Headlines

A group of Venezuela bondholders have found a path to be repaid through the auction of the country’s U.S.-based oil refiner, Citgo Petroleum, and potentially avoid the risk of a separate adverse court ruling, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The leading bid for Citgo’s U.S.

A total of 2,718 companies shut down between January and March this year, the biggest number in the first quarter of any year since 2021, when 5,133 notices of liquidation were filed during the UK’s third lockdown, the Telegraph reported. There were 2,483 business closures in the first quarter of 2022, 2,348 in the first quarter of 2023 and 1,877 in the first quarter of 2024. Rachel Reeves raised taxes by a record £40 billion at the Budget in autumn, including a £25 billion rise in employers’ National Insurance.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Delhi on Thursday dismissed an insolvency plea filed against food delivery giant Zomato by uniform supplier Nona Lifestyle over an alleged payment default of ₹1.64 crore, LiveMint.com reported. The NCLT dismissed the insolvency plea against Zomato on procedural grounds, citing non-compliance with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The tribunal ruled that Nona Lifestyle had failed to properly serve the mandatory notice under Section 8 of the IBC before filing the case.

Three years after the bankruptcy of Genting Hong Kong which resulted in the collapse of both Star Cruises and Dream Cruises the corporation has relaunched the brands, Maritine-Executive.com reported. Earlier this year they announced plans to rebrand away from Resorts World Cruises back to the traditional brand names as part of the future growth strategy for the company. Star Cruises was launched 30 years ago and became known as one of the pioneers of modern cruising in Asia.

With the new tariffs announced on Wednesday in Washington, President Trump has now imposed additional tariffs on Chinese goods of 54 percent — an extremely heavy burden that will cause companies to look elsewhere for suppliers, the New York Times reported. Trump added a 34 percent tariff on imports from China, to take effect on April 9, on top of two earlier rounds of 10 percent tariffs he had already imposed. Those are just the new tariffs on China since Trump started his second term in office.

Global ratings agency Fitch on Thursday downgraded China's sovereign credit rating, citing expectations of a continued weakening of public finances and rapidly rising debt, Reuters reported. The downgrade came a day after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from U.S. trading partners, with China among the hardest-hit, though Fitch said his move had not yet been incorporated into its forecasts. Fitch cut China's long-term foreign currency rating by one notch to "A" from "A+", one year after it downgraded its outlook on China's credit rating.

Swiss inflation remained unchanged in March, though the impact of U.S. tariffs threaten to roil the country’s economy and push the Swiss National Bank to cut rates further, the Wall Street Journal reported. Annual inflation stayed at 0.3%, the same as February, matching the lowest level in almost four years, Switzerland’s federal statistics office said Thursday. Trends from increased package-holiday and clothing prices contrasted with declining energy and accommodation prices, it said.

The Spanish government will provide 14.1 billion euros ($15.66 billion) worth of measures to help its economy weather the impact of the new U.S. tariffs, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The new tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday have rattled markets and drew condemnation from world leaders facing an abrupt end of an era of trade liberalisation that has shaped the global order for decades. Spain, which like other European Union members was hit by U.S.

Turkey’s annual inflation rate dropped to 38.1% in March, down from February’s 39.1%, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, EuroNews.com reported. It was also the lowest number since December 2021. Prices rose at a slower pace across a number of categories, such as footwear and clothing, which came in at 14.8% in March, down from 20.8% in the previous month. Transport inflation dropped to 21.6% in March, down from 23.4% in February. Household equipment and furnishings inflation slid marginally to 32.4% in March, down from 33.6% in the previous month.

North Korea has swiped more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency over the past decade—a sum so large that no one else compares, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. The country’s hackers are both patient and brazen, according to investigators. To get into companies’ computers, they comb through employees’ Facebook and Instagram pages and invent tailor-made stories to trick them into clicking on links with viruses. Some North Korean hackers have even become employees themselves, fooling U.S. companies into hiring them as remote IT workers and gaining access to their networks.