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Spanish engineering company Isolux said on Friday it had activated the formal process aimed at avoiding insolvency, as it battles to secure enough money to remain in business, the Stock Daily Dish reported. Under Spanish law, companies can enter into debt restructuring proceedings that give them up to four months to reach an agreement with creditors to avoid a full-blown insolvency process and a potential bankruptcy. Isolux has over 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in restructured debt, according to an update on its restructuring process published in December.

The insolvency resolution of Ruchi Soya under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is likely to be completed on December 16, a source told CNBC-TV18. The dues of lenders to Ruchi Soya are also expected to be settled on the same day, the sources added. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), in July, cleared Patanajali Ayurveda’s takeover of Ruchi Soya under the IBC, and approved its resolution plan in September, moneycontrol.com reported. Patanjali secured funds from the State Bank of India, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank and Allahabad Bank before.

The left is back in control in Argentina now that Alberto Fernandez has taken office as president, succeeding the pro-market Mauricio Macri. The Peronists may have returned with an orderly transition, but Fernandez faces an economic and financial crisis and is on a collision course with the IMF, The Conversation reported. This stems from the “turbulence” of April 2018, in which the peso devalued 11% against the US dollar in less than a week amid rampant inflation, a recession, high unemployment and wider worries about emerging markets within the global economy.

Lawyers for customers of an insolvent cryptocurrency exchange have asked police to exhume the body of the company’s founder, amid efforts to recover about $190 million (€170.5 million) in Bitcoin which were locked in an online black hole after his death. Miller Thomson LLP sent a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday, requesting authorities “conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy” on the body of Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, citing what the firm called the “questionable circumstances” around his death earlier this year, The Irish Times reported.

Sports Direct, the British sportswear retailer controlled by founder Mike Ashley, reported a 22 per cent rise in first-half core earnings, as it stemmed losses in its premium unit which includes fashion store Flannels and House of Fraser, The Irish Times reported. The group also repeated its belief that it would not be on the hook for any “material liabilities” from a €674 million bill it received from Belgium’s tax authority in July.

Investors have warmed to Pakistan since the government secured a $6bn bailout from the IMF in July, removing any immediate threat of sovereign default, the Financial Times reported. MSCI’s Pakistan equities index is up more than a third from its August lows, compared with a gain of just over 10 per cent for MSCI’s flagship emerging market index. Foreign investors have made a tentative return to the country’s local debt market, buying $1.2bn of local currency government bonds since July after staying away for most of the past two years.

The eurozone's stagnating economy has suffered its worst performance for six years with uncertainty over Brexit partly to blame, economists said today. A survey by global data providers IHS Markit said manufacturing and job creation had slumped with 'gloomy prospects for the year ahead,’ the Daily Mail reported. Chris Williamson, the London firm's chief economist, said Brexit was a factor in the EU's difficulties.

Promoters of Essar Steel are not yet off the hook despite banks getting large parts of their dues back, The Times of India reported. The Lakshmi Mittal-owned metals group ArcelorMittal last weekend transferred over Rs 39,000 crore to lenders for the steel company he won after a legal battle that lasted over two years. Another Rs 2,500 crore will be repaid from the steel company’s internal accruals.