Headlines

China state-owned Qinghai Salt Lake Potash Co, the country's largest potash producer, failed to sell its assets in a fifth round of auctions on Wednesday aimed at raising funds and avoid being delisted from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The debt-laden company filed for bankruptcy with the Qinghai province court in September and halted trading in its shares in November. After posting net losses in 2017 and 2018, it has said it would be delisted if it reported a net loss for third successive year.

Growing problems at South Africa’s state-owned enterprises are pushing major companies toward bankruptcy and subjecting the continent’s most developed economy to rolling blackouts that are choking growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. Earlier in December, flagship carrier South African Airways narrowly avoided collapse after the government loaned it 2 billion South African rand ($137 million) and ordered a restructuring.

It was a bumpy year for China’s markets, considering all the turbulence in relations with the U.S. Still, the final results really aren’t bad, Bloomberg News reported. The Shanghai Composite Index closed off its best year since 2014, boosted by a huge rally in the first few months, when the country’s major equity benchmarks entered a bull market. While the yuan was whipsawed at times by every twist and turn in the trade dispute, it’s only weakened about 1.3% the past 12 months. Sovereign bonds rose, but lagged bigger gains in government-bond markets elsewhere.

Britain's cap on domestic energy prices saved customers around 1 billion pounds in 2019, but shopping around is still the best way to save money, the government said on Tuesday. The cap on default electricity and gas bills came into effect in January this year and was a flagship policy of former British Prime Minister Theresa May to end what she called "rip-off" prices, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Local governments in China are selling debt to raise cash earlier than ever to help shore up a slowing economy, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities in Sichuan and Henan provinces offered a combined 87.6 billion yuan ($12.6 billion) of so-called special bonds on Thursday in the earliest such issuance since nationwide sales began in 2015. Through 2018, sales began in March after the legislature formally approved the annual budget. But China has for a second year ordered local governments to move the timetable forward to speed up spending in areas like transport and energy infrastructure.

Shares of rating companies that missed signs of a default that triggered India’s mini-Lehman moment are soaring after the nation’s markets regulator imposed only a small penalty, Bloomberg News reported. Care Ratings Ltd. posted record gains and Icra Ltd. saw its biggest four-day advance in more than a year after the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Dec. 26 fined them 2.5 million rupees ($35,000) each on charges they overlooked facts while assessing Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. The probes didn’t find any malafide intent.

Does mere survival count as an achievement? It rather depends on whether your continued existence is in doubt or taken for granted. By that standard, the 2010s were a greater success for Europe’s monetary union than the preceding decade. And that has implications for what to expect for the euro in 2020, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The eurozone sovereign debt crisis caused an enormous shift in European politics. Leaders were forced not just to patch together emergency institutional reforms, but also to accept that further ones were required.

In 2008, as mountains of bad debt collapsed and economies around the world crumbled, carefree gamblers at the central bank-owned Casino du Liban rolled dice and spun roulette wheels, the Financial Times reported. Unscathed by the global financial crisis, Beirut glittered as the Middle East’s party capital and purveyor of discreet financial services. Lebanon offered wealthy investors something they could not get elsewhere — high interest rates for low risk investments.

Taoiseach Leo Vardakar has made it clear the Football Association of Ireland will not be handed a blank cheque to pay for its "mistakes of the past,” the Irish Post reported. The crisis-hit organisation had requested an €18m bail-out earlier this month to stave of the threat of insolvency. Minister for Sport Shane Ross said at the time the FAI – who face debts of up to €62 million euro – will not receive state funding. And the Taoiseach confirmed that is the approach his government still intend to take.

A business which installed hundreds of BT-branded WiFi kiosks across the UK has collapsed into administration after encountering delays in obtaining planning permission, The Telegraph reported. InLink entered administration in November after its attempt to build a network of thousands of smart kiosks on roads across the UK faced opposition from local councils as well as the Metropolitan Police. The business was a joint venture between Intersection, an American advertising business which has been backed by Google’s parent company, and outdoor media company Primesight.