ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE
Final Decision Looms On U.K. Nuclear Plan
PARIS -- French state-owned power utility Electricite de France
SA late Thursdayhas called a board meeting for July 28 to make a
final decision on whether to go ahead with an GBP18 billion ($23.8
billion) nuclear power project in the U.K. despite the opposition
from the company's labor unions.
The construction of two nuclear reactors in Hinkley Point,
southwestern England, has the backing of the U.K. and France, which
has a majority stake in EDF, but is waiting for the utility's board
to sign off on the project.
The project would boost EDF's presence in the U.K., where it
already operates 15 nuclear reactors.
The Hinkley Point project remains controversial, criticized in
France by some senior EDF officials and labor unions who are
worried about its impact on EDF's finances, and in the U.K. where
some politicians and environment groups consider it too expensive
and risky.
The six labor-union representatives sitting on EDF's 18-member
board have repeatedly opposed the project.
Even though the U.K. government guaranteed EDF and its Chinese
partner a price for the electricity generated by the reactors
significantly above market prices, unions and several company
officials have said the investment required would saddle EDF with
too much debt.
EDF has delayed the final investment decision on the new nuclear
power plant several times as it sought other partners to spread the
costs and approval from the European Commission for U.K.-government
financial support for the project.
The French government has backed the project and announced a
cash injection of EUR3 billion ($3.3 billion) in EDF to help the
company develop the project, which would lead to job creation in
France and would buoy beleaguered state-owned nuclear firm Areva
SA, which manufactures nuclear reactors.
--Inti Landauro
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
Smartphone Maker Sues Rival Huawei
SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics Co. has sued Huawei Technologies
Co. of China for allegedly infringing on six patents, the latest
salvo between Asia's two dominant smartphone makers over patents
and innovation.
The lawsuit, filed in Beijing's Intellectual Property Court,
seeks damages of 161 million Chinese yuan ($24.1 million), alleging
that some of Huawei's smartphones, including its Mate8 smartphone
and its Honor-branded lineup of handsets, infringed on Samsung's
patents. It comes two months after Huawei, a
telecommunications-equipment maker that has quickly gained ground
competing with Samsung on smartphones, firstsued Samsung, alleging
the South Korean electronics maker infringed on a number of patents
covering mobile devices and cellular-communications technology.
The lawsuit also calls on the court to block Huawei and another
company, Beijing Hengtongda Department Store Co., from producing or
selling the devices, according to a court document.
The May lawsuit, which Huawei filed against Samsung in the U.S.
and China, was the first major legal challenge from a Chinese rival
against Samsung, the world's No. 1 maker of smartphones by sales
volume.
In a statement Friday, Samsung said it had "faithfully
negotiated with other patent holders for the fair licensing of
technology." In this case, however, it added: "Despite our best
efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become
necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual
property."
A spokesman for Huawei said the company hasn't received a formal
complaint. "We will review any documentation and defend ourselves
as appropriate when we do. In the absence of a negotiated
settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve
[intellectual property rights] disputes."
The lawsuit and countersuit come as Huawei increasingly emerges
as the main rival to Samsung, particularly in the world of
smartphones running Android, the dominant mobile operating system
owned by Alphabet Inc.'s Google.
In the first three months of the year, Huawei sold more
smartphones to end consumers than any other Android maker except
for Samsung, accounting for 8.3% of the market, up from 5.4% a year
earlier, according to research firm Gartner. Over that same period,
Samsung's market share slipped to 23.2%, down from 24.1% a year
earlier.
--Jonathan Cheng
VOLKSWAGEN
Sales in South Korea Halt Amid Scandal
SEOUL -- Volkswagen AG is suspending sales of its cars
implicated in an emissions scandal in South Korea, in effect
stopping all its marketing activities in the country, where its
sales are slumping.
In a recent letter to local dealers, Audi Volkswagen Korea Co.,
the Korean unit of the German auto maker, said it would stop
delivering 79 models of 34 vehicle types starting Monday.
The suspension, which Volkswagen Korea expects to last for at
least three months, would deal a heavy blow to the European auto
maker. Many of its models are among the country's top imported
cars.
"This decision doesn't mean that Volkswagen is pulling out of
Korea, which is a very important market to us. We'll reapply for
certification of our cars if the government revokes it. The process
may take several months," a Korean representative of Volkswagen
said Friday.
The move comes as Seoul's environment ministry plans to revoke
the certification of 79 vehicle models, including the Golf, Jetta,
Tiguan and Audi A3 and A6, made by Volkswagen and its premium Audi
brand after prosecutors found that it had fabricated documents on
emissions and noise-level tests. The ministry said it would hold a
public hearing on the German auto maker on Monday before it reaches
a final decision later in the week.
A revocation order would lead to fines, a recall of about 79,000
vehicles and a sales ban on unsold cars, according to the
ministry.
Sales of German cars in South Korea have soared since a 2011
free-trade deal cut duties on vehicles imported from Europe. The
number of imported cars rose 24% to 243,900 last year and nearly a
third of them were Volkswagens, Audis and Bentleys.
Volkswagen's global emissions-cheating scandal, however, has
sparked a slide in local sales.
Volkswagen's Korean sales slumped 33% in the first half of this
year from a year earlier. Audi, a luxury brand of Volkswagen, saw
its first-half sales fall more than 10%.
"The scandal came as a rude awakening to the Korean people, who
equated imported brands [with] good quality. Customers won't pay a
premium anymore just because it's a Volkswagen or an Audi," said
Kim Pil-soo, a professor of automotive engineering at Daelim
University College.
As Korea widened its own probes into the scandal, prosecutors
indicted an executive at Volkswagen's Korean unit earlier this
month on charges of filing more than a hundred falsified emission
documents and noise reports for cars sold in Korea.
Separately, Korea's trade watchdog is also considering filing
criminal charges against Volkswagen executives in Korea and levying
fines on the car maker over advertising claims that its cars met
emissions regulations.
The Fair Trade Commission judges that Volkswagen exaggerated
advertising in which it stated that hundreds of thousands of its
cars sold in Korea met the European Union's strict Euro 5 emissions
standards.
In November, the South Korean government ordered Volkswagen
Korea to recall more than 125,000 diesel-powered cars sold in the
country after it found the company installed emissions-cheating
software in its vehicles. It also fined the company 14.1 billion
won ($12.4 million).
Volkswagen was subject to legal action in South Korea and other
countries after it said in September that it falsified U.S.
emissions tests on some diesel-powered cars.
--In-Soo Nam
PETRÓLEO BRASILEIRO
Controlling Stake To Be Sold in Unit
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian state-run energy company Petróleo
Brasileiro SA said Friday that it would sell a controlling stake in
its fuel-distribution subsidiary, after it failed to get sufficient
bids for a minority stake.
A minority interest in Petrobras's retail gasoline business,
which operates under the brand name BR Distribuidora, has been on
offer for the past year, with Petrobras initially refusing to
consider giving up a majority stake.
But after three offers that came for the minority stake "did not
meet the company's objectives," the board scrapped the offer and
said it would begin a new sale process in which it would remain the
largest shareholder of BR Distribuidora but retain only 49% voting
rights.
Petrobras didn't identify the three bidders, through executives
have previously said the three potential buyers were European and
Asian.
BR Distribuidora is Brazil's largest gas-station chain, with
some 7,500 outlets across the country. The sale is an important
part of the Petrobras effort to raise capital, reduce its
substantial debt load and regain investor confidence.
--Will Connors
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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