Headlines

TAP Air Portugal has filed an application in the Commercial Courts of Lisbon for the liquidation of its groundhandling company, Serviços Portugueses de Handling, S.A. (SPdH), also known by its trademark Groundforce Portugal, CH-Aviation.com reported. The airline is a creditor of Groundforce, which to date has provided ground-handling services to TAP at Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal, and Porto Santo. At the end of April, Groundforce’s board of directors approved the cancellation of its groundhandling contract with TAP, alleging that the contract, as it was structured, had been unviable.

The Presbyterian Church of Queensland, which runs aged care operator PresCare, has been placed in receivership after the sale of three properties fell short, leaving it unable to pay debts owed to a creditor, the Australian Financial Review reported. PCQ was unable to meet the terms of a contract with its partner, real estate investment trust Catalyst Health, triggering the insolvency. Catalyst and PresCare had entered into several sale and lease back deals in recent years.

TAP Air Portugal has filed an application in the Commercial Courts of Lisbon for the liquidation of its groundhandling company, Serviços Portugueses de Handling, S.A. (SPdH), also known by its trademark Groundforce Portugal, CH-Aviation.com reported. The airline is a creditor of Groundforce, which to date has provided ground-handling services to TAP at Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal, and Porto Santo. At the end of April, Groundforce’s board of directors approved the cancellation of its groundhandling contract with TAP, alleging that the contract, as it was structured, had been unviable.

Greensill Capital’s former managers in Latin America bought back the bankrupt U.K. company’s unit in the region and plan to expand the operation, Bloomberg News reported. The purchase, which was backed by the investment firm 777 Partners, includes assets in Colombia and Chile, the new company’s chief executive officer, Diego Caicedo, said in a video interview from Bogota. The buyers paid $11.3 million to Greensill’s bankruptcy estate, he said. The new firm will be called OmniLatam, the name of the Bogota-based fintech Caicedo and his partner Andres Abumohor founded in 2018.

The once-mighty but now cash-strapped Argentine soy crusher Vicentin said on Thursday that it is starting talks to sell a majority stake to export firms Viterra, Molinos Agro and Argentine cooperative ACA, Reuters reported. Argentina is the world’s No. 1 supplier of soymeal feed, used to fatten hogs and poultry from Europe to Southeast Asia. And family-owned Vicentin was the country’s top exporter of soy byproducts before falling into bankruptcy in 2019.

The global surge in commodities prices has now made Japan's decades-old fight against its "deflationary mindset" even more critical as businesses in the world's third-largest economy's struggle to break even, Reuters reported. Japanese firms' aversion to passing on higher prices has made it hard to raise wages for fear of being saddled with high fixed costs, which in turn feeds deflationary pressures.

Industry bodies and professional groups have welcomed the Irish government’s approval to fast track legislation that will make it cheaper and easier to restructure the debts of small companies at risk of insolvency, the Independent reported. The Companies (Small Company Administrative Rescue Process and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 will amend the Companies Act 2014 to provide for a new dedicated rescue process for small and micro companies.

The Irish government is to introduce new legislative reforms over the medium term to enhance the rights of employees facing collective redundancies following insolvency, the Irish Times reported. In a new action plan, the Department of Enterprise and Employment says that in future workers affected by collective redundancy will in all cases have to receive 30 days’ notice.

Lex Greensill told lawmakers that investors in loans packaged by his firm were aware of the risks and denied being a “fraudster” in his first public appearance since Greensill Capital collapsed into insolvency in March, Bloomberg News reported. The former Morgan Stanley banker, who founded the eponymous firm in 2011, faced questions from the U.K.’s Treasury Select Committee, which is examining what lessons should be learned from the demise of the lender.