Aurelia Butler

The draft will be submitted to the central government by Friday, according to the document dated June 29. The Southeast Asian country, which is an important manufacturing base for companies like Samsung Electronics (KS:005930), Foxconn and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), is heavily reliant on foreign investment for growth. Companies with foreign investment account for around 70% of its total exports.The fund and other incentives have been highly anticipated by multinationals after Vietnam’s parliament last year approved the OECD-led global minimum corporate tax rate of 15%, raising the effective tax level paid by companies. The fund, which would be financed by the state budget and by revenue from corporate tax, was part of efforts to “maintain Vietnam’s competitiveness in the face of changeable global conditions and fierce competition among countries in attracting investment,” the document said.The Vietnam Fund for Investment Support would provide cash to projects to partly cover costs for infrastructure, fixed assets and human resource training. Vietnam aims to attract $30-$40 billion of foreign investment a year in the 2021-2025 period, and $40-$50 billion annually in the 2026-2030 period, the document said. Foreign investment inflows last year rose 34.5% to $39.4 billion, it said. “Though foreign investment in Vietnam has been rising over recent years, the number of large-scale foreign investment projects with high technologies remain modest, while some existing projects have suspended their plans to expand,” the document said. It said some potential big investors were still deliberating on whether to invest in Vietnam, pending more information about investment incentives.According to the draft, investments eligible for the incentives would include high-tech projects worth at least 12 trillion dong ($471.51 million) and with annual revenues of at least 20 trillion dong. Projects investing in artificial intelligence and semiconductors worth at least 6 trillion dong, and projects to develop research and development centres worth at least 3 trillion dong would also be eligible. “The fund would not solely be aimed at compensating firms affected by the global minimum tax, but at encouraging all investment projects,” the document said. ($1 = 25,450 dong) More

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LONDON (Reuters) -Ukraine told investors it still expects to succeed in its unprecedented aim of restructuring debt in the middle of a war before payment moratoriums expire by Aug. 1, according to four sources who joined a call with the Finance Ministry on Monday.The war-torn country also intends to include GDP warrants as part of its effort to restructure some $20 billion of international bonds, said the sources. Monday’s call marks part of Ukraine’s fresh push to engage with investors after formal restructuring talks last month ended without an agreement. Statements released last week showed there was a wide gap between the 20% haircut bondholders are prepared to give and a proposal from Ukraine that would have translated into a haircut of up to 60%. “They believe that an agreement can be reached soon,” one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Finance Ministry also assured investors on the call that the bonds linked to economic performance would be index eligible, two of the sources said, an important feature for those who want to trade them. Yuriy Butsa, head of Ukraine’s debt management office, who is leading the country’s engagement with creditors, spoke on the call and was joined by representatives from the government’s advisers and the IMF mission chief to Ukraine, Gavin Gray, the sources said. On the creditor side, members of the Ad Hoc Creditor Committee joined, along with investors who were not part of the group. Ukraine has $19.7 billion outstanding on its international bonds and owes $2.6 billion on GDP warrants – a fixed-income instrument with payouts that are linked to the strength of economic output growth. The warrants were created as a sweetener to creditors during Ukraine’s 2015 debt restructuring in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The statement released last week, which details the government’s restructuring proposal to bondholders, only mentioned the GDP warrants in the context of removing a cross default clause between the bonds and the warrants. Some investors had interpreted this as a sign that Kyiv did not envisage restructuring both types of debt at the same time, but dealing with the bonds first. However, the message was now that something had to be done with the warrants as well, the sources said, as the payments due on the warrants were included in the IMF’s crucial debt sustainability analysis (DSA), and could also siphon money away from the largely token coupon payments that the government proposed to make to bondholders under the restructuring.”Ukraine has proposed that the new bonds will have no events of default related to or referencing the GDP warrants, while our proposal recognises that GDP warrants payments included in the DSA are taking up substantial headroom,” the ministry told Reuters via email.An IMF spokesperson declined to comment.Ukraine’s bonds have risen by more than 2 cents since the initial negotiations failed, suggesting some optimism that a deal could be reached. Though they fell slightly on Tuesday, they were trading between 27.8 cents and 31.49 cents. The GDP warrant, however, has shed more than 1 cent since the initial restricted talks ended. Ukraine also intends to add a most-favoured creditor clauses in the restructured bond instruments to ensure that those holding the state-owned enterprises’ debt would not get a better deal when that debt at is restructured at a later stage. More

PARIS (Reuters) -Opponents of France’s National Rally (RN) stepped up their bid to block the far-right party from power on Tuesday as more candidates said they would bow out of this weekend’s run-off election to avoid splitting the anti-RN vote.Some 180-plus candidates have confirmed they will not stand in Sunday’s second-round for France’s 577-seat national parliament, according to local media estimates. Others have until 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) to make their choice.Marine Le Pen’s RN came out well ahead in Sunday’s first-round vote after President Emmanuel Macron’s gamble on a snap election backfired, leaving his centrist camp in a lowly third place behind a hastily formed left-wing alliance.But even before the manoeuvring of the last 24 hours to create a “republican front” to block the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic party, it was far from clear the RN could win the 289 seats needed for a majority.Pollsters calculated the first round put the RN on track for anything between 250-300 seats. But that was before the tactical withdrawals and cross-party calls for voters to back whichever candidate was best placed to defeat the local RN rival.”The match is not over,” the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, told France 2. “We must mobilise all our forces.”The RN is hostile to further European Union integration and would cut funding to the EU. Human rights groups have raised concerns about how its “France first” and anti-migrant policies would apply to ethnic minorities, while economists question whether its hefty spending plans are fully funded.Financial markets gained on Monday on relief that the far right had not performed better, but the reaction has been muted by the fact that a hung parliament would also risk policy paralysis for the rest of Macron’s presidency till 2027.’REPUBLICAN FRONT’There was initial confusion over whether Macron’s allies would stand down in local contests in favour of better-placed rival candidates if they came from the radical left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party of Jean-Luc Melenchon. However Macron on Monday told a closed-door meeting of ministers at the Elysee Palace that the top priority was blocking the RN from power and that LFI candidates could be endorsed if necessary.The “republican front” has worked before, such as in 2002 when voters of all stripes rallied behind Jacques Chirac to defeat Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, in a presidential contest.However, it is not certain voters these days are willing to follow guidance from political leaders on where to place their vote, while Marine Le Pen’s efforts to soften the image of her party has made it less of a pariah for millions.Le Pen on Tuesday repeated her assertion that the RN would not try to form a government if it and its allies did not have a workable majority in parliament.”We cannot agree to form a government if we cannot act. That would be the worst of betrayals of our voters,” she told France Inter radio.Assuming no group has an outright majority after Sunday, politicians across the spectrum have proposed various ways of proceeding to see out the remainder of Macron’s presidency.Prime Minister Gabriel Attal suggested mainstream right, left and centre parties could form ad hoc alliances to vote through individual pieces of legislation in the new parliament.Xavier Bertrand, a senior member of the centre-right Republicans (LR) party, called on Tuesday for a “provisional government” to run France until the next presidential election.In a foretaste of the sour mood that would prevail in the event of a powersharing “cohabitation” between Macron and an RN-led government, Le Pen referred to media speculation that he was planning to make key public sector appointments aimed at preventing the RN from implementing its policies.While not saying she had any evidence that was the case, Le Pen said any such move would amount to an “administrative coup”. More

LONDON (Reuters) -British fintech company Revolut made a record pretax profit of 438 million pounds ($553.81 million) in 2023 on strong user growth and soaring interest-related income, it said on Tuesday, as it looks to cement its place as Europe’s most valuable startup.The results, filed ahead of a September deadline, were the first to be published on time in three years, after Revolut had delayed publication of both its 2021 and 2022 accounts. The company has faced problems with its financial reporting previously, drawing scrutiny from regulators, but is hoping Tuesday’s numbers are a step forward.Revolut has signalled its aim to list publicly but the company’s interim chief financial officer Victor Stinga declined to comment on any timeline for an IPO.”Improving financial controls and making sure we bolster our team, being able to release these results within six months, is part of that journey. So we are taking steps in making sure that our control environment trends towards the level you require as a public company,” Stinga told Reuters.The company’s revenue almost doubled to a forecast-beating 1.8 billion pounds in 2023, helped by interest income that soared to 500 million pounds from 83 million pounds in 2022, according to its annual report. Revolut made a pretax loss of 25.4 million pounds in 2022 after a pretax profit of 40 million pounds in 2021.The growth comes at an opportune time, with the company seeking a more than $40 billion valuation in a $500 million share sale, up from the $33 billion valuation hit in a 2021 fund raise.Revolut has applied for a UK banking licence but three years on is still awaiting approval.UK CEO Francesca Carlesi told Reuters that Revolut’s banking licence application was “progressing well” but that there are “a lot of steps” in the process.”We are by nature optimistic but you know at the same time, I really don’t think we should put any timeline to this,” she said.In an interview with CNBC, Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky said the company was feeling confident about its chances of being granted a UK licence. Revolut is “continuing to work closely” with UK regulators on its UK bank licence application, the annual report said.Founded in 2015, Revolut is one of a handful of fintech companies to have emerged in Britain over the past decade, offering financial services without having physical branches. It has 45 million customers globally, with customer numbers increasing by nearly 45% last year.Britain’s fintech industry has faced a funding crunch in recent years as investors have become more sceptical of sky-high pandemic-era valuations and put pressure on companies to become profitable.When Revolut’s 2021 accounts were finally published in March 2023, auditor BDO said it was unable to independently verify three quarters of the 636 million pounds of revenue. Revolut’s customer loan book grew to more than 500 million pounds in 2023, up from 204 million the previous year, its latest report said.($1 = 0.7909 pounds) More

Far right leader Wilders, the clear winner of last year’s general election, will not be part of the government himself, but his shadow will loom large as he continues to lead his Freedom Party from parliament. Wilders, who was convicted for discrimination after he insulted Moroccans at a campaign rally in 2014, only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties in May after he gave up his bid to become prime minister.Instead, the cabinet will be led by the independent and unelected Dick Schoof, a career bureaucrat who has led the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and was the senior official at the ministry of justice.Schoof was put forward to alleviate concerns over Wilders’ anti-Islam rhetoric among his main coalition partners, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD and the centrist NSC.But Wilders, who has been living under tight security for 20 years due to Islamist death threats, has said he will not change his tone, and last week told his 1.4 million followers on social media platform X he still sees Islam as a “despicable, violent and hateful religion.” He has selected hardliners from his party to represent him in cabinet, including several who in the past have claimed that the government was actively working on replacing the Dutch population with immigrants.The incoming government will have to stick to the agreement reached by the four parties, which aims for a clampdown on immigration and exceptions on EU asylum and environmental rules.Schoof and his team are expected to present detailed plans by September.They will not have much room to spend as the euro zone’s fifth-largest economy saw its strong post-pandemic boom end in a recession last year.Unemployment is set to remain relatively low, but the coalition agreement is forecast to take the government’s budget deficit close to the EU maximum of 3%.The new government will be the first since 2010 without Mark Rutte, who will become NATO’s secretary-general in October.The Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister on Sunday bowed out with a televised speech, in which he stressed the need for cooperation.”The Netherlands has a unique tradition of compromise and of taking responsibility, and it’s important that we keep that,” he said from his already cleared-out office. “Together we are stronger than alone.” More