Asbestos Corporation Limited (ACL) announced on Wednesday that an order from the Superior Court of Québec granting ACL protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (the "CCAA") has been granted, according to a company press release. Raymond Chabot Inc. has been appointed pursuant to the Initial Order as monitor of ACL in order to assist the company with its restructuring efforts and to report to the Court. The application was filed by third parties and the Company became a co-applicant. ACL also filed a petition under Chapter 15 of the U.S.

An ad hoc group (AHG) of noteholders has successfully converted Dutch scheme of arrangement arbitration (WHOA) proceedings launched by Brazilian cement maker InterCement’s finance-raising arm in Amsterdam into bankruptcy proceedings, two weeks after the group secured chapter 15 recognition of its Brazilian recuperação judicial (RJ) plan, Latin Lawyer reported. Read more.

Thailand transferred about US$890 million to its senior citizens on Monday (Jan 27), part of a government programme to tackle the high cost of living and stimulate the nations’ sluggish economy, Bloomberg News reported. More than 3 million senior citizens were given 10,000 baht each (S$399), and the dole out will boost the country’s US$500 billion economy, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said. The government will continue the cash stimulus programme, she said without elaborating.

A year ago, India was bouncing back from a recession caused by Covid-19 with a spring in its step. The country had overtaken China as the most populous country, and its leaders were declaring India the world’s fastest-growing major economy, the New York Times reported. This was music to the ears of foreign investors, and to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who at every opportunity boasted about his country’s inevitable rise.

Military company Paramount Industrial Holdings (PIH), a part of the Paramount group of companies, has filed for business rescue amid legal disputes within another division of the Paramount group. Despite this, other subsidiary companies in South Africa are expected to continue operating normally, Military.Africa reported. The PIH board made the decision to enter business rescue on 11 November.

For the first time since 2019, Canadian inflation stayed within the central bank’s target range for a full year, a mark of achievement for policymakers ahead of a potential tariff war that threatens to derail their progress, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index ended 2024 with a second consecutive monthly deceleration, rising 1.8% on a yearly basis in December, down from 1.9% previously, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a 1.9% gain.

As Christmas holiday bills arrive, nearly half of surveyed British Columbians are "teetering on the edge of financial insolvency," with 31 per cent saying they're already unable to pay their bills, TodayinBC.com reported. These figures appear in the latest MNP Consumer Debt Index, which finds a "sharp increase" of nine per cent to 46 per cent among British Columbians, who are less than $200 from not being able to pay their bills and debt payments each month. This increase wipes out the nine percent improvement from the last report.

Norway’s central bank held its key policy rate at 4.5% as it pushes on with efforts to bring inflation down, but said it will likely begin monetary policy easing in March, the Wall Street Journal reported. The policy rate has been at 4.5% since December 2023 and has helped to significantly dampen inflation from its peak, but a rapid rise in business costs will likely restrain further disinflation, Norges Bank said.

Europe’s bid to build a homegrown battery industry to break China’s dominance in electric vehicles is failing, Bloomberg News reported. The most high-profile setback yet came with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Northvolt AB, a Swedish startup whose backers include Volkswagen AG and BMW AG. Fallout is spreading across the region as EV demand wanes and local manufacturers struggle to master the technology. Eleven out of 16 planned European-led battery factories have been delayed or canceled, according to a Bloomberg News analysis.

Afiniti is set to exit chapter 15 bankruptcy following court approvals of a recapitalization transaction, CXToday.com reported. The company secured the transaction by working with lenders led by Vista Credit Partners and The Resource Group International Ltd., a significant shareholder. By doing so, Afiniti has bounced back from bankruptcy quickly, which it filed with the Delaware courts on November 3, 2024. That filing ensured protection from the U.S. courts as the contact center AI vendor evaluated how to pay back the money it owed, inside and outside the country.