Headlines

India’s Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of Think & Learn, the parent company of online education services company Byju's, even as it sought a response from the former’s creditors, Aditya Birla Finance and US lender Glas Trust Co. LLC, and others, the Economic Times of India reported.

Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner was sentenced to two years in prison by a judge in a New York court on Thursday after he pleaded guilty in 2018 for his involvement in a multi-billion dollar scandal involving Malaysia's sovereign fund 1MDB, Reuters reported. Leissner's conduct was "brazen and audacious," judge Margo Brodie said during sentencing. While his cooperation with the government was taken into account, it did not make up for the harm caused by the corruption at the highest levels in several countries, the judge said.

One of Microsoft Corp's subsidiaries in Russia plans to file for bankruptcy, according to a note published on the official Fedresurs registry on Friday, Reuters reported. President Vladimir Putin said this week that foreign service providers like Microsoft and Zoom should be "throttled" in Russia to make way for domestic software solutions. Microsoft continued providing key services in Russia after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but in June 2022 it said it was significantly scaling down its operations due to changes to the economic outlook and the impact on its business there.

Canada's largest bank increased its provisions for credit losses more than 50% in its most recent quarter, as executives prepared for a potentially tariff-hobbled economy, American Banker reported. In the three months that ended April 30, net income for the Royal Bank of Canada was 4.39 billion Canadian dollars ($3.17 billion), short of analysts' average estimate of CA$4.54 billion according to S&P. Diluted earnings per share were CA$3.02, below S&P estimates of CA$3.09.

Price rises in the eurozone’s top economies cooled this month, putting the European Central Bank on course to reach its inflation target and cementing expectations that it will deliver an eighth rate cut at its meeting next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices in Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, were 2.1% higher in May than a year earlier, down from the 2.2% rate of inflation recorded in April, according to EU-harmonized data published by its statistics agency Destatis on Friday.

President Donald Trump's trade war has cost companies more than $34 billion in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate disclosures, a toll that is expected to rise as ongoing uncertainty over tariffs paralyzes decision making at some of the world's largest companies, Reuters reported. Across the United States, Asia and Europe, companies including Apple, Ford, Porsche and Sony have pulled or slashed their profit forecasts, and an overwhelming majority say that the erratic nature of Trump's trade policies has made it impossible to accurately estimate costs.

The European Union has gained leverage in trade talks with the United States after a U.S. court cast doubt on the legality of Washington's "reciprocal" tariffs, EU officials said on Friday, Reuters reported. A U.S. federal appeals court temporarily reinstated President Donald Trump's tariffs on Thursday, a day after a U.S. trade court ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority in imposing the duties and ordered an immediate block on them. "The uncertainty as to the legality of the 'reciprocal' tariffs certainly gives us extra leverage," one EU official close to the talks said.

India’s economy picked up speed in the most recent quarter as manufacturing and private consumption continued to show resilience, the Wall Street Journal reported. Official data on Friday showed that India’s economy grew 7.4% in January-March, accelerating from 6.2% in the prior quarter and marking its best quarterly growth in a year. That topped the median estimate for 6.8% growth compiled in a Wall Street Journal poll of economists and came after an unexpectedly sharp slowdown in the July-September quarter fanned concerns that the economy was losing steam.

Australian retail sales slipped unexpectedly in April as warm weather hit spending on winter clothing, data showed on Friday, while department stores suffered from a dearth of discounting events in further evidence of a cautious consumer, Reuters reported. The weakness came despite lower borrowing costs and a cooling in inflation, supporting investor wagers for a further cut in interest rates when the Reserve Bank of Australia next meets in July.

The bankruptcy regulator has amended the framework for reporting the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) to ease compliance burden without undermining effective oversight, according to a circular, the Economic Times of India reported. Under the revised reporting framework, the existing nine forms will be compressed into five by removing duplication, streamlining data requirements and leveraging technology for auto-population of information, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) said in the circular dated May 26.