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KLM, the Dutch arm of airline group Air France-KLM, will likely have to cut more jobs than the thousands of layoffs already announced due to the coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive Pieter Elbers said in a message to his staff, Reuters reported. Elbers warned that COVID-19 will limit flights more extensively than the 20-25% drop it had anticipated for next year. “We now expect even lower production, which ultimately means we need fewer people”, Elbers said in his message, seen by Reuters.
India should look to make rapid strides towards introducing a comprehensive 'individual insolvency' regime now that it has achieved several milestones in corporate insolvency in recent years, according to IBBI Chairman M S Sahoo, The Hindu Business Line reported. Giving a sense of direction to the reform agenda on IBC in the days to come, Sahoo has in an article —written for a special publication to commemorate 4 years of existence of IBC —also said that there may be a need to amend IBC to introduce the concept of pre-packs in India.
The European Union is developing plans for markets to help banks offload a “resurgence” in coronavirus-hit loans and avoid choking economic recovery, the bloc’s choice for its financial services chief said on Friday, Reuters reported. Known as non-performing loans or NPLs, addressing soured debts is set to become more pressing as payment “holidays” introduced by banks on mortgage and business loans when economies went into lockdown are being phased out.
India will subsidize interest costs for small borrowers who had availed of a six-month loan repayment holiday to survive as the pandemic devastated cash flows, according to court documents seen by Bloomberg. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will pay the “interest on interest” on loans of as much as 20 million rupees ($273,000) for the duration of the Reserve Bank of India-authorized moratorium that ended on Aug. 31, according to an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Finance in the Supreme Court on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. A spokesman for the ministry declined to comment.
The COVID-19 pandemic could trigger a debt crisis in some countries, so investors must be ready for granting some form of relief that could also include debt cancellation, World Bank President David Malpass was quoted as saying on Sunday, Reuters reported. “It is evident that some countries are unable to repay the debt they have taken on. We must therefore also reduce the debt level. This can be called debt relief or cancellation,” Malpass told Handelsblatt business daily in an interview. “It is important that the amount of debt is reduced by restructuring,” Malpass added.
Malaysia Aviation Group, the holding company for Malaysia Airlines Bhd, said in a letter to lessors the group is unlikely to be able to make payments owed after November unless it receives more funding from state fund Khazanah, Reuters reported. The letter, reviewed by Reuters, follows a request by the troubled carrier for steep discounts on aircraft rentals from its lessors as part of a broad restructuring plan, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Shareholders in Monte dei Paschi di Siena approved on Sunday a long-awaited bad loan clean-up plan aimed at easing the sale of the state-owned bank to a healthier rival, Reuters reported. Italy has worked for two years on the plan, which gained final approval from the European Central Bank in September and must be completed by Dec. 1. Rome bailed out Monte dei Paschi in 2017, acquiring a 68% stake for 5.4 billion euros ($6.3 billion). To meet conditions agreed at the time with European Union competition authorities, it must cut that stake before the bank approves 2021 earnings.
In March this year, the Australian Government implemented new measures to assist financially distressed businesses and individuals to navigate the economic impacts of COVID-19, Mondaq reported. As expected, we have seen a drastic downturn in the filing of Wind Up Applications and Creditors' Petitions with the Courts, and the uptake of voluntary administrations. The number of Wind Up Applications filed between July and August 2020, as compared to July and August 2021, are down by 89% and Court Liquidations have also significantly decreased by 74%.
The High Court has made orders formally winding up the operator of a south Dublin care facility, which caters for vulnerable adults, and a nursing home, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Michael Quinn made the order in respect of St Mary’s Centre (Telford), after being informed that no appeal is being brought against his decision not to appoint an examiner to the company. The company had operated both disability care facility for persons who are legally blind and a nursing home on a campus beside St Vincent’s Hospital on Merrion Road in Dublin.