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LONDON — Japanese car manufacturer Nissan announced on Sunday it was cancelling plans to build its X-Trail SUV at its plant in northeast England despite Brexit assurances from the government, the Agence France Presse reported.

“While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the continued uncertainty around the UK’s future relationship with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future,” Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy said in a statement.

“We appreciate this will be disappointing for our UK team and partners,” he added. “Our workforce in Sunderland has our full confidence.”

In 2016, the car giant announced that it planned to build the model at its plant in Sunderland, but will now assemble it instead at Nissan’s global production hub in Kyushu, Japan. 

“Other future models planned for Nissan Sunderland Plant — the next-generation Juke and Qashqai — are unaffected” by the decision, according to the statement.

The company said it had decided to shift investment away from the British plant, and towards developing vehicle technology.

“A model like X-Trail is manufactured in multiple locations globally, and can therefore be reevaluated based on changes to the business environment,” explained Hideyuki Sakamoto, Nissan’s executive vice president for manufacturing and supply chain management.

Local MP Bridget Phillipson, Tweeted that the reports “represent deeply troubling news for the northeast economy — So many jobs and livelihoods depend on Nissan’s success”.

The car giant is a major employer in the region, a former industrial powerhouse that has suffered decades of economic decline, and which voted heavily in favour of Brexit.

Labour MP Julie Elliott said Brexit had played an “inevitable role” in the decision, adding: “none of it is conducive to encouraging business investment in this country”.

Nissan employs almost 7,000 people at the Sunderland plant — its largest in Europe — which has produced cars since 1986.

Current production includes the LEAF electric car, which reached production of 46,989 units last year.

Other multinational giants, including, Airbus warned this week that British jobs could suffer in the event of an unfavourable outcome.

The scenario of Britain exiting the European Union without a “divorce” deal is becoming ever-more possible as the clock runs down the official departure date of March 29. 

The timing of the company’s announcement comes just two days after an EU-Japan free trade agreement kicked in, which includes the European Union’s commitment to removing tariffs of 10 per cent on imported Japanese cars, according to Reuters.

Many Japanese companies had long seen Britain as the gateway into Europe, after being encouraged to open factories in the country by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher but Brexit has thrown that into doubt, prompting consternation in Tokyo.

Sunday’s announcement also comes as the firm continues to deal with the fallout from the arrest of its former boss Carlos Ghosn, which has clouded the outlook for the automaking alliance between Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi.

FRANKFURT — Deutsche Bank returned to profit in 2018, its first in four years, despite a greater-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter, the German lender said on Friday.

Deutsche Bank has been trying to turn itself around under a new leadership, but has faced continuous hurdles, including allegations of money laundering, ratings downgrades and failed stress tests.

The bank has also turned into a subject of rampant merger speculation, and Friday's earnings figures underscore that the lender still has a long way ahead to post a sustainable profit. 

The fourth-quarter net loss of 409 million euros ($467.73 million) at Germany's flagship lender was greater than the 268 million euros expected on average by analysts, according to a consensus report on the bank's website.

The quarter was marked by continued weakness in its key trading business. Revenue at its cash-cow bond-trading division plunged 23 per cent. 

For the investment bank as a whole, revenue dropped 5 per cent in the fourth quarter.

However, Deutsche posted a full-year profit of 341 million euros, compared with a net loss of 735 million euros in 2017.

"Our return to profitability shows that Deutsche Bank is on the right track," Chief Executive Christian Sewing said on Friday.

The company's return to profit in 2018 is a huge achievement for Sewing, who took over in April 2018 and has embarked on plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs in an overhaul of the bank. 

"In 2019, we aim not only to save costs but also to make focused investments in growth. We aim to grow profitability substantially through the current year and beyond," he said.

The bank's shares lost more than half their value in 2018, though they have recovered slightly over the past month.

However, time is running out for Deutsche Bank to turn around on its own, making a merger with rival Commerzbank more likely, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

A major investor is awaiting market reaction to both banks' earnings over the next couple of weeks before deciding on the need for a merger, said a person close to the investor.

Speculation of a merger between the two has heightened under the tenure of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who has spoken in favour of strong banks. His team has met frequently with executives of Deutsche, Commerzbank and major shareholders.

Deutsche is considered one of the most important banks for the global financial system, along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup.

But the German lender has been plagued by losses and a scandal.

 A $7.2 billion US fine in 2017 for its role in the mortgage market crisis was a major blow that spooked clients.

BARCELONA — US ride-hailing service Uber and its main Spanish rival Cabify said on Thursday they were suspending their services in Barcelona after local authorities passed new rules which severely restrict how they operate in the city.

Under new rules approved by the regional government of Catalonia which come into effect on Friday customers of ride-hailing services will have to book a ride at least 15 minutes in advance.

The rules also allow local city authorities in Catalonia — if they deemed it necessary — to lengthen the pre-booking time to a maximum of one hour. 

Barcelona's left-wing city hall quickly said it would apply the one-hour delay.

The new regulations were announced following pressure from taxi drivers who had been on open-ended strike in Barcelona and remain on strike in Madrid over the same issue.

Uber, which has faced problems in other European countries as taxi drivers complain of threats to their livelihoods, said in a statement that it was "forced to suspend" its UberX service, which competes with taxis, in Spain's second-largest city as of Friday because of the new rules.

"The obligation to wait 15 minutes... does not exist anywhere in Europe and it is totally incompatible with the immediacy of ride-hailing services like UberX," it added.

Cabify said it too would cease operating in Barcelona as of Friday, stating that the "only objective" of the new rules was to "expel" it from the region.

The company said 98.5 per cent of the rides booked through its app are reserved less than 15 minutes before the time of pick up.

The new rules will put 3,000 — 4,000 jobs at risk and force the closure of over 60 firms, according to Unauto VTC, an association of transport companies in Spain.

A company called Vector Ronda, whose fleet of vehicles and drivers use Cabify, announced plans on Wednesday to lay off 1,000 employees.

The conservative head of the regional government of Madrid, Angel Garrido, has so far refused to adopt the same measures, saying that Catalonia is "heading to the Middle Ages" with its solution to the row between taxis and ride-hailing services.

Like their counterparts in many other European countries, Spain's taxi drivers say that ride-hailing apps like Uber, or its main Spanish rival Cabify, have made it impossible to compete.

LONDON — Uncertainty over Brexit is hitting bookings for budget airline Wizz Air and could mean that full-year results come in towards the lower end of its guidance, the company said on Wednesday.

Wizz Air maintained its full-year net profit forecast range of 270-300 million euros but said that final results for the year to the end of March would depend on how badly Brexit hit consumer confidence.

“Consumers are uncertain and they [will] probably postpone their bookings. We’ve started seeing that in our bookings,” Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi told Reuters.

“These issues stand to be fairly temporary... It is not Brexit itself, but the uncertainties around it. So once there is certainty around how Brexit will play out, I think consumer confidence will be restored.”

Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget airline, issued a profit warning this month and warned of the risk of a further downgrade if Brexit causes disruption.

Although Varadi said he expected flights to continue after Brexit, much remains unclear about Britain’s scheduled departure on March 29. Wizz Air is the largest budget airline in central and eastern Europe.

Britain remains on a collision course with the European Union after lawmakers demanded that the prime minister reopen a divorce deal with the EU that the bloc said was not up for renegotiation.

Wizz Air has undertaken Brexit contigency planning. Wizz Air UK was launched in May 2018, and it was granted a UK route licence by the transport minister in the quarter ended December 31 to protect flights to non-EU destinations from Britain. 

The airline said the arrangement “future-proofs the status of Wizz Air UK Limited as a British airline, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations”, despite the impact of Brexit uncertainty on bookings.

Less room for error 

Wizz reiterated its profit guidance after lowering it in November, due to higher fuel prices and disruption from air traffic control strikes in the summer. 

The airline posted 15 per cent passenger growth in the quarter, while unit revenues were up 6 per cent. It said it had adjusted its growth capacity to boost yields in the face of the higher fuel price.

Shares in Wizz recovered from initial losses to trade 1.5 per cent higher by 09:25 GMT.

Analysts at RBC said that a softer March backdrop for bookings reflected the Brexit impact in the UK and meant there was “less room for error than before” for the airline, but retained its “top pick” rating on the stock.

Varadi, the Hungarian co-founder of the Budapest-based airline, said that yield performance in its core markets of central and eastern Europe was outperforming western Europe.

“I think we are seeing a fairly robust yield environment for our business,” he said. “We remain very confident in the yield environment.”

LONDON — Sterling zipped higher on Tuesday, reversing early losses after the speaker of the British Parliament chose amendments to be voted on by lawmakers, including one that would effectively take a no-deal Brexit off the table.

The currency remains well off recent
multimonth peaks however, and volatility in derivatives market was elevated, reflecting markets' nervousness about the likely outcome of the votes.

Parliament was due to debate and vote from 19:00 GMT on Prime Minister Theresa May's response to the overwhelming rejection of her Brexit plan earlier this month. 

But markets' main focus is on amendments proposed by lawmakers. The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has chosen seven to be voted on. 

In particular, markets are focusing on Amendment B, proposed by opposition Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper, which seeks to shift control of Brexit from May's government to Parliament. If successful, this could give lawmakers who want to block, delay or renegotiate Brexit a legal route to do so.

Amendment G by Dominic Grieve, a pro-EU Conservative, which would give lawmakers a chance to propose their own Brexit debates in Parliament in February and March, will also be voted on.

"I suppose given those amendments have been chosen markets may have discerned that a delay is a step closer," said Neil Mellor, FX strategist at BNY Mellon.

"The prominent amendments that have been chosen are too close to call [the outcome] but if the Cooper and Grieve amendments are carried, that is sterling positive."

Cooper's amendment, which could delay Brexit, is considered likely to pass, especially after a source told Reuters the opposition Labour Party would back it.

Speaker Bercow's announcement sent sterling to a session high of $1.32 — having traded earlier in a $1.3160-$1.3170 range — up 0.2 per cent on the day. But it remains well off two-and-a-half-month highs of $1.3218.

It rallied against the euro too, rising 0.2 per cent to a high of 86.560 pence but held well below Friday's 10-month highs around 86.18 pence.

Unicredit noted the pound had been this year's best-performing major currency so far, rising around 4 per cent to the dollar and euro. On a trade-weighted basis, it is at a two-and-a-hlafmonth high

"The risk that we get a disappointment in tonight's vote is clearly there," Unicredit FX strategist Kathrin Goretzki said, though she noted the vote would not significantly dent optimism that parliament had taken control of the Brexit process to avoid a no-deal scenario.

"We don't expect this to be affected in a negative way in tonight's vote. Any correction will be temporary," she said.

Another amendment selected for a vote, proposed by Conservative lawmaker Graham Brady, calls for the Irish backstop arrangement envisioned by May's Brexit divorce deal to be removed and replaced with "alternative arrangements".

The backstop is an insurance policy designed to avoid customs checks between EU member Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland after Brexit. Many in May's party oppose it, fearing it could trap Britain in a permanent customs union. 

May asked lawmakers to support Brady's amendment which, if passed, would show the EU that she can win parliamentary approval for the negotiated withdrawal deal if some changes are made to the Irish backstop plan.

Nervousness was reflected in a rise in implied sterling volatility on options markets, which has fallen steadily since the start of the year. Overnight implied volatility in particular raced to near 23vol (volatility), the highest since January 15, when lawmakers defeated May's Brexit deal.

One-month implied vol rose to its highest in a week-and-a-half at 11.2vol, a day after seeing the biggest one-day rise since November.

PARIS — Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom have made new concessions in an effort to convince the European Commission to approve their tie-up that would create a rail manufacturing giant, Alstom said, on Monday.

Alstom said in a statement that it and Siemens had "decided to further modify the remedies so as to answer the concerns raised" by the Commission over the deal's impact on competition.

It added, however, that the value of the businesses it proposes to sell off remains unchanged at roughly 4 per cent of their combined sales and that the new offer "preserves the industrial and economic value of the deal".

The planned merger unveiled in September 2017 was billed as a defensive move as the Chinese giant CRRC expands onto the global market.

While an Alstom-Siemens tie-up would create a company with operations in 60 countries and an annual turnover of 15.6 billion euros ($17.8 billion), would still pale in comparison with CRRC's annual revenue of 26 billion euros.

Siemens and Alstom have previously offered to sell off some business activities and license other technologies, hoping to allay Commission fears the new combination could dominate the European market for rail signalling and high-speed trains.

But Siemens has been adamant it will not give up its next-generation high-speed technology to secure the EU's green light.

According to two sources close to the dossier, the new offer could see the companies extend the duration of licences for high-speed train technology, and expand it to certain countries outside Europe. 

Regarding signalling, the two firms are offering to sell off additional activities.

Despite public support by top French and German officials in recent weeks, the deal has been seen as increasingly at risk of failing to win approval by the Commission.

EU Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager has repeatedly expressed doubts over the deal.

Siemens chief executive, Joe Kaeser, allowed himself an unusual Twitter outburst at Vestager on Monday, after she Tweeted from a Liberal party conference that "we want to change Europe because we love it".

"Those who love Europe should shape its future, not lose themselves in backward-looking formulas," Kaeser responded.

"It must be bitter to be technically right but to do everything wrong for Europe," he added, in an apparent acknowledgement that the rail deal would likely be blocked. 

Alstom said there is "still no certainty that the content of this package will be sufficient to alleviate the concerns of the Commission".

It added the Commission is expected to announce a decision by February 18.

CAIRO — Egypt opened a new international airport on the outskirts of the capital on Saturday for an initial trial period, in a bid to ease pressure from Cairo’s main airport and help boost tourism. 

The Sphinx International Airport, located near the Giza Pyramids and the new Grand Egyptian Museum, is expected to operate 30 flights by early February during its trial run.

The $17 million project comes as part of the tourism ministry’s plan to improve accessibility to historical sites from resort areas on the Red Sea, like Sharm Al Sheikh and Hurghada. It will fully open in 2020.

The bombing of a Russian airliner, shortly after it took off from Sharm Al Sheikh, in 2015 hit tourism numbers hard, continuing a downward trend that started with the years of turmoil following the Arab Spring protests of 2011.

Tourism revenues had begun to rebound, jumping 77 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2018 to $4.8 billion, before a deadly attack on a bus in December killed three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide.

The bus attack was the first deadly attack against foreign tourists in Egypt for over a year.

DAVOS, Switzerland —Impatient with a lack of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules on the explosive growth of e-commerce, 76 members — including the United States, China, the European Union and Japan — agreed recently to start negotiating a new framework.

China, which is locked in a trade war with the United States, signalled conditional support for the initiative, but said it should also take into account the needs of developing countries, in comments likely to rile Washington.

E-commerce, or online trade in goods and services, has become a huge component of the global economy. A WTO report put the total value of e-commerce in 2016 at $27.7 trillion, of which nearly $24 trillion was business-to-business transactions.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, negotiators from the 76 countries and regions agreed on Friday to hammer out an agenda for negotiations they hope to kick off this year on setting new e-commerce rules.

"I've said for quite some time it was unacceptable that by 2018... the WTO won't have a deeper, more effective conversation about a phenomenon that is driving the global economy today," said WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo.

"China was not an original signatory but now they are. They have reaffirmed their intention to start negotiations on electronic commerce. I think this is a welcome development," he told a briefing in Davos.

Japan's trade minister, Hiroshige Seko, said his country hopes to use its presidency of this year's Group of 20 meetings of major economies to help accelerate negotiations.

"The current WTO rules don't match the needs of the 21st century. You can tell that from the fact there are no solid rules on e-commerce," Seko told a separate briefing.

China critical, 

India absent 

China's WTO Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen said the e-commerce declaration "could have been better drafted", but Beijing was still willing to co-sponsor it.

But Beijing's call for "full respect [to be] accorded to the reasonable requests of developing members" could increase friction with Washington, which says the WTO must stop giving special treatment to countries such as China that call themselves "developing".

Another Asian giant, India, did not join the initiative. It has previously said the WTO should finish off the stalled but development-oriented "Doha Round" of talks, before moving into new areas.

"It would always be better if we had every WTO member in it," Azevedo said. "But what is important also is that this group is open. It's an open-ended group, so any member that wants to participate in this conversation can join any time."

Trade experts say the global trade rulebook is rapidly becoming outdated and needs to keep up, or become obsolete. A recent study found that 70 regional trade agreements already include provisions or chapters on e-commerce.

The WTO's 164 members failed to consolidate some 25 separate e-commerce proposals at a conference at Buenos Aires in December, including a call to set up a central e-commerce negotiating forum.

E-commerce, which developed largely after the WTO's creation in 1995, was not part of the Doha round of talks that began in 2001 and eventually collapsed more than a decade later.

US President Donald Trump's administration says the WTO is dysfunctional, as it has failed to hold China to account for not opening up its economy as envisaged when Beijing joined in 2001.

To force reform at the WTO, Trump's team has refused to allow new appointments to the Appellate Body, the world's top trade court, a process which requires consensus among member states. As a result, the court is running out of judges, and will be unable to issue binding rulings in disputes.

While the United States was among the signatory countries of the e-commerce agreement, it did not participate in a separate informal WTO gathering chaired by Switzerland.

Azevedo said Washington's absence was "totally and solely driven by domestic considerations" and unrelated to the country's suspicions over the multilateral trading system.

But he voiced concern over the tide of protectionism that overshadowed discussions at Davos among the rich and powerful.

"These trading tensions are not only a threat to the system. They are threats to the whole, entire international community," he said. "The risks are very real. There will be economic impacts."

BEIJING  — Microsoft’s Bing search engine was inaccessible in China on Thursday, with social media users fearing it could be the latest foreign website to be blocked by censors.

Attempts to open cn.bing.com has resulted in an error message for users since Wednesday, taking away the most prominent foreign search engine available in China.

“We’ve confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in China and are engaged to determine next steps,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a brief statement, hours after saying the company was investigating the matter.

China’s Communist authorities operate an online censorship apparatus known as the “Great Firewall”, which blocks a slew of websites including Facebook, Twitter and several foreign media outlets.

But it was not clear whether or not Bing had joined the list of prohibited websites, or if its China service was experiencing technical difficulties. The search engine had been censoring searches in China.

The wording of the US company’s statement “means Microsoft received no government order, but clearly China has the power to block a URL and that may be what happened”, said independent US tech analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

“China has been aggressive in terms of controlling the media, ‘censorship’ is kind of their middle name. If there were searches going on providing results the Chinese government didn’t like, it wouldn’t surprise me if they blocked the site,” Enderle said.

But the analyst said it could also be a “hack gone wrong”.

China’s cyberspace administration did not immediately return a request for comment.

Walled off 

China’s Great Firewall can be circumvented by using a virtual private network (VPN), which can hide a user’s IP address.

While its rival Google shut down its search engine in China in 2010 after rows over censorship and hacking, Bing has continued to operate in the country along with Microsoft-owned Skype.

On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media site, people complained about the lack of access, with some speculating that Bing too had been “walled off”.

Others aired their dissatisfaction about having to use Baidu, China’s largest domestic search service.

“Even Bing requires a VPN now, how exhausting,” wrote one user. 

“Our country is amazing, even the obedient Bing has been walled off, while Baidu flourishes,” said another. “Thank you wise party leaders!”

‘Tit-for-tat’ 

China has tightened policing of the Internet in recent years, shuttering 26,000 “illegal” websites in 2018 alone and deleting 6 million online posts containing vulgar content, the official Xinhua news agency said earlier this month.

Bing complies with Chinese censorship rules, but its link to US tech giant Microsoft might have put it in the government’s crosshairs as Beijing and Washington spar over trade and tech issues.

“The fact that Bing is run by Microsoft, which is not a Chinese company, means that Beijing has less leverage over the company, compared to say Baidu,” said Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The block is also “mostly symbolic”, given Bing’s tiny market share in China, he told AFP.

Tsui also noted that there is growing concern over China’s slowing economy, and that June will see the highly sensitive 30th anniversary of the violent suppression of democracy protests in Tiananmen in 1989.

“Beijing needs to look like they are in charge and in power,” he said.

The United States and China are locked in a bruising trade war, with US accusations that China steals technological know-how among the core disagreements.

Washington has also led efforts to blacklist Chinese telecoms giant Huawei internationally over security concerns, and one of the company’s top executives, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada last month over fraud allegations on a US request.

The two sides are scheduled for new trade negotiations next week.

“Given Washington’s bid to contain Huawei, China is sharpening its moves against the American tech industry, especially those affiliated with Silicon Valley,” Tom Fowdy, an independent Beijing-based political analyst, told AFP.

“So in some ways, it could be tit-for-tat,” he added. “’You contain our leading technology and software companies, we will contain yours.’”

LONDON — Global markets parted ways on Wednesday as investors were more cautious about the chances of success in China-US trade talks, and looked for direction from the European Central Bank (ECB).

The overall mood remained wary, with a rally that has characterised the start of the year stuttering due to slower Chinese economic activity, a softer global outlook, Brexit issues and the US government shutdown, which shows no sign of ending soon.

"The markets appear to be trading a bit cautious ahead of tomorrow's monetary policy decision from the ECB and as
US/China trade worries are flaring up," the Charles Schwab brokerage said.

US investors sold shares on Tuesday after The Financial Times and CNBC said Washington had rejected Beijing's offer of preparatory discussions ahead of the next round of high-level negotiations.

Wednesday saw a sliver of respite as Wall Street opened just in the black, the Dow Jones adding 1 per cent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.6 per cent. 

"We are continuing to see caution in the markets on Wednesday, with reports a day earlier regarding trade talks between the US and China only aiding that," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

"Reports that preparatory talks between the US and China ahead of a meeting at the end of the month had been cancelled put a slight dampener on the mood... at a time when we're already seeing some profit taking."

Although the White House denied the reports, observers said they highlighted how fragile the negotiations were.

The reports also came a day after Bloomberg News said the two sides were struggling to reach agreement on the crucial matter of intellectual property, a key source of US anger.

Hopes that China and the US were on the right track have helped rally global markets in January following a torrid performance in 2018.

But data showing China's economy grew at its weakest pace in three decades added to fears it is heading for a hard landing, while Xi Jinping also showed signs of worrying about the effects of a slowdown in a speech to top provincial leaders this week.

"Investors obviously are still a little bit edgy and therefore we would expect periods of volatility to continue," said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide Funds Group.

"As the headlines continue to get more nerve-wracking with regards to a global slowdown and trade wars and government shutdowns, it's easy to spook investors, but we think those are temporary versus permanent."

Adding to concerns was confirmation that the US plans to seek the extradition from Canada of a top executive with Chinese telecom giant Huawei before the end of January.

'Falling demand' 

Despite the pervading uncertainty, Frankfurt and Paris joined Wall Street in posting small gains in intraday trades, but London was down 0.5 per cent with little immediate sign of Brexit-related gloom lifting.

Hong Kong ended flat having swung back and forth through the day, while Shanghai closed 0.1 per cent higher and Tokyo ended slightly down.

Oil prices advanced after taking a hit Tuesday on lingering worries about the effect of a slowdown in the global economy, and particularly China, on demand.