Headlines

China's months-long regulatory crackdown has included big names in e-commerce, the gig economy, exam cramming and most recently online insurance. Close to $1 trillion in market value has been wiped out since February, Reuters reported. For big firms that also list on markets like Wall Street because it brings in international investment, 2021 is already the worst year since the global financial crisis. Many analysts are convinced things will settle, but only the Beijing ruling elite know if and when that might be.

Ukraine’s economy fell back into recession as fallout from the pandemic continued to weigh and interest rates were lifted to tackle soaring inflation, Bloomberg News reported. Second-quarter gross domestic product shrank a seasonally adjusted 0.8% after falling 1.2% in the previous three months, preliminary data Monday showed. On an annual basis, it ended more than a year of contraction, advancing by 5.4%, though that was some way off analyst estimates for a 7.3% increase.

Germany plans to sell up to a quarter of its 20% stake in Lufthansa over the coming weeks, the German finance agency said on Monday, citing positive developments at the bailed-out airline, Reuters reported. Lufthansa shares fell as much as 4.9% to 8.81 euros in early trade after the announcement. The state's 20% stake was acquired for 300 million euros ($353.67 million) as part of a bailout for the German carrier as the company and the entire aviation sector took a battering from the coronavirus crisis.

Following the unanimous approval of the insolvency plan by the insolvency creditors of Adler Modemärkte AG at the debate and voting session in court on 27 July 2021 and the insolvency plan having become legally binding in the meantime, the company now intends to implement the capital measures stipulated in the insolvency plan, according to a press release. First, the share capital of Adler Modemärkte AG will be reduced to zero through a capital cut to be carried out in accordance with the provisions on the simplified capital reduction pursuant to § 229 et seq.

Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd on Monday rejected an improved A$22.80 billion ($16.81 billion) bid from a group of infrastructure investors, saying that it undervalued the airport operator, but that it was open to a higher offer, Reuters reported. The new offer valued Sydney Airport at A$8.45 per share, 2.4% higher than the previous offer of A$8.25 a share, and a more than 9% premium to the stock's Friday close.

London-based Pearson PLC will pay $1 million to settle charges it misled investors about a 2018 cyber intrusion involving the theft of millions of student records, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday, Reuters reported. The educational-publishing firm did not admit nor deny the regulator's charges, the SEC said, but in 2019 the firm disclosed in its annual report that the data breach may have included birth dates and email addresses, when, in fact, it knew that such records were stolen.

A former top Wirecard shareholder is seeking damages over the collapse of the payments group in a landmark lawsuit that threatens the compensation bondholders and banks are also seeking, Irish Times reported. Union Investment, Germany’s third-largest asset manager, has filed a lawsuit in Munich against Wirecard’s administrator, which over the past year has been selling the remaining assets of the failed payments group. The asset manager said it suffered €243 million in losses when Wirecard filed for insolvency in June 2020.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said that it will make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for airline and rail passengers, transportation workers and federal employees, in one of its final announcements before the start of a Canadian election campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Government officials said on Friday that the plan is to require government staff to be inoculated by early fall. Workers and passengers on airlines, railways and cruise ships will also need proof of vaccination by the end of October. “We need to regain public confidence in travel.

A Covid outbreak that has partially shut one of the world’s busiest container ports is heightening concerns that the rapid spread of the delta variant will lead to a repeat of last year’s shipping nightmares, Bloomberg News reported. The Port of Los Angeles, which saw its volumes dip because of a June Covid outbreak at the Yantian port in China, is bracing for another potential decline because of the latest shutdown at the Ningbo-Zhoushan port in China, a spokesman said.

Mexico can use a multibillion dollar transfer from the International Monetary Fund to prepay debt, as the country’s president is considering, but the government would need to purchase the funds from the central bank, Banxico Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said, Bloomberg News reported. The IMF’s transfer to the central bank of the recently-approved reserves, worth roughly $12 billion, isn’t a “donation,” Diaz de Leon said in an interview late Thursday.