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Smaller businesses are proving to be a weak link in China’s economic recovery as they struggle to fully bounce back from the effects of Covid-19, the Wall Street Journal reported. Like the U.S., China has tens of millions of small and medium-size private businesses, including restaurants and shops, which form the backbone of everyday economic activity. They account for as much as 80% of urban jobs and at least half of China’s tax revenue.
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Insolvent beverage company DavidsTea Inc. says its net losses nearly doubled last year on surging losses in the fourth quarter, the Canadian Press reported. The Montreal-based company says it lost $55.9 million or $2.14 per diluted share for the year, compared with a loss of $31.2 million or $1.20 per share in 2019. Deeper losses came as the company's sales plunged 38 per cent to $121.7 million from $196.5 million as it felt the effects of lockdowns and it exited its entire retail network except 18 Canadian stores. In the three months ended Jan.
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South Africa's struggling national airline South African Airways (SAA) on Friday exited a local form of bankruptcy protection called business rescue after roughly 17 months, Reuters reported. SAA was placed under administration in December 2019, and its long-standing financial woes worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. All operations were mothballed in September 2020. Its administrators said in a statement that they had filed a notice of "substantial implementation" of a business rescue plan with South Africa's Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.
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Insolvent Laurentian has cleared a critical obstacle to move forward with its plan to become financially stable, after a judge on Sunday agreed to allow the Sudbury, Ont., university to continue to operate while protected from creditors until Aug. 31, CBC News reported. Justice Geoffrey Morawetz of Ontario Superior Court has also given the university the go-ahead to cut ties with three federated universities, which will qualify Laurentian for a $10-million loan. Morawetz's decisions following hearings last week come at the expense of the University of Sudbury, Thorneloe and Huntington.
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Company insolvencies in England and Wales fell to their lowest level in more than thirty years during the first three months of this year, as government support measures helped businesses hit by the pandemic to ward off bankruptcy, the London Times reported. Britain suffered its sharpest fall in economic output in more than three centuries last year, but government-backed lending schemes enabled companies to borrow more than £75 billion to navigate cashflow problems.
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Ping An Insurance Group and other investors have agreed to contribute to an $11.3 billion bankruptcy restructuring package to secure and rejuvenate a financially troubled corporate empire established by China's top university, Nikkei Asia reported. Peking University Founder Group (PKU Founder), a state-owned conglomerate founded by the university, has been in a Beijing court-supervised bankruptcy proceeding since February 2020.
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The European Union on Monday announced a road map to allowing vaccinated people from outside the bloc to travel to Europe, foretelling a more normal and connected continent after more than a year in which its boulevards and beauty have been off-limits to most of the world, the Washington Post reported. The proposal, which could be in place by the end of June, will give hope to travelers from the U.S. and other countries with aggressive coronavirus vaccination programs who are eager to return to some of the globe’s most popular destinations.
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It was a flashpoint in the world of distressed investing: Sanjeev Gupta’s infamous metals empire was falling apart as Greensill Capital imploded, Bloomberg reported. As turnaround specialists sought to grab debt of one his key assets on the cheap, a single U.S. private-equity firm swooped in to buy up the lion’s share — at full price. While the supply-chain saga has sparked a lobbying scandal in the U.K. political establishment, for troubled credit creditors it shows the everyday challenges of deploying the $15 billion lying idle in distressed funds.
The Calgary-based GYMVMT fitness chain will close multiple locations as part of a restructuring effort aimed at saving the business in the face of COVID-19 restrictions, the Calgary Herald reported. International Fitness Holdings Inc. — which operates 21 fitness centers in Calgary and Edmonton under the names GYMVMT, HER GYMVMT, Bankers Hall Club and ClubFit — filed a notice of intention last week to file a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.