Headlines

Heubach GmbH, part of the Germany-headquartered Heubach Group, a global provider of colour solutions, has filed an application for the opening of regular insolvency proceedings over its assets with the competent insolvency court in Braunschweig, SustainablePlastics.com reported. At the same time, it applied for the jurisdiction of the Braunschweig insolvency court as the group court for the German subgroup of the Heubach Group.

The bankruptcy court has admitted Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd's (IHFL) application to initiate insolvency resolution proceedings against Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra for default by a company called Vivek Infracon, the Economic Times of India reported.

South Korea is emerging as a closely watched weak link in the $63 trillion world of shadow banking, Bloomberg News reported. Real estate exposure has been showing cracks at home and abroad after interest rates rose, prompting financial firms including T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. to express concern about stress in shadow loans to the sector. Delinquency rates at one key group of Korean lenders nearly doubled to 6.55% last year, while economists at Citigroup Inc.

LATAM Airlines' share of Brazil's domestic market reached its highest level in 11 years in March, data from local aviation regulator ANAC showed on Monday, while rival Gol continued to falter after filing for bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The Brazilian unit of Chile-based LATAM had a market share of 41% in the month as defined by revenue passenger-kilometers (RPK), according to ANAC figures, which the firm said was its highest since the 41.6% reached in July 2013.

Users of the hacked cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox received another optimistic signal regarding compensation for hacked funds, with Mt. Gox trustee updating some crucial repayment data, CoinTelegraph.com reported. Multiple Mt. Gox creditors have reported that their Mt. Gox claims accounts were updated with information about Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and fiat repayment, with many suggesting that cryptocurrency repayments are coming soon. Some of the first such reports surfaced on the Mt.

Hungary further slowed the pace of cuts to the European Union’s highest key interest rate, with policymakers seeking to anchor the volatile forint in a riskier economic environment, Bloomberg News reported. The National Bank of Hungary reduced the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 7.75% on Tuesday, matching most forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. The unanimous decision compared with a 75 basis-point reduction in March and a full percentage point cut in February.

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA plans to increase digital currency usage in its crude and fuel exports as the U.S. reimposes oil sanctions on the country, Reuters reported. The U.S. Treasury Department last week gave PDVSA's customers and providers until May 31 to wind down transactions under a general license it did not renew due to a lack of electoral reforms. The move will make it more difficult for the country to increase oil output and exports as companies will have to wait for individual U.S. authorizations to do business with Venezuela.

A first cut in the Bank of England’s key interest rate remains some way off, its chief economist said Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Huw Pill said there had been little news on the U.K. economy since March, when he laid out his case for leaving the key rate at a 16-year high for the time being. “While we are making satisfactory progress in returning inflation to target, in my baseline scenario the time for cutting [the] bank rate remained some way off,” Pill said.

Hong Kong developer Lai Sun Development Co. is considering options for a planned office tower in the City of London, including a potential sale of a stake in the project, Bloomberg News reported. The group has appointed Eastdil Secured and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to advise on finding a partner for the 100 Leadenhall Street project, according to people with knowledge of the appointments. The financial advisers are currently undertaking due diligence on the project and could seek a funding partner later in the year or in early 2025.

The U.S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production, the Wall Street Journal reported. But as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Beijing on Tuesday, the question is whether even the threat of the U.S.