Business

AMMAN — Royal Jordanian (RJ) held an extraordinary general assembly virtually on Tuesday, headed by RJ Board of Directors Chairman Said Darwazeh. 

In the meeting, the general assembly decided to decrease the capital from 324,610,470 shares/dinars to 123,627,470 shares/dinars through amortising JD200.983 million from the balance of the accumulated losses amounting to JD385.157 million, by reducing the company’s capital to become the authorised and subscribed capital (123,627,470) shares/dinars. 

Also, the capital decrease will be executed through amortising the value of the mandatory reserve amounting to JD14.808 million from the total accumulated losses, so that its value after amortisation becomes JD385.157 million, according to a statement from the national carrier. 

The general assembly also decided to increase the company’s capital by 240,000,000 shares/dinars; so the authorised and subscribed capital becomes 363,627,470 shares/dinars, through covering the increase in the company’s capital by capitalising 70,000,000 shares/dinars to the Government of Jordan/Government Investments Management Company, through payments under the company’s capital increase account shown in the company’s financial statements as of December 31, 2022. 

The company will cover the remainder of the capital increase of 170,000,000 shares/dinars through the Royal Jordanian Company owning 90 per cent of the capital of the Jordan Airports Company, provided that the fair value is paid by raising the capital of the Royal Jordanian Company through the issuance of new shares in the company's capital with a total value of 170,000,000 shares/dinars in favour of the shareholder, the Government Investments Management Company.

In his opening speech, Darwazeh said that RJ has been implementing a new strategy that has boosted its endeavour to project Jordan as a tourist destination and make Amman a gateway to the region, and, based on it, the company has further enhanced its product to better meet passengers' needs. 

Darwazeh added that RJ, helped by continuous government efforts, is using all its resources to progress and emerge stronger from the crisis and the effects of the financial losses caused by the pandemic. 

In 2020 and 2021, the company recorded net losses amounting to JD235 million, in addition to the losses recorded by the company during the first quarter of 2022 due to the spread of the Omicron virus, and after that the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, which led to a steep rise in fuel prices in global markets. 

In 2022, fuel prices went up by 69 per cent and RJ had to pay the difference, which was a major reason for the loss. Despite the accumulated losses that exceeded 100 per cent of its capital, the company did not write off the entire capital, but settled for writing off 62 per cent of the capital in order to reach an acceptable ratio of accumulated losses to the capital, the statement said.

RJ Vice Chairman/CEO Samer Majali said that the government recognises the highly symbolic nature of the national carrier, which plays a strategic role in connecting Jordan with the world.

He added that the restructuring of the company’s capital will help it modernise its fleet of aircraft and work in line with its strategic plan to increase its fleet size to 41. 

The airline has reached contracts to introduce new Airbus A320neo aircraft to serve medium-haul flights in the Middle East, the Arabian Gulf, North Africa and Europe, and introduce new generation Embraer aircraft for regional routes. The first two E2s will join the fleet in mid-December this year. The airline will resume the modernisation plan for its fleet at the beginning of 2026, the statement said. 

ABU DHABI — The president of the upcoming COP28 climate talks told an Abu Dhabi oil conference on Monday that the fossil fuel industry would play an essential role in addressing the climate crisis. 

"For too long, this industry has been viewed as part of the problem, that it's not doing enough and in some cases even blocking progress," said Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of the COP28 talks, who is also the head of UAE oil giant ADNOC. 

"This is your opportunity to show the world that, in fact, you are central to the solution," he told the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition Conference.

"This industry can change the global debate... It is time to silence the sceptics by applying scale, capital and technology to deliver outcomes."

Jaber urged industry leaders to curb emissions associated with energy production and expand use of renewable energy sources.

He also encouraged them to embrace "low carbon solutions" like carbon capture and storage, tools that climate experts say distract from the urgent goal of slashing fossil fuel pollution.

Climate activists have criticised the appointment of Jaber to lead the COP28 talks which kick off next month in Dubai. 

But Jaber has garnered the support of COP parties including US climate envoy John Kerry, partly by emphasising his belief that "the phase-down of fossil fuels is inevitable" — a message he repeated on Monday. 

At the same time top oil executives and officials from major oil-producing countries have advocated for ramped-up investment to meet demand and stave off energy shortages. 

Haitham Al Ghais, secretary general of the OPEC oil cartel, told the conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday that calls to cease fossil fuel investments were dangerous. 

"We see calls to stop investing in oil. We believe this is counterproductive," he said. 

"This puts countries... from Europe and many other parts of the world at risk, because the cornerstone of global economic prosperity today is energy security." 

Instead he called for investments of $600 billion per year between now and 2045 "just for the oil industry". 

He added: "This is what it requires to be able to achieve energy security for Europe, for the rest of the world."

WASHINGTON — The US Congress passed an 11th-hour funding bill on Saturday to keep federal agencies running for another 45 days and avert a costly government shutdown — although the deal left out aid to war-torn Ukraine requested by President Joe Biden. 

Three hours before the midnight Saturday deadline, the Senate voted to keep the lights on through mid-November with a resolution that had advanced earlier from the House of Representatives in a day of high-stakes brinkmanship on Capitol Hill.

The last-ditch "continuing resolution" was pitched by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as millions of public workers looked set to be sent home unpaid, upending government functions from military operations to food aid to federal policymaking.

"Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans," Biden said in a statement.

But he berated McCarthy and the House Republicans for reneging on spending levels agreed with the White House months ago — a major reason for the shutdown near-miss — and for stripping out support for Ukraine.

"I fully expect the speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment," said the president, who is set to sign the measure into law in the coming hours.

The shutdown crisis was largely triggered by a small group of hardline Republicans who had defied their own party leadership to scupper various temporary funding proposals as they pressed for deep spending cuts.

The group of 21 hardliners had threatened to remove McCarthy as speaker if a stopgap measure they opposed was passed with Democrat support, and many Washington watchers were expecting the speaker to have to fight for his job in the coming weeks.

One of the group, Lauren Boebert, declined to say after the House vote whether she and her colleagues would try to force McCarthy out, but she was clearly unhappy with the outcome.

Time to negotiate 

"There are too many members here who are comfortable doing things the way they've been done since the mid '90s," she told reporters. "And that's why we're sitting at $33 trillion in debt."

McCarthy sought to convey confidence both about his own future and the prospects for securing a final agreement within the new timeframe.

"In 45 days we should get our work all done," he said, while seeming to offer a hand to the hardliners, saying, "I welcome those 21 back in." 

Arming and funding Kyiv in its desperate war against the Russian invasion has been a key policy plank for the Biden administration and, while the stopgap is temporary, it does raise questions over the political viability of renewing the multibillion-dollar flow of assistance.

McCarthy said Russia's invasion was "horrendous," but insisted there could be "no blank check" for Ukraine.

"I have a real concern of what's going to happen long term, but I don't want to waste any money," he said.

With tensions running high as Democrats pored over the text of McCarthy's proposal, one of their lawmakers, Jamaal Bowman, triggered a fire alarm in a building housing congressional offices an hour before the House vote.

Bowman's spokesman insisted it was an accident, but Republicans accused him of seeking to delay proceedings.

If Congress had failed to keep the government open, the closures would have begun just after midnight (04:00 GMT Sunday) and would have delayed salaries for millions of federal employees and military personnel.

A shutdown would have meant the majority of national parks, for example — from the iconic Yosemite and Yellowstone in the west to Florida's Everglades swamp — shutting to the public from Sunday.

The stopgap measure buys legislators time to negotiate full-year spending bills for the rest of fiscal 2024.

WASHINGTON — The US government on Saturday was hours from shutting down after the far right of the Republican Party scuppered final attempts at a temporary budget agreement, throwing into doubt everything from access to national parks to Washington's massive support for Ukraine.

The closure of all but critical government services, set to start after midnight Saturday (04:00 GMT Sunday) if lawmakers fail to reach a deal, would be the first since 2019 — immediately delaying salaries for millions of federal employees and military personnel.

The two chambers of Congress are deadlocked, with a small group of Republicans in the House of Representatives pushing back against stopgap measures that would at least keep the lights on.

On Friday, House Republicans defeated a plan proposed by their own leader, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to keep funds flowing, deepening the sense of growing chaos within the party ahead of 2024 elections where hard-right former president Donald Trump hopes to return to the White House.

The White House Office of Management and Budget's director Shalanda Young said there was "still a chance" of avoiding a shutdown if Republicans could end internal divisions.

And White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made clear that President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term in 2024, did not intend to wade in.

"The conversation needs to happen between Speaker McCarthy and his caucus. That's the fix, that's the chaos that we're seeing," she said.

Speaking to the news outlet ProPublica on Friday, Biden said McCarthy has made "a terrible bargain. In order to keep the speakership, he's willing to do things that he, I think, he knows are inconsistent with the constitutional processes".

McCarthy, however, blamed Democrats, saying they are the ones blocking a solution.

Big question on Ukraine 

All critical government services will remain functioning. However, a shutdown would mean the majority of national parks, for example — from the iconic Yosemite and Yellowstone in the west to Florida's Everglades swamp — would be closed to public access beginning on Sunday.

With student loan payments resuming in October, officials also said Friday that key activities at the Federal Student Aid office would continue for a couple of weeks.

But a prolonged shutdown could cause bigger disruptions.

A shutdown "unnecessarily" places the world's largest economy at risk, White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard told CNBC.

Risks that could percolate through the wider economy include air travel delays, with air traffic controllers asked to work without pay.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned a closure could also delay infrastructure improvements.

"In the immediate term, a government shutdown will only reduce GDP by 0.2 percentage points each week it lasts," said a report released on Friday by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.

"However, halting critical trade functions of the United States will also undermine the United States' overall credibility as a commercial partner, impede ongoing negotiations and hinder export control enforcement capabilities," the report added.

The mess casts a growing shadow over Biden's policy of arming and funding Ukraine in its desperate war against the Russian invasion. For Republican hardliners behind the derailment of a new budget, stopping aid to Ukraine is a key goal.

Most Republican members of Congress continue to support US backing for Ukraine, but the shutdown will at minimum raise questions over the political viability of renewing the multibillion-dollar flow of assistance.

RIYADH — Saudi Aramco on Thursday announced its first global investment in liquefied natural gas, part of a broader bid by the energy giant to expand beyond oil. 

The company seen as the jewel of the Saudi economy said it would acquire a minority stake worth $500 million in MidOcean Energy, which is managed by the US investment firm EIG. 

"We anticipate strong demand-led growth for LNG as the world continues on its energy transition journey, with gas being a vital fuel and feedstock in various industries," Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement.

"We believe that gas will be important in meeting the world's rising need for secure, accessible and more sustainable energy." 

He noted that the deal "marks Aramco's first international investment in LNG".

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude oil exporter, owns 90 per cent of Aramco's shares and is depending on its revenue for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's sweeping economic and social reform programme known as Vision 2030, which aims to shift the economy away from fossil fuels. 

Aramco wants to become "a leading global LNG player", the firm's upstream President Nasir K. Al Naimi said in Thursday's statement, adding that it sees "significant opportunities in this market, which is positioned for structural, long-term growth". 

MidOcean Energy "is currently in the process of acquiring interests in four Australian LNG projects, with a growth strategy to create a diversified global LNG business", the statement said. 

Aramco reported record profits totalling $161.1 billion last year, allowing the kingdom to notch up its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade, though year-on-year performance fell during the first two quarters of 2023. 

Aramco has pledged to achieve "operational net-zero" carbon emissions by 2050. 

That applies to emissions that are produced directly by Aramco's industrial sites, but not the CO2 produced when clients burn Saudi oil in their cars, power plants and furnaces.

PARIS — French oil and gas major TotalEnergies said on Wednesday that it would boost fossil fuel production over the next five years, a reversal after years of reducing output.

The group's oil and gas production had been dropping every year between 2019 and 2022.

The company had also never given a forecast for how much production would fall or increase, saying instead that it would remain stable by the end of the decade.

But in a statement before presenting its strategy to investors in New York on Wednesday, TotalEnergies announced it would increase output by two to 3 per cent per year, mainly from liquefied natural gas.

"TotalEnergies reaffirms the relevance of its balanced multienergy strategy considering the developments in the oil, gas and electricity markets," the firm said.

It added that it was "in a very favourable position to take advantage of changing energy prices".

The oil and gas business "is expected to generate more than $3 billion of additional underlying cash flow in 2028 compared to 2023 at constant prices", TotalEnergies said.

Oil prices have increased in recent months on concerns about supply following cuts by major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia

TotalEnergies said it was refocusing its oil and gas portfolio on assets and projects with "low greenhouse gas emissions" while also diversifying into renewable energy.

The company said it was "implementing its transition strategy while offering an attractive shareholder return".

TotalEnergies also said it was "drastically lowering the emissions from its operations".

Fossil fuel use is set to be the main bone of contention at key UN talks aimed at curbing climate change, starting on November 30 in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Energy firms have come under fire from climate activists for not doing enough to turn away from oil and gas.

Oil and gas sector emission reduction pledges have stalled and in some cases gone backwards, the financial think-tank Carbon Tracker said in a report this month.

BP watered down a 2030 production cut target while fellow British major Shell has announced its "liquids" production (LNG and liquefied natural petroleum) will remain stable to the end of this decade, the report noted.

KARIMA — The lush palm groves of Karima are a long way from Sudan's battlefields, but the war's effects are all too present, leaving farmers struggling to find buyers for this year's harvest.

Prices have collapsed in the vital date industry, the latest economic sector to become a casualty of war in the northeast African country.

Every autumn, until this September, date farmers in northern Sudan pulled their harvests down from palm trees, securing a living for months to come.

But five months into the war between Sudan's rival generals, the country's economic infrastructure has been destroyed and "buyers are scared", farmer Al-Fatih Al Badawi, 54, told AFP.

Sudan is the world's seventh-largest producer of dates, growing more than 460,000 tonnes per year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

How much of that figure will be available this year remains to be seen, but farmers in northern Sudan are lucky they could manage a harvest at all. 

In Karima — a town on the Nile River about 340 kilometres (210 miles) north of the capital Khartoum — the groves bustle with young men climbing date palms, dropping bunches of the brown fruit, beloved by Sudanese, onto white sheets below.

Farmers who depend on the date industry face colossal challenges moving their products across the country, as do those in other agricultural sectors. 

Along with insecurity, wartime fuel shortages have severely hindered the ability to transport goods.

Before the war, nearly all trade in highly centralised Sudan went through Khartoum.

But constant air strikes, artillery blasts and street battles have left the capital largely off-limits to traders, who fear for their safety or are turned back by fighters at checkpoints.

"Our main market was Khartoum," Badawi said. Without it, trade is at a standstill and the price for his crop is in freefall.

Land left fallow 

In Sudan, one of the world's most underdeveloped countries, dates and other agricultural products were a foundation of the pre-war economy.

The agriculture sector employed more than 80 per cent of the workforce and accounted for 35 to 40 per cent of gross domestic product, according to the United Nations.

But now, in much of the country including southeastern Gedaref state, known as Sudan's breadbasket, the land has been left fallow.

Processing factories have been razed or looted.

Smallholder farmers have no access to financing, traders have no guarantees of viable markets and industry heavyweights have given up.

In May, Haggar Group — one of the agriculture sector's largest employers — suspended operations and laid off thousands of labourers.

Even before the war began, one in three people were in need of humanitarian aid and the country's farmers — unable to meet domestic food security needs — struggled to break even.

The date sector in Karima had been in urgent need of "guidance and agricultural policy", as well as resources to reduce high rates of waste, said Al Jarah Ahmed Ali, 45, another farmer.

Now the challenges have only worsened.

Since April 15, fighting between army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has torn Sudan apart.

Fighting has killed nearly 7,500 people, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

More than 4.2 million people — most of them from the Khartoum area — have been displaced within Sudan, and another 1.1 million have fled the country, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Agricultural workers are among those joining the exodus, and while they may find relative safety in northern Sudan, whether they can earn enough to survive in a collapsing date market is questionable.

Among them is Hozaifa Youssef, a 26-year-old radiologist who left Khartoum to rejoin his family in Karima, where he is helping with the date harvest.

"I was going to India to get my master's degree," but that goal is now on hold, Youssef said.

The veteran farmer, Badawi, has not lost hope. 

"We're trying to find new markets, even though it's going to be more expensive. Hopefully, the price will adjust and it will all work out."

PARIS — Amazon said on Monday it would invest up to $4 billion in AI firm Anthropic, as the online retail giant steps into an AI race dominated by Microsoft, Google and OpenAI.

The success of OpenAI's ChatGPT, a chatbot released last year that is able to generate poems, essays and other works with just a short prompt, has led to billions being invested in the field. 

Amazon had already announced it aimed to soup up its Alexa voice assistant with generative AI, which the firm said would allow users to have smoother conversations.

San Francisco-based Anthropic is seen as a leader in the field and has its own chatbot, Claude, a competitor to ChatGPT.

"We have tremendous respect for Anthropic's team and foundation models, and believe we can help improve many customer experiences, short and long-term, through our deeper collaboration," said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

The giant firms and wealthy investors of Silicon Valley have poured money into artificial intelligence as they seek to find a killer application to justify the interest.

ChatGPT's instant success threw much of the focus onto chatbots and sparked imitators and rivals, not least from Google with its Bard chatbot.

Chinese titans Tencent and Baidu have also launched bots they claim can rival ChatGPT.

'Transformation' promise 

But Monday's deal between Anthropic and Amazon is potentially less significant in the chatbot world and more important in the race to develop chips to power AI. 

Anthropic agreed to use Amazon's chips to develop its next models and the two firms said they would collaborate on developing the next set of chips.

All firms in the space are looking to wean themselves off the chips made by market leader NVIDIA, said Nick Patience, lead AI research analyst at S&P Global Market.

"It'll be difficult for anyone to make a dent in the next 12 to 18 months," he told AFP, but tie-ups like Monday's Amazon deal could help change the picture over five years.

Anthropic also agreed to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure — the data centres that store and process data on a vast scale — for "mission critical workloads".

Amazon said it would take a "minority ownership position" in the AI firm, which has already raised more than $1 billion since it was set up in 2021.

The statement promises that "Claude", which is the name of Anthropic's chatbot and its model, will help AWS customers "of all sizes to develop new generative AI-powered applications to transform their organisations".

The deal intensifies competition between Amazon and Google, which had earlier opened its cloud services to Anthropic and invested $300 million to acquire 10 per cent of the company.

AI models require huge computing power so AI firms rely on data centres provided by the likes of AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

As tech giants push their own AI ambitions, they have been increasingly looking at tie-ins with smaller AI firms — Microsoft leading the way with a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI.