Headlines

Thames Water, the financially stricken utility which has been teetering on the edge of insolvency, is set to be taken over by KKR, the American private equity group, The Times reported. KKR has been selected as a preferred bidder by the Thames Water board for its offer to take control of the shares of the utility in return for what was an original offer of a £4 billion cash injection. The offer envisages creditors taking significant writedowns in their exposure to Thames near-£20 billion of gross debt.

Bankrupt battery maker Northvolt AB will continue to operate in Sweden with a staff of 1,700 while its remaining employees will be laid off, Bloomberg News reported. “Despite significant reductions, it is positive that the business can continue to some extent, which is likely crucial to enabling a full or partial sale of the business,” Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee, Mikael Kubu, said in an emailed statement.

The rising trend of Malaysians declaring bankruptcy voluntarily is becoming a growing concern, signaling that many are struggling with severe financial difficulties, the New Straits Times reported. In recent years, more people have opted to declare themselves bankrupt through a Debtor's Petition, a legal process filed in court to protect themselves from excessive creditor claims. Insolvency Department director-general Datuk M Bakri Abd Majid revealed that self-declared bankruptcy cases surged by 200 per cent, with 330 cases recorded in 2024, compared to 181 in 2023 and 116 in 2022.

Bombay high court said the developer cannot use the insolvency law as a tool to escape the consequences of failure to execute a slum rehabilitation scheme fully and can be removed by the SRA—Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), the Times of India reported. Builder’s appointment can be terminated despite a resolution plan (RP) in place under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings, the HC said, except it cannot be done to recover “prior debts’’.

Japanese banks may need to offer business turnaround support to companies hit by tariffs imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the head of the country's banking lobby said, Reuters reported. Many large Japanese firms, including major exporters and manufacturers, are grappling with U.S. duties on imports of steel and aluminium and a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks starting this week. "We think tariffs could lead to a deterioration in corporate earnings," the new chair of the Japan Banks Association, Junichi Hanzawa, told Reuters in an interview.

Japan, South Korea and China agreed on Sunday to continue trilateral economic and trade cooperation to address “emerging challenges,” a partnership that has become more crucial than ever as the U.S. trade war shatters the global order. Trade minister Yoji Muto, his South Korean counterpart, Ahn Duk-geun, and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met in Seoul for the first trilateral meeting among the three countries’ trade ministers in over five years, the Japan Times reported.

Germany's Finance Minister Joerg Kukies warned on Friday that U.S. tariffs would hit both the German and the U.S. economies and that Berlin was working to prevent an escalating trade war, Reuters reported. Kukies made the statement to Reuters after meeting his U.S. counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and other members of the Trump administration in Washington.

Language translation and AI tech business TransPerfect has acquired the France-based studios of The Mill and MPC, two global VFX brands that were owned by parent Technicolor, which abruptly shut down in February amid financial difficulties, Variety reported. According to TransPerfect, it retains the estimated 120 employees from these operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Activity in China’s vast manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace in a year in March, sending another sign of green shoots in the world’s second-largest economy as policymakers brace for more U.S. tariffs this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index for March came in at 50.5, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. That beat February’s mark of 50.2 as a reading above 50 suggests an expansion in activity while one below suggests contraction.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was "not surprised" that China would be upset by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison's deal to sell its two port operations near the Panama Canal to a BlackRock-led group, after China's market regulator said it would conduct an antitrust review of the deal, Reuters reported. "We are aware of the comments made by China.