By Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, posted an after-tax profit for the three-month period ended Dec. 31 that beat analysts’ forecasts on Monday, but revised down its passenger outlook on delays in Boeing (NYSE:BA) aircraft delivery.

After tax-profit for the third quarter came in at 149 million euros ($156 million), significantly ahead of the 60-million-euro profit forecast in a company poll of analysts.

That was mainly due to a better-than-expected 1% increase in average fares in the quarter, compared with a fall of 7% during the previous quarter, Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said, citing good last-minute bookings for Christmas and New Year holidays.

Ryanair, which makes most of its profit during the summer season, said it was “cautiously guiding” after-tax profit for the 12 months to March 31 in a range of 1.55 billion euros to 1.61 billion euros.

It is too early to give guidance on the coming summer, but early indications are that bookings are robust and European short-haul capacity is likely to be constrained, Sorahan said.

BOEING DELAYS

Ryanair said it expects to take delivery of nine Boeing 737 MAX aircraft ahead of its peak summer season, fewer than expected, and as a result will cut its forecast for passenger numbers in the 12 months to March 31, 2026, to 206 million from 210 million. An earlier forecast of 215 million was cut in November.

The final 29 aircraft of Ryanair’s 210 MAX order will arrive by March next year, lifting traffic to 215 million passengers in the year to March 2027, he said.

Sorahan, who recently returned from a trip to Boeing’s production facilities in Seattle, said the delays were disappointing but that he had a “strong level of confidence,” that the nine aircraft would arrive on time.

“We can see big improvements in the [Boeing] factory. The quality of the fuselage … have improved greatly, but they’re just not going to get there for this summer,” Sorahan said in an interview.

Ryanair, which has no aircraft orders with any other manufacturer, is not particularly concerned about Boeing’s financial position, and that as a systematically important company to the U.S. economy it would be supported “come what may,” Sorahan said.

($1 = 0.9564 euros)

(Reuters) – British autocatalyst maker Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) said on Monday it has implemented plans to significantly increase its cash efficiency and cut its capital expenditure in hydrogen technologies business following pressure from its top investor.

Standard Investments, the largest shareholder in Johnson Matthey, last month had urged the group to initiate a strategic review and overhaul its board.

The “Board fully recognises the need to improve the absolute share price and to deliver increased returns for shareholders,” the London-listed company said in a statement.

Johnson Matthey said it is reviewing the group’s executive remuneration schemes to increase the weighting on cash generation targets and formed a new investment committee, mainly to review cash generation and the initiatives in place to drive cash delivery.

ZURICH (Reuters) -Swiss testing and inspection group SGS (SIX:SGSN) has ended talks over a potential $30 billion merger with French rival Bureau Veritas after the two sides failed to reach agreement over the deal, it said on Monday.

“SGS and Bureau Veritas have been exploring a potential combination. The discussions have not resulted in an agreement and have ended,” SGS said in a brief statement.

A spokesperson for the company said it had nothing to add at present about the reasons for its decision.

A source familiar with the matter said minor contractual issues and execution risks had helped scupper talks between the groups, which test and certify new products, ingredients and processes.

SGS said earlier this month it was in discussions to combine with Bureau Veritas in what could have been an all-stock transaction, according to a person familiar with the matter.

That would have meant SGS shares would trade in Paris, a fact that could have led to complications due to tit-for-tat measures imposed years ago during a Swiss-EU stock market row.

Such listings of Swiss shares in the EU are forbidden by protective measures Switzerland issued in 2019 when the bloc withdrew its recognition of equivalence for the Swiss exchange amid a dispute over bilateral trade talks.

Without commenting specifically on the SGS-Bureau Veritas deal, Swiss financial authorities acknowledged that the situation presented potential problems for the tie-up.

Authorities appeared to have noted the potential headache and were taking steps to withdraw the protective measures.

The source said they did not believe the stock market issue had been a significant factor in the merger talks ending.

Investing.com — Ryanair (LON:0RYA) on Monday revised its fiscal 2026 passenger traffic growth target due to ongoing delays in the delivery of aircraft from Boeing (NYSE:BA). 

The airline now expects to carry 206 million passengers in fiscal 2026, down from its original target of 210 million, reflecting a modest 3% reduction in growth projections.

The revision is attributed to continued delays in the production and delivery of Boeing’s 737-8200 “Gamechanger” aircraft. 

While Boeing’s production is recovering from disruptions, including a strike in late 2024, Ryanair does not anticipate sufficient deliveries to meet its initial fiscal 2026 traffic goals.

“We see longer term attractions to Ryanair’s low-cost, and relatively high-margin (and so high ROCE/ ROIC) business model,” said analysts at RBC Capital Markets in a note. 

“We see FCF yields stepping up to >10% by FY26E as capex steps down, leaving scope for further shareholder returns,” RBC added. 

The company noted that these delays have constrained its ability to allocate aircraft efficiently across routes and regions. 

It remains hopeful that the 29 remaining Gamechanger aircraft in its 210-unit orderbook will be delivered by March 2026, enabling it to recover the delayed growth during the summer of 2026.

“Ryanair hopes/ expects to recover this growth in summer 2026, and we expect modest capacity growth to be supportive for unit revenues,” said analysts at RBC.

The airline is also preparing for the integration of the MAX-10 model, which Boeing expects to certify in late 2025. The first 15 MAX-10 aircraft are scheduled for delivery in spring 2027, supporting Ryanair’s longer-term growth plans.

To mitigate the impact of the delivery delays, Ryanair is reallocating capacity to regions such as Poland, Sweden, and Italy, where government policies, including reduced aviation taxes and growth incentives, support expansion. Nearly all of its summer 2025 capacity, which includes 164 new routes, is already on sale.

As part of its quarterly results for the three months ending December 31, 2024, Ryanair reported a profit after tax of €149 million, up from €15 million in the same period last year. 

Passenger traffic increased by 9% to 45 million, while total revenue rose by 10% to €2.96 billion. Ancillary revenue also saw a 10% boost, driven by increased passenger spending on add-ons like seat reservations and priority boarding.

Despite the challenges posed by Boeing’s delays, Ryanair remains confident in its long-term traffic growth ambitions, reaffirming its goal of reaching 300 million passengers annually by 2034.

“At this stage, we are cautiously guiding FY25 PAT in a range of €1.55bn to €1.61bn. The final FY25 PAT outcome remains subject to avoiding adverse external developments between now and the end of Mar., incl. the risk of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, further Boeing delivery delays and ATC mismanagement/short-staffing here in Europe,” the company said in a statement.

Investing.com — A group of Indian digital news publishers, including those owned by billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, have initiated a legal challenge against OpenAI, Reuters reported on Monday, citing legal papers.

They allege that the AI company has improperly used copyrighted content from their platforms, the report said. The outlets, which include Adani’s NDTV and Ambani’s Network18, have expressed concerns that their websites might be scraped for content that is then replicated and served to users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool.

The report also added that legal action involves a request to a New Delhi court to join an existing lawsuit against OpenAI. Previously, ANI, a local news agency, had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last year, marking one of the most high-profile legal actions against the company in the country.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan on Monday as surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model wobbled investors’ faith in the profitability of AI and the sector’s voracious demand for high-tech chips.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 2.6% and S&P 500 futures slipped 1.4% by the European morning, and shares in Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) supplier Advantest fell 8.5% in Tokyo.

Frankfurt-listed shares of Nvidia slipped about 7%, while those of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta (NASDAQ:META) fell more than 2% in early European trading.

Startup DeepSeek has rolled out a free assistant it says uses lower-cost chips and less data, seemingly challenging a widespread bet in financial markets that AI will drive demand along a supply chain from chipmakers to data centres.

“It’s a case of a crowded trade, and now DeepSeek is giving a reason for investors and traders to unwind,” said Wong Kok Hoong, head of equity sales trading at Maybank. AI-focused startup investor SoftBank (TYO:9984) Group slid more than 8%, on course for its biggest one-day fall since Sept. 30. Last week it announced a $19 billion commitment to fund Stargate, a data-centre joint venture with OpenAI.

Chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron fell 5%.

Tech-heavy markets in Taiwan and South Korea were closed.

European tech stocks, especially Dutch computer chip equipment maker ASML (AS:ASML), which counts Taiwan’s TSMC, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Samsung (KS:005930) as its customers, will likely face pressure at the open.

Shares of Nvidia, the poster child of AI, have risen 196% since the start of 2024, outperforming the 35% gain in the Nasdaq.

CAPEX IN QUESTION

Little is known about the small Hangzhou startup behind DeeepSeek, but its assistant leapfrogged rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s App Store in the United States on Monday.

DeepSeek researchers wrote in a paper last month that the DeepSeek-V3 model, launched on Jan. 10, used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million.

H800 chips are not top-of-the-line. Initially developed as a reduced-capability product to get around restrictions on sales to China, they were subsequently banned by U.S. sanctions.

Besides chips, data centres and related companies also took a hit on Monday, with Malaysia’s utility conglomerate YTL Power falling 7% in Kuala Lumpur to its lowest in two months.

“The market is questioning the capex spend of the major tech companies,” said Nick Ferres, chief investment officer at Vantage Point Asset Management in Singapore, noting that positioning had become crowded.

To be sure, much remains unknown about the details of DeepSeek’s development and the hardware it uses.

“The idea that the most cutting-edge technologies in America, like Nvida and ChatGPT, are the most superior globally, there’s concern that this perspective might start to change,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui (NYSE:SMFG) DS Asset Management. “I think it might be a bit premature.”

Markets reaction in China was also mixed, with a CSI300 index of AI shares down 2.2% but big data stocks up 4%.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management (TSX:BAM) said on Monday it has closed two real-estate investments in Japan worth a combined $1.6 billion.

The investments comprise a stake in Tokyo’s landmark Gajoen complex, a mixed-use office, retail and luxury hotel, and a 1 million square foot (93,000 square metre) plot in the outskirts of Nagoya, which will be developed into a logistics warehouse, Brookfield said in a release.

It is the latest large-scale real-estate investment in Japan, as a weaker yen and availability of cheap financing have ramped up foreign investor interest in the sector.

Gajoen, located in Meguro, Tokyo, is owned by the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), which bought the property in 2015.

Brookfield did not state the size of its stake in Gajoen.

Investing.com– Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek has claimed the top spot on the U.S. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store’s free app charts, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the longstanding leader in generative AI applications.

DeepSeek’s app, powered by its cutting-edge R1 model, has rapidly gained popularity for its ability to generate human-like responses and perform complex tasks with unprecedented efficiency. The R1 model, is one of the most advanced AI systems globally, offering enhanced accuracy, faster response times, and improved multilingual support.

DeepSeek’s breakthrough has also triggered a reevaluation of the AI landscape. Analysts suggest its competitive pricing and robust performance could disrupt market dynamics, forcing incumbents to adapt.

DeepSeek officially launched its app on January 13, offering free access to advanced AI models.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT, a staple in the app charts since its debut, remains widely used but has been challenged by DeepSeek’s surge.

The new benchmark set by the Chinese AI at a fraction of cost is putting pressure on industry leaders like Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), and other tech leaders.

By Aditya Kalra and Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Digital news units of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other outlets like the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, have mounted a legal challenge against OpenAI’s improper use of copyright content, legal papers show.

The media outlets including Adani’s NDTV and Ambani’s Network18 have told a New Delhi court they want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator, as they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work to users of the powerful AI tool.

Reuters is first to report the case filing by the digital news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers have also now joined in.

The 135-page case filing in the New Delhi court, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI’s conduct constitutes “a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights” of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.

It refers to OpenAI’s “wilful scraping … and adaptation of content”.

Courts across the world are hearing claims by authors, news outlets and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyright work to train AI services and who are seeking to have content used to train the chatbot deleted.

The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani’s NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Dainik Bhaskar. Many of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television news business too.

The Times of India is not taking part in the legal challenge despite being member of the DNPA.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the new allegations. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data.

None of the Indian media companies immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.

(Reuters) – Nearly 19 million Americans are expected to go on cruise vacations this year, but passenger growth is likely to cool off after seeing a boom post pandemic, travel group AAA forecast on Monday.

Passenger volume this year is projected to grow 4.5% from 2024, when 18.2 million Americans went on ocean cruises, according to the industry group. The increase is slower than the 7.7% rise last year and a solid 42% growth in 2023.

Cruise operators were among the worst hit in the travel industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their recovery was sharp. Despite the slowing growth, 2025 is expected to be the third straight year of record cruise passenger volume, AAA said.

AAA expects the Caribbean to be the top destination for American travelers this year.

Operators such as Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL), Carnival (NYSE:CCL) Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) Holdings saw record demand last year as more people across age groups chose cruises despite a rise in itinerary prices.

This boosted their stocks, with Royal Caribbean’s shares gaining 78%, while those of Carnival and Norwegian Cruise rose about 34% and 28% respectively last year.

AAA’s forecast is calculated based on scheduled cruise itineraries covering all major cruise vessels, the economic outlook and travel sector trends. The forecast is prepared in partnership with Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company.