Exclusive: China's BAIC seeks to buy 5 percent Daimler stake - sources

BEIJING/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - China’s BAIC Group is seeking to buy a stake of up to 5 percent in Daimler as a way to secure its investment in Chinese Mercedes-Benz manufacturing company Beijing Benz Automotive, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. BAIC informed Daimler of its intention to buy a 4-5 percent stake in the German maker of Mercedes-Benz cars earlier this year, two of the three sources said. BAIC has asked local authorities in Beijing to support a 4-5 percent stake purchase, two of these sources said. BAIC has started acquiring Daimler shares on the open market, one source said. “Daimler’s share price is currently being underpinned by a buyer who appears to be building a stake,” a person familiar with the matter said. BAIC did not respond to repeated phone calls and text messages seeking comment outside regular business hours. Daimler declined to comment.

It remains unclear whether BAIC Group can raise the nearly 3 billion euros that a 5 percent stake in Daimler would cost, based on the German carmaker’s closing market value on Friday of 57.6 billion euros, two of these sources said. German regulatory filings do not show BAIC as a significant shareholder of Daimler. German takeover rules allow a buyer to acquire a stake of up to 3 percent before a regulatory disclosure is required. Daimler has ruled out issuing new stock to help an outside party build a stake, forcing potential buyers to acquire shares on the market.

BAIC signaled its interest in buying a Daimler stake as far back as 2015, and has redoubled its effort after Li Shufu, chairman of rival Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group built a 9.69 percent stake in Stuttgart-based Daimler in early 2018. By using Hong Kong shell companies, derivatives, bank financing and structured share options, Li kept the plan under wraps until he was able, at a stroke, to become Daimler’s single largest shareholder.

The Germans in March agreed to build the next generation of Smart-branded city cars together with Geely, which is based in Hangzhou. Daimler has also reassured BAIC that any new industrial alliances involving Mercedes and a Chinese partner would only happen after a consensus is found with BAIC.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-baic-daimler-exclusive/exclusive-chinas-baic-seeks-to-buy-5-percent-daimler-stake-sources-idUSKCN1SH06G?il=0

Balochistan militants claim responsibility for Pakistan hotel attack

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Balochistan Liberation Army, a militant group fighting for greater autonomy for the Balochistan region in southwestern Pakistan, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack on a hotel in Gwadar port, a spokesman said in an emailed statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-security-claim/balochistan-militants-claim-responsibility-for-pakistan-hotel-attack-idUSKCN1SH0G1?il=0

Islamic State claims 'province' in India for first time after clash in Kashmir

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Islamic State (IS) claimed for the first time that it has established a “province” in India, after a clash between militants and security forces in the contested Kashmir region killed a militant with alleged ties to the group. IS’s Amaq News Agency late on Friday announced the new province, that it called “Wilayah of Hind”, in a statement that also claimed IS inflicted casualties on Indian army soldiers in the town of Amshipora in the Shopian district of Kashmir.

The IS statement corresponds with an Indian police statement on Friday that a militant called Ishfaq Ahmad Sofi was killed in an encounter in Shopian. IS’s statement establishing the new province appears to be designed to bolster its standing after the group was driven from its self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in April, where at one point it controlled thousands of miles of territory. IS has stepped up hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks, including taking responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombing in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people.

“The establishment of a ‘province’ in a region where it has nothing resembling actual governance is absurd, but it should not be written off,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intel Group that tracks Islamic extremists. “The world may roll its eyes at these developments, but to jihadists in these vulnerable regions, these are significant gestures to help lay the groundwork in rebuilding the map of the IS ‘caliphate’.” Sofi had been involved in several militant groups in Kashmir for more than a decade before pledging allegiance to Islamic State, according to a military official on Saturday and an interview given by Sofi to a Srinagar-based magazine sympathetic to IS. He was suspected of several grenade attacks on security forces in the region, police and military sources said. “It was a clean operation and no collateral damage took place during the exchange of fire,” a police spokesman said in the statement on Friday’s encounter. The military official said it was possible that Sofi had been the only militant left in Kashmir associated with IS.

Separatists have for decades fought an armed conflict against Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir. The majority of these groups want independence for Kashmir or to join India’s arch-rival Pakistan. They have not, like Islamic State, sought to establish an empire across the Muslim world. Nuclear powers India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, and came to the brink of a third earlier this year after a suicide attack by a Pakistan-based militant group killed at least 40 paramilitary police in the Indian-controlled portion of the region. A spokesman for India’s home ministry, which is responsible for security in Kashmir, did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-islamic-state/islamic-state-claims-province-in-india-for-first-time-after-clash-in-kashmir-idUSKCN1SH08J?il=0