EU Targets Eight Chinese Companies in Russia Sanctions Push
Bloc looks to broaden sanctions on businesses that help Moscow fight Ukraine
The European Union is considering sanctioning eight Chinese companies over Russia’s war in Ukraine, diplomats said, with the bloc looking to target firms they believe have provided Moscow electronic items, including semiconductors, that can be used for military purposes.
The proposed listings are part of an 11th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion. The new measures center on efforts to prevent the circumvention of Western sanctions by Russia and its military, a central plank in the effort by European and U.S. policy makers to weaken Russia’s economy and crimp the revenue the Kremlin has to continue its war effort.
Of the eight Chinese companies listed, six are Hong Kong-based and several are already on U.S. sanctions listings, the diplomats said.
According to two of the diplomats, the companies include China-based 3HC Semiconductors, whose products can be used by Russian companies to provide military equipment, and Hong Kong’s King-Pai Technology HK, which was sanctioned by U.S. authorities in March 2022 for procuring foreign items “for multiple entities in Russia’s military-industrial complex.” The microelectronic items include products that can be used to guide missile systems.
A third company, Sinno Electronics, was sanctioned by Washington last summer for supplying Western-sanctioned goods to Russian defense-procurement giant Radioavtomatika.
The EU is also considering sanctions on Hong-Kong registered Asia Pacific Links Ltd. A recent investigation by Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, Britain’s oldest defense think tank, Reuters and iStories, said the company was one of the main post-February 2022 suppliers to Russian firms of microelectronics that can be used to make one of Russia’s most effective drones, the Orlan-10.
3HC Semiconductors, King-Pai Technology HK, Asia Pacific Links Ltd. and Sinno Electronics couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. China’s mission in Brussels didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sanctions were earlier reported by the Financial Times. They will need to be backed by all 27 EU member states to be enacted. They were put forward by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, on Friday evening, and discussions are set to start this week.
In Beijing on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned the EU that China would take “resolute measures” in response to any European sanctions.
“If the report you cited is true, the EU will erode mutual trust and cooperation with China and sharpen division and confrontation in the world, which is extremely dangerous,” he said.
The Chinese targets aren’t the first non-Russian entities to be listed under the EU’s sanctions on Russia, which include a swath of financial, trade, shipping and energy restrictions. The EU has in recent months targeted Iranian firms and individuals for their role in supplying drones to Russia’s military for use in the war.
Still, the proposed Chinese sanctions are a significant step.
They target a country with which Europe has important trade ties and which France and other EU countries had been hoping to prod to play a constructive role in Ukraine. The measures echo the Biden administration’s sanctions warnings against Chinese firms for supplying Russia not only with weapons, but with products that can be used militarily.
There has been evidence for months that China is providing technology that Moscow’s military needs to prosecute the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, some of it dual-use items imported from the West. Until now, European officials have said there is no evidence of China supplying arms directly to Russia.
Group of Seven advanced democracies finance ministers are expected to discuss further measures to be taken against Russian sanctions circumvention when they meet in Japan this week.
The proposed Chinese sanctions also underscore a tentative step in Brussels toward U.S. extraterritorial sanctions, a U.S. policy of legally banning foreign companies from doing U.S.-sanctioned trade with a country, regardless of whether the firm’s host country also applies those measures.
European capitals, especially Paris and Berlin, have fiercely opposed U.S. extraterritorial sanctions for decades and the bloc continues to shun automatically applying its sanctions to all foreign firms. But amid the fight to isolate Russia’s economy from Western goods, Europe is showing increased willingness to sanction non-EU firms that are supplying Russia with goods that Brussels has prevented its companies exporting.
The EU, the U.S. and their partners have been visiting countries—including Turkey, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates—that have been trading with Russia, circulating a list of products including video-camera recorders, lasers and manufacturing equipment such as signal generators, to prevent them exporting the items for potential military use to Russia.
There has been particular concern about a surge in trade between Russia and some of its neighbors, from central Asia to Georgia, with EU officials concerned that banned goods are being imported by firms in these countries on behalf of Russian companies.
In a further step in hitting foreign companies, the new package proposes to set up a regime of export bans of certain products to non-EU countries or companies believed to be helping Russia circumvent Western restrictions.
Since the Ukraine war began, the EU has banned the sale of products worth around half of prewar exports to Russia and prohibited the import of around two-thirds of the bloc’s prewar purchases from Russia.
In the new sanctions package, Brussels is proposing to broaden its existing export bans and place around 100 new people and entities to its sanctions list.
It is also seeking to tighten the enforcement of the oil-price cap that the G-7 imposed on Russia, one of the measures which have helped slash the contribution of energy exports to Russian government revenue.
Under the proposal, the EU would ban from its ports all vessels that have violated or are suspected of having violated the EU import ban on Russian oil or the price cap on Russian oil exports to third countries. It would also ban all vessels that have illegally turned off their transponders, a move that can be used to transfer undetected Russian oil from one ship to another at sea.
Chinese Company Now Owns Tutoring Firm Contracted by Military and Schools in U.S.
Princeton Review and Tutor.com were quietly sold over a year ago
Princeton Review and Tutor.com say a Chinese private-equity firm has received regulatory approval to buy the test-prep company and online tutoring platform, more than 15 months after the acquisition closed.
Primavera Capital Group, based in Hong Kong, quietly purchased the well-known brands from Korean education company ST Unitas in January 2022, at a time of increased scrutiny of Chinese investment in the U.S.
Investments in the tech and infrastructure industries, or ones that deal with significant amounts of potentially sensitive personal data, are sometimes reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a federal panel that scrutinizes acquisition plans by foreign investors for national security concerns.
Cfius reviews are confidential, though companies are allowed to disclose their involvement. A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department said the committee doesn’t publicly comment on transactions that they may or may not be reviewing or have reviewed. She said the committee “is committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security.”
Tutor.com has a longstanding contract to provide its services free to active duty, reserve and other U.S. military service members, Defense Department personnel, and their dependents. It also holds contracts with school districts including those in Los Angeles, Paterson, N.J., and Loudoun County, Va., to provide online homework help and subject-matter tutoring, and is listed as a vetted vendor by the Texas Education Agency, New Hampshire Department of Education and agencies in other states.
National security analysts and lawyers who help foreign companies navigate the regulatory process for U.S. acquisitions say Chinese companies have grown more skittish about publicizing their U.S. investments, for fear of raising suspicions about data security.
The U.S. is paying closer attention to such deals as it increasingly views China as an adversary, said Elly Rostoum, a former U.S. intelligence analyst and lecturer at Johns Hopkins University who studies the national security implications of investment by Chinese companies. “There’s reason for that hype,” she said. “There’s reason for the U.S. to be worried about those transactions.”
The U.S. government has interpreted Chinese national security laws to mean that any organization based there, whether it is a state-owned enterprise, a startup, an investment manager or a large corporation, can be compelled to share information with Beijing if asked to do so.
Ms. Rostoum said whether or not the Chinese government has demanded such data from companies, the legislation allowing it should be enough to cause concern among American regulators.
TikTok parent ByteDance has faced significant backlash over its ties to China, with authorities saying a 2020 plan to partner with Oracle and Walmart to create a U.S.-based company didn’t protect users enough from potential interference by Beijing. Lawmakers have expressed continued concern over user data protection and whether the Chinese government could influence what the platform shows, such as pushing content supporting a preferred political candidate.
In recent years, Cfius has intensified its oversight of foreign companies with interests in technology, data and infrastructure. It can review mergers and acquisitions before or after they close, and can sign off on the plans or push for divestments or other mitigation measures if it identifies potential national security red flags.
Primavera has invested in companies including Alibaba, Yum China, ByteDance and the Chinese instant-formula business of Reckitt Benckiser Group. Last year it used a blank-check company to take luxury fashion company Lanvin Group public in the U.S. Primavera also owns Spring Education, which runs hundreds of private schools under brands including Laurel Springs School, LePort Montessori and Basis Independent Schools.
Charlesbank Capital took Princeton Review private in 2012, and then in 2014 sold it to IAC/InterActive Corp., which had bought Tutor.com in 2013. In 2017, the combined test prep and tutoring company was sold to the Korean company ST Unitas.
The Korea Economic Daily reported in early January 2022 that ST Unitas wanted to unload the two brands for around $100 million, in an effort to focus on its domestic offerings. Primavera declined to comment on the deal terms.
The latest deal happened without much fanfare. There was no press release from Primavera, and neither Princeton Review nor Tutor.com are among the 54 companies featured on the private-equity firm’s list of portfolio investments.
Tutor.com sent a letter to its tutors on Jan. 13, 2022, two days after the acquisition closed, notifying them of the new ownership while assuring them that their day-to-day interactions with the company wouldn’t change. District and state contracts show it wasn’t required to alert all of its clients, and some school administrators around the country say they only learned of the ownership change from The Wall Street Journal.
Last week, the Princeton Review and Tutor.com websites added references to their new parent company.
Primavera, Princeton Review and Tutor.com said they weren’t hiding the deal, and that soon after the acquisition closed last year they filed the requisite notifications in the federal contracting system, which is publicly accessible.
Tutor.com collects data on users and tutors, including names, home addresses, IP addresses and recordings of their sessions. National security experts say the concern isn’t what China’s government would do with that information now, but rather how that information could be collected to create files on individuals or their families down the line, or whether information could eventually be disaggregated.
“Our commitment to safeguarding student privacy endures,” Tutor.com and Princeton Review said in a statement to the Journal. They said no student or school data is shared with Primavera and the private-equity firm doesn’t have access to the company’s internal systems. They said they can provide information to Primavera only “on an anonymized, aggregated and de-identified basis.”
Primavera told the Journal in late March that it had submitted all required filings and notifications for U.S. government approval, without detailing where it sent those notifications. As of early May, approval had been granted, the company said.
Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- TSN -8.6%, BTAI -5.5%, LL -3.9%, DISH -3.7%, AES -1.3% (guidance), THS -0.8%
Other news:
- UNIT -3.7% (files mixed securities shelf offering)
- HAYW -3.3% (announces secondary offering of 21,000,000 shares of common stock by selling stockholders)
- NNOX -2.3% (files up to 4,869,909 common stock by selling shareholder)
- SKYX -1.2% (files for $200 mln mixed securities shelf offering)
Analyst comments:
- ULCC -2.3% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
- CCOI -1.4% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
- LUV -1% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- SIX +9.2%, AXSM +5.8%, DK +5.1%, BNTX +4.8%, HNI +3.5%, VTRS +2.6%, ACRS +2%, BRK.B +1.6%, ENR +1.4%
Other news:
- PACW +37% (reduces quarterly dividends)
- BAK +26.8% (provides update to media reports regarding proposal to purchase Braskem's control)
- SPB +8% (Spectrum Brands and the DOJ reach a settlement regarding the HHI Acquisition)
- MNK +4.9% (presents clinical data for TERLIVAZ for injection in adults with hepatorenal syndrome at Digestive Disease Week 2023)
- EL +3.4% (Nelson Peltz mulling shakeup at Estee Lauder)
- KDNY +2.9% (Announces Upcoming Presentations and Investor Conference Call at the 60th European Renal Association (ERA) Congress)
- CNO +2.6% (approves additional $500 mln for share repurchases bringing the total to ~$672 mln; raises dividend 7% to $0.15/share)
- MCRB +2.5% (Seres Therapeutics and Nestlé Health Science announce the presentation of data from the Phase 3 open-label ECOSPOR IV study evaluating VOWST)
- LXU +2.2% (authorized a stock repurchase program)
- KALV +2% (presents data at 13th C1-inhibitor deficiency & angioedema workshop)
- SGHT +1.7% (announces 12-month Results from the First Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery)
- BGNE +1.1% (receives new approvals for BRUKINSA in China)
- ING +1% (positive Barron's article)
Analyst comments:
- AY +4.7% (upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at National Bank Financial)
- SMG +3.7% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
- AAL +3.2% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
- COLD +1.5% (upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Mkts)
Early premarket gappers
- Gapping up:
- PACW +33%, BAK +26.5%, SPB +7.9%, EL +3.2%, SGHT +3%, SIX +3%, KDNY +2.9%, CNO +2.6%, BGNE +2%, BRK.B +1.4%, ING +1%, BBVA +0.6%, LL +0.6%
- Gapping down:
- DISH -5.2%, UNIT -3.7%, NNOX -3.3%, GKOS -2%, SNDL -1.7%, AES -1.3%, SKYX -1.2%
German recession fears resurface as factory output falls
German industrial production fell 3.4% in March, the biggest drop in a year
A sharper than expected fall in German industrial production has prompted economists to warn that Europe’s largest economy is likely to slide into a recession after factory orders, retail sales and exports also suffered significant declines.
The German economy withstood the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine without the steep downturn feared by many analysts. But recent data suggests business and consumer activity is being hit by high inflation, rising borrowing costs and slowing trade.
German industrial production fell 3.4 per cent in March compared with the previous month, the biggest drop for 12 months, according to the federal statistical office.
Economists had forecast in a Reuters poll that German industrial production would fall only 1 per cent. “These are overall grim numbers,” said Claus Vistesen, an economist at research group Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Vistesen said that despite March’s decline, first-quarter industrial production was still up 2.4 per cent on the previous quarter. But he added: “Unfortunately, the slide in output at the end of the first quarter now leaves a very weak carry-over for the second quarter.”
Carsten Brzeski, an economist at Dutch bank ING, said lower German industrial output “increased chances of a downward revision of first-quarter GDP growth”. He added: “Any downward revision would actually mean that the economy had still fallen into recession after all.”
The flash forecast of first-quarter gross domestic product in Germany released on April 23 indicated that it had stagnated from the previous quarter — an improvement from the 0.4 per cent contraction in the final quarter of last year. Revised first-quarter data is due on May 25 and a second consecutive quarterly decline in GDP would meet the definition of a technical recession.
The drop in German industrial output reflected declines in most sectors. The biggest fall was a 6.5 per cent drop in production among carmakers. But output also fell 3.4 per cent at machinery and equipment manufacturers and 4.6 per cent in construction.
German industrial output remains below pre-pandemic levels and the gloom among the country’s manufacturers deepened after a 10.7 per cent drop in factory orders in March, which was the biggest monthly decline since pandemic lockdowns hit in April 2020.
The German consumer is in retreat after retail sales in the country dropped 2.4 per cent in March, the biggest monthly decline of any eurozone country. German exports also sagged in March, falling 5.2 per cent from the previous month, hit by particularly strong declines in shipments to the US and China.
The unexpectedly weak data came only days after the German economics minister Robert Habeck raised the official growth forecast for this year from 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent, saying energy subsidies had helped to avoid a recession.
But economists expect an unprecedented rise in interest rates, combined with persistently high levels of inflation to weigh on consumer and business activity in Europe’s industrial heartland for much of this year.
“We therefore expect industrial production to continue to decline in the coming months and contribute to the fact that the German economy will not recover in the second half of the year, but rather that a mild recession is to be feared,” said Ralph Solveen, an economist at German lender Commerzbank.
Tech stocks: recession will divide sector and giants will win
The cost of artificial intelligence has opened a crack that is likely to get wider
Recent first-quarter earnings from US tech stocks can be summed up as a relief.
In a sector known for growth and new ideas, revenue expansion rates of 3 per cent at both Meta and Alphabet hardly sound impressive. But at least this reverses the decline Meta reported last year. It also shows that global digital advertising spend is holding up. Corporate budgets are not quite as constrained as feared.
Add heavy cost-cutting via lay-offs, and the tantalising prospects from artificial intelligence, and the sector has managed a tricky task. It has explained why operating margins will be lower short term but may explode in a few years. Tech investment analysts at Wedbush predict that AI spend will hit $800bn over the next decade. McKinsey suggests AI could add about $6tn in value.
But the cost of AI, and concerns about potential recession effects, have opened a crack between the Big Tech stocks that can afford to invest and smaller companies struggling to turn a profit and unable to pour money into research and development.
US economic growth slowed to 1.1 per cent in the first three months of the year. Cautious corporate and consumer spending compares unfavourably with the height of the pandemic, when demand for tech products and services jumped. PC sales, for example, fell by a third in the first quarter, according to Canalys data. Cloud computing clients have scaled back demand. Amazon and Microsoft refer to this trend as customer spend “optimisation”.
Tech stocks have staged a recovery this year, but some of the largest companies are still trading about 30 to 40 per cent below their 2021 highs. The Nasdaq is up 6 per cent over the past year, compared with a 1 per cent gain for the S&P 500.
But software-as-a-service companies such as Zoom and DocuSign remain in the doldrums. This faultline will expand. Rising interest rates have raised the cost of capital. Companies able to use funds from profitable lines of business are much better placed than those still valued on growth.