FINANCIAL TIMES

THUR SDAY 1S FEBRU ARY2 02 4 EUROPE

Is Berlin's defence promise too hard to keep? How Al will shake out asset management
BIG READ, PAG E 17 MOHAMED EL-ERIAN , PAGE 11

Jakarta party Briefing

Widodoally ► Uber joins Silicon Valley

rush to reward investors
claims victory The rid e hai lingapp has unveiled
an inaugural $7bn share buyback
programme, days after reporting
Pra bowo Subi anto celebra tes with its first full-year of profit. Meta
sup porters in Ja karta afte r claiming announced its debut dividend this
victory in Indonesia's presidential elec- month, while Airbnb added $6bn
tion yesterday. to its buyback scheme.- PAG E •
Projections by polling groups put the
defence minister and fo rmer general on ► Russian warship sunk
t rack to win 60 per cent of the vote and A large landing ship with a crew of
to succeed Joko Wi dodo as leader of 90 has been destroyed off Alupka
south-east As ia's biggest economy. on Crimea's south coast, Ukraine's
Prabowo had pledged to continue the military has said, dealing another
policies of the popular incumbent. blow to the Kremlin's Black Sea
"Thi s is a ve ry co n v inci ng w in. navy.- REPORT & ANALVS IS, PAGE 2
[Widodo's] influence as a kingmaker in
t his election has been very consequen- ► Bezos sells $4bn of shares
tial;' said one analyst. Amazon's billionaire fo under
But the prospect of a Prabowo admin- Jeff Bezos has sold another $2bn
istration h as raised concerns for Indo- worth of the online retail giant's
nesia's young democracy because ofhis- stock, bringing the total value of
lin ks to W idodo, w h ose so n was shares he has offloaded in the
Prabowo's running m ate, and his alleged past week to $4bn.- PAGE •
involvement in hu ma n rights abuses
during his time in the army. ► LNG demand to rise 50%
Report & analysis page 3 Global liquefied natu ral gas
Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
demand is forecast to surge
50 per centby 2040 as the world
switches to cleaner fuel, energy
major Shell has said in its latest

Luxury cars held at US ports after

annual LNG outlook.- PAGE •

► Biden berates Trump

The US president has rebuked his
predecessor for saying he would

VW discovers banned Chinese part

encourage Russia to attack Nato
allies thatfailed to reach their
targets for defence spending
- PAGE 2: EDWARD LUCE, PAGE 19

► Turbulent ride for Lyft

• Porsche, Bentley and Audi • Thousands of vehicles seized • Component breaches forced labour law
PET ER CA MP BELL - LO ND O N
DE MET RI SEVASTO PULO - WAS HI NG TON
PATRICIA NI LSSON - FR AN KFURT
Thousands of Porsche, Bentley and
Audi cars have been impounded in US
ports after a supplier to pare nt group
Volkswage n fo und a Chinese co mpo-
nent in the vehicles that breached anti-
fo rced labour laws.
According to two people with knowl-
edge of t he m atter, the carmake r h as
delayed delivery of the vehicles until as
late as the end of March as it replaces an
electronic component found to have
come fro m "western China".
The people stressed that VW was not
aware of the origin of t he par t, which
was sourced by an indirect supplier fur-
t her down its su pply ch ain, until the
supplier alerted it to the issue.
Th ey a d ded t h at VW n o ti fie d US
authorities as soon as it was m ade aware
of the part's origi n.
US-China relations remain mired in
t heir worst state since the co untries
established diplom atic ties in 1979. But
Washington and Beiji ng have been try-
ing to stabilise their relationship, with
President Joe Bide n meeting his Chinese
counterpart Xi Jinping at a summit in
San Francisco in November.
The US prohibits the import of prod-
A VW letter to waiting
customers blamed 'a small
electronic component' but
did not specify its origin
u cts m ad e with fo r ced la bo ur in t he
western Xinj iang region and other areas
in Chin a un de r th e Uyghur Fo r ced
Labor Prevention Act of 2021.
T h e people wo ul d n o t co nfirm
whether or n ot the part in question was
produced in Xinjiang itself.
The issue affects about 1,000 Porsche
sports cars an d SUVs, several hundred
Bentleys and sever al thousand Audis,
say people briefed on the details.
VW said it took "allegations of infrin-
gements of human rights very seriously,
both within t h e company and in the
sup ply ch ain", incl ud ing "any allega-
tions of forced labour''.
"We will clarify the facts and t hen
take appropriate steps. These may also
include the termin ation of a supplier
re lati o nshi p if o ur in ves tigati o ns
confirm serious v iolati ons," it added.
Questions of forced l abour found
within its Chinese supply ch ain are par-
ticularly sensitive for VW, which has
co me und er mounting p ressure from
human rights groups and investors alike
ove r a facility it jointl y owns in Xin-
jiang's capital, Urumqi.
T he Ge r ma n car co m pany said it
would discuss "the future direction of
b usiness" in Xinjiang with its Chi nese
joint venture partner SAIC, following
th e p ublicati on in Ge rm an med ia of
fresh allegations of forced labour.
Chinese officials have de fended work
progr ammes in the region as helping
employment but the UN's human righ ts
body has said China's actions might con-
stitute "crimes against humanity".
VW is balanci ng falli ng sales in China
with a desire to increase its presence in
the US at a time of growing political ten-
sion between the two countries.
The delay to US deliveries came after
the company discovered in mid-January
that som e luxury cars bound for North
America contained a part that was not
compliant with custom s rules, two peo-
ple with knowledge of the matter said.
A letter from VW to waiting custom-
ers blamed "a small electronic compo-
nent that is a part of a large r control
un it, which will be replaced". It did not
specify the origin of the part.
The com pany h as begu n fixing cars,
two people said. The backlog is unlikely
to be cleared until at least next month.
Additional reporting by Edward White in
Shanghai
VW In X lnjlang t alks page 8
The ride-hailing company's shares
have soared more than 60 per cent
and then fallen back sharply after
an error in its earnings release
overstated the outlook for margin
growth.- PAGE 10; LE X, PAGE 20
► Splits in India opposition
A broad but fragile opposition
coalition is breaking down over
internal rivalries, defections and
arrests, sapping the best chance of
challengingNarendra Modi in this
year1s national elections.- PAGE 3
► Issa brothers add to loans
Mohsin and Zuber Issa, billionaire
British co-owners of supermarket
Asda, have borrowed £7mn more
from their petrol station company
EG Group to repay debt taken on
to buy two private jets.- PAGE a

Fantasy 'phenomenon' Maas breathes

#The Red Edge
fire into Potter publisher Bloomsbury
DA RIA MOSO LOVA - LOND ON Newton. "We are very fortunate to have t h ousand -page-lo ng works of history
signed h er up with her first book 13 bu t it's an absolute p hen om enon in
The UK publisher t h at tapped into the
years ago." fiction".
magic of JK Rowling's Harry Potter
Maas's m ost rece nt novel, House of Th e group, whi ch also publish es
series yesterday h ailed another " pub-
lishing phenomenon", as sales of Sarah Flame and Shadow, whi ch was published Wo m e n's Pri ze fo r Ficti on winner
Eye in space to pinpoint last month, has topped the charts across Susanna Clarke and popular comic book
J. Maas's fantasy novels boosted profits.
hidden methane menace the UK, US and Australia, while boost- writer Alan Moore, said it was investing
Sh ares in Bloo msbury Publishing hit a ing de mand fo r the previous 15 books in furth er into t he fantasy ge nre, which
Analysi s ► PAG E 2 record as it raised its profit outlook fo r her series, the publisher said. h as grown ever more popular in recent
t he secon d t ime in t hree months on Bloomsbu ry said it had signed up t he years.
soaring demand for fantasy novels, led bestselling author for six more books, Bloomsbury's shares were up alm ost
Austria €450 Morocco Dh50
Bahrain Oinl.9 Netherlands '450
by those written by Maas, fo recasti ng expecting her audience to grow further 9 per cent followi ng t he trading update,
Belgium (4.50 Norway NKr45 annual earnings "significantly ahead of 11
on the back of "word-of-mouth recom - h itting a high of 53Sp. Their value has
Croatia KnlJ.91/(450 Oman ORt60 market expectations. m endations", pa rticul arly by TikTok ri sen more than 130 per cent in t he past
Cyprus €4.20 Pakistan
Ci.echRep K,;125 Poland ms Bloomsbury said the consensus mar- and Instagram book bloggers. five years.
Denmark 0Kr46 Portugal £410 ket expectation fo r the year end ing Feb- BookTok - th e TikTok content sub - Analysts at Investec said the business
Egypt E£100 Russia €5.00 ru ary 29 was for r eve n ue of a bout genre for book reviews - is sh aping the was "fund amen tally und ervalued 11
,
Fraoce (4.50 Ser~
Germany (4.50 Slovenia '410
£291mn, and fo r profit before tax and publishing industry " more t h an yo u given the "resilient, accelerating growth
G-eece (4.20 Spain (4.20 highlighted item s to be £37.2mn. The could imagine", said Newton. [i t] can d eliver over time". They now
HunQ,!ry Ft1450 Switi.erland SFr6.70 group will report results in May. " It plays a huge role in the genres of expect profit before tax fo r the year to
India Rup220 Tunisia Din7..SO
haly (4.20 Turke-, Tll"IO
"Sar ah J. Maas is a publishing phe- publishing that its users are interested be 31 per cent higher, at £48.lmn, with
Luxembourg (4.50 UAE Dh24 nom enon ,'1 said chief executi ve Nigel in,'1 he said . "It is not dri ving sales of forecast revenue at £329.3mn.
Malta (4.20

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