BERLIN -Germany’s cartel office is looking into Apple’s rules on tracking for third-party apps to see whether they give the U.S. tech giant preferential treatment or hinder other companies, it said on Tuesday.

“We welcome data-friendly business models that give users choices about how their data is used,” said cartel office president Andreas Mundt. “However, a company like Apple, which can unilaterally set the rules in its ecosystem and especially in the App Store, should make them in line with competition.”

In question is Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which requires users to give additional consent to having their data collected through tracking on apps that are not from Apple, according to the cartel office.

Tracking allows apps to collect user data and can be used for advertising purposes, such as personalized advertising.

A spokesperson for Apple said the company would work constructively with the cartel office to resolve any issues and discuss its approach to tracking rules.

The spokesperson added that ATT does not stop companies from showing ads while also allowing users to control their privacy.

Under new regulations that came into force in 2021, the regulator can ban companies that have particular market weight from carrying out practices that harm market competition.

The office has meanwhile used the instrument to also open proceedings against Facebook, Amazon and Google.

(Reporting by Nadine Schimroszik, Writing by Miranda MurrayEditing by Madeline Chambers and David Evans)

By Valentina Za

MILAN – Monte dei Paschi di Siena has named veteran UniCredit executive Andrea Maffezzoni as its new chief financial officer as it prepares to present a new strategic plan next week, the state-controlled bank said on Tuesday.

Maffezzoni joins another former UniCredit senior manager, Luigi Lovaglio, who in February took the helm at the Tuscan lender after the Italian Treasury, the top shareholder in MPS with a 64% stake, pushed out his predecessor.

Maffezzoni, 50, arrives at MPS at a crucial juncture. After the Treasury failed to clinch a sale to UniCredit last year, Lovaglio is finalising a new strategic plan that MPS will unveil on June 23.

The latest revamp is to be funded by a new share issue worth at least 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion).

The plan needs approval by European Union competition authorities, while the European Central Bank will assess whether the capital raising is appropriate. Sources told Reuters in May that both the Treasury and MPS were working to keep the size of the cash call at around 2.5 billion euros.

Maffezzoni knows MPS well having co-led the UniCredit team who last year conducted a due diligence analysis on the Siena-based bank during exclusive talks with the Treasury over a possible acquisition.

The deal fell through over UniCredit’s request of 6.3 billion euros in capital which the Treasury deemed excessive.

During more than three decades at UniCredit Maffezzoni has overseen a number of strategic transactions as head of strategy and M&A and, lastly, as head of group capital, performance and shareholding management.

He worked with previous Chief Executive Jean Pierre Mustier on UniCredit’s 13 billion euro new share issue in 2017 and was responsible for the preparation of Mustier’s Transform 2019 and Team 2023 business plans.

Under Mustier, he oversaw a raft of disposals such as the sale of UniCredit’s stakes in Polish unit Bank Pekao or Turkish lender Yapi Kredi, as well as the renewal of a partnership with French insurer CNP in Italy.($1 = 0.9559 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Keith Weir)

By William Schomberg and David Milliken

LONDON – Britain’s jobless rate rose for the first time since late 2020 and other measures of the country’s hot labour market cooled, potentially easing inflation worries at the Bank of England which is due to raise rates again this week.

With surging inflation weighing on the economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, official data showed the jobless rate edged up to 3.8% in the three months to April from 3.7% in the previous labour market report for the three months to March.

The increase was the first since the last three months of 2020. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the unemployment rate to fall to 3.6%.

The rise partly reflected a drop in the economic inactivity rate for working-age adults, which measures people who have dropped out of the labour market altogether and therefore had not shown up as unemployed.

It fell by 0.1 percentage points to 21.3% for the February to April period, driven mostly by students seeking work.

“We may be nearing a turning point for the labour market as creeping uncertainty results in employers taking their foot off the accelerator,” Jack Kennedy, an economist at recruitment website Indeed, said.

Although growth in vacancies slowed, they hit a new record high and the fall in the inactivity rate still left it well above pre-pandemic levels, meaning the jobs market remained extremely tight, Kennedy said.

Sterling slipped against the dollar after the data and shorter-maturity British government bond yields eased off recent multi-year highs as investors dialled back their expectations for how much higher the BoE is likely to raise borrowing costs.

The British central bank is expected to raise interest rates again on Thursday as it tries to stop the recent jump in inflation from turning into a longer-term problem if employers resort to increasing their pay sharply to fill vacancies.

Data on Monday showed Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank in April, adding to fears of a sharp slowdown.

GRAPHIC: UK jobless rate rises for first time since 2020 (https://graphics.reuters.com/BRITAIN-ECONOMY/UNEMPLOYMENT/zjpqklqdkpx/chart.png)

INCOME EROSION

A further 177,000 people were employed in the three months to April compared with the previous three-month period, more than the median forecast for a 105,000 increase in the Reuters poll, while the number of unemployed fell by 47,000.

In April alone employment fell by 254,000 and the jobless rate jumped to 4.2% from 3.5% in March, although single-month figures can be volatile as a measure of the economy.

Tuesday’s data showed growth in regular pay picked up slightly to 4.2% in the three months to April, despite expectations that it would slow. But growth in total pay, including bonuses, slowed to 6.8% from 7.0%.

Many employers have resorted to one-off incentives to attract and retain staff.

Despite the relatively high levels of pay growth, incomes of workers are being eroded by the recent leap in inflation caused by the reopening of the global economy after the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Using Britain’s consumer prices index, real-terms total pay was 0.5% lower than a year before, the biggest drop since August 2020 when many workers were on reduced furlough pay.

Stripping out bonuses, pay fell 3.0%, the largest such inflation-adjusted drop since November 2011.

Looking at April alone – which the ONS discourages due to the low number of workers sampled – pay excluding bonuses dropped by the most since these records began in 2001.

(Reporting by William Schomberg and David Milliken; Editing by Catherine Evans)

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Daniel Leussink

TOKYO – The Bank of Japan ramped up bond buying on Tuesday as its yield cap came under renewed pressure from rising global interest rates, highlighting its difficulty in remaining a dovish outlier in a global wave of monetary tightening.

The central bank’s resolve to keep yields low has helped drive the yen down to 24-year lows against the dollar, as investors have focused on the gap between Japan’s ultra-low interest rates and expectations of aggressive hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The BOJ expanded bond buying on Tuesday, and offered to increase a round of purchases across the curve on Wednesday, to knock the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) back to its 0.25% cap.

The announcements had mixed effects in suppressing yields on bonds of other maturities. Two-year and 30-year yields eased, but the five-year yield jumped to a level not seen since 2015.

Some super-long maturities were also sold heavily, on speculation that the BOJ may eventually adjust its yield targets, distorting the shape of the yield curve.

“The bond market appears to be pricing in the chance of a collapse in yield-curve control,” Jun Ishii, chief bond strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, wrote in a research note.

Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki repeated his concerns about recent rapid yen falls on Tuesday, highlighting the dilemma Tokyo faces as it chases two conflicting goals: keeping interest rates low without weakening the yen further.

“A rapid yen weakening has been seen in the exchange market recently and I’m concerned,” Suzuki told a news conference. “We will carefully watch currency market moves and their impact on the economy and prices with a sense of even more urgency.”

The central bank said in a statement: “We will make changes in the auction schedule and amounts of outright purchases of JGBs as needed, taking account of market conditions.”

The yen last traded at 134.58 per dollar on Tuesday, after hitting a 24-year low of 135.22 on Monday.

Yen weakness has become a headache for Japanese policymakers, because it pushes up already rising prices of imported fuel and raw materials, leading to higher living costs for households.

The government and central bank issued a rare joint statement on Friday expressing concern about the yen’s sharp slide. It was the strongest warning to date that Tokyo could intervene to support the currency.

Such jawboning has had little effect in reversing a broad, strong-dollar trend, however.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has repeated the bank’s resolve to keep interest rates ultra-low to support an economy that has not yet fully recovered from pandemic damage.

“There’s no way the central bank will raise interest rates to support the yen,” said Noriatsu Tanji, chief bond strategist at Mizuho Securities. “Compared with other countries, Japan has inflation that is still too low to worry about.”

Analysts expect the BOJ to keep interest rates ultra-low at a two-day policy meeting that ends on Friday.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Daniel Leussink; Writing by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Bradley Perrett)

By Makiko Yamazaki

TOKYO -Two influential proxy advisers have both recommended voting for the appointment of all Toshiba Corp director nominees including two from activist shareholders, despite objection to the move from within the board.

Proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc (ISS) and Glass Lewis backed all 13 candidates including those from Elliott Management and Farallon Capital Management, according to their reports issued by Tuesday.

The recommendations come despite objection by external director Mariko Watahiki, who has said having the two shareholder representatives would skew the board toward activist investors.

Shareholders will vote at Toshiba’s annual meeting scheduled for June 28 and many non-Japanese institutional investors generally follow the proxy advisers’ recommendations.

ISS said in its report that the concerns raised by Watahiki “are not considered to rise to a level that would justify voting against” the executives from Farallon and Elliott. The two funds own about 10% of Toshiba.

It also said the board is majority independent and the affiliated outsiders’ presence on the board “cannot be regarded as detrimental”.

Glass Lewis said it viewed the shareholder nominees very favourably. They are “expected to reflect a negotiated turning point for Toshiba” as the company embraces external, shareholder-centric perspectives at a time when it is evaluating strategic alternatives, it said.

It also said that a lack of board-level unanimity “is not, on its own, inherently problematic” and would suggest there was a healthy exchange of views.

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Editing by Louise Heavens and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

BRUSSELS -Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said on Tuesday bookings at Europe’s biggest budget airline are strengthening and he expects summer fares to be between 7% and 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Speaking to Reuters, he said the load factor, a measure of how well an airline is filling available seats, should be around 94% in June, almost reaching pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.

“And July, August, and September look very strong with higher load factors and also higher fares,” he said.

“Fares will be up probably high single digits 7,8,9 percent over summer 2019.”

He said he expects the travelling experience for European customers to improve over summer as airport management groups “iron out” staffing shortages through recruitment.

A snapback in air travel has triggered long queues at some British airports, as well as Amsterdam, Dublin and Toronto, as airport managers struggle to fill jobs fast enough.

Spanish cabin staff on Monday said they will go on strike six days late June and early July, but O’Leary said any disruption caused by industrial action was likely to be “tiny and inconsequential”.

He said there might be a small number of cancellations or delays but that the proposed strike action has “no support”.

He said there was no progress in talks with Boeing regarding the acquisition of new aircraft, and he reiterated his criticism of the planemakers management, saying that Ryanair last spoke to Boeing “two or three months ago”.

Boeing has said it sold more than 700 MAX jets last year and will not do deals at unrealistic prices.

(Reporting by Clement Rossignol; writing Graham Fahy; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and David Evans)

By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh

BEIJING -China is set to get a picture of how the country’s zero-COVID-19 policy and slowing economy have impacted shoppers’ urge to splurge, as e-commerce platforms gear up to report takings from the mid-year “618” shopping festival this weekend.

Held in the run-up to June 18, 618 is China’s second-largest shopping event by sales after Nov. 11’s Singles Day, with bargain-hunters holding off purchases in anticipation of discounts spanning a range of brands.

Last year, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Tmall, JD.com Inc and Pinduoduo Inc hit a combined 578.4 billion yuan ($85.89 billion) worth of 618 sales, up 26.5% from the year earlier, showed data from Syntun.

But the world’s second-largest economy has in the last three months been hobbled by government efforts to combat repeated waves of COVID-19 that has seen dozens of cities impose lockdown measures of varying intensity, in turn curtailing spending, impacting livelihoods and heavily disrupting supply chains.

Many cities eased curbs in June and have said they want to stimulate consumption to revive the economy, with incentives including vouchers, subsidies for car buyers and digital yuan payments.

Acknowledging that brands have been hit by the pandemic, Alibaba and JD.com are offering merchant support measures, such as pledging to speed up transfers of pre-sale deposits to help merchants’ liquidity.

They are also encouraging brands to offer their biggest-ever discounts in hope of spurring spending, with JD.com stipulating that shoppers can get 50 yuan off for every 299 yuan they spend. Alibaba has a similar offer. Vendors foot the bill for these discounts.

Some companies and agents told Reuters, however, they planned to participate less in discounting this year, because they or their clients were unable to afford it.

Fang Jianhua, founder and chairman of IDG Capital and Alibaba-backed clothing brand Inman Apparel, penned an article on WeChat last month lamenting how retailers especially in Shanghai were suffering in the current environment from lost sales and that he planned to “lie flat” for 618 – a Chinese expression of inaction.

Rather than discounts, Fang plans to “concentrate on how to use our products and services to build up emotional connections with millions of customers,” he said without elaborating.

Still, the event is seeing a trend of retailers from pasta maker Barilla to shampoo brand Ryo offering “stock up” packages, containing what would constitute bulk orders of their products.

Many shoppers in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing which have experienced pandemic lockdown measures have rushed to stock up on food and daily necessities even after movement restrictions eased due to fear of lockdown happening again.

The 618 event was conceived by JD.com in 2004 to celebrate its anniversary.

($1 = 6.7344 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

By M. Sriram

MUMBAI – Sequoia Capital has raised $2.85 billion to fund Indian and Southeast Asian startups, the venture capital firm said on Tuesday, looking beyond current weakness in investment in new companies in the region.

The fundraising is Sequoia’s largest so far for India and Southeast Asia.

Money raised included $850 million in Sequoia’s first fund dedicated to Southeast Asia, the Silicon Valley company said in a statement. Sequoia has been investing in Southeast Asian startups since 2015 from a common India fund.

The remaining $2 billion has been raised in Indian venture and growth funds.

Including the newly raised money, the company’s Indian unit, Sequoia India, has committed more than $8 billion to India and Southeast Asia over the past 15 years, according to data from Venture Intelligence. Sequoia India last raised $1.35 billion for the region in 2020.

“This fundraise, which comes at a time when markets are starting to cool after a very long bull run, signals our deep commitment to the region,” Sequoia said.

Funding of Indian startups has slowed since a record $35 billion in fundraising last year. Amid a global tech rout, companies have been struggling to raise capital and some have had to fire employees.

Sequoia’s successful investments in the region include hotelier Oyo, listed food delivery firm Zomato and two companies that have merged: ride-hailing app Gojek and ecommerce firm Tokopedia. The combined business, GoTo, is Indonesia’s largest listed company.

(Reporting by M. Sriram; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Bradley Perrett)

WASHINGTON – The White House on Monday urged Britain and the European Union to return to talks to resolve differences over implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, but said it does not expect the issue to impede a U.S.-UK trade dialogue next week.

“The U.S. priority remains protecting the gains of the Belfast Good Friday agreement, and preserving peace, stability and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Asked if Britain’s plans to override some of the post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland could become an impediment for June 22 U.S.-UK trade discussions planned in Boston or a future U.S.-UK trade deal, Jean-Pierre said, “No, I don’t believe it will be.”

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chris Reese)

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh

(Reuters) – The crypto market’s a hot mess, leaving many investors struggling to turn a buck. Enter the arbitrageurs.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have either been shackled to ranges or in decline since January, leaving your regular buy-and-hold investor with little option but to sell or to wait for the elusive rally.

One class of seasoned investors is faring better, though: the arbitrageurs, players such as hedge funds who thrive on exploiting price differences between different geographies and exchanges.

“In May when the market collapsed, we made money. We are up 40 basis points for the month,” said Anatoly Crachilov, co-founder and CEO of Nickel Digital Asset Management in London, referring to their arbitrage strategy.

“Arb trading” involves buying an asset in a cheaper venue and simultaneously selling it elsewhere where it’s quoted at a premium, in theory pocketing the difference while being neutral on the asset.

It’s certainly not for everyone, and requires the kind of access to multiple markets and exchanges, and often the algorithms, that only serious players like sophisticated hedge funds can secure to make it a profitable endeavour.

Yet for investors who meet the bar, it’s proving attractive.

Such “market neutral” funds have become the most common strategy among crypto hedge funds, making up nearly a third of all currently active crypto funds, according to PwC’s annual global crypto hedge fund report published last week.

K2 Trading Partners said its high-frequency trading crypto arbitrage fund, which is algorithmically driven, had returned about 1% this year through to the end of May, even as bitcoin slumped 31% in the same period.

Meanwhile Stack Funds’ long/short trading fund with exposure in liquid cryptocurrencies saw its single biggest monthly loss of about 30% in May, while its arbitrage-focused fund shed 0.2%.

YOUR FUNDS FROZEN

While arbitrage has long been a popular strategy in many markets, the young crypto sector lends itself to the approach as it boasts several hundred exchanges across a world with inconsistent regulation, according to participants.

Hugo Xavier, CEO of K2 Trading Partners, said arb trading benefited from a lack of interconnectivity among crypto exchanges: “That’s good because you have different prices and that creates arbitrage opportunities.”

For instance, bitcoin was trading at $27,493 on Coinbase on Monday, versus $28,067 on Bisq. Bitcoin is down 44% this year, and at December 2020 lows.

Yet market watchers also point to the possible pitfalls, including technical snafus on exchanges slowing or freezing-up transactions, potentially robbing arb traders of their edge. Some lightly regulated venues in smaller countries, which offer many good arb opportunities, pose extra risks.

“It’s normal for an exchange go offline,” Xavier added. “Your funds can be frozen for some reason.”

STRESS SITUATIONS

Price discrepancies have typically arisen because of the less experienced retail traders who make up the bulk of crypto trades, particularly in the derivatives market. And, while arbitrage strategies are direction-neutral, they tend to perform better when bullish markets attract more retail participation.

“Of course, you want to have retail traders on the same exchange that you are when you’re doing arbitration because you will have less smart money. When there’s a bullish market, retail volume comes back,” Xavier said.

“If the markets are moving sideways or going down, retail traders cool off. Opportunities are fewer because most of people there are market makers and they are efficient.”

Markus Thielen, chief investment officer at Singapore-based digital asset manager IDEG said that there had been a shift in recent months, with arbitrage opportunities mostly appearing during “market stress situations”.

“So the market structure has fundamentally changed on the arb side,” he said, adding their arb strategy generated returns of 2% in the last eight weeks.

Yet Katryna Hanush, director of business development at London-based crypto market maker Wintermute, said arb trading ultimately had a limited shelf life because inconsistent pricing across different exchanges was bad for investors.

“As more institutional players come into the space, the arb opportunities will be eliminated.”

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin Char)

By Byron Kaye and Renju Jose

SYDNEY -Australia’s Queensland state said it will investigate whether to let the country’s No. 2 casino operator Star Entertainment Group Ltd keep its gambling licence amid money laundering concerns, putting a cloud over the company’s main growth plan.

After an inquiry in a neighbouring state accused Star of allowing breaches of anti-money laundering protocols at its Sydney resort, Queensland said on Tuesday it would also review the company’s suitability for a licence.

If that inquiry finds Star unsuitable, it would likely disrupt the company’s plan to open a A$3.6 billion ($2.5 billion) casino resort in central Brisbane as planned in 2023.

A separate inquiry into alleged breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws at the company’s casino in Sydney, capital of New South Wales (NSW) state, is yet to deliver its final report. Star chief executive officer Matt Bekier resigned in March amid that investigation.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said previously disclosed investigations into Star by the state’s police and casino regulator were ongoing, but “there will also be an independent expert review into the suitability of The Star to keep its casino licence”.

The state would publish the scope of that review later, Fentiman added.

Star said it would “fully cooperate with any review”.

Australia’s casino sector has been under intense scrutiny since media articles in 2019 accused Star’s larger rival Crown Resorts Ltd of wide-ranging misconduct including failure to stop money laundering by foreign criminals in its premises.

That resulted in findings that Crown was unfit for a licence in the three states where it operates. It was allowed to keep taking bets, under government supervision, in the two states where it already had functioning casinos, but a new resort in Sydney has not been allowed to take bets since opening in 2020.

The NSW regulator launched a separate inquiry into Star after new media reports accused the company of compliance shortcomings, which it denied.

Star’s profit is divided roughly between its casinos in Sydney and the Queensland cities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Star shares closed down 6% on Tuesday, against a 3.8% decline on the broader market.

($1 = 1.4422 Australian dollars)

($1 = 1.4353 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Renju Jose; editing by Stephen Coates)

By Tom Wilson, Hannah Lang and Elizabeth Howcroft

WASHINGTON -Bitcoin fell as much as 14% on Monday after major U.S. cryptocurrency lending company Celsius Network froze withdrawals and transfers citing “extreme” market conditions, in the latest sign of the financial market downturn hitting the cryptosphere.

The Celsius move triggered a slide across cryptocurrencies, with their value dropping below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since January 2021, sparking worries the rout might spill over into other assets or hit other companies.

“Almost anything can be systemic in crypto … because the whole space is over-levered,” said Cory Klippsten, chief executive of Swan Bitcoin, a bitcoin savings platform. “It’s all a house of cards.”

Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and Celsius did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

New Jersey-based Celsius, which has around $11.8 billion in assets, offers interest-bearing products to customers who deposit cryptocurrencies with its platform. It then lends out cryptocurrencies to earn a return.

After Celsius’s announcement, bitcoin <BTC=BTSP> touched an 18-month low of $22,725, before rebounding slightly to around $23,265. No.2 token ether dropped as much as 18% to $1,176, its lowest since January 2021.

Companies exposed to cryptocurrencies have previously warned that declines in token prices could have ripple effects, including by triggering margin calls.

“It’s still an uncomfortable moment, and there’s some contagion risk around crypto more broadly,” said Joseph Edwards, head of financial strategy at fund management firm Solrise Finance.

Crypto markets have dived in the past few weeks as rising interest rates and surging inflation prompted investors to ditch riskier assets across financial markets.

Markets extended a sell-off on Monday after U.S. inflation data on Friday, which showed the largest price increase since 1981, prompting investors to raise their bets on Federal Reserve rate hikes.[MKTS/GLOB]

That was likely the key driver of the crypto market nosedive, Jay Hatfield, chief investment officer at Infrastructure Capital Management, wrote in a note on Monday.

“The Fed’s overexpansion of its balance sheet led to a number of bubbles including tech stocks, (and) crypto tokens,” he said.

Cryptocurrency investors have also been rattled by the collapse of the terraUSD and luna tokens in May which was shortly followed by Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, briefly breaking its 1:1 peg with the dollar.

In a blog post https://tether.to/en/celsius-feels-impact-of-market-volatility-tether-reserves-hold-strong on Monday, Tether said that while it has invested in Celsius, its lending activity with the crypto platform has “always been overcollateralized” and has no impact on Tether’s reserves. The token was last trading flat at $1.

Also on Monday, BlockFi, another crypto lending platform, said it was reducing its staff by about 20% due to “dramatic shift in macroeconomic conditions.” BlockFi said that it has no exposure to Celsius.

Bitcoin, which surged in 2020 and 2021, is down around 50% so far this year. Ethereum is down more than 67% this year.

CRYPTO LENDING

Celsius says on its website that customers who transfer their crypto to its platform can earn an annual return of up to 18.6%. The website urges customers to “Earn high. Borrow low”.

In a blog post https://blockfi.com/a-message-from-our-founders on Sunday evening, the company said it had frozen withdrawals, as well as transfers between accounts, “to stabilise liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets.”

“We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honour, over time, its withdrawal obligations,” the company said.

Celsius’s token has fallen about 97% in the last 12 months, from $7 to around 20 cents, based on CoinGecko data.

‘GREY AREA’

Crypto lending products have surged in popularity and many companies have launched offerings within the last year.

That has sparked concerns among regulators who are worried about investor protections and systemic risks from unregulated lending products.

Celsius and crypto firms that offer similar services operate in a regulatory “grey area,” said Matthew Nyman at CMS law firm.

Celsius raised $750 million in funding last year from investors including Canada’s second-largest pension fund Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec. Celsius was valued at the time at $3.25 billion.

As of May 17, Celsius had $11.8 billion in assets, its website said, down by more than half from October, and had processed a total of $8.2 billion worth of loans.

Mashinsky, the CEO, was quoted in October last year saying Celsius had more than $25 billion in assets.

Rival crypto lender Nexo said on Monday it had offered to buy Celsius’ outstanding assets.

“We reached out to Celsius Sunday morning to discuss the acquisition of its collateralised loan portfolio. So far, Celsius has chosen not to engage,” said Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev.

Celsius did not respond to a request for comment on Nexo’s offer.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson and Elizabeth Howcroft in London and Hannah Lang in Washington; additional reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru and Alun John in Hong Kong; Editing by Jane Merriman, David Evans and Lisa Shumaker)

By Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski

LOS ANGELES -Walt Disney Co has been unable to obtain permission to show its new Pixar movie “Lightyear” in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries, a source said on Monday, and the animated film appeared unlikely to open in China, the world’s largest movie market.

A “Lightyear” producer told Reuters that authorities in China had asked for cuts to the movie, which Disney declined to make, and she assumed the movie would not open there either. The animated film depicts a same-sex couple who share a brief kiss, which prompted the United Arab Emirates to ban the film.

The United Arab Emirates said the couple’s relationship violated the country’s media content standards. Homosexuality is considered criminal in many Middle Eastern countries.

Representatives of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Lebanon, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why they would not allow the film to be exhibited.

“Lightyear” is a prequel to Pixar’s acclaimed “Toy Story” franchise. Chris Evans voices the lead character, Buzz Lightyear, a legendary space ranger.

In the film, Buzz’s close friend is a female space ranger who marries another woman. A scene showing milestones in the couple’s relationship includes a brief kiss.

Disney has not received an answer from Chinese authorities on whether they would allow the film in cinemas, “Lightyear” producer Galyn Susman said. But she said filmmakers would not make changes to the movie. China has rejected other on-screen depictions of homosexuality in the past.

“We’re not going to cut out anything, especially something as important as the loving and inspirational relationship that shows Buzz what he’s missing by the choices that he’s making, so that’s not getting cut,” Susman told Reuters at the movie’s red-carpet premiere in London.

China is not a “make or break” market for Pixar, one theater industry source said. It contributed a mere 3% to the global box office for “Toy Story 4,” which grossed more than $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in 2019, according to Comscore.

Any objections to “Lightyear” over LGBTQ issues were “frustrating,” Evans said.

“It’s great that we are a part of something that’s making steps forward in the social inclusion capacity, but it’s frustrating that there are still places that aren’t where they should be,” Evans said.

“Lightyear” is set to debut in theaters in the United States and Canada on Friday.

In May, Disney refused requests to cut same-sex references in Marvel movie “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.” Saudi Arabia and a handful of other Middle Eastern countries did not show the film.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski; Additional reporting by Kristian Brunse in London; Editing by Richard Chang)

(Reuters) -Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd expects a lower first-half loss than last year, driven by strong cargo performance and cost-cutting, the airline said on Tuesday, while warning that this year’s loss would still be “substantial”.

Last year’s first-half loss at the major Asian carrier was HK$7.57 billion ($964.34 million), though it managed a surprise profit in the second half, thanks to strong cargo demand.

Cathay said it had added capacity in the second quarter after Hong Kong eased some crew quarantine norms, but its May capacity figures had still amounted to just about 4% of the passengers and 34% of the cargo it carried before the pandemic.

Hong Kong, like mainland China, is one of only a few places in the world that still requires hotel quarantine for arriving passengers in its fight to hold down COVID-19 infections. In May, Cathay’s passenger numbers were 98% below 2019 levels.

“Our consolidated losses in the first half of 2022, while substantial, are expected to be lower than … in the first half of 2021,” said Ronald Lam, the airline’s chief customer and commercial officer.

Cathay would increase passenger capacity over the coming months as much as practicable within the confines of curbs as demand continues to improve, he added in a statement.

“Cathay Pacific started the year operating flights to 29 destinations and we target to double that by the end of the year,” Lam said.

Cathay said the outlook for its cargo business is positive in the short term due to supply chain disruptions in China’s commercial hub of Shanghai and elsewhere globally.

($1=7.8499 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)