Headlines

Global securities markets regulators said on Tuesday they have begun monitoring special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, due to potential regulatory concerns, Reuters reported. SPACs are shell companies that list themselves on the stock market and use the proceeds to buy other companies. It is a form of investment that soared last year on Wall Street, gathered steam in Europe this year and is now spreading into emerging markets.

It may be a further 18 months before long-planned new rules are in place to make it easier for regulators to hold senior managers in banks and other financial firms accountable for failings under their watch, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said, the Irish Times reported. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after securing Cabinet approval to publish the heads of the Central Bank (Individual Accountability) Bill, Mr Donohoe said that it will take up to six months for the planned laws to go through pre-legislative scrutiny with the Oireachtas Finance Committee.

China's move to ban private tutoring firms from making a profit from teaching core school subjects and raising capital is set to trigger a scramble among venture and private equity investors to find an exit after pouring billions of dollars into the sector, Reuters reported. While stricter regulations were expected with China looking to ease pressure on children and the cost burden on parents that has contributed to lower birth rates, private equity industry sources say that they were surprised by the severity of the rules that could kill many companies and block their exits.

The International Monetary Fund is sharply upgrading its economic outlook this year for the world’s wealthy countries, especially the United States, as COVID-19 vaccinations help sustain solid rebounds from the pandemic recession. But the 190-country lending agency has downgraded its forecast for poorer countries, most of which are struggling to vaccinate, the Associated Press reported. Overall, the IMF said on Tuesday that it expects the global economy to expand 6% this year — a dramatic bounce-back from the 3.2% contraction in the pandemic year of 2020.

British retailers reported only a slight slowdown in July after sales growth hit its highest in almost three years in June, the first full month after non-essential shops reopened from a coronavirus shutdown, industry data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Confederation of British Industry's measure of the volume of sales compared with a year earlier dipped to +23 from June's +25, which was the highest since August 2018. The CBI said that the growth in orders was the fastest since December 2010 and the pace of sales was expected to pick up again in August.

Saudi Arabia is set to impose one of the world’s most sweeping vaccine mandates in an attempt to combat hesitancy toward the Covid-19 shots in the kingdom, as governments globally try to confront a new surge in cases of the Delta variant, the Wall Street Journal reported. People in Saudi Arabia will need to show proof on a mobile app that they have received at least one vaccine dose to enter public and private institutions beginning Sunday, including schools, shops, malls, markets, restaurants, cafes, concert venues and public transportation. From Aug.

South African Airways (SAA) subsidiary Mango Airlines will enter into a local form of bankruptcy protection known as business rescue, according to SAA’s interim chief executive Thomas Kgokolo told Reuters reported. SAA, which itself exited business rescue in April, is one of a handful of South African state companies that depended on government bailouts, placing the national budget under huge strain. “What we can say is that the board and shareholders have agreed that Mango will go into business rescue,” Kgokolo said in an interview with TV station eNCA.

Major airports in Europe are asking investors for a break from debt obligations for the second time since the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. London Heathrow Airport, the U.K.’s busiest hub, said it secured support for a new round of waivers on covenants applying to $1.6 billion of bonds after some of the terms agreed last year expired. Holders of $730 million of bonds issued by Brussels Airport are set to discuss extending similar waivers or risk a default.

The government on Monday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the insolvency law and provide for a pre-packaged resolution process for stressed MSMEs, the Economic Times of India reported. The proposed amendments would enable the government to notify the threshold of a default not exceeding Rs 1 crore for initiation of pre-packaged resolution process. The government has already prescribed the threshold of Rs 10 lakh for this purpose.

The executive regulations of the Bankruptcy Law approved by Kuwait's National Assembly a year ago were enforced as of Saturday, meaning 80,000 debtors breathed a sigh of relief as no more arrest warrants will be issued against them, Gulf News reported. The new law abolished Article 292 of the Procedure Code and does not treat failure to pay debt as a criminal offense, unless it is fraudulent.