Headlines

Bain Capital Credit, Oaktree Capital Group and White Oak Global Advisors are in talks to refinance some of Sanjeev Gupta’s borrowing from Greensill Capital at some of his Australian businesses, the Australian Financial Review reported. The funds have been carrying out due diligence to provide at least $430 million to GFG Alliance’s Australian Mining and Primary Steel units, including the Whyalla steel mill in the south of the country. One of the funds could conclude a deal with GFG as soon as early May, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

Australia has canceled agreements between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Victoria state government, in a move that could further worsen ties between the two nations, Bloomberg News reported. The Australian federal government scrapped both the memorandum of understanding and framework agreement signed between Victoria and China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in an emailed statement Wednesday. Two other deals between Victoria and the governments of Iran and Syria have also been scrapped.

Brazilian iron ore miner Samarco Mineração SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection Monday, after initiating similar proceedings in Brazil earlier this month amid mounting creditor litigation, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Samarco needed to seek protection under chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, as well as Brazilian insolvency laws, after bondholders and bank lenders filed lawsuits in both countries to freeze and start the process of seizing the company’s assets, according to a sworn declaration by Chief Financial Officer Cristina Morgan Cavalcanti.

The Bank of Canada took the biggest step yet by a major economy to reduce emergency levels of monetary stimulus as it hailed a stronger-than-expected recovery from the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers led by Governor Tiff Macklem said Wednesday they would scale back their purchases of government debt by a quarter to C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) and accelerate the timetable for a possible interest-rate increase. The upbeat turn toward plotting a return to more normal policy has been resisted by counterparts elsewhere, including the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Coming on the heels of a Moody’s Investors Service’s assessment of the territory’s financial outlook on the bond market and the solvency of its Government Employees’ Retirement System, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. renewed his pitch to legislators to refinance the territory’s bond debt, the Virgin Islands Daily News reported. In an analysis published Monday, the financial services firm said the recent ruling of the Third U.S.

European officials want to limit police use of facial recognition and ban the use of certain kinds of AI systems, in one of the broadest efforts yet to regulate high-stakes applications of artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Union’s executive arm proposed a bill Wednesday that would also create a list of so-called high-risk uses of AI that would be subject to new supervision and standards for their development and use, such as critical infrastructure, college admissions and loan applications.

Exxon Mobil Corp. can move forward with a U.S. lawsuit seeking $280 million from two Cuban companies as compensation for a refinery and other assets seized from the oil giant after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, a judge in Washington said, Bloomberg News reported. The ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta keeps alive Exxon’s suit against a Cuban government-owned conglomerate, Corporacion Cimex SA, and state-run oil company Union Cuba-Petroleo, known as Cupet. Over the years, the U.S.

Greece says its tourism services will open on May 15 when a ban on travel between different regions of the country will also be lifted, the Associated Press reported. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made the announcement in a televised address Wednesday, adding that restaurants and cafes will be allowed to reopen outdoor areas starting on May 3. Restrictions, many of which have been in effect since early November, will remain in place over Orthodox Easter on May 2. “Our goal is to have a safe Easter and a free summer. But one cannot undermine the other,” Mitsotakis said.

Bengaluru-based Prestige Estates Projects has stepped in to take over a project in Mumbai’s Mulund suburb by cash-strapped Ariisto Developers, which will benefit 350-400 homebuyers and lenders to the stuck project, the Times of India reported. The committee of creditors representing the lenders had approved a hybrid plan where Prestige will pay upfront cash of Rs 370 crore and provide the lenders with 8 lakh square feet built-up commercial area. This has led to the resolution of Rs 1,650 crore of debt of the approximately Rs 2,200 crore owed by Ariisto Developers.

New rules coming into force at the end of the month will have a major impact on company directors seeking to restructure their business through pre-pack administrations, the Insider reported. The warning comes from Derek Forsyth, head of restructuring in Scotland with accountancy firm Azets, on new legislation coming into force on 30 April. Pre-pack administrations have been used increasingly during the pandemic to save businesses that would otherwise go under.