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Saudi Arabian automotive services firm Petromin Corp is reviving plans for its initial public offering in the kingdom that could raise as much as $1bn, according to people familiar with the matter.The company, which is also the Middle East’s oldest lubricants firm, is working with Saudi National Bank and Moelis & Co on the planned offering, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.Details of the deal, such as its size and timing, may change, the people said. More banks may also be added to the syndicate, they said.Al Dabbagh Group, a family-owned conglomerate with interests from automobiles to real estate and food, bought a 49% stake in Petromin in 2013 from India’s Hinduja Group. The Saudi firm has since considered both an IPO and a stake sale for Petromin, Bloomberg News has reported. Hinduja was also planning an IPO of the company in 2010, but that deal never materialised.Representatives for Petromin, Al Dabbagh and SNB didn’t respond to requests for comment. A representative for Moelis declined to comment.With its most recent plans, Petromin would be tapping an IPO boom in the Gulf region that saw 31 first-time share sales in Saudi Arabia last year — the most on record and over half of the 44 listings in the Middle East during that period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The kingdom’s stock exchange is set to attract what could be its first listing by a global firm. Olam Group, one of Asia’s biggest agricultural commodity traders, is pursuing a potential dual listing of its agribusiness unit in Singapore and Riyadh.Jeddah-based Petromin was formed by royal decree in 1968 as a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil. It now operates eight business verticals including car dealerships, fleet solutions, fuel stations, lubricants and auto parts, according to its website.Aramco listed its own base-oils refining unit — known as Luberef — late last year in a deal that raised $1.3bn. Since then, the stock has fallen about 1.4% from its offering price after a decline in regional equities caught up with shares in the kingdom.

Dubai-based property and retail conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC abruptly ousted Alain Bejjani, a high-profile executive who’s led the firm since 2015, in a shakeup just over a year after the death of its eponymous founder.Ahmed Galal Ismail is now the chief executive officer, the company said in a statement, without elaborating on the reasons behind the move. Ismail has been head of the group’s property unit since 2018 and was responsible for its shopping malls, hotels, communities and project management operations. He also previously led the firm’s ventures business.The group is among the country’s biggest employers and of strategic importance to its food security. Bejjani was one of the most visible executives in Dubai, frequently appearing on TV and a regular at Davos.Majid Al Futtaim has long been seen as an anchor of Dubai’s economy. The company controls $16.5bn in assets including a renowned indoor ski hall, the opulent Mall of the Emirates and the Carrefour hypermarket franchise in the Middle East. It has activities in 17 countries, extending into Africa. Investors also hold some $3.7bn in corporate debt. Following its billionaire founder’s death in December 2021, the ruler of Dubai appointed a special judicial committee to oversee any potential disputes — a relatively rare occurrence reserved for high-profile cases.Majid Al Futtaim was in transition to multiple owners and that process could lay the groundwork for more sweeping changes, Bloomberg reported in April. Options include selling parts of the group, an investment by a sovereign wealth fund and a public listing, people familiar with the discussions said at the time.Bejjani told Bloomberg TV in August there were no plans to list any of MAF’s businesses, though the sudden change in leadership could signal a shift in those plans.Dubai’s stock market has seen a flurry of listings over the past year, amid a push by the government to increase liquidity on the local bourse. Still, family conglomerates, the pillars of the emirate’s economy, have been absent and MAF, which regularly taps the bond market, has been widely seen as a top candidate among domestic firms to pursue a listing.The city merged its economic and tourism departments in 2021, and one of the new entity’s main tasks is to prod private and family-owned businesses to sell shares on the Dubai bourse.Bejjani started working at MAF in October 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile. He held multiple of roles at the firm’s property business, including chief corporate development officer, before taking over as CEO of the entire firm in February 2015. The operator of Carrefour stores in the Middle East reported a 15% increase in first-half revenue and a 42% jump in profit in August, coinciding with a rebound in Dubai’s economy.

Egypt’s third major currency devaluation in less than a year appeared closer to achieving its aim, with signs that the foreign-exchange market may be stabilising despite a whipsawing pound.The North African nation has allowed its currency to weaken in phases and the latest devaluation, which started last week, is finally helping to narrow the gap with prices quoted in the black market.After suffering the biggest one-day drop since late October on Wednesday, the pound swung between gains of over 1% and a loss of 3%. Many traders in the black market paused operations after the plunge this week.The pound is still the world’s worst performer this year, and measures of short-term historical volatility show the swings are the most extreme globally. On Wednesday, it pared losses from a record after state banks sold dollars, according to Citigroup Inc.Foreign exchange was scarce for months in Egypt as the economy of the Middle East’s most populous country contended with the rising cost of commodities from food to fuel, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The pound has lost about 33% of its value since late October, when Egypt said it would embrace a flexible exchange rate, a move that helped it clinch a $3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.“The end of the devaluation process is close,” Citigroup strategists including Luis Costa and Lydia Rangapanaiken said in a report. “Although we do not expect the authorities to shift to a free-floating regime, further flexibility is expected, in line with the fund’s requirements.”Trading volumes on Wednesday surged to about $831mn, according to Citigroup, an indication that the clearing of a backlog of pent-up demand for dollars is underway.In a sign that foreign capital is trickling back into the country, investors from other Arab countries made net purchases of around 7bn pounds ($236mn) in Egyptian Treasury bonds in the secondary market on Wednesday, according to the local stock exchange’s website.In an auction of six-month Treasury bills held on Thursday, the country sold 51.9bn pounds of the securities at a yield of 21%, with investors offering to buy more than three times that amount.Last year, the reluctance to allow for a steeper currency adjustment was a turnoff for international buyers, whose retreat from the local debt market helped push up the yields on Egypt’s Treasury bills by the most since 2016.Dollar inflows into the interbank market reached as much as $750mn on Wednesday from an average of $150mn previously, state MENA news agency cited a banker as saying.The pound was 0.6% stronger against the dollar on Thursday, trading around 29.61 at the close in Cairo. It slumped as much as 14% to a record low of 32.1 on Wednesday. The parallel rate declined to 29-30 on Wednesday from 31-33, according to Citigroup’s strategists. Wednesday’s moves “reflect steps in the right direction,” they said.

Prince Harry left out revelations about his family in his memoir, saying that he did not want “the world to know because I don’t think they would ever forgive me,” according to an interview published by the Daily Telegraph yesterday.The prince told the UK broadsheet that he has enough material to write another book, mostly focused on his relationship with his brother Prince William and father King Charles III, in comments likely to further unsettle the royal family.“The first draft was different. It was 800 pages, and now it’s down to 400 pages,” he said of his book Spare.“It could have been two books, put it that way. And the hard bit was taking things out.”“There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me,” he said.“Now you could argue that some of the stuff I’ve put in there, well, they will never forgive me anyway,” he added.The rogue prince said the media had a “tonne of dirt about my family” but that they “sweep it under the carpet for juicy stories about someone else”.After months of anticipation and a blanket publicity blitz, Harry’s book Spare went on sale on Tuesday as royal insiders hit back at his scorching revelations.In it, Harry details long-standing tension between himself and his brother, culminating in William, who is heir to the throne, knocking him to the floor during a 2019 argument over Harry’s American wife, Meghan.The royal family have maintained a studied silence as painful details from the book and a round of pre-publication TV interviews have piled up.In Spare, Harry portrays his father, 74, as emotionally crippled, the victim of brutal childhood bullying.However, among the many contradictions in the book, Harry also characterises the king as a doting father, who favours strong French aftershave and conducts headstands to alleviate polo-induced back pain.In his Telegraph interview, Harry said he was airing his grievances in public not to “collapse” the royal family but because he had a “responsibility” to reform it in order to protect William’s children.William, he said, “has made it very clear to me that his kids are not my responsibility”.The book comes on the back of the six-hour Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.A YouGov poll on Monday found that 64% of Britons now have a negative view of the once-popular prince – his lowest-ever rating – and that Meghan also scores dismally.They may also be straining public interest in Meghan’s homeland, according to the New York Times.“Even in the United States, which has a soft spot for royals in exile and a generally higher tolerance than Britain does for redemptive stories about overcoming trauma and family dysfunction, there is a sense that there are only so many revelations the public can stomach,” its former London correspondent Sarah Lyall wrote.

The US ambassador to Sudan has called on ex-rebels who were not part of an initial post-coup deal to join the talks aimed at restoring a transition to civilian rule. Military leaders and some civilian factions agreed last month on the first of a two-phase political process seeking to end the turmoil Sudan has been plunged into since a 2021 coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. While the accord drew some international acclaim, opponents at home eyed it with scepticism, saying it falls short on specifics and timelines.“It is important to note that the process remains open for them to come in,” ambassador John Godfrey told AFP on Thursday, referring to key factions which refused to sign the agreement. Former rebel leader Mini Minnawi, governor of the restive Darfur region, slammed the deal as “exclusionary”. Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim, also an ex-rebel leader who had signed a peace deal with Sudan’s short-lived transitional government, said it was “far from a national accord and does not lead to free and fair elections”. “Our understanding is that efforts continue to try to find a way to meet a situation where they feel that they could join the process,” Godfrey said.He spoke at the conclusion of the first round of talks in Khartoum over the second phase of the political process, focused mainly on negating the remnants of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir’s regime, ousted in 2019 in the face of mass protests. Another round of talks is expected in the coming weeks over key contentious issues including transitional justice, accountability and security reforms. Burhan’s coup, which derailed a fragile transition following Bashir’s ouster, triggered near-weekly demonstrations, with activists demanding a civilian government.More than 120 people have been killed in the crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations, according to pro-democracy medics. The coup has also deepened a spiralling economic crisis and heightened ethnic clashes in Sudan’s remote regions, which killed around 900 people last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The December preliminary deal brought together Burhan, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and multiple civilian groups - most notably the Forces for Freedom and Change, the main civilian bloc ousted in the 2021 military coup.The United Nations said the talks this week mark “another important step towards realising the aspirations of the Sudanese people for democracy, peace and sustainable development”.Godfrey expressed high hopes, saying it was “very clear” that negotiators were working towards restoring Sudan’s transition. Burhan has pledged the military would no longer be involved in politics once a civilian government is installed. The army chief has also expressed hope that international aid suspended since the coup would be restored.Ties between Washington and Khartoum were severely strained under Bashir’s three-decade rule, with crippling US sanctions imposed in 1993. Relations eased under Sudan’s now-ousted transitional government led by former premier Abdalla Hamdok. In August, Godfrey took the post as the first US ambassador to Sudan in nearly 25 years. Following the 2021 coup, the United States suspended $700mn in aid, but Godfrey said it has continued to provide “humanitarian” and “some development assistance”. “We have made it clear that until a new civilian-led government is in place in Sudan, we will not be in a position to restore the other lines of assistance.”

Chu Wenhong would fly back to Shanghai and visit her parents at least once a year after she moved to Singapore in 1994. But she hasn’t been able to do so in the past three years due to China’s signature zero-Covid policy, which involved mass PCR testing, city-wide lockdowns and quarantining all inbound arrivals, including overseas Chinese like Chu.The last time the 54-year-old lab worker visited her hometown was in November 2019, one month before the world’s first Covid outbreak was detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.But Chu snatched a ticket last month to fly back after China announced it would end quarantine on all inbound travellers from Jan 8, marking the final unravelling of the country’s zero-Covid policy. “Finally, I can go back. I have been waiting for this day for a long time,” Chu said from her Singapore home after packing her suitcase on Wednesday, the night before her flight.The removal of inbound quarantine prompted a surge in demand for plane tickets in countries like Singapore which have large communities of overseas Chinese. Singapore resident Chu paid S$2,264 (around $1,700) for a one way ticket to Shanghai, while a return journey used to cost her around S$600 before the pandemic. However, in the absence of a long quarantine, it was still a price she was willing to pay in order to spend with her family over the Lunar New Year holiday that starts on Jan 21.The holiday is especially important to Chinese families as it is often the only time of the year when relatives, distant and close, reunite and spend time with each other. China had imposed inbound quarantines on all arrivals from outside its borders since March 2020.The measure discouraged business travel into China and kept families separated for years, as it involved paying to stay inside a hotel room for two to three weeks. And even for those willing to endure the hotel quarantine, flights were often unavailable or overpriced as Beijing drastically cut the number of inbound flights in a bid to prevent imported Covid-19 cases.“China remained closed off after Singapore reopened, so to go back, people needed to do PCR tests, undergo quarantine, and prices of flight tickets skyrocketed. There were too many obstacles,” Chu said. China’s easing over the past month of one of the world’s tightest Covid regimes followed historic protests against a policy that included frequent testing, curbs on movement and mass lockdowns that heavily damaged the world’s second-biggest economy.Chu said she had missed her parents, her 83-year-old father and 78-year-old mother, and worried about their failing health.Her biggest wish was to spend as much time with them as possible when she goes back this time. “I haven’t seen them for three years, and they both got Covid, and are quite old. I feel quite lucky actually, as it wasn’t too serious for them, but their health is not very good. So I want to go home and see them as soon as possible,” she said.Chu said she felt exhilarated to be home soon after landing at the Shanghai Pudong Airport on Thursday. “I’m so happy because I’ve been looking forward to it for three whole years. I want to see my mother the most and take a good look at her,” she said.Her mother, Cao Yafang, was equally relieved after reuniting with her daughter. “She is pretty much the same as in the videochat. Now when I see her in person, my heart is more at ease.”

The world economy is beginning the new year on a more optimistic note, though that’s no guarantee 2023 will end that way. A variety of factors – a sooner-than-expected reopening of China’s economy, a warmer-than-normal winter in energy-strapped Europe and a sustained fall in US inflation – are combining to dissipate some of the gloom that engulfed financial markets at the end of 2022 and fanning hopes the world can dodge a recession.But with the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and several peers still pushing ahead with higher interest rates, the risk of a slump later in the year can’t be dismissed, especially if inflation proves sticky and doesn’t retreat as much as central banks want.“There’s a narrow path to a soft landing,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc chief economist Jan Hatzius told a January 11 webinar sponsored by the Atlantic Council. “It’s going to be difficult for policymakers to calibrate the amount of restraint to get that done.”He’s betting they’ll succeed — and so too are investors. Emerging-market equities are on a tear and corporate-bond prices are rising on hopes that the world economy will emerge from the scariest inflation in decades without suffering a downturn.There are some reasons for guarded optimism. Price pressures are easing worldwide, in part because global growth has slowed but also due to an untangling of supply chains that were tied in knots by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. US consumer prices rose 6.5% in December from a year earlier, down from a high of 9.1% in June.The ebbing of inflation will support the purchasing power of consumers who spent much of the last year squeezed by rising prices, especially for such essentials as energy, food and rents. It will also allow central banks to scale back their rate increases, dampening fears among investors that policymakers would go too far and “break something” in the markets.Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues are expected to downshift to a quarter-percentage-point rate hike at their January 31-February 1 policy meeting, according to trading in the federal funds futures market. That would follow a half-point increase in December and four 75 basis-point moves prior to that.The step back has led to a reversal of the dollar’s meteoric rise, easing pressure on other central banks to match the Fed with economy-slowing rate increases of their own.“We have seen peak dollar strength,” Kroll Institute chief global economist Megan Greene said.Other pluses: Labour markets remain remarkably resilient, while household and business finances continue to enjoy some health. When prices for energy, especially natural gas, surged last year, a recession in Europe was widely seen as a foregone conclusion. No longer: Goldman’s Hatzius said he now sees the region dodging a downturn. Credit mild winter weather and a concerted effort to boost supplies and expand suppliers to make up for lost imports from Russia. The result: The euro-area economy has held up better than expected: Industrial production in Germany edged up in November, despite the country’s heavy dependence on Russian energy supplies.“The danger of a complete economic meltdown, a core meltdown of European industry, has — as far as we can see — been averted,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said earlier this month.Germany should also benefit from China abandoning its Covid Zero policy in favour of a reopening of its economy, a major destination for the European country’s exports.Wall Street economists are busily upgrading their forecasts for China’s growth following the dismantling of Covid Zero. Barclays Plc lifted its gross domestic product growth projection to 4.8% for 2023 from 3.8% on a faster-than-expected reopening. Morgan Stanley now expects growth of 5.7% instead of an earlier estimate of 4.4%.While China’s recovery faces hurdles, the combination of an easing real estate slump and more government support means the outlook is better than many anticipated as recently as the end of last year.“We’re now expecting a kind of V-shaped recovery as we’ve seen in many other economies that have been shut down because of Covid,” said Goldman’s Hatzius of China’s prospects.The China reopening, though, could complicate the global inflation story, by stoking demand — and prices — for oil and other commodities. That could then have implications for the Fed and other major central banks.Hopes that the Fed can rein in elevated inflation without crashing the economy into recession were boosted by the December jobs report, which showed wage gains easing while unemployment returned to a multi-decade low. “It looks more like a soft landing,” Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok said.Despite such budding optimism, the World Bank this week slashed its growth forecasts for most countries and regions, and warned new shocks could still lead to a recession.

Tesla has slashed prices on its electric vehicles in the United States and Europe by as much as 20%, extending a strategy of aggressive discounting after missing Wall Street estimates for 2022 deliveries.The move, which prompted a 3.8% fall in Tesla’s shares in Frankfurt, came after CEO Elon Musk warned that the prospect of recession and higher interest rates meant it could lower vehicle pricing to sustain volume growth at the expense of profit. The lower pricing across Tesla’s major markets marks a reversal from the strategy the automaker had pursued through much of 2021 and 2022 when orders for new vehicles exceeded supply.Musk acknowledged last year that prices had become “embarrassingly high” and could hurt demand.The US price cuts, announced late Thursday in US time on the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover SUV, ranged between 6% and 20% compared with prices before the discount, according to Reuters calculations. That is before an up to $7,500 federal tax credit that took effect for many electric vehicle models at the start of January. Following is a table of the price cuts by model in Germany and the United States:Tesla also cut prices for its Model X luxury crossover SUV and Model S sedan in the United States.In Germany, it cut prices on the Model 3 and the Model Y — its global top-sellers — by between about 1% and almost 17% depending on the configuration.It also cut prices in Austria, Switzerland and France.For a US buyer of the long-range Model Y, the new Tesla price combined with the US subsidy that took effect this month amounts to a discount of 31%. In addition, the Tesla move broadened the vehicles in its line-up eligible for the Biden administration tax credit.Before the price cut, the five-seat version of the Model Y had been ineligible for that credit, a designation Musk had called “messed up”. After the price cut, the long-range version of the Model Y will qualify for the $7,500 federal credit.“This should really boost 2023 (Tesla) volumes,” Gary Black, a Tesla investor who has remained bullish on the company and its prospects through the recent, sharp share price decline, said in a tweet.”It’s the right move.”Still, some users on Tesla fan forums online complained the price cuts disadvantaged customers who had recently bought their vehicle, leaving them with a lower-valued item on the second-hand car market.“I’m not very pleased with these huge price sways.Just reducing 10,000 euros like that — definitely makes you feel that you just paid far too much,” one user wrote on a ‘Tesla Drivers and Friends’ forum yesterday.In China, where Tesla cut prices last week by 6-13.5%, owners protested at delivery centres across the country, pressing Tesla for compensation.Before the price cut, Tesla inventory in the United States, as tracked by the models its website shows as immediately available, had been trending higher.Prices on used Tesla models had also been declining, increasing the pressure on it to adjust new-car sticker prices.For 2021, the United States and China combined had accounted for about 75% of Tesla sales, although the automaker has been growing sales in Europe, where its Berlin factory has been ramping up production. The shift is the first major move by Tesla since appointing its lead executive for China and Asia, Tom Zhu, to oversee US output and sales. Tesla cut prices in China and other Asian markets last week. Along with previous price cuts announced in October and recent incentives, the Chinese price for a Model 3 or Model Y was down 13% to 24% from September after the recent move, Reuters calculations showed.Tesla has also cut prices in South Korea, Japan, Australia and Singapore.Analysts had said the Chinese price cuts would boost demand and increase pressure on its rivals there, including BYD, to follow suit in what could become a price war in the largest single market for electric vehicles.That pressure could be building in Europe as well.Tesla’s Model 3 was the best-selling electric vehicle in Germany last month, followed by the Model Y, beating Volkswagen’s all-electric ID.4.Volkswagen recently raised the price of its entry-level ID.3, putting it at parity with the now-discounted Model 3. Tesla missed Wall Street estimates for fourth quarter deliveries.Full year growth in deliveries was 40% — also short of Musk’s own forecast of 50%.

The Islamic Development Bank has pledged $4.2bn to Pakistan over three years to help the South Asian country finance its rebuilding plan after devastating floods left a third of the nation inundated in the summer, a minister said.The international “community and development partners are demonstrating exemplary compassion for flood victims,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Marrirum Aurangzeb said in a Twitter post after an appeal by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a conference in Geneva yesterday. The European Union pledged equivalent to $534mn for the reconstruction plan, President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in a message at the conference.The Asian Development Bank “will reprioritise up to $1 billion for climate and disaster risk reconstruction as well as resilience support over the next three years,” according to a statement by the lender, citing a vice-president Shixin Chen.At the conference, Sharif appealed for $8bn from the global community, or about half of the total financing need, to help the country rebuild houses and farms along with rehabilitate people impacted by the floods. He said the nation plans to fund the remaining half from its own resources.“I am asking for your support for those who have lost their life savings, their homes and livelihoods,” said Sharif at the conference co-hosted by Pakistan and the United Nations. “For those who are sitting under the blue sky facing the harshness of winter.”Pakistan’s floods killed more than 1,700 people and cut the nation’s growth by half. The United Nations has previously said the global community hasn’t provided enough funds after the floods.The nation is also open to debt swaps and other financial instruments with friendly countries that will help free up resources to spend on flood-related activities, said finance minister Ishaq Dar.

Relieved to have turned the page on the worst year for stocks in more than a decade, investors are finding that pricey share valuations and shrinking earnings still stand in the way of any swift bounceback for Big Tech.While price-earnings multiples have come down from their peaks during the pandemic, many of the market’s biggest names continue to look expensive. At the same time, the profit outlook is weakening and the economy could be headed toward a recession as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises interest rates to combat inflation. There are also risks to key businesses, such as supply constraints for Apple Inc.’s iPhone or weakness in online advertising for Alphabet Inc and Meta Platforms Inc. A slowdown in business spending could mean weaker trends for cloud computing, a key driver at Amazon.com Inc and a risk UBS Group AG warned about in downgrading Microsoft Corp. The confluence of a weak backdrop and shaky fundamentals suggests corporate earnings, the primary driver of stock prices, could disappoint. Last week, profits at tech bellwether Samsung Electronics Co dropped by the most in more than a decade.“The fundamentals of these companies are not improving, and at the margin they’re deteriorating,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, referring to Big Tech. “For growth stocks to work, you want to see improving fundamentals and estimates, and we’re not seeing that right now, which makes it hard to argue for multiple expansion.”The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 33% last year, its biggest annual drop since 2008. While it is up less than 1% in 2023, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet all remain in negative territory. A key test will arrive in coming weeks, as companies release results for the fourth quarter. Investors are concerned the reports and outlooks could underline how the backdrop is weighing on demand, a factor that has contributed to widespread layoffs at companies like Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce Inc.Wall Street expects tech-sector earnings to fall 2.2% this year, compared with growth of 2% for the S&P 500, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data. The consensus has dropped dramatically over the past few months — at the end of September, tech earnings had been forecast to rise 4.7% in 2023 — and many expect analysts will cut their estimates further. If they do, that would make stocks appear pricier by lowering the denominator in the price-earnings ratio, potentially leading to more selling pressure. The S&P 500 tech sector still trades at 20.1 times estimated earnings, above its 10-year average of 18.9, as well as the 17 multiple of the S&P 500 overall. Apple remains above its long-term average, while Microsoft is only slightly under its own. The two account for about 11% of the overall weight of the S&P, and of the four biggest megacaps, Alphabet is the only one to trade at a discount to the overall market. Patrick Burton, a portfolio manager at Winslow Capital Management, said the market hadn’t yet priced in an earnings recession, something he is confident will happen this year.“In this environment, investors are going to be less forgiving of unprofitability, of slowing growth, and of weak earnings or guidances,” he said. “Big tech has been successful for so long, but if you have a widely owned stock that is seeing decelerating growth, that’s a problem. Valuations are such that that any bad news will be met with a selloff.”

An expected capital increase will help Turkiye’s Ziraat Bank to spearhead President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drive to boost economic growth and tackle chronic current account deficits this year, the head of the country’s largest lender told Reuters.Chief executive Alpaslan Cakar, who is also chairman of the Turkish Banks Association, said state banks like Ziraat were the driving force in the economy in recent years and would carry on even as they seek to pay dividends in 2023.He downplayed concerns raised by private-sector counterparts over risks posed by a flurry of bond-holding regulations, and he said credit would continue to boost sectors like manufacturing and agriculture.Erdogan introduced a “new economic model” in 2021 that prioritises growth, investment and exports and is aimed at flipping Turkiye’s persistent trade deficits, a major component of the current account.The model relies on targeted loans and low interest rates, in line with his unorthodox view that cutting rates decreases inflation.“We will give significant support to Turkiye’s economic model. For that reason we want to be strong in capital terms,” Cakar said in an interview conducted late last month.In December, Reuters reported citing sources that state-owned banks were in talks with the Treasury and the sovereign wealth fund to secure more capital, allowing them to boost lending ahead of elections this year.“There is no clear figure yet for the capital increase of state banks. We are consulting with the relevant institutions on this issue,” Cakar told Reuters at Ziraat’s Instabul headquarters.The economy is expected to have expanded 5% in 2022 but growth is slowing and uncertain for 2023 amid presidential and parliamentary elections due by June.To boost growth and back Erdogan’s economic vision, the central bank has slashed its key interest rate to 9% from 19% since September 2021, stimulus that crashed the currency in December 2021 and drove inflation to a 24-year high above 85% in October.State banks have supported the economy with low-cost financing for the last few years, increasing their dominance in the financial sector and their capital needs.State banks’ share of loans have reached a record level near 50%. Asked about record sector profits in 2022, Cakar confirmed a Reuters report in late December that Turkish banks wanted to make dividend payouts to shareholders.Banking watchdog the BDDK — which makes recommendations each year regarding banks’ profit distribution — was evaluating the request, he said.Cakar, however, said profits were set to fall in 2023 as inflation cools.In the January-October period, the sector’s net profits leapt 417% from a year earlier to 389bn lira ($20.72bn), boosted by inflation-indexed bond yields.Authorities have sought to discourage foreign exchange use following the 2021 lira crisis.They imposed nearly 100 new regulations on banks, including a mandate to hold more treasury bonds that drew rare criticism from private-sector executives.But Cakar said these holdings would not pose risks. “The weight of fixed coupon bonds held in the balance sheet due to regulations will not reach a level that will disrupt the balance sheet,” he said.He also said that Ziraat’s selective loans policy would continue in 2023, with the priorities being manufacturing, agriculture and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).“We have become one of the banks that gave the biggest support to the Turkish economy model,” he said, noting its cash loan size rose 61% to 1.2tn lira in 2022.Ziraat’s non-performing loans ratio was low at 1.1% last year, compared with 2.2% sector-wide, he said.He also said the bank would be active in international funding this year, aiming for a 100% syndication renewal in February, and seeking to increase international funding, including via Eurobonds.

Dubai will seek capital mostly from the US and the UK, already its biggest sources of foreign direct investment, as it looks to expand trade and almost double funding from abroad over the coming decade.The US and UK will be “the key markets,” Helal al-Marri, the head of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday. “In addition to that, we see bilateral agreements with over 200 countries really driving the trade.”Dubai, one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates, this week unveiled ambitions to achieve a cumulative increase of 650bn dirhams ($177bn) in FDI until 2033.The latest official figures show the US and UK accounted for more than half of total FDI in the first half of 2022. China, India and Japan were the UAE’s biggest trade partners in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Dubai’s 32tn-dirham programme, dubbed “D33,” set out plans that include a goal for foreign trade to reach 25.6tn dirhams for the next decade. The emirate also aims to become the third-largest tourism destination globally by 2033. “Tourism continues to grow,” al-Marri said. “We have already hit 12.8mn tourists in November, we are already on a run rate to pre-Covid levels.”A Middle East business hub, Dubai has already been deepening trade routes and working to attract global firms as it faces growing competition from neighbouring Riyadh. To keep its edge in the region, the UAE changed its work week to Monday-Friday a year ago and announced a corporate tax that is set to go into effect this year. “The government announced last year that with corporate tax coming in midway through this year, there will be adjustment piloted and reviewed across all types of government fees,” said al-Marri. “You’re going to see that going on through the year.” Amid speculation that the introduction of an income tax may follow the 9% corporate levy, officials have repeatedly said it wasn’t on the table, a view reiterated by al-Marri.“The federal government has made it clear: corporate tax is where we are focused,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to squeeze Europe by weaponising energy look to be fizzling at least for now. Mild weather, a wider array of suppliers and efforts to reduce demand are helping, with gas reserves still nearly full and prices tumbling to pre-war levels. After the sharp turnaround over the past month, Europe is likely already through the worst of the crisis. The combination of conditions — including China’s Covid woes blunting competition for LNG cargoes — would take the edge off inflation, stabilise Europe’s economic outlook and leave the Kremlin with less leverage over Ukraine’s allies, if they persist. While a cold snap or delivery disruptions could still throw energy markets into disarray, optimism is growing that Europe can now make it through this winter and next.“The danger of a complete economic meltdown, a core meltdown of European industry, has — as far as we can see — been averted,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a key architect of the country’s response to the energy crisis, said during a trip to Norway, which has taken Russia’s place as the country’s biggest gas supplier. The crisis, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, has already cost Europe close to $1tn from surging energy prices. Governments have responded with more than $700bn in aid to help companies and consumers absorb the blow. They also scrambled to unwind their reliance on Russian energy, especially natural gas. The European Union is no longer importing coal and crude oil from Russia and gas deliveries have been significantly curtailed. The bloc has filled some of the gap by increasing supplies from Norway and shipments of liquefied natural gas from Qatar, the US and other producers. In Germany, storage facilities are about 91% full, compared with 54% a year ago, when Russia had already been emptying facilities it controlled. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has since nationalised Gazprom PJSC’s local units and has spent billions of euros filling reserves. Energy-saving measures from industry and households as well as the warmest January temperatures in decades have helped preserve that cushion. “We are very optimistic, which we weren’t really back in the fall,” Klaus Mueller, head of Germany’s network regulator, said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD on Friday. “The more gas we have in storage facilities at the beginning of the year, the less stress and cost we will face in filling them again for next winter.”Benchmark gas prices have fallen to a fifth of records set in August, and despite concerns that cheaper rates could stoke demand, usage is still declining — a silver lining of the weak economy. European consumption is expected to be some 16% below five-year average levels throughout 2023, Morgan Stanley said in a report. Favourable conditions and the expansion of renewable capacity is also helping. Higher wind and solar generation will help slash gas-fired power generation in 10 of Europe’s largest power markets by 39% this year, according to S&P Global.The dynamic has shifted to such an extent that there’s now too much LNG arriving, according to Morgan Stanley. Deliveries set a fresh record in December, and the trend is likely to continue. Germany, once the biggest buyer of Russian gas, is opening three terminals this winter, and Europe’s largest economy expects its new LNG facilities to cover about a third of its previous requirements. Steady supplies from non-Russian sources are likely to keep market prices from surging to last year’s peaks. “The fact that Europe managed to fill up its storage sites has really created a buffer for prices for the upcoming winter,” said Giacomo Masato, lead analyst and senior meteorologist at Italy-based energy company Illumia SpA. “The expectations shifted as the region started to have ample supplies.”Refilling reserves could be less dramatic after this winter. Morgan Stanley and consultancy Wood Mackenzie Ltd expect storage sites about half full this spring if the weather stays mild. That would be double last year’s levels. Despite the positive developments, prices are still higher than historical averages and risks remain. Russian pipeline gas imports this year will be just a fifth of usual levels — about 27 billion cubic metres (bcm) — and the Kremlin could cut them completely. That’s “a massive reduction for a market that was consuming 400 bcm in 2021,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. LNG therefore will be critical to securing enough supplies for next winter, and Europe will need to remain alert. A rebound in China’s economy could stoke competition, with supplies tight until more capacity becomes available in 2025. Russia also has the ability to cause disruption in the market as one of Europe’s top-three suppliers of the super-chilled fuel.The climate crisis has contributed to a lack of demand for heating so far this winter and increasingly volatile weather patterns may still trigger blasts of cold, such as the recent arctic weather that swept across the US. Prolonged freezing temperatures can deplete storage sites to 20% capacity, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Ant Group’s founder Jack Ma will give up control of the Chinese fintech giant in an overhaul that seeks to draw a line under a regulatory crackdown that was triggered soon after its mammoth stock market debut was scuppered two years ago.Ant’s $37bn IPO, which would have been the world’s largest, was cancelled at the last minute in November 2020, leading to a forced restructuring of the financial technology firm and speculation the Chinese billionaire would have to cede control.While some analysts have said a relinquishing of control could clear the way for the company to revive its IPO, the changes announced by the group yesterday, however, are likely to result in a further delay due to listing regulations.China’s domestic A-share market requires companies to wait three years after a change in control to list.The wait is two years on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR market, and one year in Hong Kong.A former English teacher, Ma previously possessed more than 50% of voting rights at Ant but the changes will mean that his share falls to 6.2%, according to Reuters calculations.Ma only owns a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, but has exercised control over the company through related entities, according to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with the exchanges in 2020.Hangzhou Yunbo, an investment vehicle for Ma, had control over two other entities that own a combined 50.5% stake of Ant, the prospectus showed.Ma’s ceding of control comes as Ant is nearing the completion of its two-year regulatory-driven restructuring, with Chinese authorities poised to impose a fine of more than $1bn on the firm, Reuters reported in November.The expected penalty is part of Beijing’s sweeping and unprecedented crackdown on the country’s technology titans over the past two years that has sliced hundreds of billions of dollars off their values and shrunk revenues and profits. But Chinese authorities have in recent months softened their tone on the tech crackdown amid efforts to bolster a $17tn economy that has been badly hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic.“With the Chinese economy in a very febrile state, the government is looking to signal its commitment to growth, and the tech, private sectors are key to that as we know,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of investment advisory firm BDA China.“At least Ant investors can (now) have some timetable for an exit after a long period of uncertainty,” said Clark, who is also an author of a book on Alibaba and Ma.Ant operates China’s ubiquitous mobile payment app Alipay, the world’s largest, which has more than 1bn users.Ant, whose businesses also span consumer lending and insurance products distribution, said Ma and nine of its other major shareholders had agreed to no longer act in concert when exercising voting rights, and would only vote independently.It added that the shareholders’ economic interests in Ant will not change as a result of the adjustments.Ant also said it would add a fifth independent director to its board so that independent directors will comprise a majority of the company’s board.It currently has eight board directors.“As a result, there will no longer be a situation where a direct or indirect shareholder will have sole or joint control over Ant Group,” it said in its statement.Reuters reported in April 2021 that Ant was exploring options for Ma, one of China’s most successful and influential businessmen, to divest his stake in Ant and give up control.The Wall Street Journal reported in July last year, citing unnamed sources, that Ma could cede control by transferring some of his voting power to Ant officials including chief executive officer Eric Jing.Ant’s market listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai was derailed days after Ma publicly criticised regulators in a speech in October 2020.Since then, his sprawling empire has been under regulatory scrutiny and going through a restructuring.Once outspoken, Ma has largely remained out of public view since the regulatory crackdown that has reined in the country’s technology giants and did away with a laissez-faire approach that drove breakneck growth.“Jack Ma’s departure from Ant Financial, a company he founded, shows the determination of the Chinese leadership to reduce the influence of large private investors,” said Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research. “This trend will continue the erosion of the most productive parts of the Chinese economy.”

Tech companies including Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc are expected to hit the bond market in size to buy back stock after last year’s rout.As much as $20bn in issuance from Microsoft and $10bn from Meta could be on the docket, according to analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence. The sector has more cash than others, giving it room to pursue bond sales to fund buybacks. Microsoft’s shares are down nearly 30% in the last year, while Meta Platforms saw more than 60% of its value erased. The massive sell off in many high-flying tech stocks may push the industry’s behemoths to borrow more to help return money to shareholders as cash levels drop. “Despite rising interest rates and minimal maturities, we don’t expect tech to avoid debt markets; the sector may continue to bolster balance sheets, particularly for enhanced shareholder returns,” Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Robert Schiffman wrote in a note on Wednesday. Funding for acquisitions and maturing debt also “could drive jumbo financing at the sector’s largest issuers.”Amazon.com Inc, meanwhile, shored up $8bn through a term loan just as the company announced it is laying off more than 18,000 workers. Its shares have plunged almost 50% in the past year.A spokesperson for Amazon said the company regularly evaluates its operating plan and makes financing decisions – like entering into term loan agreements or issuing bonds – accordingly. “Given the uncertain macroeconomic environment, over the last few months we have used different financing options to support capital expenditures, debt repayments, acquisitions, and working capital needs,” the spokesperson said. Microsoft and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Most companies in the high-grade market spent the past decade binging on debt and pushing ratings down to the last rung of investment-grade. Now, as an economic downturn looms, the average blue-chip company is expected to be in balance sheet repair mode, according to Bank of America strategist Yuri Seliger. “Investors want companies to be more careful with their balance sheets and use cash to pay back debt,” he said. “The tech sector might be an exception because that industry has a lot of cash.”Travis King, head of US investment grade corporates at Voya Investment Management, is upbeat on higher-quality tech names. But he remains cautious on companies in the sector with BBB ratings, the lowest tier of investment grade. “We want to stay up in quality to start the year and most single A tech names have very strong balance sheets with net cash positions in many cases,” he said. “While the equities have been hit, the credit profiles are still very strong.” But the industry’s robust cash levels have fallen. Microsoft’s cash levels dropped 22% since its September 2020 peak, according to Schiffman. Meta and Amazon’s cash piles plunged 34% and 39% from their June and December 2021 peaks, respectively.And while Big Tech’s balance sheets are still in a strong position, it is likely that cash levels will deteriorate further without additional borrowing, Schiffman added. “Cash on balance sheets remains abundant,” he said. “But it would likely fall sharply if not for opportunistic borrowing in 2023.”The one company that was contemplating selling investment-grade bonds Friday stood down after a strong employment report saw Treasury yields fall. An extremely hot start to the year that saw 32 deals in the first two days quieted with just three deals priced on Thursday, giving the market a little time to digest the barrage of new supply.The structure of a Bed Bath & Beyond Inc bankruptcy likely to hit in the coming weeks will revolve mainly around the fate of its prized Buybuy Baby brand, which comprises much of the company’s value. Small and mid-sized companies could find it harder to get debt financing soon, as both collateralised loan obligations and banks have pulled away from lending to them, according to Arlene Shaw, managing director and treasurer at Brightwood Capital.SOFR futures and options volumes were 28% and 82% above 20-day average levels on Thursday. Options flows were dominated by new put condor structures targeting a Fed policy rate higher than is currently priced into Fed swaps, CME preliminary open-interest data suggest.Sales of new bonds in Europe are steaming ahead of last year and that’s even before corporates have yet to flood the market with new deals.From Credit Suisse to Barclays and BNP Paribas, banks have helped push new bond supply in the first week of the year to over €77bn — or 75% above the same point in 2022.The first week of 2023 is also turning out to be the second-best start to a year on record for euro high-grade total returns, as cooler-than-expected inflation prints spurred a rally in government bonds.

US authorities are digging into the internal financial dealings of Barry Silbert’s expansive crypto empire, according to people familiar with the matter.Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are scrutinising transfers between Digital Currency Group Inc (DCG) and an embattled subsidiary that offers crypto lending services, said the people, who asked not to be named because the probe hasn’t been made public. They’re also delving into what investors were told about those transactions.Prosecutors have started requesting interviews and documents, one of the people said. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also conducting an investigation, another person said. The probes are in early phases and neither Silbert, Digital Currency Group, nor any of its subsidiaries have been accused of wrongdoing. Silbert referred a request for comment to a DCG spokesperson. In a statement, the company said: “DCG has a strong culture of integrity and has always conducted its business lawfully. We have no knowledge of or reason to believe that there is any Eastern District of New York investigation into DCG.”Genesis, the subsidiary whose unit offers lending services, said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on specific legal or regulatory matters. “Genesis maintains regular dialogue and co-operates with relevant regulators and authorities when it receives inquiries,” it said.The SEC and US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment. It’s unclear specifically which intercompany activity is drawing scrutiny. Cracks in Silbert’s Digital Currency Group juggernaut started to show after Genesis sustained heavy losses from the collapse last year of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. As the crypto rout deepened in late 2022, scrutiny over the web of financial relationships at DCG intensified. Financial pressure ramped up further following crypto exchange FTX’s sudden and spectacular collapse in November. Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of Genesis, was hit particularly hard and halted customer withdrawals and new loan originations. The freeze remains in place. One of the people familiar with the criminal probe said the investigation into Silbert’s empire began prior to FTX’s implosion. For its part, DCG has said it’s insulated from the troubles at Genesis. In a November letter to shareholders, Silbert disclosed that DCG received about $575mn in loans from Genesis Global Capital that are due this May. He also mentioned a $1.1bn promissory note due in June 2032, resulting from DCG assuming liabilities Genesis had from exposure to Three Arrows. Silbert is DCG’s chief executive as well as the group’s founder.Silbert added that intercompany loans between DCG and Genesis were made in the ordinary course of business and “always structured on an arm’s length basis and priced at prevailing market interest rates.”The reach of DCG, one of crypto’s last-standing empires, is sprawling: In addition to Genesis, it also controls digital-asset manager Grayscale Investments, which helms a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin trust. DCG, which was once valued at $10bn, is also the parent of crypto-mining service provider Foundry Digital, news publication CoinDesk and Luno, a London-based exchange it acquired in 2020.The conglomerate announced on Thursday it planned to shutter wealth manager HQ at the end of this month. DCG also said that Genesis Global Trading Inc., the brokerage unit of Genesis, was laying off roughly 30% of its staff. Cameron Winklevoss, who co-founded Gemini Trust Co, has been publicly clashing with Silbert. Gemini had partnered with Genesis Global Capital to offer the product that lets users earn high yields on their cryptocurrency holdings for which withdrawals remain halted. Customers haven’t been able to pull money from the product known as Earn since mid-November. Winklevoss recently accused Silbert of stalling efforts to resolve the issue and claimed DCG and Genesis are “beyond commingled.”In response, Silbert denied several of Winklevoss’s accusations in a Tweet. He said that DCG had delivered a proposal to Genesis and advisers for Winklevoss on December 29, but didn’t receive a reply. He added that “DCG has never missed an interest payment to Genesis and is current on all loans outstanding.”

US House Speaker candidate Kevin McCarthy took a significant step to securing the gavel yesterday after three days of deadlock as he managed to win over most of the 20 hardline fellow Republicans blocking his path.The party, which has a razor-thin majority in the lower chamber of Congress, was facing worsening infighting after McCarthy lost a historic 11 consecutive ballots for the job.However, the 57-year-old Californian was able to pick up 14 votes among the right-wing defectors in the 12th round yesterday after offering major concessions, in a development that McCarthyites hope will lead to more votes flipping.Seven fellow Republicans still voted against him, leaving him three votes short of the majority needed to win the Speaker’s gavel and prompting his supporters to put his nomination forward for a 13th vote.It was the first time in the tense, draw-out process that McCarthy has actually beaten his Democratic opposite number Hakeem Jeffries, although neither has achieved the outright majority required to win the speakership.The win nevertheless vindicated the incongruous air of confidence McCarthy has exuded all week, even as he was bleeding votes and looking like a busted flush.“We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you,” he promised reporters as he walked into the Capitol yesterday.It was not immediately clear if a 13th ballot would go ahead before the weekend, but McCarthy had earlier indicated that he wanted keep the House open until the Speaker’s race is wrapped up.There have already been more rounds of voting than any Speaker election since the Civil War.Weary lawmakers-elect on all sides had been hoping for a tipping point, but McCarthy hadn’t previously appeared to be making any progress in adding to the Republicans supporters that have stuck with him.Lawmakers-elect had increasingly been voicing frustration about being trapped in Washington day after day.“There’s a lot more at stake than whether Kevin McCarthy’s going to be able to get the gavel,” Republican Kevin Hern told Politico. “We’ve got lives that are being impacted right now, and this is tough for people.” Chip Roy, seen as a figure of stability among the raucous anti-McCarthy group, was given credit for the apparent turnaround after voicing his belief that he could persuade around 10 colleagues to accept the mountain of concessions McCarthy has offered the hardliners.However, Democrats and some of McCarthy’s supporters, in private, are concerned that he is offering his far-right critics radical policy commitments that will make the House ungovernable.Others were complaining that he is handing the hardliners too much power with promises of plum committee posts and changes to the rules that would severely weaken the role of the Speaker.Republicans’ weaker-than-expected performance in November midterm elections left them with a narrow 222-212 majority and gives outsized power to the right-wing hardliners who oppose McCarthy’s leadership.They have railed against McCarthy, accusing him of being soft and too open to compromise with President Joe Biden and his Democrats, who also control the US Senate.The fourth day of voting came as Democrats marked the anniversary of the US Capitol riot by linking the violence to the internecine warfare among House Republicans.“Two years ago, a violent mob – fuelled by hate and a tyrannical president – stormed the Capitol and attacked our democracy,” said No 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark in a statement yesterday. “Tragically, the same extremist forces continue to have a stranglehold on House Republicans. They cannot elect a leader because their Conference is held hostage by Members who peddle misinformation and want to dismantle democracy.”Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the second anniversary of the insurrection – when a mob of defeated president Donald Trump’s supporters ransacked the Capitol – should serve as a “wake-up call” for Republicans to reject extremism.However, he added “the utter pandemonium wrought by House Republicans this week is just one more example of how the extreme fringe of their party, led by election deniers, is pulling them further into chaos”.The top Democrat spoke as President Joe Biden was preparing to award medals at a sombre ceremony acknowledging police officers who defended the Capitol.Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison said that Republicans who continue to amplify Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen remain “present and persistent” threats to democracy.

Humanitarian workers operating in the last opposition-held part of Syria fear a cholera outbreak sweeping the region will deepen further if the United Nations is forced to stop aid deliveries across the border from Turkiye.The area’s 4mn people live in dire conditions and rely heavily on the food and medicine that has been brought across the border since a 2014 UNSecurity Council resolution allowed such deliveries despite the Syrian government’s objections.The Security Council is due to vote on Monday, a day before the current authorisation expires, on renewing it for a further six months.Health workers in the zone, which comprises most of the province of Idlib and parts of Aleppo province in northwestern Syria, fear the consequences should Syria’s ally Russia veto it or place further restrictions on the programme.“The capabilities of the health sector are already very weak, and we suffer from an acute shortage of medicines, medical supplies and serums,” said Dr Zuhair al-Qurat, the head of Idlib’s health directorate.“Stopping cross-border aid will have a multiplier effect on the cholera outbreak in the region,” he told Reuters.Though diplomats say Russia has indicated it will allow the authorisation’s renewal, uncertainty remains. Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters the implementation of the current resolution — adopted in July — was “far from our expectations” and a final decision would be made by Moscow on Monday.Top UN officials, including aid chief Martin Griffiths, have warned that ending the operation would be “catastrophic”.Idlib has recorded more than 14,000 suspected cholera cases and Aleppo more than 11,000 since the outbreak began in September, making them the second and fourth worst-hit in Syria respectively. They are particularly vulnerable because they rely on water from the Euphrates river to drink and irrigate crops, and because the health sector in opposition-held Syria has been battered by more than a decade of war. The UN authorisation allows agencies to bring in hygiene kits, chlorine tablets to disinfect water and equipment for eight cholera treatment centres with more than 200 beds.Non-governmental groups also truck safe drinking water to homes.Without it, international NGOs would not have international legal cover and could not keep up with the pace and quantities of aid needed, three aid workers told Reuters. That is in part because large donor countries trust that aid brought in through the UN will not be politicised, unfairly distributed or seized by hardline armed groups.The chlorine used to disinfect water presents a particular challenge.The chemical has been used in Syria as a weapon of war, prompting concerns among donors that would slow down its procurement for cholera treatment by humanitarian organisations other than the UN, the aid workers said. “These centres and health facilities would be suspended. Supplies...transhipped specifically for the cholera pandemic in the northwest would be interrupted — fluid, serums, injections, oral medications,” said Mohamed Jasem, the International Rescue Organisation’s northwest Syria co-ordinator.Even if the resolution is renewed for another six months, health workers have already suffered from short-term renewals, leaving them unable to plan ahead, said Osama Abou el-Ezz, the head of the Syrian-American Medical Society (SAMS) in Aleppo.