Headlines

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak can’t afford to wait for the budget on March 3 to provide extra support for hobbled U.K. firms, according to the U.K.’s biggest business lobby group, Bloomberg News reported. With Britain back in a severe lockdown, urgent action is needed to help companies survive, the Confederation of British Industry said in a letter to the Chancellor on Tuesday.

The European Union needs to find new ways to recapitalize businesses so that the hole on corporate balance sheets doesn’t derail the recovery, according to a financial-industry group, Bloomberg News reported. Companies face an equity shortfall of as much as 600 billion euros ($724 billion), as existing government programs and private funding won’t suffice to fully cover the roughly 1 trillion euros that businesses need to replace losses suffered during coronavirus restrictions, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe said in a report on Tuesday.

Billionaire Ajay Piramal’s conglomerate won bidding for bankrupt Indian shadow lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp., advancing a keenly watched insolvency that’s been a test of the country’s bankruptcy system, Bloomberg News reported. A resolution plan for Dewan from Piramal Enterprises Ltd.’s own shadow bank, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd., was approved by Dewan’s committee of creditors in a vote on Friday, according to a statement Sunday. People familiar with the matter had said Friday that Piramal received almost 94% of the votes while rival Oaktree Capital got less than half.

China is in talks with Kenya on a debt-service suspension deal, its embassy in Nairobi said, days after the Paris Club agreed to delay $300 million in payments by the East African nation, Bloomberg News reported. China signed payment suspension agreements with 12 African countries and gave waivers on mature interest-free loans for 15 African nations under the G-20 framework, the embassy said in an emailed statement, without providing details.

A South Korean court sentenced Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee to two and a half years in prison on Monday, which could delay the group’s ownership restructuring following the death of Lee’s father in October, Reuters reported. The ruling also cements a major shift in South Korea’s view on wrongdoings committed by the owners of the country’s powerful conglomerates, or chaebol, which led the country’s economic rise after the Korean War on the back of what has been criticised as cozy relations with politicians.

China’s economy expanded by 2.3% in 2020, roaring back from a historic contraction in the early months of the year to become the only major world economy to grow in what was a pandemic-ravaged year, the Wall Street Journal reported. China’s ability to expand, even as the world struggled to control a deadly virus that has killed more than two million people, underscores the country’s success in largely taming the coronavirus within its borders and further cements its place as the dominant economy in Asia. China’s growth makes it an outlier among large economies.

Ireland's High Court has approved a further payment of €3.29 million out of the State’s Insurance Compensation Fund (ICF) concerning personal-injury claims against collapsed Maltese-registered motor insurer Setanta, the Irish Times reported. The €3.29 million sum includes a sum of €1.97 million for third-party legal costs. The remainder comprises some €1.06 million in awards, orders to pay and agreement settlements; some €224,000 in minor court awards; and some €35,581 in property damage.

South Korea’s Eastar Jet filed for court receivership this week, a Seoul court said on Friday, as the pandemic-hit budget airline fights for its survival, considering options such as a merger and acquisition among strategies to stay in business, Reuters reported. The airline laid off about 700 of roughly 1,600 employees last April due to the coronavirus fallout and has struggled to find a strategic investor since July, when No.1 budget carrier Jeju Air Co Ltd scrapped a plan to acquire it.