05/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | DEC 5, 2025

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Rio Tinto outlines plan to focus on divestments, productivity growth MELBOURNE: Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott outlined a plan to focus on divestments and productivity growth at his first strategy day yesterday as he takes steps to simplify the structure of the world’s largest iron ore miner. Investors have been waiting for the details since Rio Tinto announced in August it would streamline its business to three core units from four and focus on profitable assets. Assets up for sale include Rio’s titanium and borates businesses. Rio Tinto has undertaken a thorough review of its global assets and identified some that it does not need to own, Trott told a media call. Rio Tinto has identified US$5 billion to US$10 billion it could generate through divestments and other measures in cluding for land, infrastructure, mining and processing assets, for which it is also exploring commercial partnership options, the miner said in a statement. It also said there would be a 4% cut in unit costs from 2024 to 2030. Rio Tinto announced US$650 million in annualised productivity gains and cost savings, with US$370 million already realised and the balance to be delivered in the first quarter. Trott said the figure included headcount reductions, but declined to detail how many jobs would be cut. “It’s a decent release,” said RBC, adding it was not expecting a strong market reaction. Shares opened up more than 2% in London. Rio also said capital discipline, rising prices for its commodities and 20% growth in copper production could help boost its earnings by as much as half by the end of the decade. Strategic reviews of iron and titanium, and borates are advancing “as planned”, Trott said, with the next phase focused on testing the market for these assets. The miner also raised its 2025 copper production forecast, citing a ramp-up of operations at its Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia. Rio said it now expects this year’s copper production to be between 860,000 and 875,000 metric tons on a consolidated basis, compared with its previous forecast of 780,000 to 850,000 tons. It expects copper production between 800,000 and 870,000 tons in 2026. While its profits primarily stem from iron ore, the miner is shifting its focus towards copper, aiming to produce one million tons of copper a year by 2030. – Reuters

IndiGo’s cancellations throw Indian airports into disarray

BENGALURU: of IndiGo passengers were stranded by flight cancellations yesterday – a third day of chaos after India’s biggest airline did not make sufficient changes to its roster planning to accommodate new government regulations. At least 175 IndiGo flights were cancelled as of early yesterday, leaving passengers at major airports in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru angry and upset. On Wednesday, at least 150 flights were cancelled. Shares of IndiGo, which commands 60% of the market and has built its reputation on punctuality, fell 3.4% yesterday and are now down 6% for the week. The Federation of Indian Pilots Thousands

o Airline did not rejig roster planning adequately ahead of new rules

Over the long term, though, investors reckon sustained momentum in India’s blockbuster economic growth could help offset the currency’s fall by boosting company earnings. India’s GDP grew 8.2% in the July-September quarter even as the rupee languished at a record low, underscoring a divergence between the strong domestic economy and weak external demand. “I’m not losing sleep over it,” India’s chief economic advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said on Wednesday, referring to the rupee’s fall. The rupee’s weakness has had no impact on inflation, he added, expecting the currency to recover in 2026. – Reuters The not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yesterday, 73 flights were cancelled at Bengaluru airport, its spokesperson said. Around 30 were cancelled in Delhi, and 68 in Hyderabad, and 85 IndiGo flight cancellations are planned for Mumbai yesterday, according to airport sources. A Reuters photographer said she was stuck inside her IndiGo plane for three hours when it landed in the western city of Pune on Wednesday night, with the pilot citing operational issues and the lack of permission to dock the plane until other planes had flown. The debacle is a major setback for a two-decade-old airline that has more than 2,000 flights daily and a fleet of more than 400 planes, mostly Airbus A320s. The airline has prided itself on its lack of delays, and its staff will often announce “IndiGo Standard Time” when boarding has been completed before scheduled, a play on “Indian Standard Time”. It remains to be seen just how badly the rostering woes will affect IndiGo, which garnered US$9 billion in revenue in the past business year. Its biggest rival, Air India, has its own troubles, grappling with much scrutiny following a June crash that killed 260 people. At airports, frazzled and furious passengers stood in long queues inside crowded terminals as they tried to gather details about their flights. Ram Shankar Yadav, who was travelling with family to attend his younger brother’s wedding celebrations, told Reuters that his flight had been delayed for six hours. “We don’t have enough chairs. People are taking newspapers to sit on the floor,” Yadav told Reuters by telephone from the airport in Pune. “People are angry. There’s nobody to manage; their helplines are not working,” he added. – Reuters regulator did

the amount of mandatory rest per week for pilots by 12 hours to 48 hours. In addition, pilots are now only allowed to make two night-time landings per week, down from six under the old rules. Officials from India’s civil aviation regulator are due to meet IndiGo’s senior management later this week, and will seek details about what has led to the crisis and if there is a recovery plan in place, according to a government source with direct knowledge of the plans who declined to be identified.

said IndiGo was not able to make timely roster adjustments and plan its schedule properly due to new rules aimed at improving safety. The rules, announced last year, went into effect on Nov 1. It was not immediately clear why IndiGo was suffering such a huge impact this week. IndiGo has acknowledged that stricter flight duty time limits have been a factor in the cancellations. Other airlines, including Air India, Spicejet and Akasa Air, have not had to cancel flights. The new rules have increased

An IndiGo employee moves a trolley to collect luggage of passengers, whose IndiGo flight was cancelled, at an airport in Pune yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

RBI to tolerate weaker rupee as inflows dry up: Sources MUMBAI: India’s central bank will tolerate a weaker rupee as the country’s external sector confronts multiple headwinds including a wider trade gap and stalling of dollar inflows into the world’s fifth-largest economy, three sources familiar with the central bank’s thinking told Reuters. sharp volatility or on any signs of a speculative build-up but not defend any specific level on the rupee, the sources said. “It doesn’t make sense to spend reserves when fundamentally markets in terms of outflows, with foreign investors selling stocks amounting to US$17 billion (RM70 billion) so far this year. investing in Indian equities and it is one reason why we are only neutral weight in India versus our

benchmark,” said Sam Kongrad, an investment manager for Asian equities at Jupiter Asset Management. MSCI’s India equities index has risen 7% this year, but currency weakness has trimmed its dollar returns to under 2% – well below the roughly 80% and 30% gains posted by South Korea and Hong Kong, respectively. “A resolution to the tariff situation with the US can’t come soon enough and foreign flows from a potential global index inclusion will be very much needed,” said Kenneth Akintewe, head of Asian sovereign debt at Aberdeen Investments.

At the same time, foreign direct investment, trade, and offshore fundraising flows have slowed down. While the currency’s fall below the psychologically important 90 per dollar mark has garnered attention and could embolden speculators, the central bank can step in to stamp those out as needed, a third source said. A weaker currency provides more policy flexibility to the central bank, but it could also diminish the appeal of Indian assets for overseas investors. “A weakening Indian rupee is definitely a negative when it comes to

everything is against the currency,”said one of the sources, who commented on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The RBI did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. “As and when fundamentals and real dollar demand dictate, the central bank does let the rupee move more than it normally would,” the second source said. India is one of the worst-hit

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which had supported the rupee through aggressive interventions via dollar sales until last month, has allowed the rupee to fall 1.3% in the last seven trading sessions to a record low of 90.42 per dollar. The rupee, down 5.5% on year, is Asia’s worst performing currency. By signaling tolerance for a weaker rupee, the central bank is indicating that it will intervene mostly to curb