- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- SE Asian summit urges end to Myanmar violence but struggles for solutions
- Wimbledon replaces line judges with electronic system
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England power to 351-3
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England's power to 351-3
- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
EU targets UAE telecoms firm in new anti-subsidy probe
The European Union on Monday announced a formal anti-subsidy probe targeting an Emirati telecoms company, the first action under new rules to focus on a foreign bid to buy EU assets.
Brussels has ramped up its scrutiny of foreign investment into the bloc in a bid to defend European industry, usually from rising threats from China and the United States.
The latest probe is the first against a non-Chinese company under new EU rules.
Telecoms group e&, whose majority stakeholder is the United Arab Emirates government, signed a 2.15-billion-euro ($2.3-billion) agreement in August 2023 to purchase Czech PPF telecoms group's assets in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia.
The European Commission said a preliminary probe "indicates that there are sufficient indications that e& has received foreign subsidies distorting the EU internal market".
The alleged subsidies "notably take the form of an unlimited guarantee from the UAE and a loan from UAE-controlled banks directly facilitating the transaction", it added.
The commission said it will investigate whether the subsidies lead to "actual or potential negative effects" on the bid's process or the EU's internal market.
It will specifically look at whether the "support" allowed the UAE company "to deter or outbid other parties interested in the acquisition".
The probe was launched under new rules known as the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), which came into force last year and seek to prevent foreign subsidies from undermining fair competition in the EU.
"Today we open our first in-depth investigation into a concentration under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, the EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said.
"The FSR allows us to tackle distortive support from third countries for the acquisition of businesses in the EU," she added in a statement.
The commission has until October 15, 2024, to take a decision.
Brussels has already flexed its legal muscle with the new rules, forcing Chinese companies to withdraw from certain projects.
Chinese rail giant CRRC exited a tendered project in Bulgaria in March after the EU launched a probe into it over suspected subsidies.
And a similar investigation saw two Chinese-owned solar panel manufacturers withdraw from a public procurement tender in Romania last month.
D.Kaufman--AMWN