The Dutchman Hein Schumacher will unexpectedly stop as CEO of Unilever in Marchthat’s how the company made announced today in a press release. He is succeeded by the current financial chief executive of the British group, Fernando Fernandez. The reasons for Schumacher’s sudden departure – he was only on this place since July 2023 – are not immediately clear. The press release states that the decision was taken in ‘mutual agreement’.
A further selection of today’s economic news:
- It is an exciting investment category: Chinese tech shares. AI company Deepseek led last month with its launch of an advanced, cheap chatbot developed for admiration (in China itself) and anxiety (in the West). Yesterday, web shop giant Alibaba announced that it would invest “at least” 380 billion Yuan (50 billion euros) in the development of artificial intelligence and cloud storage. It’s not possible? Well, investors have their doubts. Alibaba shares are 3.2 percent lower in Hong Kong and other Chinese tech shares are also in the min. The easier of the party is called Donald J. Trump. He announced the American export from chip technology to China, and American investments in China in this sector, to further restrict. “The market has been so obsessed with China’s AI story that Trump has forgotten,” said Qi Wang, tech investor, in Hong Kong, according to Reuters news agency.
- You sometimes get the impression that the sale of electric cars is a bit in the doldrums, but these figures that we read at the ANP news agency tell something else: The number of electric cars sold in the EU increased by 34 percent on an annual basis in January, Up to more than 124,000, the European car industry organization ACEA reports. Germany (34,498), with an increase of more than 53 percent, had the largest share. In the Netherlands there were more than 11,000 plug cars (plus 28 percent).
- Hold on to that rental law, say large investors and developers against FD. The Rental Act, of former Minister of Housing Hugo de Jonge (CDA), is not very popular because it would lead to less housing offer for tenants. Many investors put their homes on sale because the law makes renting out more unattractive. But Current Minister Mona Keijzer is better able to stick to the lawsay the industry associations for institutional real estate investors (IVBN) and project developers (Neprom) now to the FD. “If you are going to tinker with it again, there will be uncertainty again for a long time. That scares investors and inhibits the construction of rental properties, “it sounds.
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Economy Blog 25 February