Headlines

Embattled financial startup Greensill Capital plans to file for insolvency in the U.K. this week, as it simultaneously moves toward a deal to sell its operating business to Apollo Global Management, the Wall Street Journal reported. Also Wednesday, in a dramatic ratcheting up of Greensill’s problems, Germany’s top financial regulator BaFin referred matters related to the firm’s banking unit, Greensill Bank AG, to criminal prosecutors, according to a spokesman for the Bremen prosecutors office.

Provisions of the Indian insolvency law that protect a corporate debtor from other proceedings will also cover dishonoured cheques, the supreme court ruled, taking a view contrary to two earlier high court verdicts, Bloomberg Quint reported. Moratorium allowed under Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code will apply to proceedings under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act used to recover an amount for a bounce cheque, the top court ruled. The top court, however, said the protection will be available only to the corporate debtor and not its management personnel.

Czech Airlines’ insolvency petition sets out the scale of the company’s financial problems, which it partly attributes to the inability to source rescue funding from the Czech government, FlightGlobal reported. The company has 266 creditors, with the total liability to suppliers amounting to Kc809 million ($37.1 million) as of 25 February, its petition to a Prague municipal court states. But the petition, seen by FlightGlobal, adds that there is a debt of nearly Kc1 billion to “hundreds of thousands” of passengers who are owed for the cancellation of flights.

Rio Tinto PLC said that its chairman would step down because of its destruction of two ancient rock shelters in Australia last year, bowing to demands from some investors for greater accountability for the incident, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rio Tinto said that Simon Thompson won’t seek reelection next year, tying the decision to the May demolition of the Juukan Gorge shelters that contained a trove of artifacts indicating they had been occupied by humans more than 46,000 years ago.

Aon will face a list of objections by the EU’s antitrust watchdog which it must overcome with concessions to proceed with its $30 billion bid for Willis Towers Watson, Reuters reported. The negotiations may derail Aon’s goal of closing the deal in the first half of the year unless it offers concessions in the coming weeks to stave off the charge sheet. The deal, announced a year ago, would create the world’s largest insurance broker, putting the merged entity ahead of world No. 1 Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.

Britain’s big four banks amassed more than 200 billion pounds ($277.52 billion) of new deposits last year as customers reined in spending through pandemic lockdowns, far outstripping extra lending to struggling businesses and households, Reuters reported. Full-year earnings reported by HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest last month revealed the extent to which lenders’ finances have been upended by the crisis. The banks now face a glut in savings, a Reuters analysis of the banks’ results show, as domestic customers of the four lenders deposited 221 billion pounds of extra cash.

Lex Greensill’s ambitious plan to transform his arcane trade-finance business into a global lending force is rapidly falling apart, Bloomberg News reported. From Credit Suisse Group AG to SoftBank Group Corp., Greensill’s most ardent supporters have signaled doubts about the loans made by his supply-chain finance business, upending his multi-billion dollar empire. Greensill Capital, which as recently as last year was seeking a valuation of $7 billion and planning to eventually go public, is now discussing options including insolvency.