Return of Risk Appetite Into European Equities: Nandra
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Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Loungers-owner Fortress plots stay at Malmaison hotels
The owner of the Loungers bar chain and Poundstretcher, the discount retailer, is weighing a takeover of two of Britain's best-known hotel chains. Sky News has learnt that Fortress Investment Group is among the parties considering offers for Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, which sit under the same ownership structure. Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), the commercial property agent, is handling the auction. The group trades from 37 hotels in 27 UK cities, with the portfolio split almost equally between the two brands. The chains have been through a succession of owners over the last 20 years, including the private equity firm KSL Capital Partners. They are now owned by Singapore-based Frasers Hospitality Group, which reportedly paid more than £360m to acquire the group in 2015. A number of other bidders are also said to be participating in the auction, although the current valuation attached to the business was unclear. Fortress has been on a buying spree in Britain in recent years, snapping up assets including Majestic Wine. Earlier this year, the investment firm bought Loungers for about £350m, while it also explored a takeover of the supermarket chain Wm Morrison in 2021 before being beaten to a deal by buyout giant Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Fortress declined to comment, while C&W has been contacted for comment.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Factbox-Cancelled and postponed green hydrogen projects
MADRID (Reuters) -Developers of green hydrogen have scaled back investments and scrapped projects globally as elevated production costs and weak demand for the low-carbon fuel have made many ventures unviable. Here are some projects that have been cancelled, postponed or scaled back. EUROPE ** Energy company LEAG's plans to build one of Europe's largest green energy hubs on the site of disused coal-fired power plant units in eastern Germany have been postponed indefinitely, it said in June. ** Steelmaker ArcelorMittal had planned to convert two plants in Germany to green hydrogen, but it shelved the 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) plan in June despite the offer of 1.3 billion euros in public subsidies. ** Iberdrola, Europe's largest utility, scaled back its green hydrogen ambitions by almost two thirds in March 2024 after funding delays for some projects. Its 2030 production target fell to about 120,000 tons of green hydrogen a year, compared with a previous goal of 350,000 tons. ** Spain's Repsol cut its 2030 target for green hydrogen production by up to 63% in February to between 0.7 gigawatts (GW) and 1.2 GW of electrolyser capacity by the end of the decade, with Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz highlighting the challenges of a high-cost industry heavily reliant on subsidies. ** BP said in April that it was shutting its team looking into hydrogen and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport. ** Shell scrapped plans for a low-carbon hydrogen plant on Norway's west coast owing to lack of demand, it said in September, days after Equinor cancelled a similar project planned for Norway. ** Oil refiner and biofuel maker Neste withdrew in October from an investment into renewable hydrogen production at its plant in Porvoo, Finland, citing challenging market conditions. AUSTRALIA ** Origin Energy said in October that it intended to exit a potential hydrogen development project in the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub (HVHH) in New South Wales. ** Global commodities trader Trafigura in March abandoned plans to build a A$750 million ($491.5 million) green hydrogen plant at its Port Pirie lead smelter in South Australia. ** Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest in July last year cut back plans for his company, Fortescue, to produce 15 million metric tons of green hydrogen by 2030, blaming costs and the amount of renewable energy sources needed. ** Woodside Energy, Australia's largest independent oil and gas producer, shelved two green hydrogen projects in Australia and New Zealand last September. ** The Queensland state government this year pulled funding for a A$12.5 billion plant to produce 200 tons of liquefied hydrogen by 2028, placing the future of one of Australia's largest and most advanced green hydrogen projects in serious doubt. Japanese investors Kansai Electric and Iwatani exited soon after. UNITED STATES ** U.S. startup Hy Stor Energy in September cancelled its reservation for more than 1 GW of electrolyser capacity with Norwegian electrolyser manufacturer Nel. ** Air Products said in February that it was looking to cancel plans to construct a 35 ton per day facility to produce green liquid hydrogen in Massena, New York, largely because of regulatory developments rendering existing hydroelectric power supply ineligible for the Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. ASIA ** Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries walked away from a coal-to-hydrogen project in Latrobe last December, citing time and cost pressures. ($1 = 1.5260 Australian dollars) ($1 = 0.8613 euros) (Compiled by Pietro LombardiEditing by David Goodman) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Verge
21 minutes ago
- The Verge
Proton is launching a privacy-focused AI chatbot
Proton, the company behind the encrypted email service Proton Mail, has launched an AI assistant aimed at preserving user privacy. The new chatbot, called Lumo, can summarize documents, generate code, write emails, and more, while storing data locally on users' devices. Proton says it will protect this information using 'zero-access' encryption, which grants users an encryption key that only they can use to view their content, preventing third parties, including Proton, from accessing the information. This helps ensure that Proton can't share user data with advertisers or governments, or use it for training large language models, Proton says. Though Lumo comes with the ability to search the web, Proton turns this feature off by default to 'give users maximum privacy.' If users enable the feature, Lumo will search the web for answers using 'privacy-friendly' search engines. Additionally, Proton says Lumo can analyze uploaded files, but it doesn't save any of its information. Users can link Proton Drive files to Lumo as well, which are supposed to stay end-to-end encrypted when interacting with the chatbot. Proton positions its AI chatbot as an alternative to the ones offered by larger companies, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta AI, Google's Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. 'Big Tech is using AI to supercharge the collection of sensitive user data to accelerate the world's transition to surveillance capitalism,' Andy Yen, the CEO and founder of Proton, says in the announcement. 'Our vision for Lumo is AI that puts people ahead of profits.' Lumo is powered by several open-source large language models that run on Proton's servers in Europe, including Mistral's Nemo, Mistral Small 3, Nvidia's OpenHands 32B, and the Allen Institute for AI's OLMO 2 32B model. The AI chatbot will field requests through different models depending on which is better-suited for the query. 'For instance, programming-related questions are handled by OpenHands, which specializes in coding tasks,' Proton spokesperson Betsy Jones tells The Verge. You can access Lumo now by heading to or downloading the Lumo app for iOS and Android. Users who don't have an account with Lumo or Proton can only ask the chatbot a 'limited number' of questions each week, and they won't be able to access their chat histories. Meanwhile, users with a free account can view an encrypted chat history, upload small files, and favorite a limited number of chats. There's also a $12.99-per-month Lumo Plus plan for access to unlimited chats, extended encrypted chat history, unlimited favorites, and the ability to upload large files. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Emma Roth Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Privacy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Security Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
