Headlines

One in fifteen European companies are facing significant pressure to restructure this year after being hit by higher financing costs and weakening consumer demand, with Germany, Austria and the Nordics particularly under strain, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group, Bloomberg News reported. Around a third of businesses in Germany and Austria also face what BCG dubs “transformation pressure” or early signs of weakening performance and financial stability which require improvement, the consulting firm said in a presentation Monday.

Britain’s councils are preparing a record £1.4bn record fire sale in assets and cancelled investments as they scramble to plug a debt black hole ahead of the election, The Telegraph reported. The Government has given 18 councils the green light to sell-off assets and mothball projects to release cash in a bid to avoid another wave of council bankruptcies before the nation heads to the polls on July 4.

In a bid to check unnecessary pressure on GST payers against early recovery of dues, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has put in place guidelines mandating senior officers to initiate recovery action quickly only in rare cases and that too after clearly stating the reasons, the Times of India reported. The law allows central GST authorities to initiate recovery after three months in case the dues remain unpaid after an order is passed.Only in exceptional circumstances can recovery be initiated earlier.

The parent company of Montreal’s Just For Laughs comedy festival, Groupe Juste Pour Rire Inc., has agreed to sell select assets as part of a court-directed bankruptcy protection, the Hollywood Reporter reported. Quebec City-based ComediHa! announced it picked up unspecified assets as part of a sale and solicitation process initiated Just for Laughs as it looks to restructure. The sales agreement awaits the approval of the Québec Superior Court, with a hearing set for June 3. Until that court date, both parties said they will not comment publicly on the proposed asset sale.

New home prices in China rose slightly for a ninth month in May, a private survey showed, driven higher by a slew of supportive steps to prop up the nation's crisis-hit property sector, Reuters reported. The average new home price across 100 cities rose 0.25% on month in May, following a 0.27% gain in April, the data from real estate researcher China Index Academy showed on Saturday. China's property sector, a pillar of the economy, has lurched from one crisis to another since 2021 after a regulatory crackdown on high leverage among developers triggered a liquidity crisis.

Asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) are being misused by "tainted" promoters to enter the bankruptcy process after leading their firms to loan defaults, a deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India said, Reuters reported. Promoters in an Indian market are large shareholders who can influence company policy and, according to regulatory definitions, are prospective owners or directors of the company. There is a section under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code "specifically meant to keep out such promoters, said M.

Japanese companies trimmed capital investment in the first quarter, a result that likely indicates revised data due next week will continue to show the economy contracted in the period, Bloomberg News reported. Capital expenditures on goods excluding software fell 0.5% in the three months through March from the previous quarter following a surge in spending at the end of last year, the finance ministry reported Monday. Manufacturers led the decline, cutting spending by 3% from the prior quarter, while service-sector firms boosted spending a tad.

Brazilian airline Gol announced on Friday that its board elected Eduardo Gotilla as its new chief financial officer, while also posting preliminary results for April including net debt of $4.5 billion as part of the carrier’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. Gotilla was the CFO of power company Light through last January.

Scandinavian airline SAS posted a second-quarter pretax loss that more than doubled from a year earlier on Thursday, while pledging to complete its restructuring this summer, Reuters reported. The company's chapter 11 plan of reorganisation was approved in March. It filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in 2022 after years of struggle with high costs coupled with low customer demand, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We look forward to emerging as a competitive and financially stronger airline with a stable equity structure," CEO Anko van der Werff said in a statement.

South Korea's factory activity expanded in May at the fastest pace in two years on stronger growth in output and orders thanks to broadening global demand, a private-sector survey showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia's fourth-largest economy, compiled by S&P Global, rose to 51.6 in May, from 49.4 in April, on a seasonally adjusted basis. It was the highest reading since May 2022, and comes after two consecutive months below the 50-mark separating expansion from contraction.