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The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a bank can initiate proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) against a corporate guarantor if the principal borrower defaults on repayment of loans and the debt is declared nonperforming asset (NPA), the Times of India reported.
Ireland’s High Court cleared the way on Friday for Norwegian Air to raise new capital and emerge from bankruptcy protection in Ireland and Norway in May by approving the airline’s restructuring scheme, Reuters reported. Norwegian’s survival plan, announced last year, puts a definitive end to its long-haul business, leaving a slimmed-down airline focusing on Nordic and European routes. “We can now go forward with the reconstruction in Norway and initiate a capital raise.” Chief Executive Jacob Schram said in a statement following the ruling.
Widely watched airfares in China are recovering to pre-pandemic levels as domestic tourists lead a patchy air travel recovery, scattering crumbs of hope to a shattered global travel sector, Reuters reported. With international markets like Europe still in partial lockdown, the global tourism industry’s attention is riveted on China’s new travel patterns as it brings COVID-19 under control and lifts curbs on movement. The Chinese domestic market quietly overtook the once-dominant U.S.
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British ministers have rejected a request from mining magnate Sanjeev Gupta for a 170 million pound ($234.36 million) emergency loan to prevent his group, GFG Alliance, from collapsing, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. GFG, a holding company for Gupta’s assets, was the biggest recipient of financing from Greensill, a British financing company, which filed for insolvency earlier in March. The British government wrote back to Gupta formally rejecting the request last week due to multiple concerns.
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Airbus SE said its core banks have stepped in to provide vital financing to suppliers following the collapse of Greensill Capital, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders including Societe Generale SA are ensuring that prompt payments continue after the insolvency of the London-based firm, which Airbus says had acted as a broker for short term supply-chain financing. “This platform is now up and running and no suppliers have been disrupted,” Justin Dubon, a spokesman for the planemaker, said on Thursday.
High Street photographic equipment chain Jessops has filed a notice to appoint administrators, BBC.com reported. The camera retailer, which employs 120 staff and has 17 stores, is owned by Dragons' Den star Peter Jones. Jessops said it had hired advisors FRP to help it restructure the business, severely impacted by the pandemic. The notice of intent provides the business with protection for 10 days from existing or pending creditor claims. The retailer said it planned to continue to trade when lockdown restrictions lift in April.
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Former Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi has suffered a huge blow after a court declined to rule out a bankruptcy case facing him for failing to pay a Ksh 390 million loan, Kenyans.co.ke reported. Kambi had filed a petition asking for more time to service the loan owed to a local bank arguing that his appointment to the National Lands Commission (NLC) meant that he had a source of income and would afford to clear the debt in monthly installments. Reports indicate that Kambi's net worth is Ksh 50 million.
Germany’s Finance Ministry gave explicit backing in 2019 to financial regulator BaFin’s controversial approach to fraud accusations at Wirecard AG, raising questions about its role in one of the biggest corporate scandals in recent history, Bloomberg News reported. In a March 2019 phone call, Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Kukies gave the head of BaFin, Felix Hufeld, broad support for his efforts to investigate the allegations, according to briefing documents for a parliamentary hearing on Wirecard seen by Bloomberg.
A slow economic recovery threatens to turn more companies in the industries worst hit by the pandemic into so-called zombies, according to a report by the Bank for International Settlements, Bloomberg News reported. Without a significant rebound, corporations in sectors such as travel and leisure that loaded up on debt in the pandemic risk being left unable to cover debt servicing costs from current profits, according to the BIS, which is known as the central bank for central banks.
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The European Central Bank cut interest rates to below zero years ago to reignite the continent’s frail economy in the midst of a sovereign-debt crisis. The negative rates helped everyone get cheap financing, from governments to small companies. It gave an incentive to households to borrow and spend. And it broke the basic rule of credit, allowing banks to owe money to borrowers, the Wall Street Journal reported. After the ECB cut interest rates to below zero in 2014, economies in the eurozone improved and expectations were that rates would rise in a few years.
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