01/04/2026

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | APR 1, 2026

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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Australia warned against taxing LNG windfall profits

South Korean, Japanese bourses wrap up worst month since 2008 SEOUL: South Korean markets buckled yesterday, with shares sliding towards their worst monthly performance since the global financial crisis and the won sinking to post-crisis lows, as the Middle East war sent investors fleeing worldwide. The benchmark Kospi sank 4.3% yesterday, taking its fall from late February’s record closing high to 19.9%, a whisker short of confirming, on some measures, a bear market. The monthly drop of 19% is the largest since 2008 and the won slumped around 1% to trade weaker than 1,500 to the dollar – levels previously broached only in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2009 and the late 1990s Asian crisis. The market’s earlier gains this year only deepened the rout, as soaring energy prices and fading risk tolerance left global investors with nowhere to hide, forcing a rapid unwinding of once favoured assets. Foreigners sold a net 35.9 trillion won (RM94.5 billion) in Kospi shares in March, exchange data shows, the largest outflow on record and one which has pushed the currency lower. The rush out is positioning-driven, said Rajiv Batra, head of Asia and co-head of global emerging markets equity strategy at JPMorgan in Singapore. “The market didn’t look into how much growth damage is there, earnings damage is there ... wherever people were significantly positioned and that money was in profit, that’s where people started doing de-risking.” Analysis from Goldman Sachs shows foreign selling has been heaviest in market-darling chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, driving foreign ownership in the pair to its lowest since 2022. Both dropped sharply yesterday, shedding 5.2% and 7.6% respectively and both are down more than 20% through March. Even so, the sheer scale of the rally before the Iran war has left them sharply higher for the year, with the broader Kospi still up about 20%. Separately, Japan’s Nikkei share average fell for the fourth straight day yesterday, capping its worst month since the 2008 global financial crisis as the widening Middle East war weighed on sentiment. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index fell 1.6% to close at 51,063.72, bringing its cumulative loss in March to 13.2%, the most since October 2008. The broader Topix slid 1.26% to 3,497.86. “Semiconductor-related stocks fell sharply in the US market last night (Monday), and following that trend, selling pressure is being seen today in Japan,” said Maki Sawada, an equities strategist at Nomura Securities. “If the correction continues, the 50,000 point (on the Nikkei) is likely to be viewed as a key support level.” Reuters

o Gas majors Shell, Chevron push back against calls for new levy, say it will risk deterring future investment SYDNEY/PERTH: Gas majors including Shell and Chevron warned Australia against intro ducing a windfall tax on gas exporters, saying it would deter investment and undermine energy security as liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices surge amid disruption caused by the Iran war. Australia became the world’s second-largest LNG supplier after Iranian strikes forced Qatar to halt production, with its export revenue set to surge due to lower supply caused by the conflict. Canberra is weighing options to capitalise on the higher prices, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asking the Treasury Department to model a tax on LNG exports and suggest reforms to the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT). A suggested windfall tax could exceed 25%. Cecile Wake, chair of Shell Australia, which exports gas from the Queensland Curtis LNG project and operates the floating LNG project Prelude off northern Australia, warned against “short-term fixes” in response to the energy crisis. “At times like this, there is increased risk that strong and stable policy settings are sidelined by short-term measures or populist rhetoric,” she told the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference yesterday. The proposed policies would “erode project values and render many of Australia’s future growth opportunities uneconomic and uncom petitive compared to global alternatives”, Wake said. She said high commodity prices “already flow

Wake speaks during the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference in Sydney yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

how we can encourage more investments so that we can secure that supply,” he added. Australia exported A$65 billion (RM179.7 billion) of LNG last year, but gas producers have been criticised for low tax payments under rules that let them recoup construction costs before paying tax. Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said the “narrative that LNG exports take money out of Australia” was wrong and “every LNG tanker that departs Gladstone represents around A$4.5 million in royalties paid to the state”. “Australia must have a policy framework that abandons ideology about ‘fossil fuels’ and instead encourages companies to invest, drill and produce more gas,” he told the event. Gladstone LNG is the only of the three Queensland export consortia to source third party domestic gas while the others are net suppliers. – Reuters increasingly so after it was revealed in 2022 that billionaire activist-shareholder Nelson Peltz had built a stake in Unilever. Peltz has been linked to the departure of two CEOs, Alan Jope and Hein Schumacher, who investors felt were not streamlining Unilever’s portfolio fast enough. The deal with McCormick comes on top of an ongoing cost-cutting programme Unilever has had in place since 2024, meant to save around €800 million in costs over the next three years. “Evaluating the transaction will necessitate more details on synergies and how the company will deal with stranded costs, with news today that it has implemented a global hiring freeze amid the war impact, which may affect sentiment on current trading,“ JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.

through to Australians through higher corporate income tax and PRRT receipts”. Asia spot LNG prices have doubled to three year highs since the conflict in Iran began in February. Profits earned on long-term contracts linked to oil prices, which make up 75% of Australia’s export shipments, are also expected to surge in three to six months. Late last year Canberra introduced a gas market review that may reserve 15%-25% of east coast and Northern Territory exports from 2027. A more detailed policy is expected later this year. Chevron called a windfall profits tax a “knee jerk”, “sugar hit” policy and the “exact opposite” of what Australia needed. “There are discussions of market inter ventions, taxes and such,” Danny Woodall, Chevron Australia’s director of operations and maintenance, told the conference. “It’s a moment to reject that and to consider

Unilever, McCormick near deal to create US$60b food giant LONDON: Unilever said yesterday it was in advanced talks to combine its food business with spice maker McCormick in a potential deal that would deliver US$15.7 billion (RM63.3 billion) in cash and give shareholders majority control of the merged entity. biggest move yet since taking the helm at Unilever in March 2025 and comes after he completed the spin-off last year of Unilever’s multi-billion euro ice cream business, home to Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum.

Though Unilever’s food unit is a high-margin business, sales growth has lagged the company’s personal goods and beauty businesses and weighed on its ambition to increase overall group sales by 4%-6% in the near term. “Work remains ongoing to agree and finalise a transaction and it is possible that an agreement could be concluded today, although there can be no certainty that a transaction will be agreed,” Unilever said in a statement on the talks with McCormick. Unilever said the proposed combination of its foods business would exclude certain assets, including its operations in India. The company has been under investor pressure to shed food brands for years,

If completed, the transaction would be structured as a so-called Reverse Morris Trust, which offers tax benefits. Unilever would spin off the division and then merge it with the Cholula hot sauce owner. It is expected that Unilever shareholders would retain a 65% stake in the combined entity. Analysts at Barclays valued Unilever’s food business at between €28 billion and €31 billion (RM129,6 billion and RM143.5 billion), including debt. That, combined with McCormick’s US$14.2 billion market capitalisation and the US$15.7 billion in cash could value a new combined entity at over US$60 billion. The potential deal marks Fernando Fernandez’

Reuters reported exclusively on Monday that Unilever last week implemented a global hiring freeze “at all levels” that will last at least three months, citing the effects of the widening conflict in the Middle East. – Reuters Korean Air shifts to emergency mode amid rising oil prices from Iran war

SEOUL: Korean Air will enter emergency management mode this month as rising oil prices driven by the war in the Middle East weigh on costs, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters yesterday. The airline said in an internal memo reviewed by Reuters that if high oil prices persist, it expects significant disruption to its annual

Fuel surcharges for flights departing from South Korea in April are also set to jump, with fares on Incheon to New York and Incheon to Chicago routes rising by more than 200%, while surcharges on Incheon to London and Incheon to Paris routes are expected to increase by nearly 250%, according to Korean Air’s website. – Reuters

month amid rising fuel costs, according to local media reports, underscoring the broader strain on South Korea’s aviation industry. Korean Air said it expects fuel costs for April to rise to around 450 US cents per gallon, significantly higher than the 220 US cents per gallon cited in its business plan, a sharp increase in its monthly cost burden.

business targets, and will shift to an emergency operating system from April. The memo added that the airline plans to implement phased response measures based on oil price levels, and step up company-wide cost efficiency to offset surging fuel costs. T’way Air and Asiana Airlines have also entered emergency management mode this