-conscious consumers and manage higher tariffs costs triggered a 50-basis-point fall in operating margins from a year earlier, despite the price hikes. Still, P&G’s operating margins continue to exceed rivals such as Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever and beat Wall Street expectations. While not disastrous, the decline in margins puts more pressure on management to make sure it does not get any worse, Coatsworth said.

NEW YORK: Procter & Gamble beat estimates for its quarterly results last week, as consumers continued to pay higher prices for its beauty and hair-care products, despite a broader slowdown in spending due to economic uncertainty. The Tide maker halved its annual tariffs cost estimate to about US$400 million (RM1.7 billion) after tax, largely due to Canada lifting retaliatory duties on US goods. However, US President Donald Trump last week terminated all trade talks with Canada. The Canadian government has yet to respond to the move. P&G CFO Andre Schulten said on a media call that “beyond the headlines, we have no information that would have any impact on how we view our tariff exposure at this point in time”. The company recently rescinded price hikes it had placed on Canadian goods because the retaliatory tariffs were removed. The results from P&G, whose CEO Jon Moeller will be replaced by another company veteran Shailesh Jejurikar on Jan 1, echo those from rival and Dove parent Unilever, which on Thursday disclosed double-digit sales growth from beauty brands in the US. “Many people deem beauty and grooming

A plant wall with Procter & Gamble’s logo is pictured at the entrance to the company’s highly automated cleaning products factory in Tabler Station, US. – REUTERSPIC

Germany should rethink China strategy, lawmaker says BERLIN: A senior lawmaker from Germany’s Social Democrats, a junior partner in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government, called on Saturday for a change of China policy after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul postponed a trip to Beijing. Wadephul, a member of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), cancelled the trip on Friday after Beijing confirmed only one of his requested meetings, a move that pointed to rising tensions over trade and security matters. “The short-term cancellation of the trip to China does not bode well for an improvement in tense German Chinese relations,”said Adis Ahmetovic, foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democrats (SPD). “We need to rethink Germany’s China strategy. “More than ever, we need an active, strategic foreign policy that focuses on dialogue, clarity and long-term interests,” he said. Germany is Europe’s biggest economy. China is Germany’s biggest trading partner and the largest economy in Asia. The only meeting Beijing had confirmed during Wadephul’s planned trip had been with his direct counterpart, Wang Yi. A German Foreign Ministry spokesperson, commenting on the trip’s postponement on Friday, also said Germany was concerned about constraints placed on rare earth exports. Wadephul told Reuters last week he planned to urge China to relax export restrictions on rare earths and semiconductors during his trip, which had been due to start yesterday, and underlined fair trade as a cornerstone of successful relations. In a strategy on China agreed in 2023, Berlin urged the “de-risking” of the two countries’ economic relationship, calling Beijing a “partner, competitor and systemic rival”. China provides Germany with critical components such as rare earths and chips, two areas that have been subject to severe bottlenecks as global trade tensions intensify. “Direct dialogue with China is particularly important in a phase of global tension,” Ahmetovic said.

Talks should be deepened “especially on issues of peace, security, the economy, trade and human rights”, he said. Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson for the CDU, said China was trying to use trade policy as a means of exerting pressure and that Wadephul had been right to postpone the trip. “The German government is not playing along with this game,” he said, adding that Germany continued to value good and fair relations with Beijing. – Reuters