27/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | FEB 27, 2026

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Merz visits China AI hub hoping for business deals

ROME: A prosecutor in Milan has ordered the Italian subsidiary of Deliveroo to be placed under court administration, accusing the food delivery service of exploiting its workers. The measure signed on Monday, and simultaneous naming of a judicial administrator, comes two weeks after the same prosecutor, Paolo Storari, similarly ordered the Italian unit of competitor Glovo to be placed under court administration for underpaying its workers. The approximately 23,000 Deliveroo riders in Italy were paid wages “that in some cases were up to 90% below the poverty line and collective bargaining agreements”, read the court document viewed by AFP. Prosecutors said the “genuine labour exploitation” went on for years at Deliveroo Italy, which is based in Milan. Owned by DoorDash, Deliveroo is one of several food delivery companies operating in Italy. “Deliveroo is reviewing the documentation received from the authorities and the company is cooperating with the investigation,” the company said in a statement to AFP. More than 50 Deliveroo riders, mostly foreign nationals, submitted declarations to prosecutors, saying they earned between about €3 to €5 per delivery, depending on distance. “A substantial prevalence emerges of riders who earn – despite stating that they work a number of hours significantly higher than the normal weekly schedule – an annual net income below the poverty line,“ prosecutors found. Last week, the Milan tribunal ordered Glovo’s Italian unit Foodinho to regularise its 40,000 riders, after it had earlier been placed under judicial administration. That investigation found that many riders were paid on average about €2.50 per delivery. – AFP to be placed under court administration French payments firm Worldline posts €5.2b loss in 2025 Milan prosecutor orders Deliveroo unit PARIS: French payments firm Worldline said on Wednesday it had suffered a net loss of €5.2 billion (RM23.7 billion) in 2025, mostly due to a massive write-down of the value of its assets. Worldline found itself in the public eye in 2025 after an investigation published by a consortium of journalists accused the company of processing billions of euros of suspicious transactions in risky sectors including online casinos, crypto-asset platforms, porn sites and even suspected money laundering networks. Worldline, which earns commissions from both physical and online merchants for handling payments from their sales, said sales dipped 2.7% to €4 billion. The firm said its performance had begun to turn around after selling off some parts of the business and streamlining some operations. “The foundations of a stronger, more focused Company are now in place,”said chief executive Pierre-Antoine Vacheron. Worldline, which is raising €500 million in fresh capital, is aiming for sales growth of between 1% and 4% this year, then an average of 4% over the 2027-2030 period. The company has regularly revised down its financial forecasts in recent years and its collapsing share price saw it removed from the Paris Stock Exchange’s benchmark CAC 40 index. – AFP

Communist Party-run state as a systemic rival to the West. The German leader is accompanied in China by a large delegation of business leaders, including executives of auto giants Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes. Merz visited a Mercedes plant in Beijing yesterday morning, where he was shown a demonstration of self-driving vehicles. He then travelled to Hangzhou, where he visited the sites of Germany’s Siemens Energy and Chinese humanoid robot-maker Unitree. The eastern city is home to several other major Chinese tech companies like AI unicorn DeepSeek and e-commerce giant Alibaba. European business leaders, who broadly complain China is flooding the EU market with cheap goods, have urged Merz to keep a cavernous trade imbalance at the top of his agenda. Germany’s trade deficit with China hit a record €89 billion (RM408 billion) last year. Following talks with Xi and top Chinese leaders in the capital on Wednesday, Merz said

that China had agreed to purchase up to 120 Airbus aircraft, adding that it “demonstrates how worthwhile such trips can be”. Other contracts were in the pipeline, Merz added. The two leaders stressed their commitment to developing closer strategic relations, with Xi telling Merz he was willing to take relations to “new levels”. Merz said he had also touched on the sensitive topic of Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its territory and which it has not ruled out the use of force to annex. Any “reunification” must be done peacefully, Merz said. He also discussed the Ukraine war with Xi, who, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, said diplomacy was “key to the issue”. Merz is the latest in a string of Western leaders to court Beijing recently. He follows Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Mark Carney, as they recoil from the mercurial policies of Trump. – AFP

HANGZHOU: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in the Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou yesterday with a large group of entrepreneurs, hoping to land new contracts a day after meeting President Xi Jinping and announcing an Airbus deal. Merz’s first official visit to China comes as Berlin and Beijing seek to build on decades-old economic ties to weather global uncertainty sparked by US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz and erratic foreign policies. China, the world’s number two economy, overtook the United States last year to become Germany’s biggest trade partner. At the same time, Berlin regards the o Berlin and Beijing seek to build on decades-old ties to weather global uncertainty

Merz (right) visits a Unitree Robotics showroom in Hangzhou. – AFPPIC

Qantas says new jets power higher sales, profit

SYDNEY: Australia’s Qantas Airways said yesterday new fuel-efficient aircraft and strong demand for travel helped to drive up sales and deliver a steady half-year profit. Fuel-efficient, low-maintenance planes were attractive to passengers but also allowed the company to open up new routes, it said. Revenue climbed 6.3% year-on-year to A$12.9 billion (RM36 billion) in the six months to Dec 31, the airline said. Net profit edged up 0.2% to A$925 million. “What’s driving this performance is really clear: continued strong demand for travel combined with new aircraft that are fundamentally changing how we deliver for our customers and grow our business,”

as aviation and landing charges, and passenger handling. “Airport charges and government fees have increased at double the rate of inflation over the past 12 months,” Hudson said. “We are offsetting these where possible through transformation and we’re working across the industry to minimise the impact and see what can be done to ensure this doesn’t impact the ongoing affordability of air travel in this country.” Qantas forecast strong travel demand in the rest of the financial year across its business, adding that it would be monitoring the“evolving economic environment” in the United States. – AFP

said chief executive officer Vanessa Hudson. “Australians’ appetite for travel continues to be incredibly strong.” Passengers were showing strong demand for premium seats on Qantas while budget offshoot Jetstar was flying more people to holiday destinations, she said. Jetstar’s new fleet was delivering better fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs, and providing the flexibility to open new routes, Hudson said. Qantas expected to see similar benefits as it brought in new aircraft, with 30 new planes due to arrive over the next 18 months. The Australian airline also reported higher spending on salaries, fuel and other costs such