Headlines

German tour operator FTI said Monday that it is filing for insolvency protection from creditors, and trips that haven't yet started will be canceled or scaled back, the Associated Press reported. FTI Group, which describes itself as Europe's third-biggest tour operator, said parent company FTI Touristik GmbH, was filing an application for the opening of insolvency proceedings at a Munich court. Since an announcement in April that a consortium of investors would come on board, “booking figures have fallen well short of expectations despite the positive news,” the company said in a statement.

India's Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Adisri Commercial’s appeal against the admission of insolvency proceedings against SREI Infrastructure Finance (SIFL) and SREI Equipment Finance (SEFL). It imposed a cost of Rs one lakh on the Srei Group shareholder for filing such a frivolous petition, the Economic Times of India reported.

The bankruptcy court in Allahabad admitted Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) for corporate insolvency almost six years after ICICI Bank filed an application, the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal, while admitting the company under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) has also appointed Bhuvan Madan as interim resolution professional (IRP) of the company, said two people aware of the development. The private sector lender had approached the tribunal after the company failed to pay its dues of about Rs 3,000 crore.

Turkey’s inflation accelerated more than forecast last month, in what officials hope marks the worst of a yearslong cost-of-living crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Data on Monday showed inflation reached an annual 75.5% in May, from just under 70% a month earlier. Monthly price growth, the central bank’s preferred gauge, also quickened and hit 3.4%. Both readings exceeded the median economist predictions. “Annual inflation reached its cyclical peak in May,” said Muhammet Mercan, ING Bank’s chief economist for Turkey.

Swedish manufacturing activity rose to its highest level in two years as the largest Nordic country is emerging from an economic slump, Bloomberg News reported. A purchasing managers index for the industrial sector rose to 54 in May, from 51.9 in April, which is the highest level since May 2022. The uptick was mainly driven by an increase in new orders, according to Swedbank/Silf, which conducts the survey. “The May outcome strengthens the picture of a brighter manufacturing outlook,” Swedbank analyst Jorgen Kennemar said in a statement.

European natural gas prices settled at the highest level this year after flows from Norway slumped, highlighting the risk of relying too much on one major supplier, Bloomberg News reported. Benchmark Dutch gas futures closed 5.2% higher at €36.01 per megawatt-hour. The contract earlier surged as much as 13%, the biggest intraday jump since December. It isn’t clear how long an unplanned outage will last at Norway’s massive Nyhamna gas processing plant. At the same time, Norwegian flows into the UK’s Easington terminal, an entry point for a third of Britain’s total supply, halted.

At some of the world’s biggest banks, loans to commercial real estate face new litmus tests that promise to shape the sector’s access to financing, Bloomberg News reported. At issue is the carbon emissions of buildings and the expected cost of upgrades needed to stay on the right side of new green regulations. The European Union just passed its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which forms part of a growing array of net zero regulations. And too-big-to-fail banks are starting to react.

A private gauge of China’s factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in almost two years in May, in contrast to the official index’s unexpected slide into contraction, the Wall Street Journal reported. The China Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 51.7 in May from 51.4 in April, according to data released Monday by Caixin Media Co. and S&P Global. That is a high not seen since June 2022, said Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group.

Activity in Australia’s manufacturing sectors could be entering a recovery phase, with firms reporting ongoing demand for labor, with cost pressures reaching their highest level for years, the Wall Street Journal reported. The headline seasonally adjusted Judo Bank Australia manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 49.7 in May, up from 49.6 in April. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing activity, while a reading below that indicates a contraction.

Chile’s economic activity fell for the second straight month on declines in mining and commerce, adding to evidence that the jump in growth at the start of the year was short-lived, Bloomberg News reported. The Imacec index, a proxy for gross domestic product, fell 0.3% in April from the prior month, less than the -0.6% median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. From a year ago, activity gained 3.5%, the central bank reported on Monday. Chile’s economy is slowing down this quarter after gross domestic product jumped by the most since 2021 at the start of the year.