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The liquidators of Carillion have struck a deal with a specialist litigation funder to bankroll a £250m lawsuit against KPMG, the collapsed outsourcer’s former auditor, the Financial Times reported. Litigation Capital Management, an Aim-traded litigation funder, said on Wednesday it had entered an agreement with certain Carillion entities to finance a claim in the English High Court over how KPMG conducted its audits of the outsourcing group.
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The 19 nations that share the euro are facing financial risks that are elevated and uneven, the European Central Bank warned Wednesday, and more targeted stimulus could be required as the region recovers from the coronavirus crisis, CNBC.com reported. The pandemic has hit different economic sectors with varying degrees of severity and speed, with tourism and hospitability among the most impacted. In its latest financial stability review, the ECB warned that this uneven shock is concentrating risks in very specific nations and parts of the euro zone economy.
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Imports to Ireland from Great Britain slumped in March, as Brexit continued to impact business between the two countries, Bloomberg News reported. Goods imports from Great Britain, which does not include Northern Ireland, fell 31% in March compared to a year ago to 992 million euros ($1.2 billion), Ireland’s statistics office said in a statement, continuing a trend since the U.K. left the EU. Goods imports dropped 48% in the first three months of the year. Exports to Great Britain from Ireland increased 13% during March compared to a year ago.
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French retailer Carrefour SA recently began its first share buyback in a decade, spurred by strong cash flow and a belief that the economic recovery is under way. And it isn’t alone, the Wall Street Journal reported. This year has seen a slew of companies in Europe putting forward share repurchase programs, including luxury house LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, personal care company L’Oréal SA and oil major Eni SpA.
The Council of the EU is questioning the demands of the U.S. on countries to roll back national "unilateral" tech taxes once a global levy on multinational companies is agreed on, according to a document obtained by POLITICO. The pushback comes in the form of an internal Council document that the Portuguese EU presidency has prepared for a technical meeting on Friday among tax officials.
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Thailand plans to borrow an additional 700 billion baht ($22.3 billion) to fund measures to counter the worst Covid-19 outbreak to hit Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. A meeting of the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha on Tuesday approved the new borrowing plan from the finance ministry, the people said, declining to be identified before a public announcement.
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A consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday moved a step closer in their attempt to recover debt from loans paid out to Vijay Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the High Court in London upheld an application to amend their bankruptcy petition, in favour of waiving their security over the embattled businessman's assets in India, the Tribune of India reported.
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The European Commission wants to propose in 2023 a more unified way of taxing companies in the European Union, hoping that such rules, which have failed to win support in the past, will stand a better chance if they follow global OECD solutions expected this year, Reuters reported. The Commission will present a plan on Tuesday including this proposal and other measures for adjusting the EU's business taxation to make it more up to date with the modern world, where cross-border business, often carried out via the Internet, is commonplace.
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BlackRock gave it money. So did Goldman Sachs. Foreign investors had good reason to trust Huarong, the sprawling Chinese financial conglomerate. Even as its executives showed a perilous appetite for risky borrowing and lending, the investors believed they could depend on Beijing to bail out the state-owned company if things ever got too dicey, the New York Times reported. Now some of those same foreign investors may need to think twice. Huarong is more than $40 billion in debt to foreign and domestic investors and shows signs of stumbling.
Global banks are losing share in the $186 billion lending market for Chinese borrowers offshore, falling behind local rivals boosting their presence just as the nation’s corporate sector recovers from the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Their portion of such lending has steadily dropped over the past decade, hitting 37% so far this year to May 17, well below the 11-year average of 51%, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Last year the share fell to 29%, the lowest since at least 2010.