A bankruptcy court has admitted an insolvency resolution plea filed by Bank of Baroda against Mumbai-based Genesis Resorts, which defaulted on loans of about Rs 230 crore, The Economic Times reported. The division bench of judicial member Bhaskara Pantula Mohan and technical member Rajesh Sharma restrained the company and its promoters from transferring, encumbering, alienating or disposing of the company’s assets.
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Indonesia has more reason than most to be wary of backsliding on its commitment to budget discipline, Bloomberg News reported. Its deficit ceiling is an important piece of the economic and political architecture that emerged from the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Indonesia experienced more than just a run on the currency, a deep recession and a rescue by the International Monetary Fund. The crunch morphed into riots, communal violence and the overthrow of dictator Suharto, who had ruled with military backing for more than three decades.
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Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the Times of India reported. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 was approved by the Union Cabinet yesterday. The amendments in the law seek to remove bottlenecks and streamline the corporate insolvency resolution process, wherein successful bidders will bering fenced from any risk of criminal proceedings for offenses committed by previous promoters of companies concerned.

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China’s companies racked up some towering bills as they expanded, and the world’s investors and lenders rushed to offer them even more money. Now the bills are coming due, and a growing number of Chinese companies can’t pay up, in a sign that the world’s No. 2 economy is feeling the stress from its worst slowdown in nearly three decades, the New York Times reported.

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Chinese leaders pledged stepped-up efforts to boost slowing growth, as they try to manage a downshift in a maturing economy and fallout from the trade war with the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. An economic blueprint, approved today by President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders at the end of an annual closed-door conclave, promised more fiscal and monetary measures with the aim of supporting everything from consumption to infrastructure investment and employment in the coming year—all to ensure that the growth rate will be kept stable.

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Carlos Ghosn, the longtime head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, is preparing for the first of two trials in 2020 for what prosecutors and his former colleagues at Nissan call a pervasive pattern of financial misconduct and raiding of corporate resources for personal gain, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. He denies wrongdoing, saying that he’s the victim of a plot by Nissan executives and Japanese government officials to prevent further integration with Renault. A guilty verdict in either case could put the 65-year-old in a Japanese prison through the 2020s.

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China’s Consumer Inflation Skyrockets

Soaring hog prices continued to drive up China’s consumer inflation higher in November, but experts remained optimistic that the momentum would slow as the price of pork appears to be heading toward a peak in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. China’s consumer-price index rose 4.5 percent in November from a year earlier, matching a pace set in January 2012, according to data released yesterday by the official National Bureau of Statistics. The inflation reading was higher than a 3.8 percent rise in October.
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Twelve state-owned Indian banks are petitioning for ex-billionaire Vijay Mallya to be declared bankrupt over 1.15 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) in unpaid debts, Bloomberg News reported. The banks and an asset restructuring company, led by the State Bank of India, have taken the tycoon to a London court in what lawyers have described as “the end of the road” in their long-running battle. Mallya hasn’t paid anything toward the debt, the banks’ lawyers told the court yesterday.
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Koovs Plc said yesterday that administrators had sold its business and assets to SGIK 3 Investments Ltd, an entity owned by the online fashion retailer’s largest secured creditor and chairman Waheed Alli, Reuters reported. The company said earlier yesterday that it would apply to place itself into administration after its largest shareholder, India’s Future Lifestyle Fashion, failed to invest a further 6.5 million pounds ($8.34 million). Indian billionaire Kishore Biyani’s Future Lifestyle Fashion is part of the country’s largest retail firm Future Group.
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South Korea is taking steps to prevent households from getting hurt by the record debt they owe, and that’s prompting the issuance of a flood of top-rated won bonds to help finance the policy, Bloomberg News reported. The government is encouraging low-income home owners to tap state-backed Korea Housing Finance Corp. to refinance their loans. Borrowers can apply to shift into fixed-rate loans from floating rate so they aren’t burned if interest rates rise, and get into amortized debt whose interest and principal are paid at the same time.
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