Beirut, Lebanon- A top Lebanese judge has issued a travel ban on former Nissan CEO-turned-international fugitive Carlos Ghosn over a non-binding Interpol arrest warrant relating to charges of financial misconduct that Ghosn is facing in Japan.
The state-run National News Agency reportedthat Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat would also continue investigating Ghosn – who has French, Brazilian and Lebanese citizenship – over charges that the former Nissan boss participated in normalising economic relations with Israel during visits there.
More:
Lebanon is technically at war with Israel, and its citizens are forbidden from travelling there or interacting with Israelis. Ghosn visited Israel at least once, in 2008, while CEO of Renault to sign a deal with an Israeli electric car maker. He met with then-Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Ghosn has since said he regretted the trip and did not mean to “upset” the Lebanese people.
Caretaker Justice Minister Albert Serhan told Al Jazeera that Ghosn would remain under a travel ban until all the details of his case, including the charges against him, arrived from Japan and could be assessed by a Lebanese judge. The judge would then take a decision on whether to send Ghosn’s case to trial.
Serhan added that Ghosn is receiving no special treatment. “You saw this today – he was called into investigation and was interrogated like any other citizen would be,” Serhan said.
Asked whether the justice ministry was concerned Ghosn may attempt to flee trial in Lebanon given he fled Japan rather than face trial there, Serhan said it was up to security agencies to prevent that from happening.
“Of course, if he leaves Lebanon that would be a problem,” Serhan said.
Despite the legal proceedings against Ghosn, Ricardo Karam, a prominent Lebanese media personality and Ghosn’s close friend, told Al Jazeera that he believed the former Nissan CEO was still happy with his choice to come to Lebanon, given the conditions of his detention in Japan.
“He was not escaping justice, he was seeking freedom and is looking for justice,” Karam said.
Ghosn had said as much at a long news conference in Beirut on Wednesday – his first since he dramatically evaded Japanese authorities by jumping bail in Japan late last year.
He said his human rights to a fair and speedy trial were not being upheld in Japan and that he is innocent on charges filed against him by Tokyo prosecutors, including allegations that he misstated his income over many years.
Rather than escape justice, Ghosn said he is seeking to stand trial in order to restore his reputation.
The charges against Ghosn have not stopped some prominent Lebanese politicians from calling for him to take on an official government position. But the former auto industry leader on Wednesday said he does not want one.
Druze leader Walid Joumblatt, the head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party, is advocating for Ghosn to be given Lebanon’s energy portfolio, which for 10 years has been held by the Free Patriotic Movement, one of his political rivals.
Lebanon remains without round-the-clock electricity 30 years after its civil war and has seen blackouts spike over the past 24 hours due to austerity imposed on the purchase of fuel for power plants.
In a tweet, Joumblatt said Ghosn “built an empire and we should benefit from his expertise”.
Many in Lebanon view Ghosn as an archetype of the country’s large diaspora, greater in size than Lebanon’s population at home and lionised for the success of many of its members.
Soon after Ghosn’s arrest in Japan in November 2019, images of his face, with the words, “We are all Carlos Ghosn,” printed below it, went up across parts of Beirut.
But some have also seen his arrival in Lebanon at a time of immense economic and financial crisis as adding to the burdens on the country.
Japan, a major donor to Lebanon that pledged $10m in soft loans for infrastructure projects at a conference in 2018, has urged Lebanon to cooperate on the charges levelled against Ghosn in order to maintain friendly relations.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
