The growing alarm after UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal suffered a defeat in Parliament isn’t just unsettling for British politics and companies - Asian businesses are on edge as well.
Asian companies whose operations and investments stretch far into Britain and the European continent have a lot at stake as they face higher tariffs and costs. Tuesday’s setback will do little to cure the anxiety.
And for UK firms, concern is growing also. A six-year run of marketing spending growth at British companies ended in the final quarter of 2018 as uncertainty over Britain's impending exit from the European Union led companies to clamp down on costs, a survey showed on Wednesday.
The IPA Bellwether survey, conducted by IHS Markit, showed that 16.4 per cent of marketing executives raised their budgets during the fourth quarter but the same percentage of executives who took part in the survey cut their marketing budgets, according to Reuters.
Political and economic uncertainty caused by a drawn-out Brexit negotiation process has dampened both business and consumer confidence, driving belt-tightening and restricting resources available to marketing executives, the survey showed.
For Asian companies, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has sought to assure business leaders that their no-deal nightmare scenario could still be avoided, but with only 10 weeks left before the UK is due to leave the European Union, many are bracing for a potential hard exit, Bloomberg said.
“Japanese companies should have been making preparations for the possibility of a hard Brexit, but now the reality of carrying out those measures is getting closer,” Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the country’s largest business lobby Keidanren, said in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Here’s what Asian companies are saying about Brexit:
Honda
The Japanese car maker said on Wednesday that a hard Brexit would seriously impact its European operations, even though it is implementing countermeasures. New checks at the border could disrupt its logistics systems, while tariffs on goods moving between the EU and UK would hurt its competitiveness, it said. “We now look to the government to deliver a clear, legally certain path forward to avoiding no deal and to delivering the conditions that support the continued competitiveness and productivity of our sales and manufacturing operations,” it said.
About 4.5 per cent of Honda's sales come from Europe, and it has one factory in the UK with manufacturing capacity of about 150,000 units annually.
Toyota
Asia’s biggest car maker has said it would temporarily halt its production in the UK if Britain storms out of the EU without a trade agreement, disrupting weekly revenue of £60 million (Dh283.7m) generated there, the company’s Europe President, Johan van Zyl, said in October. The Japanese firm wants tariff-free trading after Brexit, he has said.
Toyota declined to comment on the vote Wednesday.
Of the 144,000 vehicles - Auris hatchbacks and estates - Toyota built in 2017 in the UK at its factory in Burnaston, England, about 87 per cent was shipped to the EU. It also has another plant for engines at Deeside, Wales. Both were established in 1989 and started production in 1992. They have made more than 4 million cars and 5 million engines. The company has invested about £2.5 billion in the facilities, employing about 3,000 people.
Jaguar Land Rover
The maker of the iconic British brands said this month it plans to slash 4,500 jobs worldwide, about 10 per cent of its workforce, in response to the sales slowdown caused by Brexit, a downturn in China and flagging demand for diesel-powered vehicles. The cuts come on top of the 1,500 people who left the UK’s biggest car maker in 2018. Chief executive Ralf Speth warned in September that a no-deal Brexit would wipe out the luxury car maker’s profit and a bad one could cost the automaker more than $1.2bn pounds a year and put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. Free access to Europe’s single market is “as important a part to our business as wheels are to our cars”, he said. The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, employs more than 40,000 in the UK and has four plants in the country that produce 3,000 vehicles a day.
_______________
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Sony
Sony, grappling with questions over its employees and distribution and sales channels, said on Wednesday it is closely monitoring the Brexit news. Its European head office is located south-west of London in the town of Weybridge. The Japanese technology giant has a sales office and a factory in the UK.
Panasonic
Panasonic said on Wednesday that it’s preparing for different scenarios to limit the impact on its operations. It shifted its Europe head office from near London to Amsterdam on October 1, and transferred about 10 people from the facility as well. The move was made partly to ward off potential negative effects of Brexit and also because the electronic maker’s holding company was already based in the Dutch city, it said in August. The company, which produces televisions, digital cameras and tablets in the UK, won’t move its factory, a spokeswoman said in October.
CK Group
The CK Group has one of the highest exposures to the UK among Asian business empires, with operations there ranging from ports to infrastructure, telecommunications and retail. Its billionaire founder, former chairman Li Ka-shing, has warned that Brexit would bring considerable challenges to the U.K. and Europe for years.
Mr Li’s son, Victor, who took over as chairman of the group last year, has echoed the cautious view. In a speech to employees in January, the younger Mr Li cited Brexit as one the big political and economic challenges that CK will need to weather through this year.
CK, which operates the Three mobile network and Superdrug stores in the UK, has reduced its exposure to Britain since the 2016 shock referendum but the country remains the group’s biggest profit and revenue generator. At the CK Hutchison Holdings flagship, 19 per cent of total sales and 30 per cent of earnings before interest and taxes came from the UK in the first half of 2018, the company’s most recent financial report. That’s down from 21 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively, two years earlier.
Hitachi Construction
Hitachi Construction Machinery, which makes equipment such as excavators, has said if high tariff rates were to be imposed on after-sales service parts sourced from its Dutch manufacturing base, it would consider shipping them from Japan instead. Although the impact is minor, there are concerns over supply chains, foreign exchange, duties and regulatory changes, a spokesman said Wednesday. The company said in October it isn’t planning to cut its operations in the UK, where it owns a sales unit.
On Thursday, the BBC reported that Hitachi announced it will suspend work on the £20bn Horizon nuclear facility because of concerns over rising construction costs.
The Japanese firm had been in talks with the UK government about funding since June. The decision puts thousands of jobs at risk if the Wylfa Newydd plant in Wales is scrapped entirely. About 9,000 workers had been expected to be involved in building two nuclear reactors, which were due to be operational by the mid-2020s.
In November, plans to build a nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria were halted after Toshiba announced it was winding up its NuGeneration subsidiary, which was behind the project.
Nomura
Nomura, Japan’s biggest securities firm whose 3,000 European employees are mainly in London, is planning to shift between 50 and 100 to Frankfurt and elsewhere on the continent, wholesale and global markets head Steve Ashley said in November. Brexit threatens to create “two centres” for financial products in the region, adding to banks’ costs and complexity of operations, he said in an interview. Nomura picked Frankfurt in 2017 as the headquarters for its EU operations after the UK leaves.
Mitsubishi UFJ
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, which has about 2,000 staff in London according its website, has been preparing for Brexit by setting up some operations to Amsterdam. Japan’s biggest bank already does commercial banking in the Dutch city and got a securities license there in December, calling it a “major step” to continue providing services to clients in Europe after the UK leaves the union. The company is closely monitoring Brexit developments but doesn’t anticipate any impact from it, spokeswoman Kana Nagamitsu said on Wednesday.
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
The biog
Date of birth: 27 May, 1995
Place of birth: Dubai, UAE
Status: Single
School: Al Ittihad private school in Al Mamzar
University: University of Sharjah
Degree: Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Hobby: I enjoy travelling a lot, not just for fun, but I like to cross things off my bucket list and the map and do something there like a 'green project'.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
THREE
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In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
SPECS
Toyota land Cruiser 2020 5.7L VXR
Engine: 5.7-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 362hp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh329,000 (base model 4.0L EXR Dh215,900)
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
More from UAE Human Development Report:
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The biog
Name: Atheja Ali Busaibah
Date of birth: 15 November, 1951
Favourite books: Ihsan Abdel Quddous books, such as “The Sun will Never Set”
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Fast%20X
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
UAE-based players
Goodlands Riders: Jamshaid Butt, Ali Abid, JD Mahesh, Vibhor Shahi, Faizan Asif, Nadeem Rahim
Rose Hill Warriors: Faraz Sheikh, Ashok Kumar, Thabreez Ali, Janaka Chathuranga, Muzammil Afridi, Ameer Hamza
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Mental%20health%20support%20in%20the%20UAE
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SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Dirham Stretcher tips for having a baby in the UAE
Selma Abdelhamid, the group's moderator, offers her guide to guide the cost of having a young family:
• Buy second hand stuff
They grow so fast. Don't get a second hand car seat though, unless you 100 per cent know it's not expired and hasn't been in an accident.
• Get a health card and vaccinate your child for free at government health centres
Ms Ma says she discovered this after spending thousands on vaccinations at private clinics.
• Join mum and baby coffee mornings provided by clinics, babysitting companies or nurseries.
Before joining baby classes ask for a free trial session. This way you will know if it's for you or not. You'll be surprised how great some classes are and how bad others are.
• Once baby is ready for solids, cook at home
Take the food with you in reusable pouches or jars. You'll save a fortune and you'll know exactly what you're feeding your child.
88 Video's most popular rentals
Avengers 3: Infinity War: an American superhero film released in 2018 and based on the Marvel Comics story.
Sholay: a 1975 Indian action-adventure film. It follows the adventures of two criminals hired by police to catch a vagabond. The film was panned on release but is now considered a classic.
Lucifer: is a 2019 Malayalam-language action film. It dives into the gritty world of Kerala’s politics and has become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time.
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
