Headlines

The number of English and Welsh companies going bust stabilized in the first quarter after hitting a three-decade high in 2023 following a hit to balance sheets from soaring energy bills and interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Company insolvencies in England and Wales fell 2% from a year ago to 5,759 in the first three months of the year, according to the government’s Insolvency Service. It was down 12% on the previous quarter.

The debt crisis at Thames Water is jeopardizing £100 billion ($125 billion) of potential investment required over the next five years to mend Britain’s crumbling utilities infrastructure, Bloomberg News reported. Water companies have promised to deploy the sum to fix leaky pipes, build new reservoirs and prevent sewage from pouring into the country’s seas and rivers, according to water regulator Ofwat. But investors warn the money may not be readily available if the government forces losses on Thames Water creditors.

The bankruptcy court on Thursday admitted two Essel Group entities Primcomm Media Distribution Ventures Ltd and Essel Homes Pvt Ltd under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) after Gnex Realtech Pvt Ltd, an affiliate entity, defaulted on its dues of Rs 260 crore where these companies provided corporate guarantee, the Economic Times of India reported. The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), in applications filed by Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd, also appointed Ravi Prakash Ganti as interim resolution professional (IRP) for these companies.

Sri Lanka will hand over management of its $209 million Chinese-built airport to two Indian and Russian companies, a cabinet statement said on Friday, as the island nation attempts to reduce losses from its state enterprises. Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), funded by China EXIM Bank, has stoked controversy since its opening in 2013 due to a low number of flights, environmentally sensitive location and persistent financial losses. The airport's management will be handed over to Shaurya Aeronautics (Pvt) Ltd.

The UK’s financial watchdog pushed back against criticism of its plan to name firms it’s investigating at an early stage, which it thinks will boost transparency and deterrence, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Conduct Authority believes the proposals are timely, according to its response to a House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee published on Friday. Firms and consumers benefit from knowing which issues are in the watchdog’s sights, leading to better standards of conduct, it said.

Major advanced economy central banks are likely to take back less than half of the interest-rate hikes they rammed through over the past two years — an outlook reshaped significantly by US outperformance, Bloomberg News reported. After the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England jacked up their benchmarks by a collective 1,475 basis points, only 575 basis points of reductions are in store by the end of 2025, according to new Bloomberg Economics estimates.

Brazil’s inflation cooled more than expected in early April, but fell short of soothing policymakers’ fears about lingering price pressures on Latin America’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Friday showed prices increased 0.21% in the first two weeks of April from a month earlier, less than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey, whose median forecast was 0.29%. Annual inflation came in at 3.77%.

The Swiss National Bank remains skeptical about buying bitcoins, Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Friday, despite calls from campaigners to change the law and allow cyptocurrencies to be added to its currency reserves, Reuters reported. "We have not yet decided that we want to invest in bitcoin. Actually for good reasons," Jordan told the central bank's AGM in Bern. "Currency reserves are international payments. They have to be liquid. They have to be sustainable.

Russia kept interest rates unchanged on Friday, shifting toward more cautious guidance as inflation risks from a persistently tight labor market and growing consumer spending limit the central bank’s options, Bloomberg News reported. For the third meeting in a row, policymakers left their key rate at 16%, in line with the unanimous forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

HSBC Holdings Plc successfully fought off a London court claim brought by a group of investors in a £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) lawsuit over tax breaks linked to Walt Disney Co. film financing, Bloomberg News reported. The bank faced allegations that it misled investors over the Eclipse Partnerships, which touted opportunities to back films like Pirates of the Caribbean 2. HSBC’s private bank helped promote the film financing program that was challenged by tax authorities and turned out be worthless, lawyers for the investor group said previously.