Headlines

UK music tech startup Roli has filed for bankruptcy and will reform, Digital Music News reported. The company says its niche target market and the coronavirus pandemic forced a reset. Both Pharrell and Grimes backed the British music startup. some Roli products will live on through Luminary, which is rising from the ashes of the Roli bankruptcy. CEO and Founder Roland Lamb raised £5 million to launch the rebooted company, Luminary. Roli’s 70 employees will shift to the new business, which closed $6.85 million in initial funding from Hoxton Ventures.

The Biden administration has no plans to release billions in Afghan gold, investments and foreign currency reserves parked in the United States that it froze after the Taliban's takeover, despite pressure from humanitarian groups and others who say the cost may be the collapse of Afghanistan's economy, Reuters reported. Much of the Afghan central bank's $10 billion in assets are parked overseas, where they are considered a key instrument for the West to pressure the Taliban to respect women's rights and the rule of law.

China's banking and insurance watchdog issued a draft guideline on Friday aiming to improve its regulation over insurance group companies to prevent financial risks as the world's no.2 economy strives to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Reuters reported. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is seeking public advice on the draft and the amendments it makes to a 2010 version of the rules regulating such companies.

Two furloughed jumbo jet pilots and a burnt-out finance worker have been among the more unusual candidates to learn how to drive 44-tonne trucks at Laurence Bolton's school in south London during the pandemic, Reuters reported. "You get people from all industries, and think: 'Blimey, I never saw you here before 2020'," Bolton said. "There are more people that have been displaced from retail, with the high street closing or certainly running down, and from hospitality." Business is brisk for truck driving schools as Britain emerges from its COVID-19 crisis.

Singapore Exchange's new rules for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are likely to help it attract regional funds and fast-growing firms, as it seeks to revitalise a staid market for equity listings, market participants said, Reuters reported. Some of them expect Southeast Asian startups, especially from the tech sector, to take advantage of SGX becoming the first Asian bourse to allow SPAC listings since the investment frenzy in SPACs started in the United States last year, although the interest is peaking there.

El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a real-world experiment proponents say will lower commission costs for billions of dollars sent from abroad but which critics warned may fuel money laundering, Reuters reported. The change means businesses should accept payment in bitcoin alongside the U.S. dollar, which has been El Salvador's official currency since 2001 and will remain legal tender.

India’s Punjab National Bank on Thursday urged a tribunal to quash the rescue plan for defunct debt-laden Jet Airways, alleging irregularities in it, a move that risks delaying any return of the airline grounded two years ago, Reuters reported. A consortium of London-based Kalrock Capital and a UAE-based businessman last year agreed to pump in 10 billion rupees as working capital and give funds to creditors of Jet, which was hit hard due to piling up debt in 2019.

French dairy giant Lactalis is in talks to buy Kwality Dairy (now Kwality) in a fire sale as the company’s creditors have failed to reach a timely agreement on its debt resolution, forcing the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to send it to liquidation, the Economic Times of India reported. Talks between Lactalis and Kwality Dairy’s creditors have gathered steam over the past few weeks and could result in the former making a formal proposal for Kwality Dairy in the next 8-10 days. This could be Lactalis’s fourth acquisition in India, if the creditors agree to its proposal.

NMC Healthcare Ltd. said it won approval from creditors for the restructuring process that allows the bulk of the hospital operator’s business to exit administration, Bloomberg News reported. NMC secured 95% of the eligible creditor vote for the deeds of company arrangement proposals, according to a statement from the largest private medical services provider in the United Arab Emirates. A local Abu Dhabi court still needs to confirm the vote, NMC said.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s London legal battle with Sanjeev Gupta was delayed by another six months, as the metals tycoon continues to seek funding for his empire, Bloomberg News reported. An initial hearing over the bank’s attempt to push some of Gupta’s companies into insolvency has been rescheduled to March by consent between the parties, a court official said by email. Earlier this year, the Swiss lender, through Citibank, filed “winding-up petitions” against a number of companies in Gupta’s GFG Alliance Group, including Liberty Commodities Ltd.