Prabawo Subianto claims victory in Indonesian election

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

1.

Indonesian election: Indonesia’s former military commander, Prabowo Subianto, has claimed victory in the country’s presidential election. Unofficial results show the 72 year old winning almost 60% of the vote, after around 85% of the votes had been counted. “Although we are grateful, we must not be arrogant, we must not be euphoric, we must remain humble. This victory must be a victory for all Indonesian people,” Prabowo declared in an address in Jakarta. He added that he and his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of incumbent President Joko Widodo, would govern “for all the people of Indonesia.” (CNN)

2.

Steady inflation: UK shares moved higher yesterday on news that CPI held steady in January at an annual rate of 4.0%, less an expected 4.1% increase. The downwards trends in the cost of food and household goods strengthened expectations that inflation could return to the Bank of England’s 2% target. Bloomberg economists state that a downward trajectory should resume in February, with a fall below 2% likely in the spring. A May rate cut remains in play, although there is a risk of a delay to a possible cut in June. (Bloomberg)

3.

Another buyback: Uber has unveiled a USD7 billion ($10.79 billion) stock buyback, announcing that its board has authorised the repurchase of up to USD7 billion in stock to return capital to shareholders. Earlier this month, Uber reported its first profit as a public company and projected continued growth this year. Shares in Uber rose as much as 11% during trading in New York, its biggest gain since May 2023. It had more than doubled over the past 12 months through the close of trading Tuesday. A number of tech companies including Meta and Airbnb have also announced buyback programs recently. (Bloomberg)(Reuters)

4.

HR headache: Canva’s CFO, Damian Singh, has stepped down amid an internal investigation into “inappropriate behaviour.” Singh’s resignation was first reported by The Information, before Capital Brief confirmed that anonymous allegations against Singh were made on Blind, a professional community where verified employees can conduct anonymous conversations about their work-life challenges. Once informed of the internal investigation Singh resigned immediately, announcing his resignation to Canva staff on Monday February 5. The resignation leaves Canva without a CFO during a major secondary share sale and ahead of its highly anticipated IPO. (Capital Brief)

5.

Gas demand: Global demand for liquefied natural gas is set to surge more than 50% by 2040 according to estimates from Shell. The British oil and gas major said yesterday that the rise in demand will be driven by the Chinese industrial sector’s pivot from coal to gas, and as South and Southeast Asian countries increasingly use LNG to support economic growth. Global LNG trade reached 404 million tonnes in 2023, up from 397 million tonnes in 2022. Steve Hill, EVP for Shell Energy said: “With China’s coal-based steel sector accounting for more emissions than the total emissions of the UK, Germany and Turkey combined, gas has an essential role to play.” (Wall Street Journal)(Shell)

6.

Vic power outage: AGL has said that Victoria’s largest power station will restart this morning, as over 128,000 households and businesses remain without power across the state after storms caused widespread damage to transmission lines, and electricity generators were unable to dispatch power. Late yesterday, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) cautioned that restoration efforts could take weeks. (The Australian)

7.

Nefarious AI users: Microsoft has caught hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea using its AI tools. Hacking groups affiliated with Russian military intelligence, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and the Chinese and North Korean governments were tracked by the tech giant, as they tried to perfect their hacking campaigns using large language models. A Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters: "Independent of whether there's any violation of the law or any violation of terms of service, we just don't want those actors that we've identified – that we track and know are threat actors of various kinds – we don't want them to have access to this technology.” (Reuters)(Microsoft)

8.

Whoops: Shares in Lyft suffered a bumpy ride on Tuesday after the company published an error in earnings data before correcting the figures. In its quarterly earnings release, the ride-hailing company exaggerated its outlook for margin growth in 2024 by 10x, reporting that it would improve adjusted earnings margins by 500 basis points, or 5%, in 2024 compared with the previous year. Lyft stock surged 60% on the news to USD20, before the company’s CFO corrected the press release data, saying the increase would be 50 basis points, or 0.5%. The stock then pulled back to a gain of 15% in early trading. (Financial Times)