04/08/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | AUG 4, 2026

18

Shell sells European onshore

Indonesia posts second straight trade deficit in June

renewables to TotalEnergies

LONDON: Shell is selling its onshore European renewables unit to TotalEnergies, the UK energy major said yesterday, as it continues to scale back its low-carbon investments to focus on upstream operations and trading. Shell said the deal agreed with TotalEnergies includes assets across Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, but did not disclose the sale price. Since taking over as Shell CEO three years ago, CEO Wael Sawan has shifted focus away from renewables. Last week, the group reported that second-quarter profit more than doubled from a year earlier to their second highest on record, helped by higher energy prices and stronger LNG trading. Shell also said yesterday that it wants to focus its power business on supplying large customers with energy solutions that combine renewable power with less intermittent hydrocarbon-based generation. The deal with TotalEnergies, expected to complete by the end of 2026, includes a portfolio of about 500 megawatts of solar and wind assets in operation or under construction, mainly located in Italy and the Netherlands, and a 3.5 gigawatt-pipeline of solar, wind and battery storage projects in Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain, Total said. TotalEnergies also announced a separate sale of a 50% stake in a 1.2 GW European renewables portfolio to global investment firm KKR, valuing the portfolio at €1.8 billion (RM8.5 billion). Total said both transactions were in line with its strategy to build renewable and gas-fired power generation capacity in key deregulated markets while selling down up to half of its renewables holdings at a profit. Total’s European renewables asset portfolio amounts to almost 10 gigawatts of gross installed capacity or capacity under construction, and 27 gigawatts under development. – Reuters PARIS: Video game developer Atari reported annual revenue of €56 million (RM266 million) yesterday, its highest in more than a decade, as a strategy built on reviving old franchises and buying up studios pulled the Paris-based company back into profit. Atari, the arcade and console pioneer that filed for bankruptcy protection just over a decade ago, is riding a broader industry shift toward mining back catalogues and nostalgia-driven franchises instead of costly new blockbusters, a trend it has embraced through a wave of studio and IP acquisitions over the past year. Over the past year, Atari raised its stake in Swedish video game publisher Thunderful to 97%, bought Crossy Road -maker Hipster Whale for US$29.3 million and the IP rights to five Ubisoft titles, including Child of Eden and Grow Home . CEO Wade Rosen said Atari was “reaching operational profitability for the first time in several years”and that he was confident it would continue to generate sustainable growth. – Reuters Atari returns to profit with decade-high revenue

JAKARTA: Indonesia recorded a second straight monthly trade deficit in June, but the gap was much smaller than expected as an increase in commodity exports helped offset a sharp rise in imports, while inflation slowed in July. Southeast Asia’s largest economy posted a trade deficit of US$450 million in June, official data showed yesterday, less than the US$790 million expected in a Reuters poll, and following a US$1.61 billion deficit in May, the first deficit in six years. Indonesia’s trade data offered tentative signs of stabilisation, but

o July annual inflation cools to 2.88%, slowest in three months

balance is likely to remain under pressure, limiting upside for the rupiah despite a more benign global energy backdrop,” he said. Imports surged 34.27% to US$25.91 billion. Analysts had expected June imports to grow 25.30%. A new Indonesian regulation mandating exporters of coal, palm oil and ferroalloys to notify a unit of sovereign wealth fund Danantara did not appear to affect shipment figures, Faiz said. June imports grew across the board, including a 105.15% surge in purchases of oil and gas, Statistics Indonesia data showed. Bank Indonesia has raised its benchmark policy rate by 100 basis points since May to support the rupiah, which hit a new historic low in June, and keep inflation within the central bank’s target band until 2027. Indonesia’s annual inflation rate in July cooled to 2.88% from 3.34% in June, below the median forecast of 3.20% in a Reuters poll. The July rate was the lowest in three months and safely within BI’s 1.5% to 3.5% target range. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices and government-controlled prices, was at 2.76% in July, close to the poll forecast of 2.80% and unchanged from June. Despite easing inflation in July, Bank Permata economist Faisal Rachman said there were still risks of prices rising further due to the impact of the El Nino weather pattern on food production and risks to energy prices from prolonged conflict in the Middle East. He did not rule out the possibility of another rate hike from the central bank in 2026 if conditions deteriorate, but maintained a baseline scenario of an unchanged policy rate of 5.75% for the remainder of 2026. – Reuters

signal a sustained improvement in Indonesia’s external position,” Bank Danamon economist Faiz Irman said. He noted that slowing growth in China, Indonesia’s largest export destination, and high prices of sulphuric acid, a key input for shipments of metal and chemical products, could weigh on export momentum. “As a result, Indonesia’s external

economists cautioned that a slowing Chinese economy, rising import costs and lingering pressure on the rupiah mean the country’s external position remains fragile. June exports rose 8.84% to US$25.46 billion, versus 0.25% growth forecast, boosted by stronger shipments of nickel products and palm oil-related exports. “The narrower trade deficit is encouraging but it does not yet

A worker loads fresh oil palm fruit bunches from Melati Hanjalipan cooperative palm oil plantation in Hanjalipan village in Central Kalimantan province. – REUTERSPIC

South Korean shares dive over 5% to open August SEOUL: South Korean shares closed more than 5% lower yesterday, kicking off August on a rocky note as investors sold off heavyweight chipmakers following a record rally the previous session. influence of leveraged retail bets on the heavyweight chipmakers. Samsung Electronics and rival SK Hynix , two major chipmakers that account for more than half of the KOSPI index, shed 9% and 8.7%, respectively. is evident in this year’s sharp swings: 32 of the 42 daily moves of more than 5% over the past decade have occurred this year as of July 31, as per William Bratton, Head of Cash Equity Research, APAC, BNP Paribas. on the back of a massive 179% surge in semiconductor shipments, with a purchasing managers survey by S&P Global showing factory activity expanding at a stronger pace in July on export demand.

Elsewhere in the KOSPI, Hyundai Motor and sister automaker Kia Corp were up 1.3% and down 1.7%, respectively. Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 2,826.2 billion won (RM8.1 billion) yesterday, after offloading a total of 9.86 trillion won in July, as per exchange data. The won firmed to 1,426.20 per US dollar, but remained below the 1,418 level it touched last Thursday after foreign exchange authorities conducted a rare dollar-selling intervention, as per a market source. – Reuters

The benchmark KOSPI index fell 5.1% to 6,257.45 points after soaring by a record 18% on Friday. Despite that, the gauge shed 22.2% in July to clock its steepest monthly drop since October 2008. Equities in Seoul have been whiplashed by a rapid unwinding of leveraged bets tied to heavyweight chipmakers and concerns around the durability of capital expenditure by AI hyperscalers. Friday’s record rally gave way to fresh selling yesterday, underscoring the fragile sentiment around AI investment and the outsized

Regulators have introduced measures to cap the impact of highly volatile financial products. However, investors remain sceptical about whether these curbs will be sufficient to weather the current market downturn. “Our discussions with investors suggest a high degree of frustration that the underlying fundamental story is being overwhelmed by the current level of market volatility,“ Bratton wrote. Meanwhile, data showed July exports beat market expectations

“Today’s pullback is best read as a positioning unwind rather than a change in the fundamental picture. Korean equities have become a high-beta proxy for global AI sentiment,“ Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X ETFs Australia, said. “The near-term path will likely stay volatile given how much leverage remains in the system, but the demand backdrop underneath the volatility is still strong.” The scale of the KOSPI’s volatility