Inside the prime minister’s office in the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten, the walls of paradise were closing in. In the former Dutch colony renowned for fish stews and rum cocktails on Great Bay Beach, the coronavirus pandemic had ground tourism to a halt, sparking a financial crisis akin to the aftermath of a hurricane. By December, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said, public coffers were so low that she didn’t know how she could continue to cover the government payroll, the Washington Post reported. She needed a financial lifeline.
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Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Greensill Capital’s talks to sell parts of its operating business to Athene Holding Ltd. were derailed after one of the firm’s key technology partners received funding that allows it to finance Greensill’s most creditworthy clients directly, Bloomberg News reported. Taulia, a financial technology company that had worked closely with Greensill, landed a $6 billion liquidity facility from banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Taulia’s clients had an immediate need for liquidity because of Greensill’s insolvency.
U.K. metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is negotiating a standstill agreement with Greensill Capital to give his companies breathing space over payments on billions of dollars worth of debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Greensill is among Mr. Gupta’s biggest lenders, but filed for insolvency protection on Monday. Its troubles have prompted Mr. Gupta to fly abroad to seek new sources of financing, while governments and workers in several countries are seeking clarity on the fallout on his network of steel, aluminum and energy companies.
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Former executives at Davy who were at the heart of a bond-trading scandal that has rattled the stockbroking firm – and are still shareholders in it – are close to agreeing to allowing the remaining board members to put it up for sale, the Irish Times reported. It is expected that Davy, where former National Treasury Management Agency chief executive John Corrigan is chairman and former AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne stepped in as interim chief executive last weekend, will confirm before the weekend that the business is being put on the market.
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Cryptocurrency investment platform Cred Inc. unwittingly put a convicted financial criminal identified by the U.K. as a fugitive in charge of raising and deploying the firm’s capital before its collapse into bankruptcy, a court-appointed examiner said, the Wall Street Journal reported. An examiner’s report filed Monday in the U.S.
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Brexit drove a shift in Japanese firms out of the U.K. and toward continental Europe, a report shows, Politico reported. The number of Japanese firms based in the U.K. fell 12 percent between 2014 and 2019, from 1,084 to 951, with most of the drop occurring during the politically tumultuous period following the Brexit referendum in June 2016.
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Greensill Capital’s talks to sell parts of its operating business to Athene Holding Ltd. have stalled, Bloomberg News reported. The deal talks between Athene, an annuity seller backed by Apollo Global Management Inc., and Greensill have been held up by a breakdown in discussions with key technology supplier Taulia Inc. Greensill Capital filed for administration in the U.K. on Monday, and Athene emerged as the only credible potential buyer after the supply-chain finance company’s swift collapse.
Telecom Italia and unions agreed on Monday to cut up to 1,300 jobs in Italy this year through a voluntary scheme, two union sources said, as the country’s biggest phone group strives to revamp its business in the COVID-19 crisis, Reuters reported. The cuts would amount to around 3% of TIM’s 42,600 employees in Italy and be implemented through an early retirement scheme. In addition, TIM and unions have agreed a potential further 178 jobs cuts to be implemented by the end of 2023 through a separate voluntary layoff scheme, the sources said.
Greensill Capital filed for insolvency on Monday after losing insurance coverage for its debt repackaging business and said in its court filing that its largest client, GFG Alliance, had started to default on its debts, Reuters reported. Greensill began to unravel last Monday when its main insurer stopped providing credit insurance on $4.1 billion of debt in portfolios it had created for clients including Swiss bank Credit Suisse.
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Ireland’s top securities firm closed its bond desk and said all those involved in a deal which has plunged the company into controversy have now exited, as it sought to draw a line under the worst scandal to hit Dublin’s stockbroking community in decades, Bloomberg News reported. Four staff were made redundant by the closure, Davy said. The move comes after a central bank investigation prompted the nation’s debt office to strip the firm its role as a primary dealer in government bonds on Monday.
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