Headlines

According to Teikoku Databank, the number of bankruptcies in Japan resulting from COVID-19 (including companies with liabilities of less than ¥10 million and individually run businesses) reached 2,000 as of noon on Sept. 3, 2021, nippon.com reported. Liabilities from the bankruptcies totaled ¥620.6 billion, with 58.2% (1,163 bankruptcies) involving liabilities of less than ¥100 million. The first bankruptcy related to the pandemic was confirmed on Feb. 26, 2020. Following that, 500 bankruptcies were confirmed as of Sept. 8 of that year; 1,000 as of Feb.

The billionaire owner of Italian fashion house Cavalli is planning a lavish new tower in Dubai to showcase the brand’s return after a brush with bankruptcy and nearly two years of sluggish sales during the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Hussain Sajwani, founder and chairman of Dubai-based Damac Properties, told Bloomberg that he may even double down on the planned $545 million structure by building a similar one in Miami. “I am committed to rebuilding the Cavalli brand, to relaunching it on key markets,” Sajwani said in the interview.

HNA Group, one of China’s largest global asset buyers spawned from the country’s largest privately owned airline, will be divided into four parts, with each unit operating independently, according to a restructuring blueprint unveiled over the weekend, South China Morning Post reported. The development pushed the share price of its listed unit higher in Hong Kong.

Philippine Airlines has pledged 15 aircraft, replacement engines and frequent flyer miles as collateral to secure loans needed as part of its ongoing restructuring process, ch-aviation.com reported. This is according to a Sept. 17, 2021, notice of filings of additional restructuring support agreements (RSA) between Philippine Airlines and various counterparties with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, where the airline is in voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings aimed at paring off USD2.1 billion of its USD6 billion in debts.

The airline industry in Latin America continues to deal with vastly divergent travel rules, vaccination rates and political posturing, slowing the region’s widespread recovery from the global pandemic, FlightGlobal reported. From Mexico in the north, which never really shut down even at the height of the crisis, to Argentina in the south, which still caps passenger numbers and maintains high taxes on international travel, the region’s rebound could take much longer than the rest of the world’s. “Airlines are returning,” says Peter Cerda, IATA’s regional vice-president for Latin America.

Argentina’s dollar bonds and U.S.-traded equities slid on Monday as President Alberto Fernandez swore in new cabinet ministers and moves past a week-long political crisis, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s $10.5 billion in bonds due 2041 slipped as much as 1.4 cents to 36.8 cents on the dollar, while the unofficial peso exchange rate, known as the blue-chip swap, weakened 1.5% to 184 pesos per dollar. U.S.-traded shares also fell as much as 13%, with the local benchmark index posting the worst returns among indexes in the Americas amid a global selloff.

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia has throttled ports and locked down plantations and processors, sparking extended disruptions of raw materials such as palm oil, coffee and tin, the Wall Street Journal reported. Restrictions in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil, have prevented migrant laborers from traveling to plantations, raising prices of the ubiquitous edible oil used to make candy bars, shampoo and biofuel. Lockdowns in Vietnam, the world’s No.

The editor-in-chief of state-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times warned debt-ridden property giant Evergrande Group that it should not bet on a government bailout on the assumption that it is "too big to fail," Reuters reported. It was the first commentary to appear in state-backed media casting doubt on a government bailout for the country's No.2 property developer, whose shares fell on Friday for the fifth consecutive day amid concerns it is heading for default.

In a rare plea, the chief judge at India’s bankruptcy appeals court petitioned the Supreme Court to let him work for three more days even after his term was cut short by the federal government, Bloomberg News reported. A.I.S. Cheema seeks three more days to enable him to give five verdicts and then retire, his lawyer told the Supreme Court Thursday. Cheema was, until last week, the acting chairman of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal due to retire Sept. 20, before the government abruptly named his replacement and cut short his term.

The World Bank is cancelling a prominent report on business conditions around the world after investigators found staff members were pressured by the bank’s leaders to alter data about China and some other governments, Aljazeera.com reported. The bank said on Thursday that it would discontinue “Doing Business” following an investigation prompted by internal reports of “data irregularities” in its 2018 and 2020 editions and possible “ethical matters” involving bank staff.