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Business

EXCLUSIVE Amazon, Tata say Indian govt e-commerce rules will hit businesses -sources

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NEW DELHI, July 3 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and India’s Tata Group warned government officials on Saturday that plans for tougher rules for online retailers would have a major impact on their business models, four sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

At a meeting organised by the consumer affairs ministry and the government’s investment promotion arm, Invest India, many executives expressed concerns and confusion over the proposed rules and asked that the July 6 deadline for submitting comments be extended, said the sources.

The government’s tough new e-commerce rules announced on June 21 aimed at strengthening protection for consumers, caused concern among the country’s online retailers, notably market leaders Amazon and Walmart Inc’s (WMT.N) Flipkart.

New rules limiting flash sales, barring misleading advertisements and mandating a complaints system, among other proposals, could force the likes of Amazon and Flipkart to review their business structures, and may increase costs for domestic rivals including Reliance Industries’ (RELI.NS) JioMart, BigBasket and Snapdeal. read more

Amazon argued that COVID-19 had already hit small businesses and the proposed rules will have a huge impact on its sellers, arguing that some clauses were already covered by existing law, two of the sources said.

The sources asked not to be named as the discussions were private.

The proposed policy states e-commerce firms must ensure none of their related enterprises are listed as sellers on their websites. That could impact Amazon in particular as it holds an indirect stake in at least two of its sellers, Cloudtail and Appario.

On that proposed clause, a representative of Tata Sons, the holding company of India’s $100 billion Tata Group, argued that it was problematic, citing an example to say it would stop Starbucks (SBUX.O) – which has a joint-venture with Tata in India – from offering its products on Tata’s marketplace website.

The Tata executive said the rules will have wide ramifications for the conglomerate, and could restrict sales of its private brands, according to two of the sources.

Tata declined to comment.

The sources said that a consumer ministry official argued that the rules were meant to protect consumers and were not as strict as those of other countries. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

A Reliance executive agreed that the proposed rules would boost consumer confidence, but added that some clauses needed clarification.

Reliance did not respond to request for comment.

The rules were announced last month amid growing complaints from India’s brick-and-mortar retailers that Amazon and Flipkart bypass foreign investment law using complex business strcutures. The companies deny any wrongdoing.

A Reuters investigation in February cited Amazon documents that showed it gave preferential treatment to a small number of its sellers and bypassed foreign investment rules. Amazon has said it does not give favourable treatment to any seller.

The government will soon issue certain clarifications on the foreign investment rules, Indian commerce minister Piyush Goyal told reporters on Friday.

Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi;
Editing by Euan Rocha and Louise Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Britain’s Morrisons agrees $8.7 bln offer from Fortress-led group

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A Morrisons store is pictured in St Albans, Britain, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra//File Photo

  • Fortress-led group offers 254 pence a share
  • Tops CD&R’s proposal of 230 pence
  • Some investors want 270 pence
  • Morrisons says Fortress would be suitable owner
  • Fortress says it will be ‘good steward’

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) – Morrisons has agreed to a takeover led by SoftBank (9984.T) owned Fortress Investment Group, valuing Britain’s fourth largest supermarket chain at 6.3 billion pounds ($8.7 billion) and topping a rival proposal from a U.S. private equity firm.

The offer from Fortress, along with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Koch Real Estate Investments, exceeds a 5.52 billion pound unsolicited proposal from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), which Morrisons (MRW.L) rejected on June 19. read more

Including Morrisons’ net debt of 3.2 billion pounds, Fortress’ offer gives the group an enterprise value of 9.5 billion pounds.

“We have looked very carefully at Fortress’ approach, their plans for the business and their overall suitability as an owner of a unique British food-maker and shopkeeper with over 110,000 colleagues and an important role in British food production and farming,” said Morrisons Chairman Andrew Higginson.

“It’s clear to us that Fortress has a full understanding and appreciation of the fundamental character of Morrisons.”

The Fortress deal underlines the growing appetite from private funds for British supermarket groups, seen as attractive because of their cash generation and freehold assets.

Fortress, an independently-operated subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, is a global investment manager with about $53 billion in assets under management as of March. It purchased British wine seller Majestic Wine in 2019.

“We are committed to being good stewards of Morrisons to best serve its stakeholder groups, and the wider British public, for the long term,” said managing partner, Joshua A. Pack.

Fortress intends to retain Morrisons’ existing management team led by CEO David Potts and execute its existing strategy. It said it was not planning any material store sale and leaseback transactions.

RECOMMENDATION

Under the terms of the deal, which Morrisons’ board is recommending to shareholders, investors would receive 254 pence a share, comprising 252 pence in cash and a 2 pence special cash dividend. CD&R’s proposal was 230 pence a share, worth 5.52 billion pounds.

Last week JO Hambro, a top ten shareholder in Morrisons, said any suitor for the group should offer about 270 pence a share or 6.5 billion pounds. read more

Morrisons, based in Bradford, northern England, started out as an egg and butter merchant in 1899. It now only trails market leader Tesco (TSCO.L), Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) and Asda in annual sales.

Morrisons owns 85% of its nearly 500 stores and has 19 mostly freehold manufacturing sites. It is unique among British supermarkets in making over half of the fresh food it sells.

It said the Fortress offer represented a premium of 42% to its closing share price of 178 pence on June 18 – the day before CD&R’s proposal. The stock closed at 243 pence on Friday.

Morrisons’ directors, who own 0.23% of the group’s equity, would make 14.3 million pounds from selling their shares to Fortress.

CD&R, which under British takeover rules has until July 17 to come back with a firm offer, had no immediate comment.

Morrisons has a partnership agreement with Amazon (AMZN.O) and there has been speculation it too could emerge as a possible bidder.

FIVE PROPOSALS

Morrisons said an initial unsolicited proposal was received from Fortress on May 4 at 220 pence a share. This offer was not made public. Fortress then made four subsequent proposals before it offered a total value of 254 a share on June 5.

The bids for Morrisons follow February’s purchase by Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital of a majority stake in Asda from Walmart (WMT.N). The deal valued Asda at 6.8 billion pounds. read more

That transaction followed Sainsbury’s failure to take over Asda after an agreed deal was blocked by Britain’s competition regulator in 2019.

In April, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky raised his stake in Sainsbury’s to almost 10%, igniting bid speculation.

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($1 = 0.7235 pounds)

Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Jane Merriman

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World

Cardinal among 10 indicted by Vatican for financial crimes

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  • Pope approved move against cardinal, who says he is innocent
  • Former head of Vatican Financial Intelligence denies charges
  • Becciu most senior Vatican official charged with financial crime
  • Trial to start July 27

VATICAN CITY, July 3 (Reuters) – A prominent Italian cardinal was among 10 people sent to trial in the Vatican on Saturday charged with financial crimes including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, formerly a senior official in the Vatican administration, as well as two top officials at the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Unit will go on trial on July 27 over a multi-million euro scandal involving the Vatican’s purchase of a building in one of London’s smartest districts.

The trial will inevitably bring a swirl of media interest to the tiny city-state surrounded by Rome, and appears to underscore Pope Francis’ determination to cure the rot in Vatican finances, even if it involves messy public hearings.

Becciu, 73, whom the pope fired from his senior clerical post last year for alleged nepotism, and who has always maintained his innocence during a two-year investigation, becomes the most senior Vatican official to be charged with financial crimes.

The pope personally gave the required approval last week for Becciu to be indicted, according to a 487-page indictment request seen by Reuters. The Vatican announced the indictments in a two-page statement.

The charges against Becciu include embezzlement and abuse of office. An Italian woman who worked for him was charged with embezzlement and the cardinal’s former secretary, a priest, was accused of extortion.

Becciu said in a statement that he was a victim of a “machination” and reaffirmed his “absolute innocence”.

Two Italian brokers, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, were charged with embezzlement, fraud and money laundering. Torzi, for whom Italian magistrates issued an arrest warrant in April, was also charged with extortion.

There was no immediate response to attempts to reach their lawyers, but both men have consistently denied wrongdoing.

Four companies associated with individual defendants, two in Switzerland, one in the United States and one in Slovenia, were also indicted, according to the document.

POLICE RAID

The investigation into the purchase of the building became public on Oct. 1, 2019, when Vatican police raided the offices of the Secretariat of State, the administrative heart of the Catholic Church, and those of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF).

The then-president of the AIF, Rene Bruelhart, a 48-year-old Swiss, and AIF’s former Italian director, Tommaso Di Ruzza, 46, were charged with abuse of office for allegedly failing to adequately protect the Vatican’s interests and giving Torzi what the indictment request called an “undue advantage”.

Di Ruzza was also accused of embezzlement related to alleged inappropriate use of his official credit card, and of divulging confidential information.

Bruelhart said in a text message that he had “always carried out my functions and duties with correctness” and that “the truth about my innocence will emerge.”

Di Ruzza did not immediately respond to a voicemail requesting comment.

In 2014, the Secretariat of State invested more than 200 million euros, much of it from contributions from the faithful, in a fund run by Mincione, securing about 45% of a commercial and residential building at 60 Sloane Avenue in London’s South Kensington district.

The indictment request said Mincione had tried to deceive the Vatican, which in 2018 tried to end the relationship.

It turned to Torzi for help in buying up the rest of the building, but later accused him of extortion.

‘ENORMOUS LOSSES’

At the time, Becciu was in the last year of his post as deputy secretary of state for general affairs, a powerful administrative position that handles hundreds of millions of euros.

All told, the Secretariat of State sank more than 350 million euros into the investment, according to Vatican media, and suffered what Cardinal George Pell, the former Vatican treasurer, told Reuters last year were “enormous losses”.

Torzi was arrested in the Vatican in June 2020, and spent a week in custody.

According to the indictment request, Becciu is charged with five counts of embezzlement, two of abuse of office, and one count of inducing a witness to perjury. About 75 pages of the document are dedicated to Becciu.

It says Becciu tried to “heavily deflect” the inquiry into Vatican investments, including the London building, and tried to discredit the investigating magistrates via the Italian media.

Becciu continued to have influence over money transfers at the Secretariat even after he left the post, the document said.

The main charges against Becciu involve the alleged funnelling of money and contracts to companies or charitable organisations controlled by his brothers on their native island of Sardinia.

Another Sardinian, Cecilia Maronga, 40, who worked for Becciu, was charged with embezzlement. Her cellphone was not connected.

The indictment request said she had received about 575,000 euros from the Secretariat of State in 2018-2019.

She has said on Italian television that the money, sent to her company in Slovenia, was to ransom kidnapped missionaries in Africa. But the indictment request said much of it was used for “personal benefit”, including the purchase of luxury goods.

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Kevin Liffey

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World

EXCLUSIVE New Saudi airline plan takes aim at Emirates, Qatar Airways

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DUBAI, July 2 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia plans to target international transit passenger traffic with its new national airline, going head-to-head with Gulf giants Emirates and Qatar Airways and opening up a new front in simmering regional competition.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pushing economic diversification to wean Saudi Arabia off oil revenues and create jobs, announced a transportation and logistics drive on Tuesday aimed at making the kingdom the fifth-biggest air transit hub.

Two people familiar with the matter said the new airline would boost international routes and echo existing Gulf carriers by carrying people from one country to another via connections in the kingdom, known in the industry as sixth-freedom traffic.

The transport ministry, which has not released details of the plans, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The strategy marks a shift for Saudi Arabia whose other airlines, like state-owned Saudia and its low cost subsidiary flyadeal, mostly operate domestic services and point-to-point flights to and from the country of 35 million people.

The Saudi expansion threatens to sharpen a battle for passengers at a time when travel has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Long-haul flights like those operated by Emirates and Qatar Airways are forecast to take the longest to recover.

Riyadh has already moved to compete with the UAE, the region’s business, trade and tourism hub. The Saudi government has said that from 2024 it would stop giving contracts to firms that do not set up regional headquarters in the kingdom.

“Commercial competition in the aviation industry has always been fierce, and regional competition is heating up. Some turbulence in regional relations is on the horizon,” said Robert Mogielnicki, resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute.

Dubai, the world’s largest international air travel hub, has announced a five-year plan to grow air and shipping routes by 50% and double tourism capacity over the next two decades.

Riyadh has already moved to compete with the UAE, the region’s business, trade and tourism hub. The Saudi government has said that starting 2024 it would stop giving contracts to firms that do not set up regional headquarters in the kingdom.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a session of the Shura Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 20, 2019. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS

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Prince Mohammed is trying to lure foreign capital to create new industries including tourism, with ambitions to increase overall visitors to 100 million by 2030 from 40 million in 2019.

“Saudi Arabia has the ability to push forward with its aviation and tourism strategy when others will be retreating and retracting,” aviation consultant Brendan Sobie said.

“It is a risky strategy, but also sensible given its position and overall diversification objective.”

TOURISM PUSH

However, any airline requires substantial start-up capital and experts warn that if Saudi Arabia’s ambition is to compete on transit flights it may have to contend with years of losses.

Saudi Arabia’s large population generates direct traffic that could cushion losses as a new airline targets international transit traffic, aviation consultant John Strickland said.

Emirates reported a record $5.5 billion annual loss last month with the pandemic forcing Dubai to step in with $3.1 billion in state support.

Etihad Airways has scaled back its ambitions after it spent billions of dollars to ultimately unsuccessfully compete in building a major hub in United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

People familiar with the matter said the new airline could be based in the capital Riyadh, and that sovereign wealth fund PIF is helping set it up.

PIF did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia is developing non-religious tourism with mega projects backed by PIF. It has launched social reforms to open up the country, the birthplace of Islam, including allowing public entertainment.

Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexander Smith

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Business

China’s Didi raises $4.4 bln in upsized U.S. IPO -sources

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  • Didi sold 317 mln ADS, more than planned 288 mln -sources
  • Sells ADS at $14 a piece – sources
  • Would give Didi $73 bln valuation on fully diluted basis

June 29 (Reuters) – Chinese ride hailing company Didi Global Inc (DIDI.N) raised $4.4 billion in its U.S IPO on Tuesday, pricing it at the top of its indicated range and increasing the number of shares sold, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Didi sold 317 million American Depository Shares (ADS), versus the planned 288 million, at $14 apiece, the people said on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.

This would give Didi a valuation of about $73 billion on a fully diluted basis. On a non-diluted basis, it will be worth $67.5 billion. The company is expected to debut on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30.

The increase in deal size came after the Didi investor order book was oversubscribed multiple times, one of the sources said.

Investors have been told to expect their orders to be scaled back once allocations are completed on Wednesday, according to a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Didi did not respond to a request for comment.

The listing, which will be the biggest U.S. share sale by a Chinese company since Alibaba raised $25 billion in 2014, comes amid record IPO activity this year as companies rush to capture the lucrative valuations seen in the U.S. stock market.

Didi’s IPO is more conservative than its initial aim for a valuation of up to $100 billion, Reuters has previously reported. The size of the deal was cut during briefings with investors ahead of the IPO’s launch. read more

This suggests increasing investor worries about China’s potential anti-trust related crackdown and a more volatile IPO environment globally in 2021, said Douglas Kim, a London-based independent analyst, who writes on Smartkarma.

A Didi logo is seen at the headquarters of Didi Chuxing in Beijing, China November 20, 2020. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

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“But it seems like many investors like this deal, the volatile IPO environment helped to lower IPO price and valuation looks attractive,” Kim told Reuters.

Didi’s IPO was covered early on the first day of the book-build last week and the investor books were closed on Monday, a day ahead of schedule. read more .

An over-allotment option, or greenshoe, exists where another 43.2 million shares can be sold to increase the deal size.

DIDI HISTORY

Didi was co-founded in 2012 by former Alibaba employee Will Wei Cheng, who currently serves as the chief executive officer. Cheng was joined by Jean Qing Liu, a former Goldman Sachs banker and the current president of the ride-sharing company.

The company counts SoftBank (9984.T), Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) and Tencent (0700.HK) as its main backers.

Didi is also known for successfully pushing Uber out of the Chinese market after the U.S. company lost a price war and ended up selling its China operations to Didi for a stake. Liu Zhen, the head of Uber China at the time, is Didi’s Liu’s cousin.

Like most ride-hailing companies, Didi had historically been unprofitable, until it reported a profit of $30 million in the first quarter of this year.

The company reported a loss of $1.6 billion last year and an 8% drop in revenue to $21.63 billion, according to a regulatory filing, as business slid during the pandemic.

Its shares are due to start trading under the “DIDI” symbol.

Reporting by Echo Wang in New York and Anirban Sen in Bengaluru and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis, Bill Berkrot and Himani Sarkar

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Saudi Arabia plans new national airline as it diversifies from oil

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CAIRO, June 29 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans on Tuesday to launch a second national airline as part of a broader strategy to turn the kingdom into a global logistics hub as it seeks to diversify from oil.

The creation of another flag carrier would catapult Saudi Arabia into the 5th rank globally in terms of air transit traffic, official state media reported, without giving details on when and how the airline would be created.

Prince Mohammad has been spearheading a push for Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy and the largest country in the Gulf geographically, to boost non-oil revenues to about 45 billion riyals ($12.00 billion) by 2030.

Making the kingdom a global logistics hub, which includes the development of ports, rail and road networks, would increase the transport and logistics sector’s contribution to gross domestic product to 10% from 6%, state news agency SPA said.

“The comprehensive strategy aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global logistics hub connecting the three continents,” Prince Mohammed was quoted as saying in the SPA report.

“This will help other sectors like tourism, haj and umrah to achieve their national targets.”

The addition of another airline would increase the number of international destinations from Saudi Arabia to more than 250 and double air cargo capacity to more than 4.5 million tonnes, the SPA report said.

With current flag bearer Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the kingdom has one of the smallest airline networks in the region relative to its size. Saudia has struggled with losses for years and like global peers, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Local media reported earlier this year that the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, (PIF), planned to build a new airport in Riyadh as part of the new airline launch, without giving further details.

The fund is the main vehicle for boosting Saudi Arabian investments at home and abroad as the young prince, known in the West as MbS, seeks to diversify the kingdom’s oil-heavy economy through his Vision 2030 strategy.

($1 = 3.7503 riyals)

Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Alaa Swilam; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous and Marwa Rashad; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Marguerita Choy and Jane Wardell

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World

Quake of magnitude 6 strikes India’s Assam, damages some buildings

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An earthquake of magnitude 6 struck India’s rugged northeastern state of Assam on Wednesday, causing cracks in the walls and floors of some structures, but no immediate casualties were reported.

The quake hit at a depth of 34 km (21 miles) near the town of Dhekiajuli, 140 km (86 miles) north of the main city of Guwahati, the United States Geological Survey said.

“This earthquake was the biggest I can remember, there was first a big jolt and then a smaller one,” said a police official in the town. “We did not receive any distress calls, but people did run out of their homes.”

People streamed into the streets for fear of fresh tremors, with some saying the quake left cracks in their homes.

“Our entire multi-storied apartment has witnessed massive damage with roofs and walls caving in,” said Subham Hazarika, a businessman living in an upmarket apartment in Guwahati. “Luckily no one got injured.”

Strong tremors repeatedly struck other northeastern areas and the neighbouring mountainous region of Bhutan.

“We don’t have reports of any casualties but we are seeing images and visuals of extensive damage,” Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told Reuters.

Earlier, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) had put the quake’s magnitude at 6.2.

India’s disaster management officials were assessing reports of destruction and casualties, said one of the officials, who sought anonymity.

“I pray for the well-being of all and urge everyone to stay alert,” Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told Reuters television partner ANI.

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Business

Tesla shares drop after muted Q1 results as a global chip crunch persists

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Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) fell more than 4% on Tuesday as its first-quarter earnings results failed to alleviate investor concerns about its lofty evaluation, as well as a prolonged global chip shortage and rising competition.

The electric car maker’s quarterly revenue made it barely past estimates, relying mostly on sales of environmental credits sold to other automakers and the liquidation of 10% of its $1.5 billion bitcoin investment.

“Tesla’s performance was OK but it wasn’t a Elon Musk slam dunk…I don’t think people are into Tesla because of bitcoin,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity Patriarch Organization, which has an underweight stance on Tesla.

“Investors are rejecting the stock short term,” he said, saying Tesla’s performance has fallen short of catching up its “astronomical valuation.”

Musk, the company’s CEO, did earn options payouts worth $11 billion based on targets reached by the company.

Shares of the automaker closed down 4.5% at $704.74, down more than 20% from its intraday high reached in January. They had surged more than 700% last year, making Tesla the world’s most valuable automaker.

Tesla posted record deliveries in the first quarter despite a global chip shortage that has slammed auto sector rivals. But analysts said a prolonged shortage of chips and batteries could threaten to dampen its growth prospect.

“A global shortage of computer chips is expected to limit production from all manufacturers in the immediate future, and Tesla won’t be exempt,” said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Given the ongoing importance of its production ramp up, it may even be more heavily impacted.”

Regarding supply chain instability, Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said on Monday, “We believe that this landscape is improving, but it does remain difficult, and it’s an evolving situation.”

Roth Capital Partners said it holds a neutral rating on Tesla, saying that Tesla’s large premium “seems to rest on the specious assumption that the hundreds of EVs slated for launch by ’25 will all be flops.”

“Tesla does not operate in a vacuum,” it said in a report.

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Science

One change took this fish from fins to limbs

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How exactly that might have happened hundreds of millions of years ago, however, has long been an evolutionary mystery that has puzzled scientists.

Now, US scientists say they may have stumbled on a possible answer.

By tweaking a single gene, researchers at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital have engineered zebrafish that showed the beginning of limblike appendages.

To answer how animals made the transition from sea to land, scientists have traditionally looked to the fossil record. But in the past 30 years, scientists have searched for changes in genes that can account for the shift from fin to modern limb.

“Most surprising to me is that such a dramatic change to the fin skeleton and musculature is possible with just a single mutation,” said Brent Hawkins, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital and the first author of the study that published Thursday in the journal Cell.

“Before this discovery, the fin-to-limb transition was presumed to involve manifold changes to a myriad of genes,” he noted via email.

“Of course this transformation was still a very gradual and complex process, but our mutants show that it might have involved quick leaps as well, and that developing animals are able to incorporate new bones quite easily.”

Innate ability

While previous research has identified genes that are required to make fin and limb bones, no one has previously found a genetic change that causes a fin to shift to a more limblike pattern, explained Hawkins via email.

The mutation the researchers found causes a change in the zebrafish’s pectoral fin bones, which attach to the fish shoulder joint a little like how the human arm attaches to the shoulder.

A new set of long bones — called intermediate radials — develops, making a joint similar to a human elbow. The genetic change includes new muscles and joints that are found in limbs but not the simple fins.

The scientists’ discovery has shown that the fish, which had been thought to have lost the machinery necessary to evolve limblike body parts, actually retain an innate ability to form these structures.

Thumbnail-size zebrafish have become a mainstay of genetic research. They are easy to keep in large numbers and breed easily, with a single mating pair producing hundreds of eggs each week. These fish are also gentle and easy to handle, plus their eggs and embryos are translucent and easy to examine.

The researchers mutated the zebrafish genes at random and then screened the fish systematically to find those that underwent interesting changes to their form — in this case the limblike structures.

They then sequenced the DNA to discover which genes were affected before using the CRISPR gene editing tool — a method to modify genes that won the Nobel prize for chemistry last year.

This genetic link between fins and limbs could, with more research, shed light on how some animals made the transition from sea to land and what genetic mechanics are necessary to make it happen.

One question the team hopes to examine next is whether the new bones change how the zebrafish’s fins function and how the fish moves.

“That such complex and coordinated changes can result from changing a single letter of DNA was quite shocking, and reveals that our fishy ancestors had the raw genetic material and latent capacity to create limbs,” Hawkins said.

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