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TOKYO — Shareholders livid about the performance of struggling Japanese car giant Nissan on Tuesday blasted bosses over dividends, executive pay, the stock price, and even the type of vehicle they use.

Shareholders voted to approve new Chief Executive Makoto Uchida in his post but he received a barrage of furious questions at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting after the most recent results showed a more than 87 per cent plunge in net profit for the nine months to December.

“I’ve been a Nissan shareholder for close to 20 years. You need to review what you’re doing. I have 3,000 Nissan shares. Uchida-san, you have 2,000 shares. I have more than you!” shouted one stockholder.

“I bought it at 800 yen per share. I never thought it would fall below 700 yen. It’s less than 500 yen per share now. What do you think about this? Is it better to sell them on the market? What shall I do with my Nissan shares?”

The firm failed to issue a dividend to shareholders after posting a net loss of 26.1 billion yen for the three months to December, its first third-quarter loss in more than a decade.

It is still battling to restore its reputation after the stunning arrest and later escape of former boss Carlos Ghosn on financial misconduct charges that he denies.

Uchida sought to placate the shareholders, pointing to a strategic review expected in May that he hopes will turn around the company’s fortunes. “Shareholders, please give us time. I appreciate your patience... I want Nissan to be better. All the top management including myself are taking this situation seriously and working on it,” he said.

But the audience continued attack after attack, with one upbraiding the chairman of alliance partner Renault, Jean-Dominique Senard, for driving off from one meeting in a competitor’s car.

“After the shareholders’ meeting, you rode a [Toyota] Alphard to leave Japan or leave Yokohama. Alphard! Nissan executives were enraged. Of course. You were in a competitor’s model. Why did you choose to do that, Mr Senard?”

“You cannot make the alliance successful with that kind of mindset,” fumed the shareholder.

A repentant Senard said there would be no repetition of the faux pas.

“As soon as I had noticed... I said that could never happen again. I apologise for that. I’m awfully sorry,” he said.

Executive pay was also an issue on shareholders’ minds, with one out-of-pocket member making the point: “If you are going to reduce the dividend by that amount, you have to revise executive compensation.”

“There are 57 executives in top management. These 57 people in the top management scheme, your compensation should be less than 10 million yen [$91,000].”

“You should immediately take this decision and send a press release immediately!”

BRUSSELS — Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg called for a new type of big tech regulator as he lobbied the EU officials who have become the world's top enforcers on big tech.

The founder of the world's biggest social network, which also owns Instagram and Whatsapp, came to EU headquarters as Brussels prepares to unveil a highly anticipated strategy to regulate artificial intelligence.

Zuckerberg's visit comes on the heels of similar meetings by Google boss Sundar Pichai, who in January called on Brussels to tread carefully in regulating artificial intelligence.

But in a document released to reporters about Mark Zuckerberg's meeting, Facebook emphasised the importance of better controlling hate speech and disinformation on platforms — all without muzzling free speech.

This was the topic he was going to raise with European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova, a top Brussels official who became an outspoken critic of Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018.

Jourova, an EU spokesman said, "intends to raise issues related to the protection of democracy and fundamental rights, free and fair elections, the fight against disinformation, including the transparency of political advertising".

The Facebook paper stressed that the way to limit unwanted speech was to make sure that platforms put systems in place to fight it, not by holding them liable for the speech itself.

"Publisher liability laws that punish the publication of illegal speech are unsuitable for the internet landscape," the paper said.

Online content "may require a new type of regulator", Facebook said.

Facebook is fighting on several fronts in Europe. It currently faces several probes with European data protection agencies and the EU executive is looking more deeply into possible anti-trust problems on data use.

Zuckerberg also met with European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager and Commissioner Thierry Breton who are in charge of designing the EU's stance on AI.

Their proposal, due on Wednesday, was expected to pursue a "risk-based" approach to assessing AI similar to how Europe approaches food safety concerns, such as GMOs and certain chemicals.

Vestager has told reporters she would back away from a ban on facial recognition technology and instead ask companies and authorities to think hard before deploying it.

MUNICH, Germany — France on Sunday warned Britain to expect a bitter, bloody battle in Brexit trade talks with the EU, saying the two sides would “rip each other apart”.

Negotiations for a deal on future EU-UK relations are not due to start until next month, but London and Brussels have already clashed over rules for British financial firms’ access to the EU after Brexit. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said it would be tough to achieve Britain’s aim of agreeing a free trade deal by the end of the year, with the two sides far apart on a range of issues.

“I think that on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart,” Le Drian said at the Munich Security Conference.

“But that is part of negotiations, everyone will defend their own interests.”

Britain formally left the EU two weeks ago but still trades like a member under a transition period ticking down to the end of this year.

The remaining 27 EU states are currently drawing up their mandate for the talks on the future relationship, with France in particular pushing for a strong stance, notably on the vexed question of fishing.

France and several other countries want to be able to keep fishing in British waters, while London wants full autonomy and limited access for European fishermen.

“Let’s hope the talks are done as quickly as possible, but there are a lot of issues and some difficult points to deal with,” said Le Drian, who is from the important French fishing region of Brittany.

The bloc’s Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier has said the EU’s top priorities are fishing, security and maintaining fair trading conditions for European companies.

In a sign of the likely bruising exchanges ahead, Barnier this week told London not to kid itself about EU access for its prized financial services sector.

Barnier firmly rejected a British suggestion that City of London companies could be given broad, permanent access to EU markets without conditions.

Before the January 31 exit from the EU, Britain said it wanted an ambitious and comprehensive accord with the European bloc.

But since then, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has dialled back, signalling it is willing to accept trade friction in return for sovereignty.

AMMAN — Jordan Electric Power Company (JEPCO) posted a drop in its pre-tax profit for 2019 which totalled JD9.286 million compared to JD11.096 million in 2018, according to the figures the company disclosed via the Amman Stock Exchange website.

The company’s post-tax profit was also lower in 2019 compared to that of the previous year totaling JD7.451 million compared to JD9.317 million in 2018, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday.

AMMAN — Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company recorded an increase in its pre-tax profit for 2019 as it reached JD53.9 million compared to JD42.7 million in 2018, according to the company’s financial figures disclosed on the Amman Stock Exchange website.

The company’s after tax profit in 2019 was JD45.1 million compared to JD36.8 million in 2018.

The company’s profit was mainly from its oils factory and its marketing and selling of petrol products, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

DAMASCUS — The government in war-devastated Syria decided on Sunday that all property and car sales must be conducted through banks, in an apparent bid to revive the banking sector and fight tax evasion.

Under the directive, which came into immediate effect, buyers and sellers must use bank accounts for vehicle and property purchases, in a country largely used to transactions in cash.

“The decision targets the two important sectors in terms of money supply,” economic journalist Ali Al Agha said.

Notaries and public services can no longer register property and vehicle sale contracts unless documents show “that the sum or a part of the sum has been settled” through banks, under the regulation. 

The move aims to encourage electronic transactions and limit the use of banknotes, Agha said, adding it was also a way to curb tax evasion.

Syria’s almost nine-year-old war has killed more than 380,000 people and ravaged its cities and infrastructure.

The United Nations estimated in 2018 that the conflict had caused nearly $400 billion in war-related destruction.

In other moves, the central bank last week tripled the upper limit on mortgages to 15 million Syrian pounds ($12,500 at the black market rate) as well as the ceiling for renovation loans.

The executive director of the Syrian mortgage credit institution, Madine Ali, said the move would “allow a large portion” of the population to buy or renovate property.

The credit ceiling could be further revised upwards, according to marked demand, Ali said, quoted in the local media.

The Syrian pound has plunged to a historic low of more than 1,200 against the greenback on the black market, while the official rate is 434 to the dollar, down from 48 at the March 2011 start of the war.

The devaluation has driven up prices and worsened dire economic conditions that the government blames on tightening Western sanctions.

WASHINGTON — The United States is increasing tariffs on Airbus planes imported from Europe to 15 per cent, authorities said, in a move the aerospace giant said on Saturday was “deeply” regrettable.

Friday’s decision to hike tariffs from March 18 “further escalates trade tensions between the US and the EU”, the European aerospace giant said in a statement, adding it creates “more instability for US airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft”.

The announcement from the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) came just days after President Donald Trump said it was time to talk “very seriously” about a trade deal with the European Union.

Duties have been at 10 per cent since October, when Washington hit European products worth $7.5 billion with tariffs.

“Airbus deeply regrets USTR’s decision to increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the EU as well as the decision to maintain tariffs on goods from other sectors,” the company said, referring to products — including wine, cheese, coffee and olives — which have been taxed at 25 per cent since October.

The latest decision also “ignores the many submissions made by US airlines, highlighting the fact that they — and the US flying public — will ultimately have to pay these tariffs”, it added.

‘Ultimately harmful’ 

The German finance ministry said it had taken note of the move by the United States, and reiterated its stance on tariffs.

“Our basic position is clear: We reject any unilateral increase in customs taxes,” it said in a statement. “Customs taxes are ultimately harmful to everyone, including the USA.”

Washington imposed punitive taxes on the $7.5 billion in European products after the World Trade Organisation gave the United States a green light to take retaliatory trade measures against the EU over its subsidies to European aerospace giant Airbus.

Industry executives in Europe and the United States are on tenterhooks awaiting each new announcement from trade authorities.

Trump, a real estate developer turned politician, sees tariffs as a negotiating tool.

After a trade war with China that lasted nearly two years and featured punishing reciprocal tariffs, Trump declared at the signing of a “phase one” trade deal with Beijing in January that it was a “momentous step ... righting the wrongs of the past”.

He has now turned his sights to Europe as Washington brandishes the threat of taxing European auto imports, a move targeting Germany, Europe’s biggest auto exporter.

Trump wants EU member states to further open their markets to American products, particularly agricultural goods.

He has also threatened to hike tariffs on French wine — currently taxed at 25 per cent — even further unless there is a deal on a digital tax which European nations want to impose on American giants such as Amazon and Facebook.