PETRONAS said to seek US$1bil for Rio oil field stake sale
Petronas, as the Kuala Lumpur-based company is known, is looking to get about US$1bil for the stake, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information. The discussions are at an early stage and a deal may not happen, the people said.
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The Star
13 minutes ago
- The Star
Colombia launches tender offer to repurchase global bonds
Through the operation, the government seeks to lower borrowing costs and reduce the ratio of debt to gross domestic product. — Bloomberg BOGOTA: Colombia is announcing that it will repurchase some of its outstanding global bonds with cash, as it looks to revamp its financing strategy amid increasing concerns about the widening budget deficit. Some sovereign bonds leaped to a high for the year on the news. The cash tender offer seeks to repurchase global notes maturing in 2030, 2031, 2032, 2041, 2042, 2044, 2045, 2049, 2051 and 2061, the government said in a statement. The offer is not conditioned upon any minimum participation in any of the series. The move was expected after the Finance Ministry said last month that it planned to secure up to US$10bil in bank loans denominated in Swiss francs, and use the proceeds to buy back some of the more discounted maturities. Through the operation, the government seeks to lower borrowing costs and reduce the ratio of debt to gross domestic product. Still, there has been no announcement on the bank loans to date. 'Despite some question marks on the size of the buyback and the ultimate financing source, this should be a positive technical anchor for the Colombia eurobond curve,' said Jason Keene, a strategist at Barclays. 'We would not be surprised to hear some loan announcements in the coming days.' Colombian bonds were among the best performing in emerging markets on Monday, with notes maturing in 2061 up 1.6 US cents on the dollar to trade at 56.4 cents, the highest since December, according to indicative pricing data compiled by Bloomberg. The impact of the news may be limited though, said Pedro Quintanilla-Dieck, a strategist at UBS. 'While this approach should continue to support longer-dated bonds and may modestly lower sovereign funding costs in dollars, we do not expect it to materially alter the upward trajectory of the debt burden, particularly as the latest data continue to point to higher financial deficits,' he said. Last week, Colombia's government approved an increase in the 2026 primary deficit to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) from a previous target of 1.4% of GDP. The overall deficit, which includes debt repayments, remained unaltered at 7.1% of GDP. The change will make it more difficult to resume the financial rule in 2028, which is temporarily suspended due to higher spending pressures, according to an independent committee that oversees the nation's fiscal accounts. Colombia has said it plans to tap international markets once this year and twice in 2026, aiming to raise approximately five billion euros. The spreads on the country's debt look attractive, said Soeren Moerch, a portfolio manager at Danske Bank, who has built up a large position as he bets on a shift to more market-friendly policies following next year's presidential elections. 'The buy-back is a brave experiment,' Moerch said. 'But in a country that has very solid institutions, it would trade at much tighter spreads with more prudent fiscal policies.' — Bloomberg
The Star
39 minutes ago
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Anthropic unveils more powerful AI model ahead of rival GPT-5 release
The update is part of a shift toward doing more incremental improvements to its coding models, in addition to larger model releases. — AP Photo/Richard Drew, File Anthropic is releasing a new version of its most powerful artificial intelligence model as rival OpenAI nears the long-awaited launch of its GPT-5 system. Anthropic is set to announce Tuesday the release of Opus 4.1, an update to its high-end AI model that the company claims is more capable at coding, research and data analysis. The new offering is also better at fielding complex multi-step problems, the company said, positioning it as a more effective AI agent. The update is part of a shift toward doing more incremental improvements to its coding models, in addition to larger model releases. "In the past, we were too focused on only shipping the really big upgrades,' said Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger. "It's better at coding, better at reasoning, better at agentic tasks. We're just making it better for people.' Founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI employees, Anthropic has tried to distinguish itself from rivals with advanced models and a greater emphasis on responsible AI development. Anthropic's Claude software has also excelled in coding, a key revenue growth area for the company. The San Francisco-based company is generating about US$5bil (RM21bil) in annualised revenue, Bloomberg News has reported. Anthropic is also in the midst of finalising a deal to raise as much as US$5bil (RM21bil) in a new funding round at a valuation of US$170bil (RM718bil) valuation, Bloomberg previously reported. But Anthropic faces significant competition. Alphabet Inc.'s Google and OpenAI have introduced features designed to help programmers streamline the process of writing and debugging code. OpenAI executives have also been publicly teasing GPT-5, with reports suggesting it could come as soon as this month. "One thing I've learned, especially in AI as it's moving quickly, is that we can focus on what we have – and what other folks are going to do is ultimately up to them,' Krieger said when asked about OpenAI's upcoming release. "We'll see what ends up happening on the OpenAI side, but for us, we really just focused on what can we deliver for the customers we have.' Anthropic's new model, released two months after Opus 4, is billed as more adept at coding. It can better navigate large codebases and be more precise in making modifications to code, the company said. The upgraded model also scores two percentage points higher than its predecessor on the popular coding evaluation benchmark, SWE-Bench Verified, Anthropic said. Customers such as coding app Windsurf, which was recently acquired by Cognition, and Rakuten Group Inc., have been seeing faster and improved coding task completion with the model, according to customer statements Anthropic shared. – Bloomberg
The Star
39 minutes ago
- The Star
Vietnam and Egypt strengthen economic ties, eye bilateral FTA
A working meeting between Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade and Egypt's Investment and Foreign Trade Ministry. — VNA/VNS HANOI: A working delegation from Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, led by Deputy Minister Phan Thị Thang, held a meeting on Aug 4 with leaders of Egypt's Investment and Foreign Trade Ministry. The meeting took place as part of President Luong Cuong's state visit to Egypt from Aug 3 to 6. At the meeting, Thang expressed appreciation for the close cooperation extended by the Egyptian ministry to its Vietnamese counterpart in recent years. She also highlighted the marked progress in bilateral ties and reaffirmed Vietnam's high regard for Egypt's important role in North Africa and across the African continent. Egypt is currently Vietnam's largest trade partner in North Africa, with bilateral trade reaching over US$472 million in 2024. The official noted that the trade structure between the two countries is complementary rather than competitive, offering substantial potential to expand cooperation, especially in the fields of industry, agriculture, investment, and logistics. She emphasised the need for both ministries to work more closely to advance economic and trade relations in line with the overall partnership between the two nations. Both sides agreed to step up coordination in organising trade and investment promotion activities to expand scale and move toward a more balanced bilateral trade relationship. On this occasion, the Egyptian side announced the plan to send a business delegation to Vietnam in 2025 and proposed joint efforts to organise promotion events. Egyptian Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El Khatib praised the long-standing friendship between the two countries, and commended Vietnam's strong economic growth in recent years. He highlighted Egypt's geographic advantages and its wide network of economic agreements with the European Union and African nations, as well as the country's potential in logistics, renewable energy, oil and gas, and industries such as textiles, fertilisers, and chemicals. During the meeting, both sides agreed to establish a joint working group to study the feasibility of a Vietnam–Egypt Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The group will assess the potential benefits such an agreement could bring to both countries, helping promote balanced growth in trade and investment. Additionally, the two sides consented to coordinate in organising the third session of the Vietnam–Egypt subcommittee on trade and industry cooperation in Vietnam, tentatively scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025. The session will focus on detailed cooperation in trade and industrial development. According to statistics, trade between Vietnam and Egypt reached $472.6 million in 2024, up 9.4 per cent from the previous year. In the first half of 2025 alone, trade totalled $266.9 million, an increase of 8 per cent year-on-year, all of which was made up of Vietnam's exports to Egypt. Vietnam's key exports to Egypt include coffee, mobile phones and components, vehicles and parts, electronics, seafood, pepper, machinery and equipment, fruits and vegetables, cashew nuts, textile fibers, garments, and base metals. — Vietnam News/ANN
