Philippines to Start Vaccine Talks With Moderna by Year-End: CNN

The Philippines will start talks with Moderna Inc. on or before Dec. 30 to secure supply of the company’s coronavirus vaccine, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said Monday.

“Moderna is interested in giving an allocation,” he said in a live-streamed interview with CNN Philippines, citing Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez.

The Philippines is also assured of 30 million doses of Novavax Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which will be produced by Serum Institute of India, Locsin said. It would be available in July, “possibly with no cash advance,” he said, and the “term sheet might be signed before the year ends.”

READ: Southeast Asia Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: Who Gets What, When (1)

Shell To Sell 26.25% Stake In QCLNG Common Facilities In Australia For $2.5 Bln

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS-B,RDSB.L,RDSA.L,RDS-A) announced Monday that its unit QGC Common Facilities Company Pty Ltd agreed to the sale of a 26.25% interest in the Queensland Curtis LNG or QCLNG Common Facilities to Global Infrastructure Partners Australia for $2.5 billion.

The Common Facilities are currently fully owned by Shell and include LNG storage tanks, jetties and operations infrastructure that service QCLNG’s LNG trains.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Australia and customary conditions. It is expected to complete in the first half of 2021.

Upon completion of the sale, Shell will remain majority owner and operator of the Common Facilities. The deal aligns Shell’s interest in the Common Facilities with its 73.75% interest in the overall QCLNG venture.

The sale will contribute to Shell’s expected divestment proceeds, without impact on people or the operations of the QCLNG venture.

The company said the decision is consistent with its strategy of selling non-core assets in order to further high-grade and simplify Shell’s portfolio.

Omantel Weighing Bids for $500 Million Sale of Its Tower Network

Oman Telecommunication Co. is evaluating a number of offers for its tower network, which the state-owned firm expects could raise more than $500 million.

Bids from “specialized companies” are undergoing technical, commercial and legal evaluation, Omantel said in a statement on Monday. The transaction is still at an evaluation stage, and it is not yet possible to ascertain its full financial impact on the company, the nation’s largest phone firm said.

Carriers are offloading towers in emerging markets across the Middle East and Africa to reduce the burden of costly infrastructure. A report co-authored by consultancy EY in April 2019 found that greater outsourcing by telecom operators of their tower assets could release 28 billion euros ($34 billion) of capital for reinvestment.

Trump signs temporary spending bill into law to avoid government shutdown – White House statement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed a temporary spending bill into law on Sunday night to avoid a government shutdown, the White House said in a statement.

Rupee slips 17 paise to 73.73 against U.S. Dollar in early trade

Unabated foreign fund inflows and lower crude prices supported the rupee and restricted the fall, forex traders said

The rupee declined 17 paise to 73.73 against the U.S. Dollar in opening trade on Monday amid weak domestic equities and strengthening American currency in the overseas market.

However, unabated foreign fund inflows and lower crude prices supported the rupee and restricted the fall, Forex traders said.

At the interbank Forex market, the local unit opened sharply lower at 73.74 against the greenback. It was trading 17 paise down at 73.73 in early deals. In the previous session, the rupee strengthened by 3 paise to close at 73.56 against the U.S. Dollar.

Meanwhile, the Dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading up 0.46 % at 90.37.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading points 7.69 lower at 46,953, and the broader NSE Nifty fell 9.05 points to 13,751.50 in opening session.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth ₹2,720.95 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 3.02 % to $50.68 per barrel.

Pound PLUMMETS as borders shut on Britain over mutant coronavirus strain

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Boris Johnson will hold an emergency meeting on Monday after countries made the decision to shut their borders to Britain following the emergence of a super-infectious strain of COVID-19.

The border closures have caused the pound to plummet.

Sky News’ Ed Conway wrote on Twitter: “Sterling now down around two cents vs the dollar since the start of the weekend, as investors respond to the bans on UK travellers”.

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