12/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | FEB 12, 2026

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Heineken to cut jobs over next two years

DUBAI: Dubai’s main airport handled a record 95.2 million passengers last year, straining capacity as it prepares to move to a new site, a statement said yesterday. Passengers at Dubai, the world’s busiest airport for international traffic, rose 3.1% in 2025 and included 8.7 million in December, a monthly record. Dubai International is “operating at the edge of physical capacity while consistently delivering operational excellence”, Dubai Airports said. Passenger traffic is expected to rise further to 99.5 million this year, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths was quoted as saying. That number could hit 115 million before the transition to Al Maktoum International on Dubai’s outskirts is completed in 2032, he said in October. The US$35 billion facility will have an annual capacity of 150 million passengers within the next 10 years, the world’s biggest, eventually scaling up to 260 million. Dubai, the oil-rich United Arab Emirates’ trade and commercial centre, is well placed as an air hub serving flights between Africa, Asia and Europe. Dubai ranked top for international traffic and second for total passengers behind Atlanta in 2024, according to the latest figures provided by Airports Council International. The desert city of towering skyscrapers and beach resorts also welcomed a record 19.59 million international visitors in 2025, up 5% on 2024, its economy and tourism department said this week. – AFP Dubai airport pushes limits with record 95m passengers Telefonica sells Chile unit in Latin America pullout MADRID: Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica announced the sale of its Chilean unit for US$1.2 billion on Tuesday in its push to leave Latin America and concentrate on core markets elsewhere. Once a jewel in the crown of public Spanish companies, debt-laden and loss-making Telefonica has adopted a strategic shift focusing on Britain, Germany, Spain and Brazil. Its subsidiary Inversiones Telefonica Internacional Holding transferred all of Telefonica Chile’s capital to French holding company NJJ Holding and Luxembourg-based telecoms operator Millicom, the company said in a statement submitted to Spain’s stock market regulator. An additional payment of US$150 million was possible “depending on the possible occurrence of certain events in the Chilean telecommunications market”, the statement added. The transaction lengthens a list of Latin American divestments in recent years including Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica and Guatemala. The company booked a net loss of €1.08 billion (RM5.1 billion) between January and September 2025, weighed down by losses linked to asset sales in Latin America. – AFP

would come in Europe. “Europe is a big part of our business,” he told reporters. “And you see from the financial results also that it is very tough to drive a good operating leverage there.” “So we are focusing many of the initiatives to strengthen our European business, but not exclusively so.” Beer volumes globally at the world’s second-biggest brewer after AB InBev were down 2.4% in 2025, the firm reported in its annual results. The decline was especially severe in Europe and the Americas, which dropped 4.1% and 3.5%, respectively. In the fourth quarter of last year, total global beer volumes were down 2.%. Total annual sales for Heineken came in at €34.4 billion (RM160 billion), compared to the €36 billion it banked in 2024. Net profits were €2.7 billion, which the firm said was a 4.9 % gain on last year when currency fluctuations were stripped out. Looking ahead to 2026, Heineken forecast full-year organic operating profit growth of 2% to 6%, after a 4.4% rise last year to €4.4 billion. – AFP

with “mixed emotions” after acknowledging that he had guided the company “through turbulent economic and political times”. “My priority for the coming months is to leave Heineken in the strongest possible position.” Heineken employs around 87,000 people globally. In October, the brewer had already announced it was cutting or reassigning 400 jobs as part of a reorganisation of its Amsterdam head office to take advantage of new technologies. Executives declined to specify where the bulk of the job cuts would come, but chief financial officer Harold van den Broek hinted they

o Dutch brewer faces ‘challenging market conditions’ with beer volumes down

AMSTERDAM: Under-pressure Dutch brewer Heineken said yesterday that it would scrap up to 6,000 jobs as it faces what it called “challenging market conditions” with beer volumes down compared to last year. The company said it would be “accelerating productivity at scale to unlock significant savings, reducing 5,000 to 6,000 roles over the next two years”. “We remain prudent in our

near-term expectations for beer market conditions,” chief executive Dolf van den Brink said in a statement. Traders appeared to welcome news of the job cuts, with shares up around 3% at the opening on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Van den Brink stunned the company last month by announcing that he would be stepping down after almost six years at the helm. He told reporters he was leaving

EU in denial over car industry crisis: German lobby and illusions about its own relevance,” VDA head Hildegard Mueller said at a press conference. “But reality catches up with us time and again.” Stellantis, which operates the Jeep and Fiat brands, last week reported a bumper €22 billion (RM102 billion) hit after writing down the value of its EV business. Promises to make carmakers’ lives easier by easing bureaucracy had not been fulfilled, Mueller charged. An employee inspects a Cupra Tavascan electric vehicle on the production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in the China city of Hefei. – REUTERSPIC

FRANKFURT: The German car lobby blasted Brussels on Tuesday, accusing the European Union of failing to appreciate the severity of the crisis facing the continent’s automotive industry and of a lack of action. Presenting a survey that showed almost three-quarters of German automotive firms planning to delay or cancel investments into their home market, Hildegard Mueller, head of the VDA industry group, said the EU was in denial. “All too often, Brussels presents a dangerous mixture of denying reality

“In 2025, the European Union introduced more legislation than at any point in the last 15 years, four laws a day. We cannot keep up with implementing them.” Asked about a push from the EU to boost industrial production on the continent as part of a mooted “Made in Europe” strategy – pushed by EU industry chef Stephane Sejourne and backed by over 1,000 CEOs and business leaders – Mueller said the plans threatened to heap more bureaucracy on the car industry and hurt its sales abroad. “Our supply chains are very closely intertwined internationally.” – AFP

Europe’s car industry was in crisis even before US President Donald Trump last year slapped tariffs on auto imports, investing billions into electric vehicles (EVs) while facing tepid demand and fierce competition from Chinese rivals like BYD in the segment. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have been stung by years of plummeting sales in China and France’s

She said the bloc’s recent half-hearted easing of a ban on new petrol engine cars by 2035 showed it was only paying “lip sevice” to deregulation. “(EU commission president Ursula) von der Leyen promised to get rid of bureaucracy at the beginning of her second term,” Mueller said.