15/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | DEC 15, 2025

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German arms giants battle over spending ramp-up

EU countries agree on fishing quotas BRUSSELS: European Union fisheries ministers struck a deal on Saturday on 2026 fishing quotas, avoiding an earlier proposal to tighten restrictions in the Mediterranean. Spain, which opposed a European Commission plan to cut trawler fishing days in the Mediterranean next year, welcomed the agreement. “We have concluded two intense days of discussion in Brussels. We have achieved a good result,”Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said. Spain will be allowed 143 fishing days in 2026, broadly maintaining this year’s allowance, instead of the planned cuts. Brussels had said its proposal aimed to bring fishing to sustainable levels over the longer term. The deal also sets catch limits and fishing days for the Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean, Black Sea and other waters for 2026, with some rules extending to 2028. Changes include a more than 50% increase next year in catch limits for Norway lobster in the Bay of Biscay, and reductions in common sole limits in the eastern and western Baltic to protect stocks. Denmark’s Fisheries Minister Jacob Jensen, who led the talks, said the deal “strikes a balance between the scientific advice and protecting vulnerable fish stocks”. The rules will apply from Jan 1. – Reuters Sobi to buy Arthrosi for up to US$1.5b STOCKHOLM: Drugmaker Swedish Orphan Biovitrum said on Saturday it had agreed to acquire US-based biotechnology company Arthrosi Therapeutics for up to US$1.5 billion to strengthen its portfolio of gout treatments. Sobi will pay US$950 million upfront in cash and up to US$550 million in cash in clinical, regulatory and sales milestones, the company said. San Diego, California-headquartered Arthrosi is developing an experimental treatment for gout that has been shown in mid-stage trials to be effective in achieving a sustained reduction in serum uric acid with a well-tolerated safety profile. There are currently two late-stage trials underway with data expected in 2026. Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis caused by a buildup of uric acid in the body, leading to pain and swelling in the joints. “The acquisition of Arthrosi allows us to expand our gout pipeline with a highly differentiated new asset,”Sobi CEO Guido Oelkers said in a statement. Sobi plans to fund the upfront payment mainly through debt. – Reuters ServiceNow close to deal for startup Armis SAN FRANCISCO: ServiceNow is in advanced talks to buy Armis, a cybersecurity startup that had been eyeing an initial public offering next year, in a deal that may be valued at as much as US$7 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation. The deal could be announced in the coming days but talks may fall apart or another potential bidder may emerge, the report added. Armis raised US$435 million in its fundraising round in November, valuing the company at US$6.1 billion. Founded in 2016, Armis secures connected devices in real time to protect against cyber threats, and serves more than 40% of the Fortune 100 companies. Demand has been surging for advanced digital security services after a series of cyberattacks that cost billions in monetary losses and data leaks across the globe this year alone. Lawmakers have been calling to make cyber-resilience a board-level priority. – Reuters

o Old guard argue for traditional heavy weaponry while start-ups push for more modern kit

company is valued at around €70 billion, recently told a media briefing. “If there were a war involving Nato, it would look very different from what we currently see in Ukraine,“ he said. “Drones would play a less significant role than they do now.” Drones also figure in the government’s planning, with Defence Minister Boris Pistorius saying in October that Berlin was planning to invest €10 billion in the technology in the coming years. But there are indications of a continued focus on time-honoured war gear. News outlet Politico recently reported the government had laid out €377 billion worth of desired arms purchases – much of it earmarked to go to establishment defence titans. A Defence Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report while stressing that drones had been part of military operations for some time. But the spokesman, who declined to be named in line with standard German government practice, added that “battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers and combat aircraft will continue to be needed in the future”, working in combination with unmanned systems. Germany’s rearmament marks a major transformation for a country with a long-standing pacifist tradition shaped by its painful World War II history. But like the start-ups, some observers worry the build-up is moving too slowly – and at serious risk of misfiring. The military’s “planning is lagging behind the inexorable rise of unmanned and autonomous systems”, prominent British historian Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, wrote in a blistering critique recently. They warned those in charge were too focused on “the weapons of the last war – not the next”. – AFP

FRANKFURT: Defence giants are drawing battle lines as Germany rearms, with the old guard arguing for traditional heavy weaponry while start-ups push for more modern kit such as AI-enabled drones. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to create Europe’s strongest conventional army with outlays of hundreds of billions of euros, accelerating a build-up that began after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The rush to rearm, mirrored across Europe, has been fuelled by pressure from US President Donald Trump for Nato allies to spend more on defence as well as worries about American commitment to the continent’s security. But where these funds should flow is hotly debated. A crop of German tech defence start-ups argue the Ukraine war – much of it now contested in the skies with unmanned aerial vehicles – has shown that relatively inexpensive, mass-producible equipment like drones powered by artificial intelligence will be key for future conflicts. So far, some argue, too much spending has focused on time-tested but expensive weaponry such as tanks and armoured vehicles, which are vulnerable to being targeted by the new, cheaper airborne armaments. “Clearly there’s been an overly strong focus on traditional platforms,” Gundbert Scherf, one of the heads and founders of German defence technology company Helsing, told AFP. “Spending patterns have to change as the world around us changes.” Scherf, whose Munich-headquartered start-up was founded in 2021 and supplies

strike drones to the Ukraine military, sees signs that attitudes are shifting. “I am hoping we are going to see the spending pattern change from a 99% focus on traditional systems and 1% on autonomous systems, to a more even balance.” Helsing, backed by Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s investment firm and reportedly worth €12 billion (RM57 billion), recently carried out successful tests with the German military, striking targets multiple times. German tech defence start-up Stark – which was founded just 18 months ago and has also had its drones tested with the German military – echoed Helsing’s cautious optimism. “Procurement in Germany is changing, and that is really positive,” said Josef Kranawetvogl, a senior executive at the firm, which counts among its investors Silicon Valley tech billionaire Peter Thiel. But he worried that the shift was not moving fast enough. “We are really good in Europe at writing strategic papers – but we have to execute more. We have to keep pace, we have to be fast,” he said. On the other side of the debate is Rheinmetall, Germany’s biggest weapons manufacturer and a key supplier of military vehicles and ammunition whose sales have been dramatically boosted by the Ukraine war. CEO Armin Papperger recognises drones are increasingly important – Rheinmetall also makes them and is investing more – but argues they are just one of many systems that will be vital in future. “Without armoured vehicles, it would not be possible to defend a country or repel an aggressor if they invade,” Papperger, whose

Technicians assemble a Leopard 2A4 battle tank at a Rheinmetall facility in Unterluess, northern Germany. – AFPPIC