Headlines

A Hong Kong court gave Chinese property developer Kaisa Group a seven-week respite on Monday to finalise a debt restructuring plan, adjourning a hearing on a liquidation petition for what it said could be the last time, Reuters reported. The High Court adjourned the hearing to Aug. 12 after the petitioner representing a key group of bondholders agreed to Kaisa's request for more time. The Shenzhen-based developer has been working to restructure its offshore debt since defaulting on $12 billion in offshore debt payments in late 2021.

Businesses failed to remit to Ottawa billions of dollars in sales taxes they had collected from customers last year, new data shows, indicating financial difficulties as those companies are unable to keep up with their invoices, the Globe and Mail reported. The Canada Revenue Agency says there was $19.4 billion in GST and HST debt outstanding as of March 31, an increase of $3.2 billion from a year ago and double what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s the largest single-year figure in CRA data, which goes back a decade.

Infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) are enjoying immunity from insolvency proceedings and should be brought under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, a top official from SBI said on Friday, the Economic Times of India reported. Ashwini Kumar Tewari, the managing director of the bank, said lenders need the assurance of being able to recover their dues from InvITs in case of a default and added that they are in touch with the Reserve Bank and the government on the same.

Uttar Pradesh government’s rehabilitation package for developers of housing projects undergoing insolvency proceedings has been extended by two weeks, the Economic Times of India reported. Builders can opt for the package if they choose to withdraw their cases with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) or in different courts, Noida Authority notified on Thursday. The rehabilitation package was introduced by the state government in December last year. It gave several concessions to developers including a two year interest waiver and penalties imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sri Lankan officials and global investors are expected to hold a second round of direct talks this week to agree on the restructuring of $12 billion in defaulted bonds, Bloomberg News reported. A group of bondholders, known as the steering committee, will continue to negotiate on the government’s new proposal in this round of the talks. The bondholders went “restricted,” meaning the conversations with the government are covered by temporary trading limitations because the topics under discussion may be market sensitive.

Ghana reached an agreement in principle with private creditors to restructure about $13 billion of debt, a key milestone in the West African country’s efforts to overhaul its loans. The nation’s bonds rallied, Bloomberg News reported. Under terms of an accord announced on Monday, investors accepted nominal losses of 37% on their holdings, according to a statement issued by the advisers to an international creditor committee and the government..

Bank of Japan board members discussed the case for an interest rate hike as upside risks to inflation become “more noticeable,” according to a summary of opinions from the June policy meeting, Bloomberg News reported. “It is necessary for the bank to continue to closely monitor relevant data in preparation for the next monetary policy meeting,” one of nine board members said, according to the summary released Monday in Tokyo.

As Credit Suisse spiraled toward insolvency early last year, a group of Swiss bankers, technocrats and regional officials were already busy laying the groundwork for a new type of financial infrastructure, Bloomberg News reported. Nine months after the Swiss bank was rescued by crosstown rival UBS Group AG in March 2023, the Zurich and Basel cantons issued the first so-called tokenized bonds settled in Switzerland’s experimental digital currency. The Lugano city government followed suit shortly after.

Ship backups that plagued seaports during the Covid pandemic are making a comeback, as vessel diversions because of attacks in the Red Sea trigger gridlock and soaring costs at the start of the peak shipping season, the Wall Street Journal reported. Flotillas of containerships and bulk carriers are growing off the coasts of Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China while ports in Spain and other parts of Europe look to dig out from container piles.

With billions of dollars in trade at stake, China and the European Union have agreed to engage in talks to try to resolve an escalating dispute over tariffs, the New York Times reported. China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, and Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union trade commissioner, will hold discussions on the European Union’s plan for tariffs on electric cars from China, the Chinese commerce ministry said late Saturday.