1 D. DALAIJARGAL: URANIUM MINING PROJECT ADVANCES FAST WITH FRENCH FUNDING WWW.MONGOLIANMININGJOURNAL.COM  PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      2 MONGOLIA, INDIA TO ADVANCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP IN DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      3 POPE LEO MEETS WITH THE PRESIDENT OF MONGOLIA WWW.VATICANNEWS.VA PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      4 NATIONAL PROTECTED AREA CONSULTATION TARGETS STRONGER RANGER SYSTEM WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      5 RIO TINTO REVISES UP 2025 COPPER PRODUCTION FORECAST AS MONGOLIAN PROJECT ACCELERATES OPERATIONS WWW.NEWS.METAL.COM  PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      6 MONGOLIA CALLS PUBLIC HEARINGS AHEAD OF LIKELY PUSH TO RENEGOTIATE RIO TINTO TERMS ON GIANT COPPER MINE WWW.INTELLINEWS.COM PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      7 MONGOLIA RECEIVES HIGHEST NUMBER OF FOREIGN TOURISTS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 2025 WWW.XINHUANET.COM PUBLISHED:2025/12/05      8 MONGOLIA SIGNALS READINESS TO CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST DESERTIFICATION WWW.QAZINFORM.COM PUBLISHED:2025/12/04      9 MONGOLIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES REACH USD 6 BILLION WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/12/04      10 FUEL SUPPLY STRENGTHENED AS DECEMBER PURCHASE ORDERS CONFIRMED WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/12/04      МАЛ, ТЭЖЭЭВЭР АМЬТНЫ ТООЛЛОГО НЯМ ГАРАГТ ЭХЭЛНЭ WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     Ш.РАДНААСЭД ЕРӨНХИЙ САЙДЫН АХЛАХ ЗӨВЛӨХ БОЛОВ WWW.NEWS.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     АШИГТ МАЛТМАЛЫН 8 ЗӨВШӨӨРЛИЙН ХАРИУД ₮2.7 ТЭРБУМЫГ АВСАН Ш.ГАНХУЯГ, ӨГСӨН ЭДВАРД СҮРЭН НАРЫГ 1 САР ХОРИВ WWW.EGUUR.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     ЕРӨНХИЙЛӨГЧ У.ХҮРЭЛСҮХ ГЭГЭЭН ШИРЭЭТ УЛСЫН ТӨРИЙН ТЭРГҮҮНТЭЙ УУЛЗЛАА WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     ТАВАНТОЛГОЙ-ГАШУУНСУХАЙТ ЧИГЛЭЛИЙН ТӨМӨР ЗАМААР ТАВАН САРД 3 САЯ ТОНН НҮҮРС ТЭЭВЭРЛЭВ WWW.EGUUR.MN  НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     MONGOLIA FOCUS: МОНГОЛД ӨӨРИЙГӨӨ ЦЕНЗУРДЭХ ҮЗЭГДЭЛ НЭМЭГДСЭН НЬ АРДЧИЛЛЫН ЧАНАР ДОРОЙТОЖ БУЙН ИЛРЭЛ WWW.EGUUR.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     11575 АЙЛЫН ОРОН СУУЦ БАРИХ БОЛОМЖ БҮРДЭВ WWW.NEWS.MN  НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/05     Н.ЦЭРЭНСАМБУУ: ГАДААДЫН ХӨРӨНГӨ ОРУУЛАЛТААР БОР ТЭЭГИЙН ОРДЫГ ЭДИЙН ЗАСГИЙН ЭРГЭЛТЭД ОРУУЛНА WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/04     С.БЯМБАЦОГТ: ЗЭС ХАЙЛУУЛАХ ҮЙЛДВЭРИЙГ БАРИХ ХӨРӨНГӨ ОРУУЛАГЧИЙГ НЭЭЛТТЭЙ СОНГОН ШАЛГАРУУЛНА WWW.ITOIM.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/04     NETFLIX-ИЙН МОНГОЛД ХИЙХ ШИНЭ НЭВТРҮҮЛГИЙН НӨЛӨӨ БА АЛГАН ДЭЭР ТАВЬСАН БОЛОМЖОО АШИГЛАХУЙ WWW.ITOIM.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/12/04    

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MBCC “Doing Business with Mongolia seminar and Christmas Receptiom” Dec 10. 2025 London UK MBCCI London UK Goodman LLC

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ASEAN GDP to exceed Japan's by 2030: IHS Markit economist www.asia.nikkei.com

SINGAPORE -- The combined gross domestic product of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to reach $8 trillion by 2030, higher than that of Japan, an IHS Markit economist said at a seminar here Thursday.
 
Rajiv Biswas, an IHS Markit senior director and its chief Asia-Pacific economist, was among the speakers at the Asia Economic Forum, a discussion organized by the U.K.-based economic research and analytics company and Nikkei.
 
Biswas pointed out that the Nikkei ASEAN Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index has shown a slight improvement in recent months, with the figure in August rising by 0.8 point from the previous month, underpinned by domestic demand. He expects ASEAN countries to generate "relatively resilient performance over the next couple of years," backed by ongoing economic reforms in countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam -- including a loosening of restrictions on foreign ownership.
 
During the panel discussion, Eastspring Investments Chief Investment Officer Boon Peng Ooi expressed confidence in Indonesia, a place where "political reforms are going through" thanks to the country's reform-minded leaders, led by President Joko Widodo. Meanwhile, Richard Jerram, chief economist of the Bank of Singapore, said his top pick for investment in ASEAN is Vietnam, citing demographic dividends and potential upside for the real estate market.
 
However, the picture is not all rosy. In July, exports for most Asian countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, dropped from a year earlier.
 
The main drag is sluggish global demand, with slower growth in China and stagnant recoveries in the U.S. and Europe the main culprits. Standard Chartered Bank's Asia chief economist and managing director David Mann said the weak performance of the advanced economies is moving "the center of economic gravity [to Asia] even more quickly" than before.
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Hyundai to debut Genesis premium brand in China in 2-3 years -exec www.chinadaily.com.cn

HANAM, South Korea - South Korea's Hyundai Motor will launch its standalone premium auto brand Genesis in China within two to three years, betting on a luxury lane to profit as competition bites at the lower end of the world's biggest auto market.
Genesis brand chief Manfred Fitzgerald told Reuters in a recent interview the company is considering building Genesis models in China "For sure. But there are also other examples of (automakers) who live pretty well off of importing cars," he said, citing Toyota Motor Corp's Lexus.
 
The plans come as Hyundai tries to reverse out of 10 straight quarters of falling profit, hit in part by weakness in China.
 
Rolling out Genesis in key markets like China marks a shift for a company better known for making value-for-money cars and lacking the brand cachet and tradition of Germany's BMW , Mercedes-Benz and Audi. That trio dominates the luxury market globally - and in China.
 
"The luxury customer in China is very brand-conscious," said US national Fitzgerald, 53. The former executive with Audi's Lamborghini brand was speaking at the first, and so far only, standalone Genesis store, in a glitzy mall in Hanam on the outskirts of Seoul featuring cars like G80 sedans that can fetch up to 74 million won ($67,100).
 
"If you don't get your brand right, you can have the best product in the world, it won't work," said Fitzgerald. "In two, three years' time we will be entering China," he said, declining to give sales targets for a global rollout that will follow launches in Korea late last year and in the United States last month.
 
In China, imported cars carry a duty of more than 20 percent, putting pressure on automakers to produce locally.
 
Distribution debate
 
Genesis will open more standalone outlets, said Fitzgerald, and is exploring unspecified locations for its first US store. The Genesis line-up currently features two models, a range that the company plans to expand to six by 2020, including two sport utility vehicles.
 
Consultants like Eric Noble, president of California-based consultancy CarLab, say getting the sales channel right for premium cars is as important as the product itself.
 
For now, over 300 of Hyundai's more than 800 US dealerships will also be selling the Genesis brand, posing an added challenge for differentiating it from Hyundai. By comparison, Toyota's Lexus is sold through separate dealerships.
 
"From a product standpoint, the prospects of the (Genesis) brand are encouraging," said Noble. "But from a distribution standpoint, at least here in North America, it is much more problematic."
 
'Tipping point'
 
Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo, now 78, took the helm in 2000 and turned Hyundai and its Kia Motors affiliate into the world's fifth-largest automotive group by making inexpensive but reliable small cars.
 
But the veteran's 45-year-old son and vice-chairman Chung Eui-sun has sought to move Hyundai up the value chain. He spearheaded the move last November to hive off the Genesis sedan into a standalone brand, tapping a segment growing faster than the mass market to generate higher margins.
 
Fitzgerald said meeting with the younger Chung was a "tipping point" in his decision to join a company long known for promoting from within.
 
"He definitely gave me the feeling that no matter how long and how troublesome and how tedious this might be, they are in for it and they want to succeed."
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China lifts ban on US beef products www.chinadaily.com.cn

Premier's remarks spark rally in cattle futures, may relieve glut of cold storage supplies in US
 
Chinese authorities on Thursday announced the conditional lifting of a 13-year import ban on some US boneless beef and beef on the bone.
 
The removal of the ban applies to cattle that are under 30 months old, according to a joint statement issued on Thursday by the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
 
The authorities said China would allow imports of beef that comply with China's traceability and quarantine requirements.
 
China has banned imports of most US beef since 2003, partly due to the concerns over the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as "mad cow disease". The lifting of the ban will be subject to the completion of detailed quarantine requirements, which will be announced at a later date, the statement said.
 
Premier Li Keqiang told business groups in New York on Tuesday that China would soon resume imports of US beef.
 
Li's remark about Chinese shoppers soon having a greater choice of beef sparked a rally in US cattle futures, which closed at just under 1 percent higher at $1.085 per pound at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
 
US cattle futures fell to six-year lows earlier this month, as supplies have expanded in the country, with a glut of cold storage beef, and China offers a potential outlet, The Wall Street Journal reported.
 
In the first six months of 2016, China imported 295,721 metric tons of beef, jumping 60.8 percent year-on-year. The value of imported beef reached $1.3 billion, up 48.3 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs.
 
Because of rising feed prices, limited grazing land and the breeding cycle, China's cattle-raising sector lags behind consumer demand, resulting in higher beef prices in the past five years, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
 
"With an emerging middle-class and their rising income, Chinese people are increasingly preferring high-quality and safe food products, including beef," said Wang Kai, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University.
 
"Currently, the supply of beef in China falls short of demand, and China has found it is impossible to grow all of the food it needs and has consequently formed closer ties with the world food market."
 
"Demand for beef, mutton, fruit, wine and dairy roducts will certainly provide many opportunities for major agricultural produce exporters such as the US, Chile, Brazil and Argentina."
 
Tian Shen, a 24-year-old office worker in Beijing, said she prefers premium imported beef products in the supermarkets, as they have higher meat qualities and taste better.
 
 
 
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Corporation tax is on a downward trend, says OECD report www.theguardian.com

Eight of the world’s top industrialised nations lowered their corporation tax rates last year or announced plans to do so, according to a leading thinktank.
 
In the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s annual report on tax changes around the world, published on Thursday, the thinktank said Japan, Spain, Israel, Norway and Estonia had all lowered their tax rates for corporate profits in 2015. Meanwhile, future reductions had been announced by Italy, France and the UK, while Japan planned further cuts.
 
The OECD said the 2015 downward trend was accelerating as governments around the world emerged from the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis and began using their tax policies more aggressively to chase GDP growth.
 
In particular, countries were vying with one another to offer foreign multinationals the most attractive tax rate in an effort to attract investment. “With regard to corporate income tax, rate reductions had generally slowed down after the crisis but seem to be picking up again,” the report said. “The trend seems to be gaining renewed momentum.”
 
The OECD findings may make uncomfortable reading for many politicians who have recently claimed to be leading the battle to make big global corporations pay more tax. A string of revelations about ultra-low tax bills among many of the world’s largest businesses – including Apple, Vodafone, Starbucks and Google – has led to widespread public anger. The OECD suggested cuts in corporation tax were being partially offset by rises in other taxes such as VAT, fuel and car tax.
 
Many tax justice and inequality campaigners have pointed out this trend hits poorer individuals hardest. The Tax Justice Network notes that it “redistributes wealth upwards”.
 
“Governments make up shortfalls [from corporation tax cuts] by levying higher taxes on other, less wealthy sections of society, or by cutting back on essential public services, so tax ‘competition’ boosts inequality and deprivation,” the Tax Justice Network has said.
 
OECD experts said lower corporation tax rates may indeed boost GDP but were also likely to heap pressure on other nations to follow suit and lower the rate of tax they levied on corporate profits. Critics of tax competition have called this a “race to the bottom”.
 
OECD corporation tax rates (%) since 2000 Photograph: OECD
The OECD said the average tax rate for corporate profits had declined from 32% in 2000 to 26% in 2008. The rate of decline then slowed – the average reaching 25% last year – but now looks to be quickening once again, the OECD said.
 
Meanwhile, the average rate of VAT – a tax that falls hardest on the poor – has climbed from 17.6% in 2008 to a record high of 19.2% at the start of 2015.
 
The UK was not among those OECD countries to have reduced corporation tax rates last year, but the then chancellor, George Osborne, did announce that the rate would steadily fall to 17% by 2020. It had been 28% when Osborne took office in 2010. He has repeatedly boasted of giving the UK the most competitive corporation tax rate of any G20 nation.
 
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, OECD tax experts insisted world leaders were increasingly aware of concerns that aggressive tax competition was leading to wider income and wealth inequality.
 
“In the past, a very big focus of tax policy has been on achieving revenue collection … supporting [GDP] growth,” said David Bradbury, the thinktank’s head of tax policy and statistics.
 
“People have often left the question of income inequality – redistribution – to other levers of policy, particularly government spending. But tax policy has a critical role to play also in addressing those important questions of inequality.”
 
Earlier this month, leaders attending the G20 summit in Hangzhou asked the OECD and the International Monetary Fund to explore ways of using tax reforms to better foster GDP growth while at the same time curbing income and wealth inequalities.
 
While progressive taxes rates for personal and corporate income are in decline in many countries, OECD experts said there were other options for governments to explore. These include wealth taxes and measures to closing tax breaks on mortgage expenditure and pension contributions – incentives that largely benefit better-off individuals.
 
More broadly, the OECD said that industrialised nations wishing to increase tax revenue could do much more to tax property and carbon-heavy fuels such as coal. “The potential to raise revenues in an efficient way through property taxes, especially through recurrent taxes on residential property, is not being fully exploited,” the report concluded, although it found the highest property taxes were in the UK.
 
Meanwhile, OECD figures showed that countries were failing to align those taxes that have an impact on the environment with international ambitions to move to a low-carbon economy. In particular, road transport was heavily taxed despite the fact that other sectors make up 85% of CO2 emissions.
 
“The potential for harnessing the power of taxes as environmental policy instruments is large,” the report said, noting that there were currently “particularly low taxes on some of the most environmentally harmful fuels, notably coal”.
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Delegation addresses China's steel overproduction www.nhk.or.jp

A major Japanese business delegation is in China for talks with senior government officials. The delegates are calling on China to tackle the issue of overcapacity in its steel industry.

About 200 members of the Japan-China Economic Association are sitting down in Beijing with Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and other officials.

The visitors include Sadayuki Sakakibara, the chairman of Keidanren, the Japan Business Federation.

They said overproduced steel products in China are exported at low prices, hurting steelmakers around the globe.

Zhang said he intends to promote reforms to resolve the issue of factories with excess capacity.
He said China wants to learn from Japan's experience in tacking such problems through industrial realignment.

The delegates also met with senior officials of China's Commerce Ministry.

The Japanese side said China needs to step up efforts to protect intellectual property rights in order to attract more private investment.

They called for a crackdown on the sale of counterfeit Japanese products.
The Chinese officials promised to do more to deal with the problem.

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France remains Russia’s top foreign investor www.rt.com

For the third consecutive year France is the leading foreign investor in the Russian economy, according to the Director General of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFR) Pavel Shinsky.

The chamber says in the first three months of this year France invested twice as much as Germany, and even the economic sanctions haven’t scared off French companies.

“In the first quarter of this year France invested $797 million in the Russian economy while Germany $350 million, and the US $130 million,” Shinsky said at the International Business Summit in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod.

France has long been a major foreign employer in Russia, primarily due to such companies as Auchan, and French banks. It provides more than 130,000 jobs from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, said Shinsky.

“No single French company, and there are about 6,000 of them operating in Russia at the moment, has left the country since the beginning of the sanctions,” he said, adding it is “necessary to improve the business climate and make it easier for businesses to operate."

CCIFR data showed that last year French companies invested more than $1 billion in Russia.

French officials and businesses have repeatedly called for the lifting of anti-Russia sanctions imposed by the EU in 2014 because of the dispute over Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Western sanctions against Russia are causing problems for French companies which are losing market share, said Michelle Assouline from the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF).

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said sanctions against Russia should be lifted as soon as possible.

The EU sanctions include restrictions on lending to major Russian state-owned banks, as well as defense and oil companies. Brussels also imposed restrictions on the supply of weapons and military equipment to Russia, as well as military technology, dual-use technology, hi-tech equipment and technology for oil production.

In response, Moscow imposed an embargo on agricultural produce, food and raw materials from countries that joined the anti-Russian move. Since then French farmers have repeatedly taken to the streets to protest low prices on agricultural produce ruining their businesses. Prices were driven down by the loss of the Russian market as a result of the sanctions.

 
 
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Coal export projected to increase www.vom.mn

Coal export is projected to increase. The coal export of Mongolia is estimated to increase to 19.5 million tons in 2016, according to the Mineral Resources Authority. The coal export is forecast to increase by 4.5 million tons as compared to the previous year. Most or 12 million tons of coal for export this year is expected to be contributed by the West and East Tsankhi mines of ErdenesTavanTolgoi JSC.

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China green credit grows www.chinadaily.com

Banks issue 75 billion yuan worth of environmental bonds in the mainland in the first half of the year

With environmental issues looming high on policymakers' agendas, China is grabbing the lion's share of global green funding, demonstrating the country's potential as the game changer for the green bond market.
The issuance of green bonds, which are debt instruments exclusively for projects that address environmental issues, totaled 75 billion yuan ($11 billion) in the mainland over the first half of the year, amounting to 33 percent of the global total, according to data from the central bank.

The nation's rapidly growing sale of such debt has been in the market spotlight for no more than 18 months. Chinese banks have emerged as Asia's No 1 issuer, leading the green finance rush. The country is on course to realize the funding target of $46 billion by the end of the year, said Ma Beijia, equity analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The world's second-largest economy is in dire need of 2 trillion yuan to 4 trillion yuan of green investment annually, with public finance only accounting for 15 percent of this amount and the remaining 85 percent coming from private capital, as data from BofA Merrill Lynch showed.

"Green bonds, in particular, stand as the key to mobilizing private capital for environmental needs," Ma said.

In July, the Bank of China sold $3.03 billion in new green bonds, the largest international issuance of its kind and the very first deal made in dollars, euros and yuan, comprising two-year, three-year and five-year bonds to finance solar, wind and biomass projects throughout the world.

The multibillion-dollar sale also highlighted Bank of China as the first lender from Asia to issue such instruments in Europe, leading the global green financing market, which had previously been European dominated.

The Chinese mainland's enthusiasm to tap the green market has added some clout to the market, where issuance has so far been on a small scale.

But, the hard fact is that even though the green market hit a record of $100 billion last year and is predicted to reach $80-90 billion this year, the sector remains a tiny part of the global bond market, which is around $78 trillion.

"The overall green funding pool is not big enough right now. For emerging markets, it's even smaller," Ma noted.

In a market pioneered and paced by multinational financial institutions in developed economies like the European Investment Bank and the World Bank, analysts are eyeing more and more corporate issuers to join the fray.

The growth of the corporate green bonds market opens up the market to higher yields than the debt issued by the AAA-rated multilateral banks, helping to ease the lingering concern over the yields that besets green bonds investors today.

Utility companies, with easier access to green business, are the natural forerunner.

But the market would welcome more household blue-chip names, even if they don't have much green business footprint, to make a foray and help the issuance pick up steam

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Yahoo says hackers stole data from 500 million accounts in 2014 www.reuters.com

Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) said on Thursday that at least 500 million of its accounts were hacked in 2014 by what it believed was a state-sponsored actor, a theft that appeared to be the world's biggest known cyber breach by far.

Cyber thieves may have stolen names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords, the company said. But unprotected passwords, payment card data and bank account information did not appear to have been compromised, signaling that some of the most valuable user data was not taken.

The attack on Yahoo was unprecedented in size, more than triple other large attacks on sites such as eBay Inc (EBAY.O), and it comes to light at a difficult time for Yahoo.

Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer is under pressure to shore up the flagging fortunes of the site founded in 1994, and the company in July agreed to a $4.83 billion cash sale of its internet business to Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N).

"This is the biggest data breach ever,"� said well-known cryptologist Bruce Schneier, adding that the impact on Yahoo and its users remained unclear because many questions remain, including the identity of the state-sponsored hackers behind it.

On its website on Thursday, Yahoo encouraged users to change their passwords but did not require it.

Although the attack happened in 2014, Yahoo only discovered the incursion after August reports of a separate breach. While that report turned out to be false, Yahoo's investigation turned up the 2014 theft, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Analyst Robert Peck of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey said the breach probably was not enough to prompt Verizon to abandon its deal with Yahoo, but it could call for a price decrease of $100 million to $200 million, depending on how many users leave Yahoo.

Steven Caponi, an attorney at K&L Gates with a practice including merger litigation, said that Yahoo's breach could fall under the "material adverse change" clause common in mergers allowing a buyer to walk away if its target's value deteriorates.

 
 
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Shipping giant Maersk to split up and focus on North Sea www.bbc.com

Maersk, the Copenhagen-based shipping giant, is to be split up with its energy interests directed more towards the North Sea.
The family-owned firm, formally known as AP Moller-Maersk, will focus on its transport and logistics business.
The energy division is to shrink its global reach and focus more on the North Sea, where it has expertise.
That division has around 800 employees based in Aberdeen, working both on and offshore.
The company employs 88,000 people and operates across 130 countries, with turnover of more than $40bn (£31bn).
Work will continue on existing energy projects, including some of the biggest projects in the UK offshore sector. But the company signalled that new investment commitments may be low, particularly in tankers and drilling.
Maersk Oil has been operating in the UK central North Sea sector for 11 years, and is a partner in some of the biggest developments during that time, including the Golden Eagle.

Shipping has been hit by sharp reductions in rates for containers - a notoriously volatile market. That is partly due to a downturn in trade, and also to the extra tonnage added to the world container fleet.
Hanjin Shipping, the seventh-biggest in container transport and based in South Korea, recently filed for bankruptcy. It is struggling to find the finance to offload cargo from its ships, worth several billion pounds.
Maersk's energy business faces problems which are at least as deep as shipping, due to the fall in the price of oil. The company's strategic review speaks of finding "solutions" including joint ventures, mergers or spinning off companies for separate listing. The vagueness of the plan makes it look like an intention to exit as much of that sector as possible, and shipping is clearly the priority.
The North Sea presence may be one part of the energy division that is retained, as the technology involved is an area of expertise. That's unless a buyer can be found.
Breaking up the 112-year-old conglomerate is a reversal of the strategy under which Maersk Line grew to have a fleet of 590 ships, plus 500 smaller service ships. It was guided by its chairman Maersk McKinney Moller, who remained active in the company until his death four years ago, aged 98.
It is operator of the Culzean gas field development, which is one of the biggest in UK waters for 25 years. It is expected to meet 5% of Britain's gas demand after it comes on-stream, scheduled for 2019.
Its other production is from Denmark, Qatar, Kazakhstan, the US Gulf of Mexico and Algeria. Exploration and development activities are also under way in Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia, Greenland, Brazil, Kurdistan, and the huge Johan Sverdrup field being developed in the Norwegian North Sea.
Michael Pram Rasmussen, the chairman, said in a statement: "Separating our transport and logistics businesses and our oil and oil related businesses...will enable both to focus on their respective markets. Both face very different underlying fundamentals and competitive environments."
The oil, drilling, offshore services and tanker divisions face moves towards joint ventures, sales and stock market floats over the next two years. Profits in that division have recently come in well below expectations.
Key development projects
The company's strategy states: "Maersk Oil will adjust its current strategy to focus its portfolio in fewer geographies to gain scale in basins, particularly in the North Sea, where it can leverage its strong capabilities within subsurface modelling, well technology and efficient operations. Maersk Oil will aim to strengthen its portfolio through acquisitions or mergers.
"Further, Maersk Oil will mature existing key development projects, while keeping exploration activities and expenses at a low level. While the strategic focus will be reflected in a disciplined capital allocation, investments in strategic projects already sanctioned or under development will continue as planned.
"Maersk Drilling, Maersk Supply Services, and Maersk Tankers will continue to optimise their market position and operation with the existing fleet and order book. Additional investments in the group's offshore service businesses and Maersk Tankers will be limited."
Denmark's Sydbank estimated the value of the logistics business at, very roughly, £23bn. Its central estimate for the energy division was close to £13bn.

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